After a while, author events begin to meld and blur until it all feels like one looong weekend. Faces intermix and details get jumbled. All of this to say, I have no idea where or when I first met Ef Deal, the next author in our Spotlight. It was an author event. That much I remember. Nothing else really matters save for the fact that she trusted us with her debut novel, Esprit de Corpse, a very fun romp through the French countryside and the well-worn streets of Paris. I like to call this book French Provincial Steampunk. It is the third and final book we are funding through Fantastic Novels over on Kickstarter. Ef confides in me that she has the next four books already written. I think it is safe to say that this is one prolific lady and we can expect great things. Fortunately, without long to wait!

Ef is not a complete newcomer to the publishing realm, she has several stories to her credit published in various magazines over the years, including one in Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine, which garnered her an honorable mention in that year’s Best Of anthology edited by Garner Dozois.

Unfortunately, as this is her first novel, I do not have a montage of covers to post here. I fully expect I will not be able to say that for long! I can tell you with full confidence that she has integrated well into the eSpec family, not only as an author but as a valued member of the team.

Ef Deal is a new voice in the genre of speculative steampunk with her debut novel, Esprit de Corpse, but she is not new to publishing. Her short fiction has appeared in various magazines and ezines over the years. Her short story “Czesko,” published in the March 2006 F&SF, was given honorable mention in Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, which gave both her and Gardner great delight. They laughed and laughed and sipped Scotch (not cognac, alas) over the last line.

Despite her preoccupation with old-school drum and bugle corps ~ playing, composing, arranging, and teaching ~ Ef Deal can usually be found at the keyboard of her computer rather than her piano. She is Assistant Fiction Editor at Abyss & Apex magazine and edits videos for the YouTube channel Strong Women ~ Strange Worlds Quick Reads.

Esprit de Corpse from eSpec Books is the first of a series featuring the brilliant 19th-century sisters, the Twins of Bellesfées Jacqueline and Angélique. Hard science blends with the paranormal as they challenge the supernatural invasion of France in 1843.

When she’s not lost in her imagination, Ef Deal can be found in historic Haddonfield, NJ, in a once-haunted Victorian with her husband and two chows. She is an associate member of SFWA and an affiliate member of HWA.