It's been a long road to get to here. I paraphrased that from Star Trek: Enterprise, my fave Trek, with its pros and cons. And I say it because it's true. Seven years ago, I self-published my first novel, a steampunk superhuman murder mystery called An Unsubstantiated Chamber. At that time I was still in the throes of a violent, contentious marriage long on its way out, my self-esteem was its usual negative, and I was even more overweight and crushed by a mountain of stress. Yet in the month of November 2014, I wrote the novel start to finish and published it in March 2015.
The story revolved around legacy. Specifically, the death of it and its resurrection. What if superhumans like in the comics existed in the late 1800s, increased our technological capacity, explored strange mutations and saved the world?
What if a jealous government killed them, took over the city they lived in, and subjugated the populace while practicing eugenics on the paranormals? What if. Sounds weird, huh?
Except America did this to Natives. To Black people. To the local populations in other countries. So, why wouldn't they do the same to superhumans?
Flash forward years into the city (Railroad City, a.k.a the Rail) and things are, as you might expect, bleak. Curfews, shootings in the streets, children are at risk to be executed. Enter an assassin for the military and an old man who once knew the old heroes well, with a gruesome crime. As Chamber moves along, that crime will reveal far more than just the killer. It will show the protagonists how bad off the world truly is.
If you love mysteries, pick up my book. Love the MCU, the X-Men, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, steampunk? Pick it up. It spawned two sequels and a host of junior novels and short stories.