“I’m going to tell you a story, Cornelius.” The man was dressed in a tuxedo and white tie. He ignored the muffled sounds of his New Year’s Eve guests downstairs. He looked down at his nephew as he lay in bed and whose face was illuminated by the warm glow of an electric light in a nearby lamp.
“Let me see…how shall I begin?” He drew up a chair beside the bed and looked up at the ceiling for inspiration. “Hmm, ah yes.
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Thus begins the first in a series of Cornelius Crain Adventures. If you, your family or friends love Harry Potter, are fans of Herge's Tin Tin, or Brian Selznik’s Hugo, the works of Jules Verne or H.G. Wells; if you enjoy the Steampunk genre; if you love history blended with fantasy — then you and they will enjoy the Cornelius Crain Adventures.
At present, the first three Cornelius Crain novels are in the works. The first, The Curious Globe of Cornelius Crain, introduces the street-wise eleven-year-old boy living in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. After a large crate is delivered to his home, he opens it to find a dusty, antique globe with an intricately sculpted metal, claw-footed frame boasting a menagerie of carved gargoyles, snakes, mythical beasts and zodiac symbols. Cornelius notices at once that the frame keeps the globe locked in place, for some reason, rendering it unable to spin. But he has heard of this globe before.
The Curious Globe of Cornelius Crain presents a glimpse of life in the finer homes of old San Francisco and the rarified circles of the city’s elite as well as the more raucous and criminal denizens of the notorious Barbary Coast district who frequent the saloons on Pacific Street. It is a story of a San Francisco lost forever yet locked forever in time and the story of a boy, who, if for but a brief moment, held the fate of the world in his hands. It is a story of intrigue, murder, theft, political corruption and the power of imagination.
The Curious Globe of Cornelius Crain is slated for an August/September 2013 release...if not sooner. Followed by an illustrated/interactive ebook for iPad and other tablets. The next effort will be to produce and release an audio book with voice actors playing the roles of many of the principal characters. The Cornelius Crain Project will also be posted on Kickstarter.com for funding of some of these efforts.
In a few months, you can be part of helping launch the Cornelius Crain Adventure series by making donations to the The Cornelius Crain Project at Kickstarter.com. For updates when The Cornelius Crain Project goes live, please email me at corneliuscrain@cox.net, so you can be notified. Notifications will also appear on the Cornelius Crain Facebook Page and on Twitter. Your donations would be greatly appreciated and donors at specified contribution levels receive limited edition Cornelius Crain mementos, memorabilia or merchandise.
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And enjoy some excerpts of the first novel, as well as illustrations and other content as they become available.
— Brian Watt, author
