Lord Bart and the Leagues of SIP and ALE: A Baseball Steampunk Adventure (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780997459807)

Michael Barbato-Dunn is an author and blogger who worked for many years as a City Hall reporter for an all-news radio station. His passions include fantasy baseball and science fiction, and has managed to combine both in this sprawling novel. He lives with his wife, daughter and their two dogs in Philadelphia. Q. Where did the idea for this book come from? A. I imagined a steampunk world divided by years of civil war, in which the exhausted inhabitants turn to the sport of baseball as an alternative to bloodshed. I infused the book with a huge cast of memorable characters, political intrigue, bizarre science, a bit of romance, and an epic pennant-race. Q. What is the inspiration for the story? A. H.G. Wells, a forefather of steampunk, was very much a pacifist, and he proposed that games could serve as an alternative to war. My novel embodies that theme, so setting the story in a fictional steampunk world seemed a natural homage to Wells. Q. Which actor/actress would you like to see playing the lead character from this book? A. Bradley Cooper as Andrew Naughton, Ian Holm as Lord Bart, and Helen Mirren as Lady Vivian Lynam.