The dress is finished, I got the tickets in the mail, the hubby’s suit has been found, and a babysitter for the tot procured.
It’s time to get ready for the ball.
While trying to iron the dress, I quickly realized why ladies of the time had ladymaids. It was a very daunting task, especially since I’m no good at ironing.
I couldn’t find a fall or a curly bun wig to borrow, so I attempted to curl my hair myself. Again, I wished I had a ladymaid. My arms got tired putting in the sponge rollers. I did my makeup (very simple, just a little black eyeshadow in the crease to accent the black and white dress), put all our stuff in the car, dropped off the tot and set off.
The ball was in Riverside–about an hour and a half from Los Angeles with no rain or traffic. Last year it took us about 6 hours to get there and we missed a bulk of the dance. This year we left at 3 and got there in time to get ready in a friend’s hotel room (I wasn’t about to ride in the car in full costume, lol).
We let the guys get ready first, then kicked them out. My friend laced me up and helped me make sure the hem of the skirt covered the hoop and didn’t look too uneven.
My curls didn’t quite dry in the damp weather, but they’ll do. Again, a lady maid would have come in handy. I wore black slippers, not heels–doing the Virginia Reel in high heels is a really, really bad idea. On went the black lace gloves the tot picked out and the black clockhand earrings, hairpin, and necklace I got from EJP creations awhile back (I had ordered some gold ones, but the black went with better, so I’ll save those for another dress). I add my black velvet cape and a peacock feather fan. Viola! I think I’ll do.
Meanwhile, the guys keep calling to see where we are, so we make the trek from the hotel room to the venue. Bagpipes play in front of the venue, as everyone arrives in full Victorian regalia. The guys have enjoyed, as they put it, “watching the parade floats go by.” The hubby looks dashing in white tie and tails.
We check in and are given dance cards. Worn on the wrist, they have a little pencil and list the dances that are done in each set. Gentleman go up to ladies and sign their dance card (with the lady’s permission, of course), thus reserving the dance. Most of my card is reserved for the hubby, but I have a few friends I agree to dance with. The hubby also gets drafted to dance. (In the Victorian times it is considered rude to deny other’s the chance to dance with your escort.) The first set is in full swing with a live band. The set dances are called, so everyone can join in even if you don’t know how to do them.
Right after we arrive, Queen Victoria and her retinue arrive. A few people are kinighted for their service to the crown. Then it’s time for a waltz and the grand march. One of my rose pins breaks in the very first waltz. The pin is holding the dress up, but one of my friends has a safey pin so we fix it. I’ll have to sew them on for next year.
The grand march is quite fun, giving you the chance to see everyone who’s at the ball and take a look at everyone’s dresses. There are many, many beautiful dresses. There are quite a few bustle-dresses this year (a little early for the Dickens era, but beautiful nevertheless.). However, many soon find that bustle dresses with trains are very hard to dance in.
There are four sets, each set consisting of 4-5 dances. In between sets the band breaks giving us time to socialize, look at all the lovely dresses, or get some refreshments. The ball is sold out and there are several hundred people there–all in costume. Most are in Victorian gowns. I see a few with Steampunk flair and one airpirate. There’s also a few regency and colonial dresses, and a few prom dresses. Those who don’t want to dress up but want to watch can sit in the observation gallery, which is also packed.
The ball attracts people of all ages, from teens to older couples. There are some families. There aren’t any small children, the youngest are around 9 or 10–all dressed up and well versed in the manners and dances of the time, quite a cute and impressive sight.
The hubby and I waltz and polka. My slippers are too big and keep slipping off.I learn to Schottische. I feel good because I get a lot of compliments on my dress, fabric glue and drama aside. So, in spite of everything, I guess I did manage to pull everything off.
The most fun dance of the evening for me had to be the plain quadrille, which is quite possibly the longest set dance ever (and five sets, not four). It’s made up of four couples and we were lucky enough to be in a set with our friends. The hubby was a very good sport, going with the flow and trying his best. I was quite proud. My friends who sat the dance out thought we were quite entertaining to watch, especially since the guys are goofballs.
Finally the night drew to a close, finishing with the farewell waltz. The best part of the evening was just getting to spend time dancing with the hubby, though seeing old friends and looking at all the pretty dresses was nice as well. The ball has drawn to a close. We say goodbye to everyone and change out of our clothes for the long, rainy drive home. It’s been quite the fun evening and I look forward to going next year.
Today we have a visiting lolita. Lolita Kristen has a movie review for us on the recent release Sherlock Holmes.
Movie Review– Sherlock Holmes
by Kristen Roach
Sherlock Holmes always was a little before his time. He was an amateur detective before Miss Marple, a forensic expert before Gil Grissom, a criminal profiler before Fox Mulder and a violin-playing, pipe-smoking, cocaine-shooting eccentric before…well…actually, there is no comparison there. Holmes was one of a kind. So devotees of the character can breathe a little easier knowing that as the new incarnation of Holmes, Robert Downey Jr. more than lives up to the legacy…minus the cocaine. He (with a little help from a very handsome Dr. Watson) manages to put just the right amount of the 21st century into the 19th.
This Holmes is a rock star, make no mistake. He has all the delightful arrogance of a man who has become accustomed to always being right in the end. He lives a much rougher lifestyle than his literary counterpart: he drinks heavily, he dabbles in experimental medicines and he boxes men twice his size. Although he holds great regard for human life in general, he thinks nothing of taking risks not only with his own life, but with the lives of those who happen to be around him. Holmes tries the patience of everyone he knows with his antics, none more so than his long suffering best friend and partner in crime-solving, Dr. John Watson.
In this incarnation, Watson is not the shadow of Holmes, but his conscience, constantly trying to turn Holmes into a better man while still struggling to do the same for himself. He is a gambler who fights the urge to play. He is a bachelor who has decided to settle down with a good woman. And he is a reluctant adventurer, a man for whom it is as impossible to turn away from a mystery as it is to say ‘no’ to any of Holmes’ machinations.
Together, this mismatched pair has solved many great, impossible crimes for Scotland Yard, including the case of several pseudo-Satanic ritual sacrifices of young women that appears to be closed at the beginning of the film. But now Watson has decided to get married and move out of the 221B Baker Street flat that he and Holmes have shared…and not only isn’t Holmes happy about it, he’s going to do everything in his power to change his old friend’s mind.
Watson’s attempt to start a new life with his fiancée is really thwarted, however, by the resurrection of Lord Blackwood, an upper-crust villain with an arsenal of parlor tricks and a handful of Masonic-esque gentlemen minions who believe he will help them take over England and reclaim America. At first, it seems as if Holmes and Watson may be in unfamiliar territory. Black magic? Supernatural powers? Secret societies? Are they solving a mystery or investigating an X-file?
But just when it seems as though the writers have gone too far into the paranormal, Holmes explains it all with science, stripping away Blackwood’s mystique and exposing him for the fraud that he is. Of course, there are a few bumps along the way.
The biggest of these is–surprise, surprise–a beautiful woman. Rachel McAdams plays Irene Adler, a con-woman extraordinaire and a one-time paramour of Holmes who comes to him on the pretense of hiring Holmes to find a missing person, but in reality is being used as the puppet of a shadowed figure who wants to find out as much about Holmes as possible. The man’s identity is not revealed until the end of the movie, and although some of the audience may have guessed it early on, it’s a pleasant surprise for viewers who aren’t as familiar with the Sherlock Holmes mythology.
Does Holmes solve the mystery, capture the bad guy and save the Crown? Of course. He’s Sherlock Holmes. The more interesting problems, however, are personal and not so easily dismissed. Can he set aside his own fear of change and fear of loneliness long enough to let his best friend find happiness with a good woman? Will he ever get the upper-hand over the one woman who’s ever held his interest…and would we even want him to? And although he recognizes the underlying threat posed by Irene Adler’s shadowed employer, will he be able to overcome his own hubris in time to recognize that Professor Moriarty will be his greatest adversary and traditionally the man who brings about his death? It’s those questions that fuel the movie and will most likely propel the planned sequel.
But is this film an example of steampunk? In truth, there are only a few elements that could honestly be classified as steampunk-ish. Blackwood’s weapon of mass destruction, for example, and perhaps some of Holmes’s experimental toys. But overall, while some the costumes and hair styles might be a bit too slick and modern for the time period, the movie is definitely grounded in the Victorian age with most of its conventions and limitations.
Sherlock Holmes is a fun romp through history, a well-acted, well-directed and well-produced mystery-adventure-comedy that gives a fresh face to a beloved fictional character. This Lolita says that Holmes and Watson can inspect her gears anytime!
Thank you so much for visiting us, Kristen. What did everyone else think? Did you like it? Did you think it was Steampunk? How did it compare to previous versions?
It’s time to tackle the front of the ball gown. That scares me more than the back, since if you mess up the back of the gown you can pull a Jo March and stand in the corner all evening. But if you mess up the front, it’s pretty hard to hide.
Step One: Not having a dress form or someone near my size available, I put the hoop skirt on a hanger and used ribbons to hang it under the dress to get an idea of how it looked.
Step Two: I realized several things. 1.) The boning of the hoop shows right through the dress. 2.) The hoop skirt is too short. 3.) I never repaired the rip in the hoop that I acquired at Renn Faire last year.
Step Three: Time to work on the front.
The first thing I do is cut off the white bows and replace them with black satin rosettes.
Step Four: As it turns out the little panel in the front just doesn’t lay right–but I’m cutting it off anyway–off it goes. Closing my eyes, I cut it off and pray I don’t cut the dress, too.
Step Five: I can’t simply make a new panel because you’d see the black through the white dress, I’m going to have to stitch it directly to the ruffle. Fun. So, the white fabric I cut off the dress,I use it to construct a pattern.
Step Six: Taking the pattern, I cut the black brocade and make two panels. Spreading the blanket out on the floor, I hem the fabric with fabric glue. As usual, the whole thing in uneven and lumpy. The hubby shakes his head and vows to find the pedal to the sewing machine. I pin the panels in place. I must have bought cheap pins because they keep bending (either that or they don’t like fabric glue.) It’s still uneven and lumpy and as good as it’s going to get.
Step Seven: The hubby drags me to Harbor Freight. I walk next door to the fabric shop and buy netting and white ribbon in hopes of fixing my hoop skirt.
Step Eight. I’m having major hoop shirt drama. The ribbon doesn’t work and sewing the netting on to the skirt (to hide the ribs of the hoop) just seems daunting. I bite the bullet and buy a new hoop skirt, an adjustable four-bone one that’s longer and has netting. Moments after buying it, I discover there are such things as slips that go over the hoop and under the dress. But the hoop skirt was cheaper, anyway.
Step Nine: The hubby finds the pedal to the sewing machine. I waffle between trying to use the machine, which is just scary, and hand sewing.
Step Ten: The new hoop comes in the mail and I try it on with the dress. Oops. I cut the front panels using the old hoop. This hoop is bigger and the dress won’t fit over it. But that’s an easy fix. I just make the hoop smaller. Yay for adjustable hoops. But the tot gets red paint on the white satin. Sigh.
Step Eleven: Setting up the machine, I thread it. The usual sewing machine foot has gone missing, so I use a different one–it’s all good? Right? I can’t get the machine to work. So I hand sew the right front panel on. I pick my thumb with the needle and bleed all over the seam.
Step Twelve: I try the dress on with the hoop again. The right front panel is too short. It had been fine when i tried it on. I can’t figure out what went wrong. Why, oh, why, did I decide to do this myself again? At this point in time I can’t even get my friends to fix it short of buying more fabric, ripping out the pannel, and completely remaking it. Sigh.
Step Thirteen: I try the sewing machine again, using new thread. It works and I sew the left front pannel on. Much faster. But my seam is not nearly as even as when I sew by hand (and that’s not even either).
Step Fourteen: I try the dress on again. The left front pannel is much longer than the right. All I can do is hem the left panel to try to match the right. I’ll just have to deal with people being able to see my feet. Next year I can make new panels that are wider–and longer. The back is too long, dragging on the floor. That needs to be hemmed too, but I hem it to the proper length, not the length of the front.
Step Fifteen: I hem the left pannel and back, using the sewing machine, since I’m nearly out of fabric glue. The sewing machine isn’t quite as frightening any more. I try it on with the hoop again. It’s going to have to work. Using an entire roll of black taffeta ribbon, I tie it on as a sash and look in the mirror. I have the tot take a picture with my cell phone. This is as good as it’s going to get.
This is the second book in the Steampunk series by Gail Dayton. She continues to explore a world where magic co-exists uneasily with normal Victorian society.
Master conjurer Grey Carteret is used to doing things his own way. He doesn’t want any connections that tie him down and he avoids most responsibilities. But, when he regains consciousness in a London gutter not far from a man killed by magic, he needs help.
When he’s arrested for the murder, the street urchin who’s been guarding him offers a deal, take him on as an apprentice and he’ll get help for Grey. It’s a nasty deal for a man who prides himself on remaining unattached to anyone, but he has to accept.
Imagine his surprise to discover his new apprentice is actually a gently reared young woman who has fallen on hard times. Not only that, but Pearl Parkin possesses the gift for sorcery, the greatly feared blood magic.
Dayton continues to craft this world, with wonderful explanations of the way the different forms of magic: conjury, sorcery, alchemy and wizardry work. In fact, most of the focus of the book is on magic and there are no goggles, airships, or mad inventors to be found. There are dead zones and strange machines that are a continuing premise through this series of books.
There is also a relationship, as Grey discovers he actually enjoys being with his apprentice and Pearl moves from hero worship to falling in love. Watching the couple discover how well-suited they are for each other is a pleasure. The book includes the very Victorian mores of the times, including some magicians who take issue with women studying magic.
If you’re ready to move beyond vampires, werewolves and shape-shifters, this is a nice change of pace for a paranormal read.
Lolita Deb, aka Deborah Schneider, is currently having a Valentine’s contest. Follow her blog tour and all commenters have a chance to win a basket of goodies including chocolate and a starbucks card.
Today I will share with you the beginning of my journey into creating a steampunk wardrobe! Or at least how I, a poor writer of steampunk/paranormal romance creates a wardrobe! The upcoming year holds many conferences, steampunk and writing alike and I need an extensive wardrobe to cover the many themes and days and events, etc, etc… Not being loaded with money and clearly being a toy short of a happy meal I am going to make my wardrobe….and make it on a treadle sewing machine none the less! Now I love my sewing machine it is beautiful and fun and it was free….but moving along…. until now I have only created one outfit at a time with many months in between, but now I am going to be cramming ten different outfits into the next couple of months and I am going to bring you along for the fun…aka …insanity! Have I also mentioned I will be doing edits and working on a new manuscript during all of this? I also don’t like to buy new fabric, I prefer to repurpose old clothing into something new and useable. So I have a mountain of old stuff that I need to transform into steamy goodness that I can be seen in public in! An impossible task? I think not! There are corsets, bustles, utility belts and short skirts in the works! So hold on to your top hats and fasten your garter belts because here we go! Stay tuned for Phase One, tackling the corset, next week! ~Elizabeth
The ball at the Riverside Dickens’ Festival is quickly approaching. We recently moved and I can’t find the dress I made (well, my friends made while I watched, lol) for last year’s ball.
My mission: to get a dress, cheap, and Steampunk it, cheap, as quickly as possible so I’d have it in time for the ball.
The caveat: It’s a Dickens’ Ball, not a Steampunk Ball, so I want it to be different and spectactular, but not totally out-of-place.
The problem: I can’t sew worth a lick and am so not crafty. Also, after our recent move I have no idea where even to find a needle and thread let alone the sewing machine that I haven’t used in six years.
Step 1: I bought a Von Lancelot Costume off ebay for dirt cheap. The only problem was that the one I won was all white. What in the world was I thinking? But it was so much prettier than the other “birthday cake” style dresses in my size, and all the others were outside my budget as was a custom one. Also, I needed a full on ball gown, not a bustle-stule dress.
Step 2: I asked my friends to help me with very easy ideas and the general consensus involved dye in a contrasting color. I was leaning towards black. Black and white would be very striking, yet would blend in far better than distressing it and putting a corset on top (which would be the easiest.)
Step 3: But then I actually got the dress in the mail. It is beautiful, but the fabric won’t take dye. Also, the dress is all one piece, so it wasn’t like I could do something easy like cut out the underskirt, dye it, and baste it back on with fabric glue and duct tape (yeah, that’s how I roll, lol). I’m very tempted to simply pretend I’m a debutante and wear all white. I’d never seen an all-white Victorian ball gown, but white wasn’t the color du jour for wedding dresses so I might be able to get away with it.
Step 4: I took the dress to the fabric store. I’m going to have to bite the bullet and replace the back panel and underskirt with actual fabric. I obsess over fabric and decide on black brocade. I nearly bought black and gold brocade but decided it would be too busy. Less is more where I’m concerned. Less is also easier. Using my coupons, I buy fabric, ribbons, and giant satin roses. I also buy thread, needles, pins, and a large bottle of fabric glue.
Step 5: I decide to tackle the back of the dress first. Would anyone notice if I simply fabric glued the black brocade over the white satin?
Step 6: I laid out the dress and the brocade out on top of a blanket on the livingroom floor. Gluing the heavy brocade directly to the satin would make the panel really heavy and probably affect the drape of the dress. The panel would have to be to be cut out. I seriously reconsider the sanity of doing this myself. Usually, I either convince my friends to help me or pay someone to sew it for me. Did the sewing machine even make the move?
Step 7: Steeling myself for the possibility of ruining the dress, I cut the back panel off, trying to get as close to the ruffle as possible. If worse comes to worse, I can always bring the dress and fabric to my friend and plead with her to make it right.
Step 8: Using a white crayon, I traced the cut-out panel on the wrong side of the black brocade. Using my husband’s measure tape, I measured 1 inch around for a seam allowance. Then, taking a deep breath, I cut the brocade. Neither my cutting or my lines are straight. When I was an intern, I’d been forbidden to put labels on envelopes because I just can’t make things straight.
Step 9: I hem the fabric with fabric glue, so the brocade won’t fray. My husband wonders what in the word I’m doing and says he thinks he’s found the sewing machine.
Step 10: I’m afraid to fabric glue the back panel on. It’s a ball, with dancing, and well, people’s dresses tear. I have nightmares about the back panel ripping off entirely. Why am I doing this again?
Step 11: I pinned the new back panel on–it’s looking good. The hubby finds the sewing machine. It takes about two hours to do all this.
Step 12: The hubby didn’t find the power supply. But the sewing machine scares me as visions of ruining the dress swim through my head. I wished I still lived across the hall from people who sew. The idea of calling someone and going over to their house to use their sewing machine just seems like way to much work.
Step 13: I start to hand-sew the back panel on. Several times I consider shoving it into a bag and taking it to someone else and paying them to sew it for me. It takes four hours and the stitches are far from expert, even, or consistent, though I tried to sew over the original seams and make small stitches. Maybe I should reinforce it with fabric glue.
Step 14: I replace the white ribbon in the back with black ribbon. It’s time to go to bed. The front will have to wait for another day. But all-in-all, it’s starting to look pretty. I might just be able to pull this off.
After spending years in an arranged marriage as the repressed wife of an older man, Amanda Wainwright has learned the hard way that money can’t buy happiness. She arrives in Willow Creek, Montana determined to keep a deathbed promise to her husband and do something to help other people. When Amanda meets a handsome, mysterious stranger who tempts her with sweet promises and long nights of passion, she discovers a fiery, passionate nature that could lead her to disaster.
For Samuel Calhoun, falling in love wouldn’t just be foolish, it could be deadly. He’s on assignment as an undercover agent for the Secret Service. In order to maintain his secret identity he accepts an offer from a consortium of mine owners to seduce, humiliate and ruin the Widow Wainwright. Before long, Sam knows he’s met the woman who can banish the aching emptiness in his soul and he’s willing to risk everything – even his life – to be with her.
Read an excerpt on Deb’s website. Also, anyone who comments on any blog she’s featured at until Feb. 10 is entered into a contest to win a St. Valentine’s Day gift bag that includes a copy of Promise Me — chocolate, a Starbucks card and some great Valentine’s day goodies.
The Romance Diva’s are having a workshop on Steampunk over at the Romance Diva’s forum January 21-23, 2010. It features Zoe Archer, Meljean Brook, Gail Carriger, Sarah A. Hoyt, Katie MacAlister, and Dru Pagliassotti. The workshop is free, but you have to register with the forum (also free). See you there!
By BEN NUCKOLS and JOSEPH WHITE, Associated Press Writers Ben Nuckols And Joseph White, Associated Press Writers – Tue Jan 19, 6:22 pm ET
BALTIMORE – It is what Edgar Allan Poe might have called “a mystery all insoluble”: Every year for the past six decades, a shadowy visitor would leave roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac on Poe’s grave on the anniversary of the writer’s birth. This year, no one showed.
Did the mysterious “Poe toaster” meet his own mortal end? Did some kind of ghastly misfortune befall him? Will he be heard from nevermore?
“I’m confused, befuddled,” said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
The visitor’s absence this year only deepened the mystery over his identity. One name mentioned as a possibility was that of a Baltimore poet and known prankster who died in his 60s last week. But there is little or no evidence to suggest he was the man.
I was looking for kid’s steampunk stuff online and this was so amazing I thought it needed its own post.
Over at Xylocopa you can buy these absolutely beautiful steampunk wooden blocks.
Each of the 26 blocks has beautiful mad-science inspired scenes on them.
But the best part is what the letters represent. This is not your traditiona alphabet (and far more fun!):
A – Appendages
B – Bioengineering
C – Caffeine
D – Dirigible
E – Experiment
F – Freeze ray
G – Goggles
H – Henchmen
I – Invention
J – Jargon
K – Potassium
L – Laser
M – Maniacal
N – Nanotechnology
O – Organs
P – Peasants (with Pitchforks)
Q – Quantum physics
R – Robot
S – Self-experimentation
T – Tentacles
U – Underground Lair
V – Virus
W – Wrench
X – X-Ray
Y – You, the Mad Scientist of Tomorrow
Z – Zombies
How fabulous is that?
The folks at Xylocopa also have a great printable PDF of the Alphabet. Personally, I think it would make a great embroidery sampler! (If anyone makes one, I’ll post pictures.)
Over at Musings on the Tarot, Arwen is doing a tarot reading on Miss Pearl from Gail Dayton’s book Heart’s Blood. If you leave a comment or ask Gail a question you’ll have a chance to win a copy of Heart’s Blood.
I know Steampunk is all about fantastic inventions that transcend the sleek, electronic efficiency of todays computer age. However there is no getting around the fact that we all still use the internet!! So today I will show you a few of the fantastic places that us steampunkers can get together on the interweb or explore for inspiration!
First off is the fantastic Steampunk Empire!!! Visit Steampunk Empire
It is a fabulous place to gather and post pictures and meet like-minded people!! It is basically the facebook of the Steampunk world!! I highly recommend joining, I have met some fabulous people there!
Speaking for Facebook……Steamed! officially has it’s own facebook group page!! Come and join in on the steamy goodness!! There are pictures and you will be alerted of each and every blog post here and other fun stuff!!
If you are interested in checking out a Steampunk band, Abney Park has a fantastic website. They are amazingly nice people and put on a killer show! So much fun and they have great fashion!!
Speaking of fashion…..Steampunk Couture has some fabulous, wearable Steampunk clothing! Kato rocks!!
That is it for the day, so until next time I wish you all amazing adventures!
Soulless—book one of The Parasol Protectorate
by Gail Carriger
In a steampunk world where Vampires and Werewolves are integrated into London society, Alexia Tarabotti is still considered unmarriageable. Being a bluestocking, half-Italian, and a spinster are only part of her problems—unbeknownst to her family, she was also born without a soul and can null the abilities of supernaturals. When attacked by an ill-mannered Vampire at a ball, she’s forced to work with the sexy Werewolf Lord Maccon. The two of them can’t stand each other, but they need each other’s help to figure out exactly what’s gotten into London society.
Carriger’s vibrant steampunk world is filled with Victorian wit and humor and her very proper parasol-wielding heroine leads us on a jolly romp that makes for a delightfully entertaining—and funny—read. The steampunk elements are fairly subtle until the end, but Alexia’s parasol is classic. The secondary characters in the story add a lot of color, especially the eccentric Vampire Lord Akeldama and Alexia’s best friend Ivy, who has terrible taste in hats. The book has some terrific one-liners, such as “a vampire, like a lady, never reveals his true age.”
The cover is beautiful, but it’s very close to the photo of a dress I absolutely love over at Clockwork Couture. I’m not sure which came first, but I really covet that top hat! (Seriously, will someone please tell me where I can buy one like that?)
I found on the Soulless webpage over at Orbit Books that they have Alexia paper dolls, and its quite entertaining to play dress up with the bustles, hats, teacups, and, of course, parasols.
I can’t wait to read the rest of the series and to see what mischief Alexia gets into–especially since airships seem to be part of book two.
Recently my husband was working on a film and they needed an “alien detector.” So, the hubby, being the creative evil genius he is, made a really neat alien detector out of old toys and bits of things. He brought it on set and the director looks at it, scratches his head and says “It’s nice, but I want it more…Steampunk.” (Tho, the movie itself isn’t Steampunk.)
So, the hubby when back to the proverbial and built this. It blinks, flashes, and is operated by remote…Pretty good for being made overnight from what was lying around the house. I’d use it for a prop–Steampunk Alien Hunters, anyone?
Here is an exerpt from my latest story, Time Trails, featured in the Mammoth Book Of Time Travel to start off your new year. I hope you enjoy it. There are plenty of steam punk elements through out the story and this partial holds a clue to some of them.
Time Trails
June 29, 1886
Texas Ranger Rand Cobb nudged the toe of his boot against the swollen mass at the bottom of the wash. He took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow before settling back on his head. It was hot. The kind of hot that made you wonder if hell would be just as bad. Thinking about the heat wasn’t making this job any easier.
He’d seen men who been in the water awhile. Just like cows they would bloat up and then the skin would burst beneath the hot West Texas sun but this…it looked as the body had been chopped up, randomly stuck back together, and then cooked in a pot until it melted into an indistinguishable blob. And that was before it got caught up in the flash flood that carried it down the canyon and left it half buried in the sand.
He dropped down into a squat and gave it a closer look. Unfortunately for Rand, he recognized it, or maybe he should say a part of it. “Hell’s sweet heat!” His horse, Joe, twisted its ears at his curse and looked at him curiously.
The face, what was left of it, bore a distinct scar that ran from a missing ear to the corner of its mouth. He jumped back when a scorpion crawled out of the open mouth and quickly scuttered into the rocks that littered the river bank. Joe pawed the ground behind him and tossed its head as it stretched its lower lip out and waggled it back and forth.
“Go ahead. Laugh it up, Joe.” Rand knelt back down to look at the body. “I’m sure Hank thinks it pretty funny.” There was no doubt in his mind that he was looking at Hank Miller, who was supposed to be on his way to the Federal Prison in Leavenworth along with two other prisoners. His partner, Tom, was their escort. He’d been on the trail of the entire group after the prison wagon turned up empty and burning at the bottom of a ravine. The driver had been alive, barely, and gasped out something about the attack coming from the sky before he’d died of his wounds, which were as big as a mystery as his last words. He had a big round hole in the middle of his chest like someone or something had stuck a red hot poker clean through him.
Since the driver’s last words kind of went along with something a copper miner had said after stumbling into down a few days earlier, Rand had centered his search in this particular canyon. The miner reported strange lights at dusk, a boat that floated in the sky, scorpions made from steel and fire arrows. And that was before he downed a bottle of whiskey.
This was not what he expected to find. Not at all. “What happened to you?” he said to the mess before him. He took his hat off again and wiped the sweat from his brow. The sun was merciless, the thunderstorms from the night before the forbearers of extreme heat as if the lightening he’d watched from his shelter had boiled the air. He looked upstream. What ever had killed Hank and left this mess had to have occurred up the canyon somewhere.
“Guess there’s nothing left to do but bury you, or what’s left of you.” He went to where Joe browsed among some gorse bushes and yanked the small shovel from his pack. He took his shirt off and hung it over the saddle as he loosened Joe’s bit. “Don’t get lazy on me.” The horse that had been his faithful companion for the past twenty years. “This is the last trip for you and me. Once this is over and we get back to Laredo I promise its nothing but sweet grass and fat mares.”
Sweat dripped down his chest as he dug a hole far enough back from the river bed to keep Hank from washing out in the next flash flood. Finally he was content with the depth of the hole and went back to where the body lay. Another hour under the hot sun had not helped its condition one bit and Rand looked at it in distaste. Luckily he was wearing gloves and he finally reached down and grabbed the pulpy mass around what he thought could possibly be shoulders and pulled it from the sand.
What came with it made Rand jump back a good ten feet. There was another body. Or was it? What was between them was a twisted mass of…something…but beneath there was another part of a face.
“Tom!” Rand turned his head and heaved up the contents of his stomach. He wiped his mouth on his arm and covered his bile with some sand before turning once more to look at what was left of Texas Ranger Tom Jacks. Something protruded from his torso, something sharp and shiny, like the blade from a sword. Rand covered his mouth and swallowed hard as he pulled the piece of metal from his friend’s body.
It was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. About three feet long and hinged in the middle so that the piece flexed, like a knee or an elbow. Rand moved the piece, up, then down and marveled at the intricate craftsmanship of whatever it was. The tip of it was as sharp as a razor and sliced open the finger of his glove.
“Tarnation!” He started to fling the piece away, then thought better of it and took it over to Joe, wrapped it in a piece of hide and stuffed it in his saddle bag. Then he grabbed the bodies and dragged them over to the hole and rolled them in. He shoved the dirt over the hole, packed it down with the flat side of the shovel and gathered as many rocks as he could find to place over the grave.
“Damn…Tom…” He stared up stream for a moment, then back down at the grave. “I’ll find who done this…I swear.” Rand pushed the shovel into his pack, swung up on Joe’s back without bothering to put his shirt on and rode upstream. He’d had enough of that place.
From a blog I posted on SLIP INTO SOMETHING VICTORIAN.
You may think you’ve never read a Steampunk book or seen a Steampunk movie, but there’s a good chance you have. Find out more about Steampunk. It’s been around. You may even be WRITING IT!
STEAMPUNK is defined by Wikipedia as “subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominenece in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. These include works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used – usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era London – but with elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality.”
Historical Steampunk Fictionusually leans more toward science fiction than fantasy, but a number of historical steampunk stories incorporate magical elements. For example, Morlock Nights by K.W. Jeter (who invented the term Steampunk) revolves around an attempt by the wizard Merlin to raise King Arthur in order to save the Britain of 1892 from an invasion of Morlocks from the future. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers involves a group of magicians who try to raise ancient Egyptian Gods in an attempt to drive the British out of Egypt in the early 19th century.
Fantasy Steampunk FictionSince the 1990s, the steampunk label has gone beyond works set in recognizable historical periods (usually the 19th century) to works set in fantasy worlds that rely heavily on steam- or spring-powered technology.
Creating a new world of magic and mystery with Imager
By L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
A combination of steampunk, political, semi-thriller, and romantic fantasy? That’s about as close a one-line description as is possible to the books of the Imager Portfolio, which opens with Imager. Rhenn is a journeyman portraiturist on his way to becoming a master painter who discovers, with fatal consequences, that he is one of the few imagers in the city of L’Excelsis, capital of the continent nation of Solidar. Imagers are feared, valued, and vulnerable, and must live separately on the river isle in the middle of the river that divides the capital city, while providing services and skills to the ruling Council.
As a late-developing imager, Rhenn finds himself under the tutelage of one of the most powerful imagers—who forces the equivalent of a university education on Rhenn in months, before dispatching him to serve as a security assistant to the Council. Along the way, Rhenn makes enemies he shouldn’t, falls in love with the beautiful daughter of a family with connections in the underworld, and becomes a target for both the enemies of Solidar and a powerful High Holder.
One of the challenges of writing the Imager Portfolio was to realistically depict a different and sophisticated culture of a capital city. In my own experience of close to twenty years in politics, most of it in Washington, D.C., I found that there was a minimal amount of actual violence, but an enormous amount of pressure and indifference, great superficial charm, and continual indirect jockeying for power, with very little real concern for people as people. I’ve attempted to convey some of those dynamics, as they are expressed in a steam-and-coal-powered society that has the added benefit of some “imaging” magic. One of the key elements that illustrates the difference of this fantasy-steampunk culture is the religion. Because the deity cannot be named, there’s an underlying cultural skepticism and worry about emphasis on the importance of names, memorials, and the like, as well as a distrust of other cultures that exalt names and fame.
Because Rhenn has come to the Collegium Imago in his early twenties, having just begun to achieve a certain recognition as a portrait painter, he’s neither a youth learning the ropes nor a person of fully defined talents. Instead, he is essentially an adult faced with a mandatory career change, and one that could be fatal if he fails to make the transition from portraiturist to imager.
Imager (978-0-7653-2034-6 $25.95), the first book in the Imager Portfolio by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., became available from Tor on March 17, 2009. For more information about the series, visitlemodesittjr.com. To see L.E.Modesitt, Jr. on tour, visit:tor-forge.com/imager for cities and dates near you!
Or, as its billing more accurately put it, the “Girl Genius Victorian Mad Science Ball,” held on April 4 in San Mateo, CA. Put on by the Period Events & Entertainments Re-creation Society, the ball was set in the world of the Girl Genius graphic novels, which meant the very imposing Baron Wulfenbach (and his massive raygun) acted as host. And I mean imposing. The gentleman had to have been 6′4″ in jackboots, and if he had asked me to dance, I would not have been able due to the knocking of my knees!
My companions and I, despite having just disembarked from the airship from Paris, which meant we were still in traveling clothes, were welcomed with open arms. After a dance lesson (the rotary waltz is much more difficult than the Viennese, I discovered), the ball began. And the costumes! From airship pilots in skin-tight jodhpurs to mad scientists in lab coats to ladies in every state of dress (and undress) you could imagine, it was a spectacle.
My favorite dance was “Lancers,” where the ladies face the gentlemen in a long set, and one figure involves drawing swords and charging across the floor. My 18-year-old partner particularly enjoyed this–understandable in a young man to whom the waltz was a new and unnerving experience.
We danced for a couple of hours and then retired. Next year I am determined to have an 1880’s walking costume for the occasion–or else a new ballgown!
Our very own Marie-Claude is the winner of Dorchester’s American Title V Competition with her ANCIENT WHISPERS!
Marie-Claude Bourque — Seattle, WA ANCIENT WHISPERS (Paranormal)Bio: A former oceanographer and fitness professional, I am now a stay-at-home mom to my two beautiful boys. Originally from Montréal, I immigrated to the United States in my 30s, first living in Rhode Island, then recently settling in the Pacific Northwest with my husband of 10 years, a Scottish Highlander.I was raised with French legends, told and sung by my late father, traditional stories that I now sing to my sons at bedtime. The sadness I feel over the fate of tragic lovers from these ancient legends and my interest in Celtic mythology have inspired me to use paranormal elements in my writing to reunite these doomed couples in happy-ever-after endings. (www.mcbourque.com)
My steampunk urban fantasy is a finalist in the paranormal category of the Romance Through The Ages contest from RWA’s Hearts Through History chapter. And to think I almost didn’t enter! I wasn’t sure if Mystic Taxi would qualify because technically it’s not a “historical” but an alternate history of a industrial age era circa turn of the century. But I made it!
Jules Verne was born and raised in the port of Nantes in France. His father was a prosperous lawyer. In order to continue his father’s practice, Verne moved to Paris, where he studied law. His uncle introduced him into literary circles and he started to publish plays under the influence of such writers as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, whom Verne also knew personally. Verne’s one-act comedy The Broken Straws was performed in Paris when he was 22. In spite of busy writing, Verne managed to pass his law degree. During this period Verne suffered from digestive problems which then recurred at intervals through his life.
In 1854 Charles Baudelaire translated Edgar Allan Poe’s works into French. Verne became one of the most devoted admirers of the American author, and wrote his first science fiction tale, ‘An voyage in Balloon’, under the influence of Poe. Later Verne would write a sequel to Poe’s unfinished novel, Narrative of a Gordon Pym, entitled The Sphinz of the Ice-Fields (1897). When his career as an author progressed slowly, Verne turned back to stockbroking, an occupation which he held until his successful tale Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863) in the series VOYAGES EXTRAORDINAIRES.
Also during this period he met Honorine de Viane Morel, a widow with two daughters. They married on January 10, 1857. With her encouragement, he continued to write and actively try to find a publisher. On August 3, 1861, their son, Michel Jules Verne, was born. A classic enfant terrible, he married an actress over Verne’s objections, had two children by his underage mistress, and buried himself in debts. The relationship between father and son improved as Michel grew older.
In 1862 Jules Verne met Pierre Jules Hetzel, a publisher and writer for children, who started to publish Verne’s ‘Extraordinary Journeys’. This cooperation lasted until the end of Verne’s career. Hetzel had also worked with Balzac and George Sand. He read Verne’s manuscripts carefully and did not hesitate to suggest corrections. One of Verne’s early works, Paris in the Twentieth Century, was turned down by the publisher, and it did not appear until 1997 in English.
Jules Verne’s stories caught the enterprising spirit of the 19th century with its uncritical fascination with scientific progress and inventions. His works were often written in the form of a travel book, which took the readers on a voyage to the moon in From the Earth to the Moon (1865) or to another direction as in A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864). Many of Verne’s ideas have been hailed as prophetic. Among his best-known books is the classic adventure story Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).
Hetzel read a draft of Verne’s story about the balloon exploration of Africa, which had been rejected by other publishers on the ground that it was “too scientific”. With Hetzel’s help, Verne rewrote the story and it was published in book form as Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon). Acting on Hetzel’s advice, Verne added comical accents to his novels, changed sad endings into happy ones, and toned down various political messages.
From that point on, and up to years after Verne’s death, Hetzel published two or more volumes a year. The most successful of these include: Voyage au centre de la terre (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864); De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865); Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1869); and Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (Around the World in Eighty Days), which first appeared in Le Temps in 1872. The series is collectively known as “Les voyages extraordinaires” (“Extraordinary voyages”). Verne could now make a living by writing. But most of his wealth came from the stage adaptations of Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (1874) and Michel Strogoff (1876), which he wrote together with Adolphe d’Ennery.
In 1867 Jules Verne bought a small ship, the Saint-Michel, which he successively replaced with the Saint-Michel II and the Saint-Michel III as his financial situation improved. On board the Saint-Michel III, he sailed around Europe.
In 1870, he was appointed as “Chevalier” (Knight) of the Légion d’honneur. Verne became wealthy and famous. He remains the most translated novelist in the world, according to UNESCO statistics.
On the BOOKS page of this blog is a list of many of Jules Verne’s 54 novels.
I love reading and writing as much as the other members of this little group do. But what I am also passionate about is sculpting with polymer clay (think Fimo, Premo or Super Sculpey) and some of the things created with this clay are magical, breathtaking and downright sublime!
There is a broad spectrum of artists that use this medium – from jewellery to fairies to home décor – but what I have noticed lately is that a certain theme seems to be the ‘in’ thing at the moment and that is Steampunk.
STEAMPUNK ANGEL BY NICOLE WEST
This is the first piece that came to my attention back near the end of 2008 when this very popular polymer clay artist presented this piece on Ebay. There was much discussion and research into steampunk as many people had never heard of it – bizarre, I know, where have these people been living!
It wasn’t long after this ‘Steampunk Angel’ was released that other work appeared, like this latest one on Ebay by Joanna Waite of Enchanted Whimsies.
Or this one from C D Lite Studios –
But the biggest influence I have seen is in Jewellery. The sheer imagination some of the jewellery artists have put into their work is amazing, just take a look at these samples taken from etsy.com
My favourite Steampunk jewellery artist on there has to be Catherinette Rings just because they are so different –
Another favourite is Dawn Schiller of Oddfae who did a little pocket watch sculpt that was simply enchanting (excuse me if I gush!) –
As you can see from this rather picture heavy post Steampunk has had a big influence on the jewellery and clay artists out there so now is the best time to get some weird and wonderful accessories or a little sculpture to get your friends talking!
To end this blog I’ve been saving the best for last. Jessica Joslin has been making these pieces of bone and metal for a long time so is not new to Steampunk and I find her work surreal, freaky, beautiful and emotive.
One thing I am fascinated by are flying machines and how they so easily—and quintessentially—fit into the steampunk genre. After all, what’s steampunk without airships?
Jules Verne enchanted us all with balloon travel in “Around the World in Eighty Days” and “Five weeks in a Balloon.” Who wouldn’t want to travel in a helium filled balloon? But aircraft get even bigger—even today, such as blimps and dirigibles, which are used for tourism, camera platforms, advertising, surveillance, and research. It’s not that far off to think of them on an even grander scale, such as passenger ships as elegant as the Victorian steamers, transporting people from one place to another with speed, elegance, and spectacular views.
They could be grand and elegant passenger ships of gleaming wood and polished brass, or could be patched and clunky cargo haulers, or these vessels could be filled with the most fearsome people to haunt steampunk skies—air pirates!
But ships aren’t the only things that can fly. I’m also fascinated with the idea of personal aircraft—such as the idea of “detachable wings” – small powered gliders with wings reminiscent of a Da Vinci sketch. One could almost imagine a ruffian in his leather aviation cap and brass goggles soaring through the sky on such a contraption.
Hoverboards also enthrall me. A steampunk teen could easily be dodging the police on some sort of brass and wood flying skate/surfboard powered by rockets, the sun, or who knows…
Finally, we can’t forget the flying car—whether it simply floats or has giant purple bat wings. This is yet another fabulous, flying machine that could find a home in a steampunk world.
Don’t even get me started on floating cities.
What’s your favorite flying machine—fictional or fact? Do you wish you could fly out the window on a red dirt devil? Soar the skies in a giant airship? A poster will be chosen at random on Friday to receive a bag of “productivity pixy dust” to inspire you and a small sparkly tiara.
…and the winner of the “Fabulous Flying Machines” contest is….
~*Lynne Marshall*~
“Personally, I’ve always wanted to have a flying car, but I wanted to be the only one with one so I could pick up and fly around all the traffic without further competition.”
Congratulations Lynne, you’ve won a bag of productivity pixy dust and a sparkly tiara. Please contact me at *suzanne lazear @ hotmail* (no spaces).
A little Friday bonus:
There’s a new steampunk TV show in Australia for preschoolers. Personally, they remind me of a cross between the “yip-yips” from Sesame Street and the Telletubbies. But their steam-powered spaceship is pretty neat.
I find it pretty daring of me to be blogging about Steampunk when I know nothing about it, nothing at all. But I am fascinated by it, those cool gadget and even cooler fashion. A time where everything, even the most far-fetched ideas are possible.
I do have my own work-in-progress Steampunk novel, but it is still too early in the making to be discussing any of it. And I do feel I have so much research to do still.
So what better project for me than to read what’s out there in the world of Steampunk fiction and report here. I don’t plan to assign ratings to these books or anything, but maybe just discuss them, tell you what I’ve learned and what I found inspiring.
So here it is, a list of Steampunk books I’d like to check, starting with a novel I have already started and should be discussing next month. Feel free to add your suggestions. I am sure I will miss some really important ones.
You’ve got to love Victorian slang. Who doesn’t love the idea of calling a leg “a limb”?
Recently I was trying to find out the racier slide of Victorian slang for a work-in-progress and thought I’d share a few of my favorite “naughty” Victorian slang and euphemisms. Some of these are phrases that could be used between loving couples, others were used by polite gentleman looking for a romp separate from marriage, others were used by the lower class—who were much freer with their sexuality.
Prostitutes—dollymop (an amateur or part-time prostitute), dancer, actress, entertainer, tail, great horizontal (high-class prostitute to the rich), night flower, harlot, toffer (posh prostitute), femme galante, covey (a collection of them), three-penny-upright (cheap and up againt a wall)
Woman of dubious moral virtue/forward girl— mollisher ( a villain/gangster’s woman), tart, bobtail/bangtail/wagtail, dirty puzzle (nasty slut), athanasian wench, quicunque vult, cockish wench, biter, cleaver
Mistress—one’s convenient, tackle, sweet heart (also a girl’s lover), wife in water colors (engagement easily dissolved), left-handed wife
Madam—Abbess, dame de maison, Aunt
Brothel– maison de tolérance, bordello, coffee house, cab
Man who cheats—Abbot (favorite client of an Abbess), Corinthian (man who frequents brothels), Dark Cully (keeps a mistress and only visits her in the dark of night)
A woman’s privates—bite, cock alley/cock lane, fruitful vine, (old) hat (frequently felt), laycock (miss or lady), madge, muff, quim
Breasts—dairy, dugs, kettle drums
A man’s privates— arbor vitae, ballocks, bawbels/bawbles, lobcock (large and relaxed), plugtail, tallywag, tools, whore pipe
Backside—blind cupid, cooler, nancy
Sexual acts—beast with two backs (couple in the act), bedfordshire (going to bed), to dock, dog’s rig (to copulate until you’re tired then turn in), melting moments (a large couple engaged in sexual congress), prigging, roger, to ride rantipole (to do it with a tart), wap, tip the velvet (go down on a woman)
~What are your favorite historial slang words? I have another tiara to give out to one lucky poster. Who doesn’t need a sparkly tiara?~
There’s nothing quite so effective at broadening one’s horizons than going to a science fiction con when one writes in a different genre (in my case, teen fiction). But when I got a look at the schedule for BayCon and saw that it was heavily flavored with steampunk, I knew I had to go for at least part of it. So, I put on my lace-up Oxfords, my middy blouse, my traveling coat, and my top hat with goggles, and assayed forth to explore Pyrocumulon, the city in the clouds and the theme of the con.
First stop for me, of course, was the vendors’ hall, where a person can find everything from a straw Regency bonnet to an Elizabethan leather waistcoat to a medieval sword, plus books, T-shirts, jewelry, and everything in between. I must say, the dragonfly necklace I picked up goes surprisingly well with a number of things in my wardrobe! And one of the sellers of steampunk clothing told me he appreciated seeing someone “with her look pulled together.” Heh.
I attended a panel on metaphysics and spirituality in science fiction, moderated by an Englishman who teaches philosophy at the university level. It was fascinating to hear how many of the panelists create their worlds by determining the worlds’ religious beliefs, since that has a direct bearing on the way the characters shape their societies.
The next panel was a discussion of the popularity of the Twilight series. From bloggers to those who write parody to a university prof who uses the Twilight books in a course on the literary development of the vampire, the panel was an interesting mix. There was no one conclusion about what makes the series so fascinating to its readers, but the hour of discussion was entertainment at its best!
The last panel I went to was a costuming panel on developing the steampunk look on a budget. My favorite costumes worn by attendees were made by a young couple who came as “steampunk atuomatons.” They explained how they created their windup keys and I had to take my hat off to their ingenuity–for if that isn’t a trademark of steampunk, what is?
Recently I was having dinner with my niece who was visiting from out of state. We were having a nice conversation about steel-boned corsets and steampunk when she asked me if I’d heard of a singer named Emilie Autumn.
I hadn’t.
She told me to youtube her.
About a week later I needed some inspiration for my steampunk YA WIP, so I went on youtube and looked her up. Music is a huge inspiration for me (all those years of classical music lessons as a kid, lol), so why not seek out some steampunk music for a steampunk story?
All I can say is Wow.
Emilie Autumn calls her music “Victorindustrial.” Basically it’s industrial-type music mixed with harpsichord and violin sung by a women with pink hair and a corset. It’s steampunk meets Gothic-Lolita at it’s finest. The lyrics are soulful, the music haunting, her voice is amazing, and some of the titles are just hysterical (Like “Miss Lucy has some leaches.”) Truly I am astounded and fascinated by how incredibly cool she and her music are. It sounds like her stage shows are amazing, too bad she won’t be in the US for awhile.
I’ve become mildly obsessed with the song “Opheliac” (“Shallot” is my niece’s fave, and I like “Across the Sky” as well.)
Check this out. The actual song starts around 2:30.
Anyway, happy weekend and happy father’s day!
I’m cross posting this over at my personal blog . Come by and say hello.
Classic Steampunk Novel Review: The Anubis Gate by Tim Powers
Review by Helen Pilz (www.helenpilz.com)
I write historical time travels. My work-in-progress deals with going back to Jack the Ripper’s Victorian London. (Like author Jana Oliver, I want my novels to be as historically accurate as possible. Talk about years of research! )
After browsing our Age of Steam blog’s Steampunk book list, I picked up The Anubis Gate by Tim Powers.
In 1801 the British have risen to power in Egypt and suppress the worship of the old Egyptian gods. A cabal of magicians plan to drive the British out of Egypt by bringing the gods forward in time from an age when they were still powerful and unleashing them on London, thereby destroying the British Empire. In 1802, a failed attempt by the magicians to summon Anubis opens magical gates in a predictable pattern across time and space.
In 1983, ailing millionaire J. Cochran Darrow has discovered the gates and found that they make time travel possible. Darrow organizes a trip to the past for fellow millionaires to attend a lecture by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1810. He hires Professor Brendan Doyle to attend and give expert commentary. One of the magicians, Doctor Romany, happens to spy the time travelers and kidnaps Doyle before he can return. Doyle manages to escape torture and flees back to London, now trapped in the 19th century.
Time-trapped American Doyle battles the Egyptian magician for his live and the life of the British Empire.
Recommendation: The Anubis Gate doesn’t have the commonly thought of Steampunk technology elements such as steambots, airships, but it has time travel, alternative history, magic, an immortal werewolf, and well done twist and turns.
I give The Anubis Gate five out of five watch wheels.
There are lots of similar genres and terms for Steampunk and things that are Steampunk-esque. Here’s a *very* brief summary of some of the really neat things I found. This is by no means definitive or exhaustive.
• Alternate History—This is a really broad category because alternate histories are infinite and Steampunk is only a small part. This is when you actually explain how and why your Steampunk world got to be this way which could range from rebuilding after WWW III to portals to hell to earthquakes to aliens and beyond
•Fireside Science Fiction–“Cozy” Sci-Fi where Victorian gentlefolk end up doing god-knows-what, god-knows-where, but it all ends well and laugh about it over brandy and cigars in the study afterwards
•Gaslamp Fantasy–Set in a Victorian-esque fantasy realm these stories have tight bodices, slapstick, mayhem, mad science, and paranormal elements
•Gaslamp Romance—same as above, but with more sex and a happily ever after and could be set in either a fantasy realm or the “real” (ish) world
•Neo-Victoriana–Recreating Victorian life using modern tools, materials, and methods (most “traditional” Steampunk works have advanced technology but use Victorian materials not modern ones)
•Retro-Futurism—Combining elements of the past with future technology but can be applied to any era not just Victorian
•Scientific Romance–An early, primarily British, term for science fiction, also used to describe Verne’s works. Now used for Victorian based-science fiction
•Steampulp–What if I was stuck in a bodice ripper and had to fight my way out before the brass robots ate me? Also another name for Steampunk, since the “punk” leads people to think stories are dystopian or anarchist (like cyberpunk) where in actuality they usually aren’t
•Victorian Science Fiction–Gentrified name for Steampunk though often denotes fiction actually written in Victorian era, as opposed to stories set in Victorian times
•Voyages Extraordinaire –Larger than life Victorian adventures, a la Jules Verne
•Wild/Weird West–Steampunk meets the 19th Century American West. Lots of mad scientists, saloon girls, cowboys, and giant mechanical beasts
Do you have any other neat Steampunk terms to share? Cool linkys? Any of these inspire you? Or is this information overload, lol?
I have *one* tiara left (I’m going to have to go back and see if they have more. I bought them all out last time I was there, lol.) These are really beautiful art-deco style mini tiaras. This one is black with stones in shades of gold and yellow. Perfect for a Steampunk princess. One lucky poster will snag it…I’ll post the winner on Friday.
I’m so happy to discover this blog, because I’ve become a fan of Steampunk and just started plotting a YA and now I know how to describe it.
Congrats Deborah. email me asap at suzanne lazear (@) hotmail (no spaces) so I can get you your tiara in time for nationals…congrats on your award and I’ll see you there.
It’s Friday–and a holiday weekend. Happy Independence Day! Have fun and be safe.
Need something to do? Check out the calendar section at Dieselpunkswhich has listings for steampunk and dieselpunk events all over America! (What’s dieselpunk, you ask? Dieselpunk comes after steampunk, roughly the 1920’s-1950’s when diesel was king, how cool is that?).
Here’s a steampunk band called Abney Park which I had heard of but hadn’t actually checked out before now. This is a video of their song “Airship Pirate” shot in their studio–which is exactly where a steampunk band should be rehearsing, the belly of the HMS Ophelia! I really love how they blend different genres and the violin adds so much. Check out their decor and costumes. Enjoy!
What is Steampunk? This is a question the editors are asking. It seems that they are still trying to figure it out. It goes hand in hand with the pat answer to the question asked at every publishing house. “What are you looking for?” The answer is “Something edgy.”
Every editor is looking for the next big thing. The next Harry Potter, the next Outlander, The next Twilight. On the other hand they want to cash in on the current trend. Vampires are hot so let’s buy vampire books. It’s a hard job to predict what will the next leaping trend will be and it’s scary for publishers to take a risk on something they’re not sure of.
I’ve been shopping a Steampunk proposal. I’ve gotten a lot of interest and I’m hoping for an offer very soon. What’s strange is that every editor I’ve talked to or that’s seen it, along with my agent, said the same thing. “I’m not sure what Steampunk is.”
I like to consider Steampunk as a blending of genre’s. I write historicals under the name Cindy Holby and Scifi Romance under the name Colby Hodge. To me Steampunk is the perfect blending of what I do best. Historicals and Scifi. For example my proposal, titled Prism, is a Victorian Historical with scifi elements. The scifi elements are purely Steampunk. I have a character with brass hands that have tiny gears and fittings. The hands are connect to his bones and muscles with tiny screws and need to be regularly maintained with oil. The hands are also larger than normal. I also incorporate a zeppelin and weapons that are powered with crystals. Some of it, like the zeppelin, is standard Steampunk fare. The rest is strictly part of my imagination.
The easiest way to identify Steampunk is simply say The Wild Wild West movie with Will Smith was Steampunk. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was Steampunk.
Steampunk can blend into several genre’s. Western Steampunk, Victorian Steampunk, Urban Fantasy Steampunk. Paranormal Steampunk, take your genre and add Steampunk. I’m pretty sure that Amish Inspirational Steampunk won’t work but hey, someone can try it.
My point is that Steampunk is a wide open genre at the moment. I believe it’s the new edgy that the publisher’s are looking for. Its boundaries are yet to be defined and like everything else, the editors will know it when they see it. Of course it needs to be well written. So let your imagination soar and get to writing.
Wells was born in Bromley, Kent. His father was a shopkeeper and a professional cricketer until he broke his leg. In his early childhood, Wells developed a love for literature. His mother served from time to time as a housekeeper at the nearby estate of Uppark, and young Wells studied books in the library secretly. When his father’s business failed, Wells was apprenticed like his brothers to a draper. He spent the years between 1880 and 1883 in Windsor and Southsea, and later recorded them in KIPPS (1905).
Adult Life, Loves and Children
“I was never a great amorist,” Wells wrote in Experiment in Autobiography (1934), “though I have loved several people very deeply.” In 1891 Wells married his cousin Isabel Mary Wells, but left her in 1894 for one of his students, Amy Catherine Robbins, whom he married in 1895. He had two sons with Amy: George Philip (known as ‘Gip’) in 1901 and Frank Richard in 1903. During his marriage to Amy, Wells had liaisons with a number of women, including the American birth-control activist Margaret Sanger (They had no children!) and novelist Elizabeth von Arnim. In 1909 he had a daughter, Anna-Jane, with the writer Amber Reeves; and in 1914, a son, Anthony West, by the novelist and feminist Rebecca West, twenty-six years his junior. Wells also had liaisons with Odette Keun and Moura Budberg. In spite of Amy Catherine’s knowledge of some of these affairs, she remained married to Wells until her death in 1927.
Visionary (From a 1945 issue of The Nation.)
OF COURSE it was H.G. Wells who first perfected the atomic bomb and put it to work. And not only did he put it to work, demolishing most of the world’s capital cities and destroying governments, but then he got busy and built an entirely new society. In less time than you can imagine after the last bomb fell, everybody was settling down nicely in a global socialist community under a World Republic; atomic energy, internationally controlled, was performing all the necessary jobs of production, transportation, heating, and such, and the creative energies of mankind were being applied to higher things. In 1914, when “The World Set Free” was published and no bombs of any sort had been dropped it all sounded fantastic and even funny.
”Father of Miniature War Gaming”
Seeking a more structured way to play war games, Wells wrote Floor Games (1911) followed by Little Wars (1913). Little Wars is recognised today as the first recreational wargame and Wells is regarded by gamers and hobbyists as “the Father of Miniature War Gaming.”
Utopian Novels
From early in his career, he searched for a better way to organize society. He wrote a number of novels related to idealized worlds. The first of these was A Modern Utopia (1905), which shows a world-wide utopia with “no imports but meteorites, and no exports at all.” Two travellers from our world fall into its alternate history. The others usually begin with the world rushing to catastrophe, until people come up with a better way of living: whether by mysterious gases from a comet causing people to behave rationally and abandoning a European war (In the Days of the Comet (1906)), or a world council of scientists taking over, as in The Shape of Things to Come (1933, which he later adapted for the 1936 Alexander Korda film, Things to Come). This depicted, all too accurately, the impending World War, with cities being destroyed by aerial bombs. He also portrayed the rise of fascist dictators in The Autocracy of Mr Parham (1930) and The Holy Terror (1939), though in the former novel, the tale is revealed at the last to have been Mr Parham’s dream vision.
Film Adaptations
A Trip to the Moon · The First Men in the Moon (1919) · The Invisible Man · Island of Lost Souls · The Man Who Could Work Miracles · Things to Come · The History of Mr. Polly · The War of the Worlds (various versions) · The Time Machine (1960) · First Men in the Moon (1964) · The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977) · The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) · The Time Machine (2002)
“No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their affairs they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.” (from War of the Worlds)
When I volunteered to blog here, I had a look around the internet for information on Steampunk fashion, since that is a subject that fascinates me. In several places, I came across a notion about Victorian fashion that I knew was wrong, and I thought it would be fun to blog about it. Somehow, the idea has gotten fixed in some people’s minds that Victorian fashion was dark and rather gloomy, with an emphasis on black and dark brown. This is simply untrue.
First, I’d like to point out that the Victorian era was a long one, with significant shifts in fashion. I’ve noticed that many Americans think of Victorian times as being limited to the end of the nineteenth century. Actually, the era began in 1837, when Victoria ascended to the throne, and ended in 1901 with her death. Women’s fashion, especially, underwent major changes during those years.
In the beginning of the era, women’s style emphasized sloping shoulders, tiny waist and full, bell-shaped skirts. Women wore enormous bonnets that partially obscured their faces, and their movements were hampered by the many layers of petticoats they used to create the full skirt effect. In the 1850’s, the crinoline was invented, freeing women from the weight of all those skirts, and by the end of the century women’s clothes had taken on aspects of men’s style, such as shirtwaists and tailored suits with exaggerated broad shoulders (although retaining the artificially tiny waist). Color was used generously throughout the era.
A Victorian lady wearing all-black would generally be assumed to be in mourning. Victorian women loved color in their clothing. Aniline dyes were invented in mid-century, making it possible to create brighter colors than had been available previously, and women took full advantage of this. Even gentlemen wore colorful garments, although their choices were much more subdued generally than the women’s.
I Googled Victorian men’s fashion and found a site called Victoriana, which had some men’s fashion plates for viewing. For the year 1868, from Harper’s Bazaar, I found these colors described: brown, dark claret, blue, drab (beige or light taupe), and gloves of golden brown or maroon. For lounge jackets, the fashion was to make them of gray cloth lined with purple, crimson or green flannel, trimmed with soutache (a kind of braid) in the color of the lining. The magazine also referred to an English style of “full dress”, for evening entertainments, consisting of blue coat, white vest and lavender pantaloons and gloves. In the 1840’s plates, I noticed these colors: black, dark brown, medium brown or tan, navy blue, burgundy, dove grey, a very colorful red spotted or checked fabric on a waistcoat, and several pairs of pantaloons with either striped or checked fabric.
My copy of Mr. Godey’s Ladies (a compendium of the popular magazine) shows much color variation over the decades from the 1830’s to the 1860’s. From the fashion plates, I find rose, blonde (cream or ecru), blush, pale lavender, maize, blue, purple, maroon, black, gray, pearl, plum, and “tan d’or” (a golden tan, judging by the plate). This list comes from just two fashion plates from the years 1858 and 1860.
I also have a copy of La Mode Illustre, a French fashion magazine, for the years 1860 – 1914. Technically not Victorian, in my opinion, since it’s French and we all know the French and English don’t appreciate being confused with one another, but a beautiful book for anyone interested in the bustle years. Unfortunately, the pictures are all in black and white, but they do give color descriptions.
Here are the colors given for one plate from 1860: bright blue, orange-and-black striped, black, green edged with black velvet, violet, pale green, white blonde. This plate describes day dresses, so the bright colors are not only for evening. Here is another from 1881: “dress of white batiste and blue satin damask” . . . “white broderie anglaise percale dress, over plum surah underdress.”
And speaking of color, I found this amusing tidbit in a book titled Victorian and Edwardian Fashions for Women 1840-1919, by Kristina Harris. She’s referring to the 1850’s here: “For some time having being (sic) virginally white, petticoats suddently became popular in scarlet red when Queen Victoria was reported to have switched to the color ‘to reawaken the dormant conjugal susceptibility of Prince Albert.’ “ I had to laugh at that. I wonder if a red skirt would awaken my husband’s “conjugal susceptibility?” Not that his is dormant, of course.
Naturally, people working in laboratories and workshops would have worn more practical, and probably dull-colored, garments. So, if you have a mad scientist, he might not want to be dressed in lavender pantaloons . . . unless he’s attending a party or ball. Your girl genius might have a work apron over her dress, but if she’s going out in the evening, I say let her go in full color! It’s perfectly period.
About a half-dozen of the Steampunk Lolitas (that would be us, lol) went to the Romance Writers of America national conference in Washington DC. I was amazed and honored to be in the company of some amazing, amazing ladies. The best thing, besides meeting the steampunk ladies in attendance, was finding out that editors and agents are starting to look for steampunk and some major steampunk projects are on the horizon.
The Steampunk Lolitas were up to some great stuff at conference as well. I feel so privileged to be part of a group that has so many great ladies doing so many great things (and that’s just those who came, stay tuned for all sorts of great news).
Steampunk Lolita Deb was the 2009 Librarian of the Year!
Deborah Schneider, 2009 Librarian of the year with Eloisa James
We had several ladies at the Litteracy Book Signing, which raised over $60,000 for charity!!
Colby Hodge and Jana Oliver, nominees for the Time Travel category, with their agent
Leanna Renee Hieber, nominee in the Novella category with Suzanne
Colby and Leanna WINNERS of the Prism Award!!
Leanna was also on the author panel at the Prism Awards where FF&P authors ansewered all our questions.
Leanna on the FF&P author panel
Cindy also did a panel on Genre Jumping, which I sadly missed but was heard was great. There were a lot of amazing workshops, though none on Steampunk. Next year *grin*. I also met the Smutketeers an awesome group of ladies who write steampunk/post apocalyptic erotica.
One of the highlights of the conference was the RITA/Golden Heart Awards Ceremony which is like the Oscars of romance novels. It was truly an elegant affair!
Elizabeth and Suzanne go to the Ritas
Okay, I bought the store out of art deco tiaras, but I have one aviator scarf left from the conference. I will give it to one lucky poster!
Have a great week everyone! For more conference adventures check out my my personal blog.
By one estimate, over 6000 food and drink street sellers at one time hawked their fare in London.
On their way to work in the morning, many working men grabbed a coffee and a slice of bread and butter from a coffee stall. Coffee-stall keepers, usually women, made about one pound a week.
From: Victorian London by Liza Picard (2005.) “There were stalls selling eels and pea soup, sheep’s trotters and fried fish, meat puddings and eel pies, cakes and crumpets and, in summer, the more novel and aristocratic luxury of street ices.”
I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I’m going to stick with the egg muffin and pass on the breakfast sheep’s feet and eel pie.
Squee! I just found out from the Hearts Through History chapter president that my steampunk urban fantasy manuscript, Mystic Taxi, won first place in the “Romance Through The Ages” contest for the paranormal/time travel category. This is my first first-place win ever! I’m thrilled beyond words. Today is a good day!
Two Steampunk Lolitas to be in Upcoming Anthology!
My time travel short story Lost and Found will be included in the anthology THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE to be released in December 2009 by Constable & Robinson in the UK and Running Press in North America. I pitched the story as a mash up of The Time Traveler’s Wife, Groundhog Day and Life on Mars.
I’m in the book also, writing as Colby Hodge. My story is Time Trails and has a Texas Ranger, a time cop and steampunk elements that include a time machine and brass scorpions.
Congrats, Ladies! The book is avaliable for preorder and the cover is hot!
I’d like to announce the winner of the aviator scarf…
drum-roll please
~*~Mary Ann Webber~*~
“WOW! All of you look fabulous and you seem to be enjoying yourselves!
Huge congrats to Colby and Leanna on their Prisms.
You make us stay-at-homes proud!”
Please email me at suzannelazear (@) hotmail so I can get you your prize! Congrats!
I also have to “Friday Fun” — even though it’s actually Saturday.
If you haven’t checked on the Steampunk online comic Girl Genius you should. It’s a serial tale of adventure, romance, mad science.
Another great online comic is Monster Commute which blends mechanical and Steampunk elements in a monster world.
I’ve been pretty obsessed with my iPhone since I got it about 2 months ago and I’ve been trying to find applications for just about everything under the sun. So of course, I had to search for the word Steampunk in the application store but found very little, except for this very neat little reader call Steampunk Tales. The first installment called Steampunk 1, at 1.99 for the download of an anthology of 10 short stories, is a very nifty little application indeed.
The reader is superb, imitating a pulp fiction magazine from the 20s, but using the latest cell phone fiction reader technology. Steampunk Tales are also available in PDF and in a Mobile ebook version, see the website at http://steampunktales.com/.
The graphics has a beautiful Steampunk retro-futuristic Victorian feel to it, opening to a beautiful illustration by artist Melita “missmonster” Curphy and with a reading background made to look like parchment paper.
A touch at the center of the screen brings you to the main menu. In “Settings”, you can choose your reading orientation, add a fun turning page sound, decide on the font style and size and also chose another paper-like background. In “Index”, you can decide on the story of your choice and “About” gives you the background of the authors.
While reading, press the left or right of the screen to go the next or preceding page. Press the bottom of the page and appears a meter to tell you how far along you are in page numbers.
I didn’t have a chance to read all the stories yet but so far for 1.99$, I think I got a good deal. The writing quality kept my interest up and was quite varied in theme. It’s the perfect format and story length to carry around with you for a quick read when you have a few minutes to spare.
The Tales should be released every month, so look for Steampunk 2 coming soon.
Last winter I was shopping around a post apocalyptic sci/fi romance which I called Prism. With the state of the industry and the narrow market I got rejected at several publishers. So I decided to revamp the project using the elements I loved and going with my strengths. Since I write both historical and scifi romance you will see how I blended them together in the second proposal.
Prism Things are not always what they seem.
Setting: A dark future
There are times in history when progress takes a great leap forward. The twentieth century was such a time. In that century, innumerable discoveries were made that changed the face of the world.
Late in the twenty-first century a synthetic was created called admanium. It was touted that this synthetic could bond with any living tissue. People with missing limbs could have new ones bonded into their skeleton and with the advent of synthetic skin no one would know the difference between the original and the replacement. Further experiments were done to see if the admanium could be used to replace failing organs such as kidneys, the liver, or even the heart but while the substance could bond, it could not replicate the purposes of those organs.
During these experiments another discovery was made… a discovery that changed everything. Admanium displayed the ability to bond with brain cells. Alzheimers and Dementia were no longer a dreaded result of the aging process. Through outside stimulus those that suffered from these diseases were able to live out their lives in a normal way and recall their loved ones.
This led to another discovery. A discovery made by a group heavily involved in researching connectomics which is the wiring of the brain. Researchers could trace the estimated 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses and the human mind became an instrument of great power. It also proved beyond any doubt that the human mind held paranormal capabilities. An International Institute for Paranormal Research was formed with scientists from around the world. They discovered that Admanium administered to subjects with paranormal tendencies could achieve mind control over those who did not possess such talents. When the discovery was made public, the general outcry was one of fear and paranoia instead of joy.
Everyone wanted the power. Nations worried that others may use it against them. Mass hysteria broke out around the world. Paranoia became the norm. War broke out and biological weapons were used. The great cities of the world were decimated and the nations of the world became isolated from each other by circumstance and by choice. The biologics also affected the weather into extremes. The far north became an artic wasteland, earthquakes destroyed everything west of the Rockies and the East coast began at the Appalachian Mountains. Islands in the Caribbean and South Pacific disappeared beneath giant waves, along with Southeast Asia and Japan.
Some people survived because of immunity to the biologics. Others were forever genetically altered. Some sought refuge in the mountains and forests. Others stayed closed to what were once the cities and did what they could to build a new society. In times such as these the strongest take control. The IPR (Institute for Paranormal Research) formed a new society in the Midwestern United States and with new technology developed from the admanium enclosed the surviving generations in a dome. All of the Dome citizens were encouraged to lead peaceful lives through subliminal messaging enhanced by the admanium.
Not everyone went inside the dome. Some of the survivors did not want to be controlled by the IIPR who felt they knew what was best for everyone. There were in the IIPR who thought they should have all the power. Then there were some who just wanted to be left alone.
The dome is run by a ruling council which oversees the administration of the PRISMs. (Paranormal Research Instruments of Subliminal Messaging or PRISMs) The PRISMs are culled from the general population by the IPR to be instruments of the government. In reality they are nothing more than tools, used for their paranormal abilities and attached to the computers that regulate every aspect of life inside the dome. The PRISMs are controlled by the governing body which then make “suggestions” to the PRISMs who in turn use subliminal messaging to keep the population under control. Everyone is happy and everyone is at peace and order is kept in society. The PRISMs have no idea of what they are doing in reality. Due to the mind control that the council holds over them, they live in a dream like state called symlife where they think they are functioning normally. In reality they are kept plugged into the computers where they eventually wither up and die. There are some who hold value and the use of muscle stimulants and intravenous feeding keeps them alive for a while and easy prey for the whims of the council.
Those who do rebel against the council suffer a worse fate. Some are executed. Some, who are deemed to have potential, are reintroduced into society with some alterations made by the admanium. They become servants and are used to work the baser tasks that keep the society running. Others are incorporated into the army after being outfitted with the admanium so that they may better serve the society that they harmed with their criminal acts. All of these have their memories and consciousness erased so that all they know is obeying the orders given to them without thought.
Edmond Swain is part of the ruling council. That is not enough for him. He thinks there should be one person in charge instead of a council. But in order to achieve that goal he needs an edge. He needs a PRISM that is stronger than the others. He begins a quiet search for someone who he can use to accomplish his goal.
Outside the dome people are just trying to survive. They have their own independent society. They till the earth and scrounge for whatever they can find to make life more livable. They have to put up with disease, the elements and the wild beasts that roam the deep forests that have reclaimed the earth. They also have to deal with the lawlessness of the Scrabbers who inhabit the mountains and only attack at night. The so called Scrabbers are descended from those who suffered genetic mutation due to the Great Biologic War.
Those who live ouside believe freedom is worth their struggle to survive. They are free of the whims of the IPR ruling council, except when the council decides their lawlessness needs to be controlled and send their mechanized army to attack and acquire workers for the dome.
Merritt and Dax live outside the dome in the place called The Real. Dax’s father is the leader of the group and hopes that Dax will take over some day. Dax doesn’t think about that now as he is in love with Merritt. He knows there is something special about her and trusts her instincts as she seems to know when trouble is coming their way.
On the day of their wedding the mechs from the dome attack. Everyone scatters from the celebration but the mechs follow only Dax and Merritt. It is as if they are being tracked as they run through the ruins of the former city. Finally they are cornered and Dax is severely injured when he tries to fight them. Merritt is taken and Dax is given over to the mechs to replace the soldier that he killed.
Swain takes Merritt as his PRISM. He alters her memory so that she thinks she is his daughter and the symlife that she lives as she is connected to the master computer is very real. Except for the dreams she has. The dreams of her past life with Dax.
Dax is enhanced with the admanium and incorporated into the mechs. They are all interconnected to each other and to the master computer. It is there that he sees flashes of his past life. His sees images from his life with Merritt and he realizes what has happened to him. His consciousness returns and he rebels and escapes with one thought.
Find Merritt.
He finds help in a Doctor who thinks Swain and the council are committing crimes against humanity. At one time he had been involved with genetic research using admanium. He realized what he was doing was wrong and went into hiding where he helps those who try to escape their fate. Meanwhile the council is after Dax because if it is known that a mech has escaped and the life chosen for him it will bring chaos down upon their society.
Dax finally finds Merritt and takes her away. But Merritt does not know if Dax is real or just a product of her dreams. She does not know which life is truly hers. The one Swain created for her or the one she lived in the Real. Only Dax’s love can bring her back to discover her true self. Then she can help him defeat Swain and the council and show the inhabitants of the Dome that really living life makes it all worth while.
Cindy Holby, award-winning author of historical and scifi romance, blends both genres together with Prism, a historical romance featuring a cowboy, a psychic heroine and a diabolical plot to take over the world using imaginative technology in Victorian England. What’s a proper British lady to do when a mad scientist is after her brain and an American cowboy is after her heart?
London, England 1887
David Alexander Conrad, AKA Dax, is a cowboy. But he’s not just any ordinary cowboy—he’s one of the famed performers with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show who, in the summer of 1887, travels to England in order to give those stuffy Victorians a jolt of good old American showmanship. He is a renowned sharp shooter and trick rider with skills honed when he worked as a scout for the US Cavalry in the American Southwest during the Apache Wars with Geronimo. At twenty-seven, he’s the youngest star of the show and something of a celebrity in a London unaccustomed to his type. It is while Dax is on the party circuit that he meets a woman unlike any he has ever known.
Merritt Elizabeth Chadwyke is the daughter of Member of Parliament, Lord Pemberton She lives in a society bubble because she is subject to spells and needs the constant monitoring of a nurse. During her “spells” Merritt has been known to make outlandish comments about things of which she should have no knowledge. There is also evidence that during these spells, objects appear to move on their own. Merritt’s parents are very protective of her since they have already lost a son to a tragic accident. What her parents do not know is that at ten years of age, Merritt had a vision of her brother’s death but was afraid to say anything because of her parents reactions to her visions. She did try to warn her brother, who was fourteen when he died, but he ignored her. He realized he should have paid attention to her and said so as he died in his father’s arms. At their wits’ end over her strange illness, her parents send her to the Paranormal Research Institute run by Baron Edmond Von Swaim, who has become a society darling himself by using his powers of hypnotism to charm the upper crust. As Von Swaim performs test upon test on Merritt, he comes to the conclusion that she is something so unique and rare, he wasn’t even certain it existed. Merritt is a Prism. And more importantly, she is exactly what he needs to complete his plot to overthrow the British Monarchy and take what he feels is his claim to the throne.
Von Swaim does everything to encourage Merritt’s family to turn her over to his care to cure her “spells.” His research into the study of the human mind has led him to believe that it is the greatest power upon earth. Through the use of his brilliant inventions and the enhancement of crystal prisms he plans to harness Merritt’s mind. Merritt, true to the nature of her spells, has a bad feeling about Von Swaim and refuses to go with him, despite her parents’ belief that it is the perfect solution to her strange illness. It is also during this time that Dax and Merritt have met each other and find that they are unable to stop thinking about each other. He finds it’s a bit more difficult to track a young woman through Victorian London than it is to fight Indians in the American west. Still he manages to find her, at parties, at the park, even in an exclusive tea shop. The feelings they share grow stronger with each passing moment and they go to great lengths to spend time together when they realize there is something special between them. As they pursue their romance Dax finds Merritt’s strange sense of things more of a gift than an illness and Merritt knows that Dax truly loves her for who she is, not what society or her parents expect her to be.
Frustrated with the constraints her family and society have put upon her, and unable to escape from Von Swaim’s constant presence, Merritt sneaks out to see a final performance of the Wild West show. Dax is happy to see her in the crowd and pulls her out to do some trick shooting. Meanwhile, Von Swaim, who has had Merritt watched ever since he’s treated her, is told of her escape from her home. Von Swaim sees this as the perfect opportunity to take her and sends his men, who wear armor and carry weapons that shoot lasers and electrical currents after her. Dax and Merritt manage to escape and spend a romantic night together in hiding. The following morning Von Swaim’s army finds their hiding place and chase Dax and Merritt through the streets of London. Dax is well armed but his trick shooting has no effect upon the special armor Von Swaim’s soldiers wear. Dax and Merritt are finally captured when Von Swaim uses a zeppelin to run them down in Hyde Park. He takes both of them prisoner, Merritt to be his weapon, and Dax, who is wounded in the leg to be brain washed and become a soldier in his army. They are taken by zeppelin to Von Swaim’s hidden castle in the Swiss Alps.
Dax finds there is no torture or brainwashing powerful enough to erase Merritt and his feelings for her from his memory. He manages to befriend a doctor in Von Swaim’s employ who has repaired Dax’s wound using Von Swaim’s invention of brass fittings and joints. After some time in which his injury heals and with the doctor’s help Dax manages to escape, only to find himself alone in a country where he knows no one and does not speak the language. To makes matters worse, Merritt is now under Von Swaim’s control and he has taken her to away for “treatment” with her parents’ permission. Fortunately for Dax, the Wild West Show is now touring Europe and he is able to find his friends who welcome him back with open arms. Dax is desperate to find Merritt but has no idea where to look.
Merritt, who is under Von Swaim’s control, cannot forget Dax either. Even though her memories of him are supposedly erased by Von Swaim’s hypnotism, her Prism abilities guide her back to Dax at one of the performances of the Wild West Show. Dax knows that he may never have this chance with Merritt again. With the help of his friends from the Wild West Show he is ready to use Von Swaim’s weapons against him. Dax and Von Swaim enter into a battle for her mind, but Von Swaim does not realize that Dax is also fighting for Merritt’s heart and soul. Dax will stop at nothing to free her from Von Swaim so that Merritt may make her own choices for her own life. Dax can only hope that once he frees her from Von Swaim that Merritt will choose him because he loves her just the way she is. Neither technology nor mind control, no matter how powerful, are any match for the strength of their love.
The second proposal is getting a lot more looks and I’m hoping it will sell soon. Meanwhile publishers are still trying to figure out exactly what steampunk is.
Edgar Allan Poe is the only Victorian author to have an NFL Football Team named for his writing.
BALTIMORE
RAVENS!
You go, Edgar!
He’s probably the only writer in world whose life is celebrated yearly by a lone Toaster. The Poe Toaster is the unofficial nickname given to a mysterious figure who pays an annual tribute to American author Poe by visiting the author’s original grave marker on his birthday, January 19. Though many gather annually to watch for the toaster and his yearly visit is supported by the Edgar Allan Poe Society, he is rarely seen or photographed. His identity has never been revealed to the public. The original toaster visited the tomb yearly between 1949 and his death in 1998, after which time the tradition was left to “a son.” A bottle of cognac is usually left on his tombstone.
Thomas M. Disch has argued in his The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of (1998) that it was actually Poe who was the originator of the modern science fiction.
Poe’s work and his theory of “pure poetry” was early recognized especially in France, where he inspired Jules Verne, Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), Paul Valéry (1871-1945) and Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898). “In Edgar Poe,” wrote Baudelaire, “there is no tiresome snivelling; but everywhere and at all times an indefatigable enthusiasm in seeking the ideal.”
In America Emerson called him “the jingle man.” Poe’s influence is seen in many other modern writers, and in the development of the19th century detective novel. J.L. Borges, R.L. Stevenson, and a vast general readership, have been impressed by the stories which feature Poe’s detective Dupin (‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, 1841; ‘The Purloined Letter,’ 1845) and the morbid metaphysical speculation of ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Waldermar’ (1845).
One of his tales, ‘Mellonta Taunta’ (1840) describes a future society, an anti-Utopia, in which Poe satirizes his own times. Other tales in this vein are ‘The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Sceherazade’ and ‘A Descent into the Maelstrom’. However, Poe was not concerned with any specific scientific concept but mostly explored different realities, one of the central concerns of science fiction ever since
Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston, where his mother had been employed as an actress. Elizabeth Arnold Poe died in Richmond, Virginia, on December 8, 1811. His father, also an actor, had died in 1810 and Edgar was taken into the family of John Allan, a member of the firm of Ellis and Allan, tobacco-merchants. Edgar added the surname Allan as his middle name.
The cities of Baltimore, Maryland, and Richmond, Virginia, have wonderful POE MUSEUMS. There are Edgar Allan Poe Societies and several American universities have Poe Studies Departments.
Annabel Lee, is the most famous poem composed by Poe. Like many of his poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The narrator, who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels are jealous. He retains his love for her even after her death. There has been debate over who, if anyone, was the inspiration for “Annabel Lee.” Though many women have been suggested, Poe’s wife Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe is one of the more credible candidates. Written in 1849, it was not published until shortly after Poe’s death that same year.
EDGAR ALLAN POE’S WRITINGS:
Tamerlane and Other Poems, By a Bostonian, 1827, was followed by a large body of work, some of which is still being adapted into films.
Metzengerstein, 1832
MS Found in a Bottle, 1833
Morella, 1835
Shadow, 1835
Berenice, 1835
Loss of Breath, 1835
Bon-Bon, 1835
King Pest, 1835
Ligeia, 1838
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, 1838 (unfinished)
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1839
The Conchologist’s First Book, 1839 (ed.)
The Fall of the House of Usher, 1839
William Wilson, 1839
Silence, 1839
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion, 1839
The Devil in the Belfrey, 1839
The Conchologist’s First Book, 1839 (with others)
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840
The Man of the Crowd, 1840
A Descent into Maelström, 1841
The Island of the Fay, 1841
The Colloquy of Monos and Una, 1841
The Murders in the Rue Morgue, 1841
The Masque of the Red Death, 1842
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, 1842-43
Eleonara, 1842
The Oval Portrait, 1842
The Black Cat, 1843
The Gold Bug, 1843
The Pit and the Pendulum, 1843
The Prose Poems of Edgar A. Poe, 1843
The Tell-Tale Heart, 1843
The Oblong Box, 1844
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains, 1844
The Balloon Hoax, 1844
The Elk, 1844
The Assignation (aka The Visionary), 1844
Thou Art the Man, 1844
The Spectacles, 1844
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, 1845
The Premature Burial, 1845
The Purloined Letter, 1845
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade, 1845
We all know Steampunkers party like it’s 1899. That it’s a steam-powered world of airships, cogs, clockwork, crazy inventions, and brass goggles with plenty of room for air pirates, brass robots, and corset-and-bustle-wearing vampire hunters.
But what’s beyond Steampunk?
Here are a few things I’ve found, though many seem to overlap. This is by no means a definitive or exhaustive list:
Biopunk— Features those who are a product of biological experimentation, usually against the backdrop of a totalitarian government or megacorproations who are abusing science for personal gain or social control.
Clockpunk—A world where steam technology has been replaced by intricate clockwork designs.
Cyberpunk—Near-future earth with super-high technology and the breakdown of social order, usually with dystopian/anarchist /rebellion themes featuring conflict between humans and robots/cyborgs/megacorporations.
Cyberprep-Cyberpunk featuring a leisure-driven, happy society instead of a gritty one where technology and body modifications are used for recreation and pleasure.
Dieselpunk—The world just beyond steampunk where gas has replaced steam, steal replaced brass, it’s a world of flappers, gangsters—the roaring twenties though noir/dystopian goggles (I’ve also seen it called Oilpunk).
Gasolinepunk—The 1960’s hotrod era taken to the max.
Monsterpunk—Mechanical and steampunk elements mixed together in a monster world (or one powered by monsters). Monster Commute is a good example: http://www.monstercommute.com
Oilpunk/Petrolpunk/Petropunk—An idealized version of an oil-based society. Think floating cities with giant rocket engines.
Sailpunk—Where new technologies take on a nautical aesthetic, such as in the movie Treasure Planet.
Do you have anything to add? Elfpunk (those great rock & roll and car-racing Elf stories that take place in our world.) Post-Cyberpunk(Cyberpunk minus the dystopia)…
Any of these genres spark any ideas (or new genres to explore)?
I’d love to hear your ideas. Unfortunately, I can’t find any more art deco tiaras, but I have found some cute tiny ones. So one lucky poster will win a baby tiara and a bag of productivity pixy dust.
Have a great week everyone. Check back on Friday for the winner!
September 12, 2009 is Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day, brought to us byDresden Codak (who has some very interesting online comics.)
So wear that Victorian daydress or air-pirate costume to the mall or the grocery store–pretend to be amazed, or simply go about your business as if there’s nothing strange about it.
Or, walk up to random people, ask them the date, freeze, then sigh with relief and go, “great, there’s still time,” and run off.
Hand someone a random trinket and tell them that if they value humanity they’ll bury it in their backyard–today.
Wear a mash of clothing from the past couple of decades and pretend to not quite fit it or be able to quite use “modern” technology.
You could also simply choose to offer sanctuary to other time travelers by hanging the universal time traveler’s symbol in your window.
Whatever you do today…have fun! And if you missed it…just pretend to travel back in time so you don’t miss it.
When you think of Steampunk, images of brass goggles, aviator caps, and pocket watches immediately spring to mind.
The question is, why?
Steampunk is a genre full of action, adventure, and innovention–what says that better than a pair of brass goggles? They could be the goggles of an airpirate, plundering the open skies on his air ship, an explorer in her balloon, a car shark motoring to his next game, or of a mad scientist about to invent the next modern marvel or machine of mayhem.
But why brass?
Sure, there are other metals, but something about shiny brass invokes that Victorian feel…
Just like pocket watches, cogs, gears, and clock hands abound in Steampunk (they also make great jewelry). It’s a very classic image of a bygone era of gentleman, of craftsmanship. Since Steampunk is very rooted in the Victorian era, the pocket watch is an obvious accessory of choice (though there’s plenty of room for wrist-watches and time-keeping rayguns). Of course, a pocket watch doesn’t just have to be a timekeeping device. Perhaps it’s a communicator–or a time machine….
Aviator Cap from Clockwork Couture
Don’t forget your leather aviator cap! Since, in Steampunk, most things–even advanced technology–is made with Victorian materials and/or in the style/manner of the Victorians, your aviator and adventures wouldn’t ben wearing plastic crash helmets. They go with a balloon, a hoverboard, a spaceship, or even a plain old automobile. The aviator cap is another a symbol of action, adventure, and innovation. It’s the sign of someone boldly going where no one has gone before, of defying convention, of following their dreams.
There are many other things that are quintessentially Steampunk, and there are plenty of reasons beyond mine why Brass goggles, Aviator caps, and pocket watches are a bit iconic. I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. As usual, one lucky poster will win a tiara! The winner will be posted on Friday!
I actually managed to find 3 more art deco tiaras! YAY! They are so much cuter than anything else I’ve found (any past winners want to send me a pic of them wearing theirs? Lynn? Deb?)
So the winner of this month’s tiaras is…
…drumroll please…
*~*~*Gwynlyn MacKenzie*~*~*
I think steampunk and think Jules Verne…
Congrats! Please email me at suzanne lazear (@) hotmail so I can get you your tiara.
Someone gave be this great linky for an anagram generator. Maybe I’ll start writing under the name Lauren Zazen. Go ahead and come up with a few alter egos…
Did you know that every year books are banned from schools and libraries? Banned Book week celebrates intellectual freedom and the right we have to have access to all books–including ones that might be “objectionable” for whatever reason. It also draws attention to the fact that even in this day and age books are banned and censored in communities across the United States. Censorship is harmful and we have the right to access all opinions and ideas, not just the popular ones.
Fortunately, most challenged books are not banned thanks to the hard work of librarians, booksellers, teachers, and community members who work to make sure that everyone can read what they wish.
1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R(series), by Lauren Myracle Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz Reasons:occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya Reasons:occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
8. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding,by Sarah S. Brannen Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
9. The Kite Runner,by Khaled Hosseini Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group
Here’s also a list of challenged and banned classics. How many of these have you read? How many of these do you own?
There are many ways to celebrate banned book week — go buy a banned book or three or check them out of the library, read them allowed to your family, co-workers, or whoever will listed, attend an event or reading (or plan one for next year), help your library make a display of challenged books, teachers can talk about censorship and have their students draw a picture of what book they would save if all the books were being burned and they could only save one (and why). There are many more ideas here from the good people over at Banned Books Week
Did you know The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells has been banned and challenged? What about Winnie-the-Poohby A. A. Milne?
What are your favorite banned books?
Exercise Your First Amendment Rights – Read a Banned Book!
It’s here, it’s here! Steampunk Tales #3, the third installement in the awesome iphone reader application, is out.
I blogged about the application at Steamed! a little while ago.
I have to say that I am a bit behind and yes, haven’t had a chance to download #2 yet, deadlines will do that do you. But I do love this little application. Short stories on the go and one of the best readers I have found (and I have tried most of them!)
Hello everyone! I am excited to be here guest blogging at Steamed! They asked me here because I had the amazing opportunity of attending Steamcon 2009 in Seattle, WA. What could be better than a whole weekend devoted to all things steampunk? It was FABULOUS!! Every aspect of it was so much fun! If you wish to read my overview of the whole event you can read all about the insanity at my blog. Today however I am just going to talk about the amazingly awesome tea and couture event. The feature of the tea and couture event was the steampunk fashion show and it was inspiring! I almost didn’t get to attend since procrastination is my middle name and I didn’t buy tickets before they sold out. However I met a very nice gentleman, the Lord Baron Joseph C.R. Vourtequ who kindly offered me his extra ticket. We were seated with a wide variety of fascinating and lovely people including an Emperor, seriously how can you not love that? Before tea was served an etiquette lesson was given and I realized how very unsophisticated I am….oh well! I most definitely would have been shunned from polite Victorian society. Then tea was served and the fashion show began! There was a wide range from sophisticated to sexy and everything in between for every age and both the male and female steampunk enthusiast! I have included a smattering of pictures, but if you follow this link….there are many more!! I had my camera glued to my eye the whole time!! There was even an adorable little steampunk child and you could hear the collective “awwww” sweep the room as he charmed his way down the runway. There were several different designers and it was fascinating to see their individual and distinctive take on the trend, each unique and FABULOUS!! I gravitated towards loving the darker, sexier take on steampunk and there were several lovely specimens! The tea and food provided was delectable and beautifully presented, all in all it was well worth attending and I can only foresee it being bigger and better next year! I am going to shamelessly plug Steamcon now and say if you get the chance next year…GO!! It is so worth it, you meet amazing people and have a ton of fun!! Thanks for letting me ramble! ~Elizabeth Darvill
I was pleasantly surprised to see steampunk costumes at the tot’s school, including a gentleman air pirate, steampunk Jane from Tarzan, and a cadre of identically dressed steampunk lolitas in fishnets and mini top hats.
Anyone going steampunk for Halloween?
I would like to announce Steamed’s First Annual Steampunk Costume Contest!
Rules:
1). email your low-res steampunk costume pics to steamedblog (@) hotmail with “Steamed Costume Contest” in the header. It does not have to be from Halloween, it can be from Steamcon or the Dickens Ball or what have you. Appropriate pictures please! This is not an over-18 site. Please include what name you’d like listed on the site and an email addy so if you win I can contact you. We have the right to not put up your photo if we feel it’s not suitable for general viewing or it’s not steampunk (we’re not going all purist, but this is not a general costume contest, feel free to explain in the email if you feel you need to).
2) There will be three categories a) Best Costume b) most unique and c) steampunk kids.
3) Group pics are welcome as long as a majority are in steampunk dress. You only get one prize (sorry). Please make sure you have permission to post it (that goes for all pictures, we have the right to take them down if they’re not yours to put up or others in the photo object).
4) Pics must be received by Friday, November 6th at 9 PM EST. Feel free to spread the word about the contest. Winners will be announced sometime on or around November 7th. The winner in each category receives a steampunk tiara or an aviator scarf (if I can find them, I recently moved). I reserve the right to substitute prizes.
5) Have fun, be creative, and most of all, have a safe Halloween!!!
to enter the costume photo contest. Things have been crazy so I’m extending the deadline untill Nov. 15. Send pics of your steampunk best to steamedblog (@) hotmail — don’t forget to spread the word!
It’s November. The air is cool and crisp, the christmas decorations are going up, and we know the holidays will soon be upon us. Meanwhile, thousands of people are furiously holed up in cafes, libraries, and their bedrooms pounding away on their laptops and alphasmarts.
What??
November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWiMo–or NaNo for short. This is where writers all over the world strive to write an entire novel in one month! (For NaNo they define a novel as 50,000 words). There’s also a Youth Writing Program for the under 18 set where they can set their own goals, and they have *free* curriculums and kits for classrooms. (Wow, my teachers never did NaNo with us, how fun would that be).
So, you go to the site, sign up, and commit to write 50k in 30 days.
Impossible?
Hardly. That’s 1667 words a day. About 6-7 pages in 12 pt. Times New Roman with 1 inch margins. It’s easier than you think–if you do it every day. There’s even ways to ‘cheat” an NaNo–like avoiding contractions at all costs. But it’s all in good fun. (Really, you can do it, I wrote 67k in September just by doing writing sprints at night, i’m not a full time writer, i have a day job, a hubby, a tot, and lots and lots of laundry.)
If you reach 50k by November 30, you “win” (after being verified by their word counting ‘bots.) You win the prestige of being a NaNo “winner”, the satisfaction of knowing you can do it. The really great NaNo folks also have some cool goodies, you can read about them on the site.
I’m a little behind. I should be at 25k, since we’re 2 weeks in. I’m nearly at 13k (bad Suzi). I also started this past Thursday (very bad Suzi). Oh, did I mention I’m cheating (that’s it, no dessert for you). For NaNo you’re actually supposed to start a brand spanking new novel. I had one all picked out, I even started it (wrote about 3500). Then I realized I made a boo-boo and needed to finish something else. So, I’m taking advantage of all the support and motivation out there to write the 43k I need to finish the book, (besides all the amazing resources on the NaNo site, two RWA chapters that I’m in are doing NaNo things, one’s even giving away a tiara…). Knowing me, it’ll probably be more like 50k, but Iwon’t claim to have “won” even if I reach 50k. But I can still pound away furiously after the tot is in bed, participate in online writing sprints, and commiserate with fellow authors. If I write at least 2500 words, I can do it (so far, four days in, I’m writing around 3k a day.)
So, do you NaNo? What are you working on? How are you doing? Anyone doing Steampunk for NaNo?
It’s not too late. With 2 weeks left you’d have to write a little over 35oo words a day, but that, too, is possible, since you’re only doing it for two weeks.
A super big congrats to Lolita Liane for making the top ten for Dorchester’s America’s “Next best Cellar” Contest.
Meet the top ten finalists:
Enchanted Season by Alicia Pace
Stay by Candi Wall
How to Lose a Demon in 10 Days by Saranna DeWyld
Confessions of the World’s Oldest Shotgun Bride by Gail Hart
The Hooded Man by Courtney Sheets
Primitive Nights by Candi Wall
Courting Demons by Kerri Nelson
Tossing the Gloves by Christy Finn
Vampire Vacation by C. J. Ellisson Muse Struck by Liane Gentry Skye
We wish you the best of luck!!!
*~*~*~AND~*~*~*
Lolita Leanna’s fabulous book The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker was recently profiled by the folks over at True Blood as a great book to read while waiting for season three — complete with an interview. If you haven’t picked it up, you should. It’s not quite steampunk , it’s more gas-lamp romance, but it has a great story, an amazing world, and characters that will leave you wanting more.
The Museum of the History of Science, Oxford University
Here’s a spot where I’d love to be standing.. NO. . . I’d rather be inside wandering through this fabulous exhibit of works of art by steam punkers from around the globe! Even the signedbofficial poster is highly collectible. See below – or follow the link – where you can see the extraordinary selection of Steam Punk Art!
What is Steampunk style? I am probably the last one to know. That’s why when I headed for Steamcon in Seattle, I didn’t really know what to expect, expect for a bunch of brass goggles and a few corsets.
So it’s with my own corset (laced tight and rescued from the Romantic Times Convention) that I sat down in the lobby of the Seatt;le Marriot and sipped my venti nonfat latte doing what I like best (after writing) and… people watched.
I was glad I had read about all the various Steampunk spin-off in Suzanne Lazear blog post at Steamed! Dieselpunk, Monsterpunk, Oilpunk, Clockpunk, coompleted with Steampunk fairies, I think I saw it all.
What striked me the most was that really all goes. As you long as you have your goggles on, you are good to go. I did expect the clockwork and victorian look but I have to say that I was surprised by the intrincacy of it all and by how well dressed everyone was.
I saw plenty of victorian ladies and gentlemen in full regalia, top hats and elaborate googles and ornate canes, beautiful skirts and expensive corsets (mine is a cheap one, be warned) but also feather in upswept hair, parasol and yes, fans! So many things I want (need?) to buy!!!
Beside the victorian look, was also the western look. Think of the movie Wild Wild West, with variation on steampunk guns, cowboy hats. Some were on the goths or dark side with black and spooky outfit closer to MadMax that is probably what they would call Dieselpunk. And some ladies had on simpler dresses that wouldn’t have been out of place in Anne of Green Gables.
All in all, I think the rule is to let your imagination run, and yes get those goggles and that corset! Can’t down too many lattes with it on but your waistline may thank you!
Steamcon 2010 is on! Get your tickets as soon as they come on sale! I bet they will fly really fast! (yep, stood in line for four hours to get mine!). I’ll be there
Thank you so much to everyone who entered the photo contest. I let the tot (the kid in the goggles in the last contest post) pick her personal favorite…
…and the winner is…
(drumroll please)
The “SteamCon Hussies” from SteamCon in Seattle, (Lolitas Deborah, Elizabeth, and Marie-Claude) as entered by Deborah Schneider.
Congratulations!
Deborah, as the one who entered the photo, you’re the one who gets the prize! Please email me at suzannelazear (@) hotmail.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday!
I was thinking about what a Steampunk Thanksgiving would look like. So I came up with the following menu. This is not what we’re having for Thanksgiving (I’ll be at my sister in law’s) but it sounds interesting, don’t you think? Think dinner by candlelight, great music, fun placemats, clock-part napkin rings…Could you imagine a steampunk cornucopia as the centerpiece? Anything you would add?
The holidays are coming, and that means holiday parties. The center of most holiday parties tends to be the beverages. We know there’s a few Steampunk cocktails out there, but only a few. Here at Steamed! We decided to invent two of our own Steampunk cocktails for your holiday enjoyment…
This brightly colored beverage is great hot or cold at your favorite club, at a party, or hanging out at home with friends. Other sodas (strawberry, grape, ect) and be used if you’d like to match your drink to your outfit…
The Hot Lolita
2 parts Orange Crush (or other colored fruity soda)
1part Vodka
Hot–heat vodka, pourinto a class, add soda, serve with an orange slice Cold–Pur vodka and soda in a glass, add dry ice for that steamy effect
What could be more genteel than a hot drink on a cool night? This next one is perfect for regaling your friends with your latest exploits and adventures in front of a nice warm fire…
The Gentleman Airpriate
2 oz Vodka
1 oz Kahlua
Milk
Gently heat vodka and Kahlua. Pour into a brandy snifter and add milk to taste (about 1/2 oz is usually good). Garnish with a sprinkling of nutmeg or chili pepper depending on how adventurous you’re feeling.
Of course, what ever your beverage may be, please enjoy your holiday responsibly.
Do you have a favorite holiday cocktail, Steampunk or otherwise? Tell us for a chance to win a sparkly tiara for all your holiday parties!
I love writing Time Travels. Except for the fact that they give me a major headache when I’m working on the plot. Thinking of all the repercussions of going to the past to change the future is really difficult. Still I was thrilled to be invited to be a part of The Mammoth Book of Time Travel. (psst if the link doesn’t work just look for it on Amazon.)
My story is about Rand Brock, a Texas Ranger investigating a mysterious death and disappearance in West Texas during the 1880’s. Imagine his surpise when he’s taking a bath in a stream and comes face to face with Shea, a Time Cop from the future. You must read the story to find out what happens but I will let you in on one part of the plot. Steam Punk Scorpions.
I hope you enjoy reading Time Trails as much as I enjoyed writing it.
If you’re the crafty sort, I found a great steampunk craft that can be made from polymer clay, gears, and bits of things. These Clockwork Hearts from CF Originals are perfect for holiday gifts or even something to amuse the kids while they’re on vacation.
I thought I posted this “Steampunk Primer” before, but I can’t find it, so here it is again…
Steampunk is a term that there’s been quite a bit of buzz about. But, what is exactly Steampunk?
Steampunkers party like it’s 1899 (and what happens when Goth’s discover the color brown, lol.) Steampunk is set in a world where steam and natural gas, not coal and electricity is still the primary power source. It’s a world abounding with airships, gas lamps, gears, cogs, and brass goggles and populated with mad scientists, philosophers, adventurists, and air pirates. HG Wells and Jules Vernon are huge inspirations for Steampunk. Examples include League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Stardust, Treasure Planet, and the Golden Compass.
Even though there’s a heavy Victorian influence and feel to Steampunk, there could still be extraordinary technology all done with Victorian materials and in Victorian styles. There can even be Steampunk airships, space ships, computers, and brass robots. Technology may have simply evolved differently–or maybe a natural (or unnatural disaster) caused society to “regress,” though Steampunk stories traditionally lack the dystopian/anarchist elements that cyberpunk has.
Steampunk stories can be set in the past, in the future, or on another planet. They can be alternate histories, mysteries with hard-boiled detectives or cozy Victorian ladies, they can be gothic, or horror, or sweet romance. They can be bodice rippers, erotic, or “tame.” Steampunk stories can even feature the supernatural or paranormal elements.
It’s in the setting, the language, the gadgets, and the characters–who could speak like Victorian ladies or fast-talking American teenagers. With Steampunk, there’s really a great opportunity to be creative and make amazing worlds ranging from gritty to opulent. Its basis is Victorian in nature, but it’s also fiction so you can do incredible and imaginative things. Are you ready to write?
Today we will be having craft time with Elizabeth! I will show you how to make an adorable little metal spider place card holders for your holiday meal or next gathering of the like minded steam folk!! They also double as an inexpensive, but memorable mementos for your guests to keep and cherish! You will need to gather a spool of thin wire, a pair of wire cutters, a decorative tack and a unique button with a hole big enough to stick a tack through. You can also clip off the head of the tack and hot glue it to the button if you can’t find one with an appropriate sized hole.
After you have gathered your materials you need to cut four lengths of wire to a length that they will be the desired size of your spider legs when bent in half. I keep mine a little long so they are easier to work with and just trim them down to size after my spider is complete. After you have your wire pieces, bend them in half so that you have a loop in the middle. Once your wire pieces are bent set them aside and take the tack and insert it into the hole in the side of the button or glue it on. If you are inserting it through the button don’t secure it yet. Slide your wire pieces over the pointy end of the tack and then line the tack up with the stem of the button and push the end of the tack through. If you don’t have the end of the tack. Take a piece of wire the length of the inside of the button and place the bent wire pieces on it and then glue the wire piece into the button. Once it is secured and the glue is dry you can flip your little guy over and trim and arrange his legs accordingly!
I hope you enjoy and if you have any questions about the construction feel free to send me an email elizabeth@elizabethdarvill.com I will be glad to help ya out! Happy holidays! ~Elizabeth
With the holiday season in full swing there are countless opportunities to look your most smashing! So I have complied a selection of delectable options for a variety of different persuasions! Enjoy….and if anyone is looking for a last minute gift idea for me or if Santa is reading this….I would accept any of these!!
For the lovely steampunk lady…..
I have found a gown that is both demure and beautiful in every detail! This dress would make you the center of every party and leave the feminine occupants green with envy!
For the saucy steampunk minx……..
Here is the gown for you!! It is sexy and sophisticated while allowing you to reveal your beautiful skin!! Beware though wearing this dress you will turn heads….although that is what you were going for wasn’t it you saucy minx……..
For the daring steampunk darling that gravitates towards darker pursuits….
You will look seductive in this dress that wraps you in blood-red and black lace, a better combination you couldn’t find. It will go with you from each dark and delightful gathering you attend!
For the economically minded steampunk maiden..
This is the dress for the steampunk lady whose plunder is running a bit low! It is adorable and will turn heads and no one will ever guess that it came at a lovely, affordable price. So hold your head high and live it up!!
‘Twas the night before Christmas and the whole ship was quiet,
Too quiet for the likes of this seasoned air pirate.
The airship was festooned with frippery and green,
With nary a brass polished surface to be seen.
Their stocking were hung by the crow’s nest with pride,
Along with homemade cookies and rum for Santa to imbibe.
I didn’t have the heart to tell the crew.
That Santa wouldn’t approve of what we do.
Sure, we stole from the rich, and gave to the needy.
But he’d probably think taking a cut was too greedy.
It didn’t matter that they had hearts of gold,
Only that it was stolen goods we bought and sold.
Suddenly portside there arose such a clatter,
That I grabbed my spyglass to see what was the matter.
The deck became filled with curious crew,
As I climbed the rigging for a better view.
The sky that had moments before been silent,
Had erupted with a commotion both grievous and violent.
The black ship portside was one that even we dread,
And it looked as if it were attacking a small red sled,
Driven by a fat guy and flying brown deer,
I polished the spyglass to ensure my vision was clear.
“Dread Pirate Fred’s attacking Santa, let’s help him, quick,”
Shouted my trusty first mate old Salty Nick.
What could I do but help out the sled,
“Come on, crew, let’s teach a lesson to Fred.”
I climbed down the rigging.
“There are cannons to load,
Christmas to save,
And pirates to goad.
Let’s kick up our speed,
And give up a fight.
Even we know
Robbing Santa just isn’t right.”
With a cheer, I manned the helm, going full speed ahead,
Nick loading our cannons to aim at the Dread Pirate Fred.
“Don’t worry Santa, help will arrive,
Salty Nick, man the cannons, prepare to take a dive.”
We flew through the air quickly, with all our might,
Fred’s crew had the sleigh on board, a terrible sight
Santa looked frightened, a gun to his head,
“Give me those presents,” growled the Dread Pirate Fred.
Even the reindeer had been rendered immobile,
By a few of Fred’s men in a black dirigible.
Santa shook his head, “If you take them, they will be missed.
Certainly, you all shall make my permanent naughty list.”
“I don’t care,” the pirate growled,
“We just want those gifts,” his crew avowed.
“Unhand those presents,” I called, dashing through the air
The cannons fired, aimed only to scare.
The reindeer bucked, trying to get free,
Fred sneered, “Captain Sno, you don’t scare me.”
Quickly, we secured Fred’s ship and dastardly crew,
But Fred still had Santa—there was only one thing to do.
Fred and I grappled across the deck, precariously,
Nick making sure Santa and the reindeer went free,
“You can’t rob Santa, it’s just not right,”
I yelled as I punched Fred when he put up a fight.
“Now, now, cease that,” Santa said,
Causing me to stop punching Dread Fred.
“Now Dread Pirate Fred, trying to steal presents in wrong,
but Captain Sno, punching him won’t stop him for long.
Christmas is about sharing and caring, not fighting and stealing,
and doing what’s right, not wheeling and dealing.”
Fred and I looked at each other, hanging our heads in shame.
The jolly old man had a good handle on our game.
Both crews made sure the gifts all went back
Into Santa’s giant red velvet sack.
Cook fed the reindeer carrots, and Santa cherry pie
I looked at the Dread Pirate Fred and gave a sigh.
“Why did you do that? That’s low even for you,
to attack Santa and take his presents on Christmas Eve, too.”
“Those presents would fetch prices that are sky high.”
But the look on Fred’s face told me that was a lie.
“There are better ways of getting a present from Santa’s sack,
then trapping the reindeer and staging an attack.”
“You’re one to talk,” Fred replied.
Nodding slowing, I looked at my crew, and again I sighed.
“I’m afraid, Santa, neither Fred nor I have been good this year,
but please, don’t forget our crew, they could use some cheer.
They don’t meant to be bad; they’re just following orders
They’re good men at heart, not drunkards and cavorters.”
Santa said, “Thank you captain, for rescuing me,
I think I my sleigh might hold an extra present or three.
You too,” he added to Dread Pirate Fred.
I shook my head. Was that what he actually said?
“Fred and his crew tried to steal your gifts to sell,
now you’re giving them presents as if all were well?”
Santa winked. “Now, Sno, remember what Christmas is all about.”
Getting in his sleigh, he gave his reindeer a shout.
“Just try to stay off the naughty list, the both of you, from now on.
Now, I have to be off, to get these delivered before dawn.”
Both crews looked up, as Santa took off.
“Merry Christmas, Santa,” my voice went soft.
With a wink of his eye, and a flick of his hand,
Presents flew out of his sleigh; onto the deck they did land.
“Thank you, Santa,” the crews did shout.
“There’s not one for me,” Dread Fred did pout.
“All I’ve ever wanted is a present from Santa, just one.”
I scoffed. “But not enough to stop having all your plundering fun.”
“Stop it you two,” Santa added with a call.
“But I didn’t forget you either, no, not at all.”
Two more presents floated down from the sky.
Turning mine over in my hands I looked up. “But why?”
Santa just smiled. “Just remember what I said.
And for once, Sno, can you stop plaguing Fred?”
With a hearty laugh, the sled flew through the sky,
Both crews waving, tears in their eyes.
“A present for me?” Fred’s eyes gleamed.
I knew deep down, he wasn’t as dreadful as he seemed.
Taking a box from my pocket, I said, “And there’s another.”
Giving it to him, I smiled. “Merry Christmas, brother.
I’m sorry I plague you, but it’s so much fun.
Let’s make next year a much better one.”
Nodding, Fred said, “For once, Sno, you’re right.
I think this should be the last time we fight.”
Santa sped by, doing one last turn.
“I hope there’s a lesson tonight you all learned.
Merry Christmas to you, and remember my lads,
no one says air pirates have to be bad.”
Several of the Steamed! Lolitas have appearances in the next few weeks. If you live nearby, come and say hello:
February 5-7, 2010 Temple Con, Warwick, RI Leanna Hieber will be doing a reading and signing as part of Temple Con (“retro-futurist” gaming / fantasy convention) and she’s a panelist on the “neo-Victorian” panel.
February 12, 2010 Gateway Courtyard Mall, Fairfield, CA
6 – 8:00 p.m. Shelley Adina will sign The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth in a Girl Scouts fundraiser at Barnes & Noble, Gateway Courtyard mall, Fairfield, CA, with fellow author JoAnn Smith Ainsworth.
February 13, 2010 Fremont Hub, Fremont, CA
4 – 6:00 p.m.
Borders Books presents a Valentine’s panel of award-winning authors: Shelley Adina, Christine London, JoAnn Smith Ainsworth, Jasmine Haynes, and Patricia Simpson. Fremont Hub, Fremont, CA
February 27th, 2010 Crossroads Writer’s Conference, Macon, GA Emilie Bush will be leading several Steampunk panels including one that is part of the free literary festival. Folks in the area should drop by for Dr. Amazing’s Traveling Steampunk Literary Show-Live captive authors will be reading from their own works before your very eyes! One Show ONLY!
Or, as its billing more accurately put it, the “Girl Genius Victorian Mad Science Ball,” held on April 4 in San Mateo, CA. Put on by the Period Events & Entertainments Re-creation Society, the ball was set in the world of the 
Shelley
Our very own Marie-Claude is the winner of Dorchester’s American Title V Competition with her 
In 1867 Jules Verne bought a small ship, the Saint-Michel, which he successively replaced with the Saint-Michel II and the Saint-Michel III as his financial situation improved. On board the Saint-Michel III, he sailed around Europe.
even grander scale, such as passenger ships as elegant as the Victorian steamers, transporting people from one place to another with speed, elegance, and spectacular views. 
They could be grand and elegant passenger ships of gleaming wood and polished brass, or could be patched and clunky cargo haulers, or these vessels could be filled with the most fearsome people to haunt steampunk skies—air pirates! 
with the idea of personal aircraft—such as the idea of “detachable wings” – small powered gliders with wings reminiscent of a Da Vinci sketch. One could almost imagine a ruffian in his leather aviation cap and brass goggles soaring through the sky on such a contraption. 
Hoverboards also enthrall me. A steampunk teen could easily be dodging the police on some sort of brass and wood flying skate/surfboard powered by rockets, the sun, or who knows…
by 
So here it is, a list of Steampunk books I’d like to check, starting with a novel I have already started and should be discussing next month. Feel free to add your suggestions. I am sure I will miss some really important ones.
Film Adaptations
A touch at the center of the screen brings you to the main menu. In “Settings”, you can choose your reading orientation, add a fun turning page sound, decide on the font style and size and also chose another paper-like background. In “Index”, you can decide on the story of your choice and “About” gives you the background of the authors.
Hello everyone! I am excited to be here guest blogging at Steamed! They asked me here because I had the amazing opportunity of attending Steamcon 2009 in Seattle, WA. What could be better than a whole weekend devoted to all things steampunk? It was FABULOUS!! Every aspect of it was so much fun! If you wish to read my overview of the whole event you can read all about the insanity at my 
Then tea was served and the fashion show began! There was a wide range from sophisticated to sexy and everything in between for every age and both the male and female steampunk enthusiast! I have included a smattering of pictures, but if you follow this 
There were several different designers and it was fascinating to see their individual and distinctive take on the trend, each unique and FABULOUS!! I gravitated towards loving the darker, sexier take on steampunk and there were several lovely specimens! The tea and food provided was delectable and beautifully presented, all in all it was well worth attending and I can only foresee it being bigger and better next year! I am going to shamelessly plug Steamcon now and say if you get the chance next year…GO!! It is so worth it, you meet amazing people and have a ton of fun!! Thanks for letting me ramble! ~Elizabeth Darvill
![http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=36511619&ref=sr_gallery_11&&ga_search_query=brass+goggles&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title](http://ageofsteam.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/monocle.jpg "monocle")
