BJ Sikes, author

Originally from London, England, I currently reside in Northern California with my family. I write historical and futuristic fantasy, often with a steampunk twist and an underlying theme of female independence.

I am the Author Head for Clockwork Alchemy, a steampunk convention in the San Francisco Bay Area. For anyone who loves sci-fi with an alternate history spin, Clockwork Alchemy presents three days of immersive entertainment. I happily wrangle the cats called authors who share their amazing knowledge at the event.

In my day job, I write and edit scientific publications for a university. I’m married to a novelist/freelance editor and our children are composing their own fiction in the NaNoWriMo Young Writers’s Program.

I like words.

I also like tea, chocolate, cats, and chickens, not necessarily in that order. When I am not playing with words, you might find me mucking about in the garden or making herbal concoctions in the kitchen.

About My Writing

I love to take history and tweak it a bit and add fantastical elements. My protagonists are often women searching for independence during a time when that might be considered improper. Sometimes my stories have steampunk elements but because my focus is on the characters not the technology, I prefer to call it fantastical history.

Are you intrigued by 19th century Paris with its artists and nobility? How about an alternate history version with forbidden technology and nuns with supernatural powers? The Roboticist of Versailles stories are set in a world I created: A Belle Epoque That Never Was.

My most recent novel, The Vitruvian Mask, is set in 1881 Paris but not the one you may have read in history books. In this world, the new king of France has banned all technology in keeping with his Naturalist philosophy. Adelaide, formerly a high-ranking Scientist, is in hiding at the Hotel-Dieu, a Paris hospital run by nun-nurses with strange powers. She’s driven to use her forbidden scientific skills to help the Augmented veterans even though she faces execution if she’s discovered. 

My next book, The Cultist’s Wife, is a historical gothic horror set in the Bahamas, circa 1908. It will be released 1 May 2024. It’s the story of an Englishwoman who risks losing herself and her children to a monster-worshiping cult in the Bahamas. There might be tentacles.

Contact

Feel free to contact me at bjsikesauthor@gmail.com or sign up for my newsletter for the latest news and freebies.

Quince flowers growing in my garden, with borage flowers as their companion plant.