Please welcome Lizzie Blythe, The Electric Girl, a superhero from Cobalt City. Her adventures with the Cobalt City Adventurer’s Club are written by Rosemary Jones in Wrecker of Engines and a number of other Cobalt City titles.
Character Questions
Are you a prodigy or an ordinary person? I was a reporter for a newspaper before Steambolt Edison zapped me. More than a century later, I’m trying to be an ordinary person again, and it’s exciting. The 21st century is very different from the 19th but there’s still dragons and other villains to battle in Cobalt City.
Do you have any pets, and if so, what are they? No pets. Tidwell, he’s the ancient house spirit who takes care of the Adventurers Club where I live, has mentioned acquiring a cat. He says cats arrive when they are needed most. A bit like superheroes.
Author Questions
Do you have a group of writer friends? How are they organized? I belong to one group who meets every Sunday for a writing session. They used to do this in person but these days it is online so I have no excuses for skipping. Even if the weather is crappy or I have a cold, I’ll sign in and do two hours of writing. Or answering questions, like today!
What do you think is important for a writer to succeed? Persistence. You’ll very rarely sell a work on the first try. But you can keep chipping away at your goals. Also you need to define “success” for yourself. Then look to see what the pathways exist to reach that goal. I wanted to write fantasy so I looked for companies publishing the type of fantasy that I like to read and write. Also who was open to working with a writer without an agent. That turned out to be Wizards of the Coast and, later, Aconyte.
Wrecker of Engines
Welcome to Cobalt City, where the adventures keep changing but some superheroes are timeless.
Dive into the complete collection of tales from the Cobalt City’s Adventurers Club. From the gaslight mysteries of the nineteenth century, to mayhem in the twentieth century, to high-tech thrills of the twenty-first century, explore the city with its champions. Meet two generations of Wreckers, American Spirit, Wild Kat, and more. This expanded edition includes the beloved novella “Wrecker of Engines” plus new stories and bonus content.
Rosemary Jones
Rosemary Jones is the author of Wrecker of Engines (Cobalt City Universe/DefCon One), Bootlegger’s Dance (Arkham Horror/Aconyte), Deadly Grimoire (Arkham Horror/Aconyte), Mask of Silver (Arkham Horror/Aconyte), Cold Steel & Secrets (Forgotten Realms/Wizards of the Coast), City of the Dead (Forgotten Realms/Wizards of the Coast), and Crypt of the Moaning Diamond (Forgotten Realms/Wizards of the Coast). Short stories have appeared in The Awakened series, Cobalt City Dragonstorm (DefCon One), Foreshadows (Very Us Artists, distributed by Baen), Close Encounters of the Urban Kind (Apex), Realms of the Dead (Wizards of the Coast), When Hero Comes Home (Dragon Moon Press), and When Villain Comes Home (Dragon Moon Press), among others. Her short story “The Takers” (published in Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown) won the Phobos Award for Best New Voice in Science Fiction. Current projects, social media hangouts, and complete bibliography available at www.rosemaryjones.com.
Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
I LOVE superheroines! Do you have plans to do more books about this one? And why was she a girl reporter before she became a super?
Lizzie was modeled after my personal heroine, the reporter Nellie Bly. Like Nellie, Lizzie left home as a teenager and moved to a big city. While working as a reporter in the 1880s (and some of her adventures will be recognizable for Nellie Bly fans), she became the Electric Girl.
I write primarily historical fantasy so I love grounding my fantastical heroes in the astounding feats of real women and men. I just finished a short story for the anthology HERITAGE, coming out this summer, about Nellie Bly working a publicist for Victoria Martin’s comeback campaign in 1900.
I chat with the other Cobalt City authors every week — most of us belong to one writing group — and I’d love to do more stories about Lizzie. I have a couple of other projects to finish this summer but wouldn’t be surprised if a new Lizzie story pops up later this year or next.
Do check out DefCon One’s website for more superhero fiction. Everyone goes in different directions with their writing and we have so much fun playing off each other’s characters. The books and stories are designed so you can drop into the world at any point and explore as you wish! You can find more at https://www.defconone.com/.
Thanks for the tip about DefCon One! And I’ll keep my eye open for the next Lizzie story, too!
What fun. I also have an ongoing series with a character named Lizzie. May we offer their stories for many years.
Thanks! You can find some of my other heroines at my website. These days I’m mostly writing historical fantasy mysteries for Arkham Horror. Those heroines are mostly named for silent movie stars of the 1920s.
As I’ve worked as a journalist, and have done investigative work that followed in Nellie Bly’s precedent-setting footsteps, Bly is one of my heroines as well.
Although if I tried to brag about traveling the world in less than 80 days–in the 21st century–I don’t think I’d impress anyone….
I think it all counts!
Right now I’m enjoying David Blixt’s publication of “The Lost Novels of Nellie Bly.” It’s an amazing piece of research as these were thought permanently lost (they only appeared in newsprint magazines). That he dug microfiche copies out of a university library is astounding.
That is amazing.