Agent: Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Her story is a timeless one: a woman doing what is needed to get by while dreaming and fighting for great things to come. British King Charles coronation concert is to include pre-taped segments featuring Tom Cruise, Joan Collins, Tom Jones, Bear Grylls, Oti Mabuse and Winnie the Pooh, the BBC announced. Bear ( The Eternal Sky) gives Karen a colorful voice, sharp eyes, and the spunk and skills necessary to scuffle with bad types as well as to win over people whose help she needs. Through Karens eyes we get to know the other girls in the housea resourceful groupand the poor and the powerful of the town. Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves and his Comanche partner, Tomoatooah, also tie Bantle to the gruesome murders of some of Rapid City’s most vulnerable women. As Karen meets and begins to fall for Priya, another sex worker who escaped from evil pimp Peter Bantle, they learn that Bantle has more dark plans than brothel competition. This Pacific Northwest city of an alternate 1878 is home to airships, surgical machines, and other mechanical wonders that can also be put to horrific use. Bear’s rollicking, suspenseful, and sentimental steampunk novel introduces Karen Memery (“like ‘memory’ only spelt with an e”), a teenage “seamstress”-that is, a prostitute-at Madame Damnable’s Hôtel Mon Cherie in Rapid City.

Karen memory by elizabeth bear