All Things Historical

Title: Runaway.
Author: Dusk Peterson.
Where to find me: Website, e-mail list, DW, AO3, Patreon, Goodreads.
Fandom: Original gen.
Setting: A bridge over the Patuxent River, near the Chesapeake Bay in the 1910s, with the 1960s over the border, except it's the future. Yes, I know that's weird.
Categories: Alternate universe / alternate history, master & servant (with echoes of master & slave), border guards, undocumented immigrants, rebels, balladeers, reference to 1960s cooking (heaven help us), retrofuture science fiction, computers, ethical issues.
Series: Waterman, a speculative fiction series in an alternative version of the Chesapeake Bay region. You don't need to have read the previous stories in this series to understand this one.
Length: Short story.
Status: Completed.
Feedback: Yes, please.
Rating: T.
Warnings: Boilerplate warning for all my stories + my rating system.
Story summary:

Bat is in trouble. Again.

The only way out of the trap this time is to take a leap into the future, into a world of wonders that his mind can scarcely grasp.

But trouble awaits Bat at the border to his refuge. How he handles that trouble will determine his own future . . . and the future of what he is leaving behind.

What wonders would he see in Yclau? Robots? Holovisions? Visiphones? Microwave ovens?

Title: The True Master (Master and Servant #2).
Author: Dusk Peterson.
Where to find me: Website, e-mail list, DW, AO3, Patreon, Goodreads.
Fandom: Original slash.
Setting: Fourteenth century, in the area that would become Baltimore. This was written back when I was doing quasi-medieval stories, but I later incorporated this particular tale into a definitely historicalfic series, so I'm going to call this story historicalfic. Ish.
Categories: Alternate universe / alternate history, liege-master & liegeman, master/slave, politics, ethical issues.
Series: Waterman, an award-winning speculative fiction series in an alternative version of the Chesapeake Bay region.
Length: Novella.
Status: Completed
Feedback: Yes, please.
Rating: M.
Warnings: Boilerplate warning for all my stories + my rating system.
Story summary:

In a society where the rank of master or slave defines every aspect of a person's being, what do you do when you're a master and you envy your slaves?

This question is debated by the men who have gathered for the quarterly meeting of the High Masters of the Dozen Landsteads. It seems an impossible dilemma; in the Dozen Landsteads, one's rank is determined at birth. A master or a slave who wishes to hold a different rank is considered shocking.

The masters sitting in that room, receiving the service of slaves, would be even more shocked if they realized how deeply this question will affect their nation's future. Only one man there could tell them, but he is not yet free to reveal his secret.

Ledwin growled, "I trust the slave is dead. The last thing our landstead needs are perverts wandering about causing trouble."

Title: The Abolitionist (Master and Servant #1).
Author: Dusk Peterson.
Where to find me: Website, e-mail list, DW, AO3, Patreon, Goodreads.
Fandoms: Original slash with gen and het subplots; with a major character borrowed (with permission) from Maculategiraffe's The Slave Breakers series.
Setting: Solomons Island and the area known in our world as Calvert Cliffs State Park, both next to the Chesapeake Bay in the 1910s, with a touch of retrofuture 1960s over the border.
Categories: Alternate universe / alternate history, Age of Sail, fishermen, liege-master & liegeman, master & servant, master/servant, master & slave, master/slave, mistress & servant, friendship, family, abolition, war, politics, spirituality, ethical issues.
Series: Waterman, an award-winning speculative fiction series in an alternative version of the Chesapeake Bay region during the 1910s and during the future as it was envisioned in the 1960s.
Length: Novel.
Status: Writing completed; currently serializing.
Feedback: Yes, please.
Rating: M.
Warnings: Boilerplate warning for all my stories + my rating system.
Story summary:

When a foul-mouthed, seditious foreigner turns up at your door, what are the benefits of letting him in?

So wonders Carr, a young man living in a bayside nation that is troubled by internal battles. In his world, servants fight against masters, tonging watermen fight against dredging watermen, and landsteads eye one another's oyster grounds with greed. It seems to Carr that the only way in which to keep such warfare from entering his own home is to keep very, very quiet about certain aspects of himself which his family would not be able to accept.

But "trouble" is a word that appears to delight the new visitor. He is ready to stir up danger . . . though he may not be as prepared as he thinks to confront what lies within Carr.

The servants were scared stiff of him, and the masters were clearly uncertain what to say to a man who came from such an eccentric House. Nothing was different, nothing had changed. And yet everything had changed since Carr met a young foreigner who showed him not the least bit of respect.

Title: Lord and Servant.
Author: Dusk Peterson.
Where to find me: Website, e-mail list, DW, AO3, Patreon, Goodreads.
Setting: An imaginary version of a Western Maryland prison, 1890s.
Categories: Original gen with slash references, alternate universe / alternate history, male friendship, guards and prisoners, masters and servants, lords, ethical issues.
Series: Life Prison, an alternate history series on friendship, romance, and rebellion in nineteenth-century prisons.
Length: Novelette.
Feedback: Yes, please.
Rating: T.
Warnings: Boilerplate warning for all my stories + my rating system.
Story summary:

When you're a long way from home, you find companions where you can.

A tramp and a lord may seem to make an odd pair. But Compassion Life Prison is an odd place to start with, and the tramp has his own perspective on life there. Will the lord listen?

For goodness' sake, what was Starke to do with a servant like this? Criminal background, no service training during his apprentice years, idling his time among tramps on the railroads . . . Starke suppressed a sigh.

Title: Hell's Messenger.
Author: Dusk Peterson.
Where to find me: Website, e-mail list, DW, AO3, Patreon, Goodreads.
Setting: An imaginary version of a Western Maryland prison, 1890s. The novel will conclude with a historical note.
Categories: Original gen with slash subplots, alternate universe / alternate history, guards and prisoners, masters and servants, masters and slaves, ethical issues, male friendship between prisoners, m/m love between prisoners (including m/m/m).
Series: Life Prison, an alternate history series on friendship, romance, and rebellion in nineteenth-century prisons.
Length: Novel.
Status: Writing completed; currently serializing.
Formats: AO3 fic (members-locked) and upcoming e-book.
Feedback: Yes, please.
Rating: M.
Warnings: Boilerplate warning for all my stories + my rating system.
Story summary:

In Mip's most notorious life prison, Death appears in a strange disguise.

It had seemed for a while that the plan would work: a bold conspiracy by a group of idealistic prisoners and sympathetic guards to stop abuse at Mercy Prison. Then betrayal occurs, and Tyrrell finds himself in a new life prison, with new rules to be learned. No longer is he in a position of leadership; now he is surrounded by men who question his most fundamental values.

He has new allies as well: fellow prisoners who like what they see in him, a healer who refuses to accept current conditions, and guards who may or may not provide the help that the prisoners desperately need. But Hell's messenger, Death, visits Compassion Prison, keeping his face hidden until it is almost too late for Tyrrell to recognize his touch.

"Death did not hold the name then that he holds now."