Jenny Schwartz is an Australian author in love with living in the suburbs. What could be nicer than chatting to your neighbour over the back fence? She’s currently mis-using her history degree to write steampunk and can be bribed with TimTams.
Steampunk Australia
by Jenny Schwartz
I’m so thrilled to be visiting STEAMED! Thanks, Lolitas 
And because I am so thrilled to be here, I feel really bad about bringing up a complaint. Just a tiny one. Why do your dirigibles never fly down to the Antipodes?
I know. You’ve heard strange stories of kangaroos and venomous snakes. You’re worried about wombats and concerned that Hugh Jackman isn’t actually the standard of all Aussie guys.
But there are lots of steampunk opportunities in Australia. Our history includes convicts, bushrangers, gold rushes, camel trains and you could even use us as a launching pad for an Antarctic expedition — Yes, New Zealand, I can hear you shouting “No! That’s us!”. There’s a bit of Antipodean rivalry in our corner of the world 
I’m one of the world’s worst traveller’s, so I’d love for everyone to visit me, here in Australia. So to lure you all south, I’m going offer one digital copy of “Courting Trouble”. Just leave a comment at the bottom of this post for your chance to win.
I defy you to read “Courting Trouble” and not immediately book your dirigible ticket to the Antipodes!
COURTING TROUBLE
The Bustlepunk Chronicles #2
Swan River Colony, Australia, 1895
All suffragette Esme Smith wants is respect. Her beau, American inventor Jed Reeve, may be more enlightened than most men, but lately his need to protect her is at odds with her need for independence. Esme begins to wonder if a modern woman can share her life with a man without losing some of herself.
With his courtship of Esme stalled, the last thing Jed needs is the pressure of saving the Prince of Wales. But when blueprints for a sonic destroyer fall into his hands, he uncovers an anarchist plot that could have deadly consequences.
While investigating the threats, Jed is determined to keep Esme out of harm’s way, despite her protests. But when the terrorists capture Jed and demand a priceless emerald in exchange for his life, it’s Esme who must draw on all her strength to save the day.
***
You can catch up with Jenny at her website, on Twitter, Facebook or Tumblring about steampunk.
Read the reviews at Goodreads
Nice to see some more antipodeans steampunking it up! In the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences podcast, we’ve done several stories set in New Zealand, but so far no Australians! We must fix that
That would be fantastic!
I’d love to visit Australia though I doubt I’ll ever get the chance. I loved and repeatedly watched the Crocodile Dundee movies and the Fosters Beer commercials so I consider myself fully knowledgeable about your country, but I’m sure that winning and reading (and reviewing) your books could only increase my expertise.
The only thing I truly worry about is the language barrier. I know that Aussies claim to speak English, but I’ve listened to them talk…
and understood about two words in three. In fact I’ve heard it said that Australian military units are the only English-speaking military units that require translators in order to communicate with with American military units. (Aussies apparently have no trouble understanding Americans, but Americans have trouble fully understanding Aussies.) This is important because, as many Americans sadly do not know, it is Australia that has been and still is America’s most loyal wartime ally. Aussies have fought alongside Americans in every single significant military conflict America has been involved with from WWI to Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq, and of course this is because Aussies value liberty and freedom (and understand its price) every bit as much as Americans do,…
not just because Aussies would hate to miss out on a good fight.
If you’ve watched the beer commercials, you’ve learned everything you need to know about Australia: watch out for the dropbears and call everyone “Maaate”.
[Note to self: Include dropbears in the next story]
I had to laugh at the mention of translators. How would they deal with the Aussie insults? “Go on. Jump outta the plane, you big girl’s blouse.”
Watch out for “drop bears”, huh…. If you ever do visit the Old Southeast, the former Confederacy, look me up, and I’ll take you on a snipe hunt…. Now a living thylacine on the other hand….
Probably the best thing would be to completely skip over the insults, since these are supposed to be communications between allies. If I understand the statement correctly (and that’s a big if), the translation would probably be something on the order of, “He said, ‘Please jump out of the airplane; you’re blocking the door and making him miss out on the war.’” It is probably with my fellow Southern Americans (who have always been over represented in US military service EXCEPT for the period 1861-1865) that the most difficulty would arise because things start out on the wrong foot: “G’day, Yank.” “Who are you calling a Yankee?… Oh,… right….” (Southern servicemen tend to respond to “Yankee, go home!” signs with, “Good luck with that; we’ve been saying it for a century and a half.”)
Now that I think of it that notion of translators being required might have come originally from the old WWII move “In Harms Way”. In it Stanley Holloway plays an Australian Coast Watcher who finds it necessary to translate himself on occasion for the benefit of confused American military personnel.
Hi Jenny,
Thanks for the fun post from down under. Believe me, if I had my own airship, the Mrs. and I would definitely be on course to Australia as well as other fantastic places around the world though we might have to resort to piracy to pay for it all. And something tells me we’d want to make anchor in Australia when we were done. Alas, we are bound by the cruel world of finances and the 8-5 cube prisons, but hope upon hope we will escape.
As far as your “complaint” is concerned I think it goes back to that rule of “write what you know” and how sometimes it’s followed too strictly, then you add in the basis of steampunk coming from Victorian England and it’s hard to find stories that expand outside of England/Europe or the U.S.
For me, I’m still in the early stages of my first book in a steampunk series, where my characters are more in my geographic comfort zone (Southern U.S.), but I definitely have plans for sending them down under later in the series. The question now is who will get there first… the author or the characters? And could one count a “research” trip to Australia as a tax write off? Hmm…
I wish research trips could be tax write offs!
Southern USA is exotic to me … so I’m looking forward to reading your series. Honestly, books are the only affordable way to travel
Greetings, Jenny!
Just visited your website after reading this article and came back to leave a comment. I have been in love with steampunk before I knew what it was called. I prefer writing about Chicagoland in the 1860′s or the American Wild West instead of the traditional Victorian Empire… so, I am intrigued by your Australian Gold Rush Steampunk series.
I will look for your books on Amazon.
I enjoy your sense of whimsy.
Aww thanks, Doogie
Chicagoland and the Wild West are fantastic settings. Even before you start plotting, the setting provides drama.
Wonderful post:)
I had not thought of how Australia’s rich history could lend itself to a Steampunk story. But you are absolutely right!
Thanks again,
Rebecca
There are so many stories that could be steampunked from Australian history. I wish I had more time because just reading your comment I thought how the first convict settlement could have been all the tech-enhanced people being dumped there after an anti-tech movement gained power in England. Hmm.
Lol, I’d love to come and visit. It’s just the 20-odd hour flight that puts me off;). Thanks for the give-away.
Tina, you sound like me in reverse. I’d love, love, love to visit the US, but money and the actual travel time is daunting. One day…
That’s why long distance dirigibles were invented!
Looks like a great read Jenny!
Thanks, Amy
As a member of ‘The Women’s Advancement Legue’, I can’t wait to read Courting Trouble
And what a member! Out there marching in all weathers, designing amazing vote-grabbing devices…Women’s Advancement League is proud to claim you, Nicole
Wait…that’s 20 hrs in a 747, how long in a dirigible? Ugh….eternity. Maybe you’d be better off employing one of those whizz-bang, undersea, Nemo-esque submarines to get here and then inflate the dirigibles on arrival. Better views out the window, I’m thinking…
Great cover, Jenny – all the best for the release.
Nikki – a submarine that becomes a dirigible is perfect! I knew we’d call you over to the Steampunk-side
Fred, I snorted with laughter reading your post. Snipe hunting? Gee thanks
First time here, arrived via a Tweet from author J.K.Coi –
I love the name “Bustlepunk Chronicles” and I love heroines who save the day instead of uselessly standing around (can you tell Aurora is my least favorite princess?)
Sadly, I have never been to Australia but think I can manage the poisonous creatures etc. if they are in literary form.
Maya – thanks for dropping in! I’ve never understood languishing heroines either. Get in there and save the day! (although in real life, I’m the kind who closes her eyes at scary bits in movies … yeah, some heroine!)
I’d love to come to Australia for a long visit. I really don’t see why more dirigibles don’t fly down to the Antipodes, I think that’s something that needs to be addressed.
Courting Trouble sounds like a wonderful story and I’m looking forward to reading it.
Barbara, I think we’re going to take it up with the Dirigible Travel Agency — as Widdershins said, really it’s the only civilised way to travel such long distances
and thanks for the kind words on Courting Trouble!
Jenny, this sounds so great, I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
Allison, I need a bigger smiley emoticon. Loved your comment
Jenny, I’d love to visit you, Down Under! Welcome to Steamed!
Hi Cindy, thank you for the warm welcome! I hope you do make it Down Under. I know after your fab posts on Detroit a couple of years ago (for your Motor City series) it went on my One Day list.
OZ ex-pat here … I’d love to see a were-platypuss in goggles and a leather helmet! Talk about a mash-up. Would also love to read your book, so count me in
Widdershins, if you write such a cute (and deadly, those poisoned spurs) platypus story, I will read it! A steampunk platypus would be fantastic. Take that, Blinky Bill!
Blinky Bill for non-Aussies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinky_Bill
It’s great to see steampunk from around the world, it adds so much variety and a sense of scope to the experience. I don’t know much about Australia myself – other than the kangaroos and venomous snakes – but I’d love to learn more!
Catherine, I love reading steampunk from around the world, too. I’m such a “virtual” traveller since I lack the money and the travel gene (I got the travel sick gene instead LOL). I hope you get a chance to visit Australia one day.