GeekDads review of Steampunk Holmes

We're hugely thankful for James Floyd Kelly's awesome review of Steampunk Holmes' enhanced e-book. He writes:

I’m quite convinced that Noble Beast is onto something here. I’m a fan of ebooks, but I do so love to hold a physical book in my hands. But these kinds of interactive elements, with the animation and sound effects, could easily convince me to go the digital route in the future when both print and Enhanced Book options are available. Why should kids have all the fun when it comes to music, sound effects, and animation in their ebooks?

Read the rest of the article....

Reviews and Rhapsodies

First, let's start with some music. The amazing composers of Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus' enhanced book app music is by Abney Park. They're a brilliant post-apocalyptic steampunk band, led by the fearless Captain Robert. They have a new CD, called Circus and the End of the World. 

I particularly love their song, The Story That Never Starts, especially for the violin rhapsody at the beginning. Every Sherlock fan enjoys a good violin solo, eh?

Congratulations to Lucas Corso, who won the giveaway yesterday. But I'm betting you want your own chance to win your choice of ANY of Steampunk Holmes' art, don't you? Simply buy or review Steampunk Holmes' app, and you'll be eligible to win! Best of luck, lads and lassies.

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But there's more. Victorian Curiosities is a wonderful Etsy store that we are excited to be partnering with. Want a steampunk money clip? Hat pin? Earrings? Who doesn't? Victorian Curiosities will have something for anyone.

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Once again, thanks a million for being such a great support, and reading and enjoying our book.

What some people have been saying about the enhanced book app:

"It's absolutely beautiful."

"Fantastic app, bravo."

"I'm saving for the iPad. When I get it this will be the first app I purchase for it."

"Awesome new Holmes app..."

"Sweet app."

"Really enjoyed the book and even have my mum into it now."

"I'm waiting for the next book!!"

If you enjoy the enhanced book experience, then we're happy to tell you that we aren't finished making them--in fact, we're just beginning. Noble Beast has just acquired the noir fantasy series, Shotguns and Sorcery, by Matt Forbeck. We're over the moon about it--and have signed on Jeremy Mohler as Art Director and BrunuhVille as the Music Director! Head on over to the Noble Beast article to hear more about the upcoming project....

Official Steampunk Holmes Press Release

Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus Enhanced Book for iPad Gives Readers an Innovative Storytelling Experience

On September 30, 2013 Noble Beast released our first enhanced book, Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus.

Enhanced books are fairly new to adult fiction, so let me describe our product. Steampunk Holmes is an interactive book app with

• optional audio narrative
• illustrated designs of devices
• gorgeous painted illustrations
• character profiles
• an interactive map of 19th Century London
• a musical score by the fantastic steampunk band Abney Park

The app is available on  iTunes for $9.99, exclusively for the iPad. Most enhanced books are either non-fiction or for children, so we find we have a very open market. However, it's also so new that most people don't know what an enhanced book app is...but that’s one of the challenges of being a pioneer!

Critics are already raving about Steampunk Holmes. The book has been nominated for an Airship Award for Best Fiction at Steamcon and was mentioned in the New York Times. Here are some of our favorite reviews:  

“[Steampunk Holmes is] revitalizing old-fashioned storytelling in new ways.”

-Ay-leen the Peacemaker at Tor.com

“Steampunk Holmes was a joy to read!”

-Wired.com

"Really enjoyed the book and even have my mum into it now."

-Twitter Follower (we are a sucker for our mums)

“Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus iPad app is just as whimsical, beautiful, and engaging as its creators promised."

-Baker Street Babes

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If any book reviewers or app reviewers are interested in getting a free copy for their review site, please email: tara@noblebeast dot com. We j'adore reviews as much as Sherlock Holmes j'adores data, data, data.

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Also, the giveaways are still going on!  If you share the iTunes app link (and tag us) on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, you'll be eligible to win a free copy of the app, and the gorgeous octopus hat pin from Victorian Curiosities.

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But that's not all! If you buy or review the app, you'll be eligible to win your pick of any Steampunk Holmes Digital Art!

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We have some really exciting news to share tomorrow about a future project! Stay tuned...

Behind the App: The Steampunk Holmes Team

We couldn't have made anything great without a great team of people.

We are constantly blown away by their talent, and so proud to have them on our team.

Of course, none of this would be possible without our fearless leader, Richard Monson-Haefel. He's the brains and the brawn behind Steampunk Holmes, his passion, persistence, and intelligence is what brought this to life. If you want to read about his story about making Steampunk Holmes, he wrote about it here.

And then there's me, (Ellie Ann), and Tara Clark, the social media folks who get to connect with y'all all day! (I may be biased, but I think we have the best job ever.)

Ellie Ann

Tara Clark 

And the reviews are coming in! The amazing Baker Street Babes (specifically, the amazing Amy Thomas), posted a terrific write up of Steampunk Holmes app. She said:

" Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus iPad app, which is just as whimsical, beautiful, and engaging as its creators promised."
"Truly a can’t-miss, and one that leaves me longing for more titles to be added to the series as soon as possible."

Thank you, Babes, for the awesome words!

Now I'd like to announce the winner of yesterday's giveaway: CHRIS STOCKING! Congratulations, Chris. We'll get you a copy of your favorite art from Steampunk Holmes!

Anyone has the chance to win! 

If you promote us on social media, you'll be eligible to win a copy of the app, AND this amazing octopus steampunk hat pin from Victorian Curiosities. Victorian Curiosities is one of my favorite steampunk jewelers. Check out their store, there are so many enviable items there.

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Or, if you've bought the app, or reviewed the app, you're eligible to win a copy of ANY Steampunk Holmes digital art of your choosing. Awesome, aye? We'll draw out of the hat on Friday. Sign up here:

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Thanks so much for making this whole experience a good one! Now spread the word. Tell your family! Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! Tell that random person walking down the street!

Get the app here (click on Holmes' collar button):

Oh Happy Day, The App Is Released!

Hello fans of Steampunk, Sherlock Holmes, and Steampunk Holmes. And good literature.

Today is a grand day.

We're so pleased to announce the release of our enhanced book app.

Steampunk Holmes:Legacy of the Nautilus is now an interactive book app with optional audio narrative, illustrated designs of devices, gorgeous painted illustrations, character profiles, an interactive map of 19^th Century London, and a musical score by the fantastic steampunk band Abney Park. The app is sold for $9.99 on iTunes, exclusively for the iPad.

Steampunk Holmes has been nominated for an Airship Award for Best Fiction at Steamcon, and has been mentioned in the New York Times and complimented by Ay-leen the Peacemaker at Tor.com for “revitalizing old-fashioned storytelling in new ways.” And Wired wrote, “Steampunk Holmes was a joy to read!” 

Buy it on iTunes!

But what's a party without gifts? We have a giveaway for anyone who helps promote or buy or review the app.

This GIVEAWAY is for anyone who buys or reviews the app. We'll give away a prized digital copy of any Steampunk Holmes art of your choosing ... every day for a week!

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This GIVEAWAY is for people who help promote the app on Social Media. The prizes are a free copy of the Steampunk Holmes app, as well as this awesome steampunk octopus pendant from the amazing Etsy store, Victorian Curiosities:

Isn't he great? Don't you want him?

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Thank you so much for helping us along the way. You're the best fans anyone could ask for.

We'll email you!

We'll email you! Subscribe to our awesome email list:

We solemnly swear it will be short, infrequent, and quite interesting. Also, may CONTAIN PRIZES

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We are participating in Freado.com's Steampunk Festival. Freado is a neat way to win free books. After you sign in, you get to play some addicting games (seriously, don't ask me how many hours I spent playing the games yesterday) and whoever has the highest score wins the book of the day!
Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus will be free on September 27th. So you better go brush up on your skills and start playing the Freado games today.

Airship Award Nomination for Best Fiction!

We are absolutely delighted that Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus was nominated for the Airship Award for Best Fiction.
P.C. Martin deserves all the praise she can get for her astute take on Watson's voice, creating a mystery worthy of Sherlock, and creating a new steampunk London world.
Thanks so much to Diana Vick at Steamcon for this great honor.
Check out all the other fantastic steampunk nominations here....

Demo of Interactive App

Another demo of Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus.

Steampunk Cosplay at Planet Comicon

This weekend Steampunk Holmes went to Planet Comicon!

There were many great cosplayers there. Here are some of the fantastic steampunk cosplay outfits I saw:

Amy Coleman as a tinker's daughter.

Airship Noir

Eric Hunter and Johnny Ireland. Love the mask. The gun has excellent details as well.

The lovely ladies at House of Genevieve. 

Fantastic leatherwork by House of Genevieve.

Beautiful.

Everything Airship Vindus did at the con was excellent. I highly recommend you follow them! They have great pictures up on their Facebook page.

Details from Charlotte's costume.

Johnny Ireland as Steampunk Dread Pirate Roberts

Grant Forbes as Steampunk Ironman

The lovely Tina Reed and Sharon Phelan Weaver.

Fantastic Fan Art

We were thrilled when Karol Wolf sent us this incredible fan art of Steampunk Holmes. She's a great artist!

Check out her DeviantArt page,

And follow her on Twitter ( @coolKarol )

Steampunk Holmes is in The New York Times

(photo via Baker St. Babes)

Steampunk Holmes is included in a fascinating article by The New York Times about who owns the rights to Sherlock Holmes.
Our good friends and supporters, The Baker Street Babes, also play a large role in the article. 
Noble Beast's owner and manager, Richard Monson-Haefel, gets a great introduction and gives a quote:


"Some say that when it comes to promoting nontraditional Sherlockiana, the estate can be quite open-minded. Richard Monson-Haefel of Noble Beast, the multimedia publisher behind “Steampunk Holmes,” an interactive mash-up based on the public-domain story “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans,” said he paid a fee to the estate after learning it also asserts trademark protection for the character that, unlike copyright, can be renewed in perpetuity.

“The estate has given us a little boost here and there,” said Mr. Monson-Haefel, whose company displays the estate’s official seal of approval on the project’s Web page. “I’m pretty happy with the situation.”

Read the rest of the article...

Demo of Steampunk Holmes App!

Our developers have been hard at work, and the Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus interactive app is really shaping up and looking good. Here's a demo:

As you can see, there's a beautiful, detailed map of London where you can watch their journey.

There's character portraits that you unlock as you read the story.

Excellent quality music (by Abney Park) and narration (by Gerald Price), and you can choose to have both on, one on, or no audio.

Subtle animation in each illustration that enhances the art.

A cog tracks where you are at in the story.

There's a beautiful menu bar you can refer to at the top of the page.

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We're very excited to introduce this to the world! It will go live around the end of the month.

And if you are interested in being on our mailing list, please sign up. We promise to not flood your inbox (1-2 updates/months at the most), and there will be an extremely awesome and extremely free gift for you at the end of the month if you're on our mailing list. Sign up at the bottom of the page.

Wired Reviews Steampunk Holmes

Thank you very much to Wired.com and Geek Dad, and especially to author James Floyd Kelly for the excellent review of Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus.

You can read the review here, and be sure to check out the other fine steampunk books featured...

Steampunk Hits the Mainstream--Mention at Tor.com

Ay-leen at Tor.com write a fantastic article about the press release from IBM’s Social Sentiment Index predicting that steampunk will be a retail trend from 2013 – 2015. 

The article gives a great perspective on the Steampunk culture, and makes many excellent points about what draws such a wide range of people. "One of the main attractions of steampunk as a creative community, however, is the democratization of the artisan lifestyle. You didn’t have be a “professional.”"

It also give five things that steampunk hitting the mainstream can do (and is already doing), besides changing their fashion choices. Ay-leen even gives Steampunk Holmes a generous mention in #4: Steampunk revitalizes old-fashioned storytelling in new ways.

Go check out the rest of the article at Tor.com...

Hello chaps and lassies! Wondering where to find the non-interactive version of Steampunk Holmes?
Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus is available on Amazon:
Kindle or a beautiful paperback and excellent audio.

Or you can find it on Goodreads.

What people are saying about it:


"The story itself is a good mystery – I was somewhere between Holmes and Watson in figuring it out – and of course showcases Holmes’s amazing powers of deduction. It reads much like an original Sherlock story, with more action, and flows quickly, particularly as things heat up in the second half of the book." -Bookshelf Bombshells

"This is to be only the beginning of a series of books in this inventive and tantalizing world." -Amanda from Goodreads

"This story takes all the wonders of a steampunk world, sci-fi, and Sherlock Holmes and mixes them into a immensely enjoyable action-packed story." -Scott Wakefield, author of Steam Patriots

If you've already read Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus, please consider leaving a review.