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?
Constance only ever wanted to do things her own way. She was pretty good at it too. A stubborn young bookworm with a penchant for picking the lock on the local book shop late at night to enjoy her own private reading room, Constance fed the dreams that carried her mind far away from her poverty-laden life. Reality yanked her back to earth with a thump when her single mother passed away, leaving twelve-year-old Constance on her own. As local authorities schemed to tame the bewildered orphan, she quickly made her own plans. The last thing she wanted was to do things somebody else’s way.
Running away to join the circus seemed such a good idea… at the time. What she found was quite a different story. But this is her story, and the next chapters would be written with her very own pen. Now, Constance is nearly eighteen. She’s fed up with the constraints of life under the big-top, and ready to dust off those old dreams of independence once again. But first, she’s going to need a cunning escape plan.
Welcome to Industralia, circa 1895 in a world that until now has been overlooked. All over the continent, towns and cities are teeming with brilliantly cracked inventors, quirky citizens, high-flying airships, dazed automatons and wildly creative eccentrics at every turn. Constance’s little world is about to get a whole lot bigger. What could possibly go wrong?
