Lori Alden Holuta

Biography

Lori Alden Holuta lives between the cornfields of mid-Michigan, where she grows vegetables, teas, and herbs, when she’s not playing games with a cat named Chives. She’s fond of activities from the past, including canning and preserving, crocheting, reading in the dark, and cooking.

Smashwords Interview

What are you working on next?
The second book in The Brassbright Chronicles, "Down The Tubes" is being edited. It's a challenging task as it's a tricky plot involving four different pairs of main characters, plus a few other troublemakers. My job is to make sure the reader can understand and enjoy the four interweaving plotlines without becoming confused. Time (and the readers!) will tell if I've done my job well.

I hope to have everything untangled in time to write the third book, "The Hidden Doors" during the annual Nanowrimo challenge in November, 2014. I love Nanowrimo! I can't wait to dive into the madness! If you aren't sure what that is, visit http://nanowrimo.org/
What is your writing process?
Not sure I'd recommend my process, but it goes a little like this: A concept occurs to me, and before I can talk myself out of it, I dash off a few thousand words, starting directly at the beginning. At that point sanity takes over and I pause to see what I've done, and where it might go. That's when I outline what I think will be the scenes needed to take the story through an ending. Then I start writing again and my headstrong characters do whatever they like, sheesh. When I'm done, I take the story through multiple re-writes to tame the loose ends and smooth the flow.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find Lori Alden Holuta online

Series

A Novel Cookbook
The characters in my stories always seem to be eating, or thinking about food, or wondering where their next meal will come from. I love concocting fun feasts for them. Collecting recipes from my fictional world of BrightHope, particularly the continent of Industralia, makes me happy. I hope these recipes make you happy, too. The next cookbook in this series is going to be all about cabbage! You can't tell me you 'slaw' that coming!
Brassbright Kids
The kids of Industralia are clever, creative, silly, and sometimes smarter than the grown-ups. Follow their adventures in Brassbright City, Steamkettle Bay, and the occasional small town.
The Brassbright Chronicles
Victorian-Era Steampunk-ish Carnival-esque Bohemian Urban Fantasy Comedy series (that’s a genre, right?), collectively known as The Brassbright Chronicles.
The Flight to Brassbright
Price: $2.99 USD.

Books

Full Steam Ahead: A Short Story Collection Where Kids Save the Day
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 29,010. Language: English. Published: September 29, 2022 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Short Stories
(5.00 from 1 review)
A collection of all the "Brassbright Kids" stories PLUS a brand-new novelette!
Steamed and Steamy: Recipes from the Steampunk World of Industralia
Series: A Novel Cookbook. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 19,190. Language: English. Published: August 2, 2022 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Steampunk & retropunk, Nonfiction » Cooking, Food, Wine, Spirits » American / General
Even fictional characters gotta eat. These are their recipes. Now you can make the favorite foods of the fictional country of Industralia, from breakfast right on through to late night snacks. You’ll even learn how to make traditional New Year's “Coal Week” holiday treats.
A Life Invented
Series: Brassbright Kids, Book 3. Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 7,530. Language: English. Published: December 1, 2021 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Short Stories, Fiction » Adventure » General
Gerard Liddle is a young kid growing up in the late 1800s in the idyllic town of Quartz Corners. He's already tinkering around with his very first inventions - which sometimes work, and sometimes do unexpected things.
The Legend of The Engineer
Series: Brassbright Kids, Book 2. Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 5,980. Language: English. Published: January 7, 2016 . Categories: Fiction » Holiday » Adventure, Fiction » Children’s books » Fairy tales & fables
In a country called Industralia, children listen to a New Year's story about Frostica, an engineer, and a magical train pulled by engine number 19.
The Flight to Brassbright
Series: The Brassbright Chronicles. Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 75,330. Language: English. Published: January 31, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Young adult or teen » Adventure, Fiction » Coming of age
(5.00 from 1 review)
Constance is a wild, stubborn young girl growing up poor in a small industrial town in the late 1800's. Beneath her thread-worn exterior beats the heart of a dreamer and a wordsmith. But at age twelve, she’s orphaned. Running away to join the circus—like kids do in adventure books—seems like such a brilliant idea… or is it?
The Steamkettle Kids Save The Day
Series: Brassbright Kids, Book 1. Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,930. Language: English. Published: December 18, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Short Stories, Fiction » Adventure » Action
It’s a warm Saturday in the summer of 1872, and somewhere in Steamkettle Bay, bad things are happening. Can Paisley Pockets and Christopher Cogan stop a crime in progress? They may be just a couple of kids, but where there's a will and, some smarts, there just might be a way.

Smashwords book reviews by Lori Alden Holuta

  • Herding Cats: TomTom's Revenge on Jan. 25, 2022

    This is a wicked-cute little story that was just the right length for a short break today. Thanks Victoria!
  • The American Weekly Covers of Edmund Dulac 1924-1951 on Aug. 16, 2023

    To slightly warp what Indiana Jones once said about priceless artifacts, the gorgeous watercolor paintings created by Edmund Dulac for The American Weekly magazine belong in a museum. But the original paintings have vanished into private collections, with no treasure map left behind to give clues to their locations. But when Albert Seligman, fueled by his passion for Dulac’s work, went searching for any trace of the cover art, he was rewarded with an ‘Indy moment’. He discovered that the Academy of Comic Art in San Francisco had a complete collection of The American Weekly magazines. His dream of making Dulac’s cover illustrations accessible to everyone was finally within reach. But it was the 1990s, and the technology needed to capture high-quality images digitally was still rudimentary, and not easily accessible by just anyone. So instead, Seligman convinced the museum to let him take all the magazines with covers by Edmund Dulac away to be professionally photographed. It would be a long while before those photographs were digitally scanned and published in this gem of a book. I especially loved the Arabian Nights artwork, but every painting is marvelous, and will no doubt transport you to another time, another reality. My thanks to Albert Seligman for turning his passion into action, making sure that generations to come will have access to this artwork.