Genre Friction: What is Tsarpunk? by Leigh Bardugo

Today we welcome Leigh Barduo who’s going to tell us all about Tsarpunk, because Tsarpunk is awesome.

Leigh Bardugo was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Los Angeles, and graduated from Yale University. She indulges her fondness for glamour, ghouls, and costuming in her other life as a makeup artist. She lives in Hollywood and can occasionally be heard singing with her band, Captain Automatic.Her debut novel, Shadow & Bone, is the first book in the Grisha Trilogy and will be published by Holt Children’s/Macmillan in June 2012.

Genre Friction: What is Tsarpunk?

by Leigh Bardugo

We can be frank with one another, yes? We’ve known each other, lo, these many seconds, shared a few vowels. All right then, I’ll give it to you straight: The term “Tsarpunk” started off as a bit of a joke. When I wrote my debut novel, Shadow and Bone, people kept asking me to identify the book’s genre. One glance at the map will tell you that this story isn’t alternate history, but saying “High Fantasy” made people reach for their crossbows. Do Shadow and Bone and Tsarpunk belong anywhere along the Steampunk spectrum? Lia Keyes, founder of the Steampunk Writers and Artists Guild and host of #SteampunkChat (Fridays, 6pm PST, not to be missed!), was kind enough to help me break it down.

Lia Keyes: Shadow and Bone, is a genre-mashing feast being referred to as Tsarpunk, so let’s get right to it: How do you define Tsarpunk and how does it differ from High Fantasy?

Leigh Bardugo: First of all, I would very much like to attend a genre-mashing feast. It sounds delicious and possibly messy.

Second, I always thought of the Grisha Trilogy as High Fantasy or Epic Fantasy. (Please don’t ask me to distinguish between these two things because I’ll start babbling about heroic quests, and word count, and eventually, you’ll just find me in a corner muttering in Elvish.) But I was surprised at how often this was met with resistance and confusion– and occasionally, outright hostility.

Despite the fact that plenty of authors have created secondary worlds built on varied cultural bedrock, most people still associate High Fantasy with Medieval Europe, usually Medieval England. So, for some reason, the Russian influence seems to throw people for a loop. Also, the advance of military technology plays a major role in the series, and when you bring guns into the discussion, all hell breaks loose.

So, for the sake of simplicity, I’ll say that Tsarpunk is fantasy that takes its inspiration from the aesthetics, culture, politics, and social structure of early 19^th century Russia.

But the magical system is a bit different from standard High Fantasy, too. Lavie Tidhar of the Internet Review of Science Fiction defines Steampunk as that moment whereby ”technology transcends understanding and becomes, for all intents and purposes, magical.” Can you tell us about the tension between technology and magic in Shadow and Bone?

Keith Thompson's Map of Ravka

I don’t think there’s a science fiction or retro-futurist element at play here. The Grisha practice the Small Science: the manipulation of matter at its most fundamental levels. But they can’t create or animate matter. Inferni can summon combustible gases like methane or hydrogen from the atmosphere, but they still need a flint to create a spark. Similarly Grisha steel or corecloth (similar to modern body armor) isn’t endowed with wizard sparkles. It’s the result of the Fabrikators’ ability to hone a blade at the molecular level and to create modern alloys and polymers through means that to us would appear magical. So maybe there’s a bit of an inversion of Tidhar there?

The Fabrikators are a recognizably Steampunk archetype, much like Makers. What part do they play in the overall storyline?

The Fabrikators get kicked around a bit in Book 1. They’re considered the lowest Grisha Order because they aren’t valued as soldiers in what is essentially a garrison state. But they’ll become more important to the war effort as the books progresses. Keep in mind, too, that one of the defining characteristics of Ravka is the deep gulf in wealth between the aristocracy and the peasant class. An incompetent monarchy is squandering the country’s resources and this includes Grisha power. In Book 2, I introduce a privateer inventor who brings a bit more ingenuity to the table… and some much needed goggles. (They’re functional, promise.)

So the historically uneasy relationship between magic and science is merged in Shadow and Bone, providing a scientific basis for Grisha power, but science isn’t an entirely friendly presence.

Yes, this isn’t a question of magic fading or the old gods dying away. These old gods take a bullet to the brain. Ravka is a country that has failed to industrialize and is being left behind by the modern world. Beyond Ravka’s borders, repeating rifles, more mobile cannon, and the forerunner of the machine gun are being developed. Meanwhile, Ravka is cut off from its ports and harbors by the Shadow Fold. Every weapon and every bit of ammunition is obtained at tremendous risk and usually with heavy casualties. As the Darkling says to Alina early in the story, “The age of Grisha power is ending.”

You also allude to the dangers of trying to push the boundaries of that power.

Merzost is the Ravkan word for both magic and abomination. It looks a lot more like what we traditionally consider magic– creation of matter, animation of the inorganic. It’s considered taboo by the Grisha, but it’s also quite a temptation and, naturally, it carries a terrible price (dire warnings!). Grisha power feeds you; merzost feeds on you. I also touch on this in my short story, “The Witch of Duva.”

In creating the Russian-inspired Ravka, how did you approach research, and how did you decide where to divert from reality in order to create a unique world?

My goal was always to create a fantasy world that used Russia as its cultural touchstone, not to write alternate history. Early on, I was lucky enough to discover Natasha’s Dance by Orlando Figes. It’s a thoughtful, richly detailed cultural history and I recommend it to anyone interested in reading about the real Russia. I collected books like Glants and Toomre’s Food in Russian History, Susan Massie’s Land of the Firebird, The Bathhouse at Midnight by W.F. Ryan, Bowlt’s beautiful work on the art of Moscow and St. Petersberg (which focuses on the early 1900s, but you never know what you’re going to learn where), old atlases, collections of Russian fairytales. Over Facebook, my friend Erdene Ukhaasai helped me negotiate some choices in Russian and Mongolian when building the Ravkan language. (Fun fact: the Grisha combat instructor, Botkin Yul-Erdene is named after her.)

The choices I made were always based on what I felt served the world and the reader’s experience best. But things enter the narrative in funny ways. For instance, after the Napoleonic wars, the aristocracy’s infatuation with all things French fell out of fashion and there was a clamor for the “authentically” Russian. In Shadow and Bone, the Grisha have embraced peasant crafts and culture (down to what they eat for breakfast) in an attempt to distinguish themselves from the aristocracy and to associate themselves with the Ravkan people. Much like Russian noblemen who rusticated in fake hunting lodges, they’ve adopted a kind of theme park version of serf life. For the Grisha, it’s a misguided attempt to seem more populist and to assimilate.

“Assimilate.” Is that a deliberate choice of words? In the #Steampunkchat I hosted, you mentioned that you’re a Russian Jew.

On my mother’s side, way back. On my biological father’s side I’m Sephardic. So, when we weren’t running from pogroms, we were running from the Inquisition. Apparently, I should be much more fit. (Also, my last name is Spanish for “executioner” so I guess we didn’t spend all of our time fleeing.) And yes, I suppose “assimilate” is a deliberate choice. Though the Grisha are an elite, they’re also a group subject to a great deal of prejudice and suspicion. One of the reasons Ravka has survived is because they’re the one nation where Grisha are safe from persecution for their abilities. Elsewhere, they’re burned as witches, experimented on, sold as slaves. To me, this idea of Ravka’s Second Army was a bit like the Jewish scientists who fled Europe and became a kind of braintrust for the United States in World War II.

You said Tsarpunk started out with tongue firmly in cheek. But what’s the verdict now? Do you think of Shadow and Bone as High Fantasy, Steampunk, or something else?

Hell if I know. To be considered a real sub-sub-genre, I think Tsarpunk wouldn’t just be about Russian influence as window-dressing but also about incorporating a distinctly different worldview and spirit. I hope the Grisha Trilogy does that, but I’m not going to be the one to claim it. If the series shares the revolutionary and DIY sensibilities of punk, then that makes me happy. If I get to rub up against the innovation and ingenuity of Steampunk, I’m honored by the association. If Shadow and Bone stays firmly grounded in High Fantasy, I’m good with that, too. As long as no one calls it smooth jazz, we’ll be just fine.

~Leigh Bardugo

Watch the book trailer for Shadow and Bone here.

Download a free excerpt here.

Learn more about the Grisha Trilogy at LeighBardugo.com.

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Supernatural Steampunk by Theresa Meyers

Today we welcome Theresa Meyers.

Raised by a bibliophile who made the dining room into a library, Theresa has always been a lover of books and stories. First a writer for newspapers, then for national magazines, she started her first novel in high school, eventually enrolling in a Writer’s Digest course and putting the book under the bed until she joined Romance Writers of America in 1993. In 2005 she was selected as one of eleven finalists for the American Title II contest, the American Idol of books. She is married to the first man she ever went on a real date with (to their high school prom), who she knew was hero material when he suffered through having to let her parents drive, and her brother sit between them in the backseat of the car. They currently live in a Victorian house on a mini farm in the Pacific Northwest with their two children, three cats, an old chestnut Arabian gelding, an energetic mini-Aussie shepherd puppy, several rabbits, a dozen chickens and an out-of-control herb garden.

Supernatural Steampunk

by Theresa Meyers

You know we don’t give enough credit to the Victorians for our current love of all things paranormal, but it really was that era that brought creatures of the night out into mainstream society. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to surge of interest in Egyptology (and hence mummies) the 1800s really laid down the foundation for our fascination with monsters.

The Victorians loved the supernatural. It was a period of time where Spiritualism (the contacting of the dead by the living) was rampant, as was fortune telling, and séances. This is when you found stories of fairy sightings being reported in daily newspapers or fictional accounts of airships being seen hovering over the city reported as front page fact (thanks to authors like Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe). This was paired with the newly emerging sciences of cryptobiology, cryptozoology and Egyptology. The blend of fact and fiction, mysticism and science was at it’s zenith.

I suppose that’s part of the reason why I enjoy writing paranormal steampunk romance. I know—a mash up if there ever was one—but it really all does work together. What we consider Frankenstein, hard-core steampunk fans would consider a construct (revivified human body). All I had to do was add in my Jackson brothers, who hunt down Darkin (aka supernatural beings).

In The Legend Chronicles Winchester, Remington and Colt (all named after their father’s favorite guns, naturally) are Hunters in the wilds of the America west. It’s an age of cowboys, rustlers, miners and stage coaches.  But the world is getting smaller too. Telegraphs and airships, the use of electricity and the development of science is all happening and converging during the late 1800s. So while the Jackson brothers may use old-fashioned know how when it comes down to hunting demons, vampires, ghosts or skinwalkers, they often have a few gizmos courtesy of their intrepid inventor friend, Marley Turlock.

Writing paranormal steampunk means I get a chance to play in that Victorian era, when monsters were something fresh, exciting and new to the masses. While my brothers are well-versed in Hunting, average citizens still see these monsters as merely fictional creations by the writers of the day. They don’t know that vampires are real.

Which puts my eldest brother, Winchester, in a tough spot in The Slayer. You see, he’s given up hunting and is trying his best to lead a normal life as sheriff of Bodie, California. But when a vampire contessa arrives, asking for his help to recover a stolen piece of the Book of Legend (the compendium of all Hunter knowledge handed down generation to generation) he can’t really say no. The world depends on him and his brothers recovering the scattered pieces and reuniting the Book to defeat an even bigger threat to our world.

To be perfectly fair, I put all my Jackson brothers in a tight spot, forcing them to rely on gorgeous Darkin (a succubus, a vampiress and a shapeshifting thief) in order to accomplish their goals. What better way to torture a character than to make him fall for the thing he trusts least in the world?

And just like the Victorians, my stories get to be a blend of supernatural and plausible science side by side, with a dash of romance and generous dollop of action and adventure thrown in. I really do believe that our love affair with monsters started with the Victorians. Seriously, can you imagine how Dracula would have looked without the benefit of a great cape? Simply dreadful. It wouldn’t have had nearly the impact if he were in slouching, baggy jeans and a hoodie. The Victorians imparted our impression of monsters with style and grace, flair and excitement. Without them, would our vampires and demons, witches and werewolves still have the same appeal?

For a taste of paranormal mixed with steampunk I suggest you consider going to Steamcon IV (www.steamcon.org) in the Seattle area, Oct. 26-28 (yes, Halloween weekend). Their theme this year is…take a wild guess….Victorian Monsters. Bring your top hat, and your fangs. I can’t wait!

~Theresa Meyers
www.theresameyers.com

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The Speed of Write by Steven Harper

As promised our open-internationally signed book giveaway is up here. Also, don’t forget to enter our gadget contest, which ends April 30.

Today we welcome author Steven Harper.

Steven Harper lives in southeastern Michigan with his sons.  THE DOOMSDAY VAULT, the first novel in the Clockwork Empire series came out in November, 2011 and its sequel THE IMPOSSIBLE CUBE arrives in stores on May 1.

The Speed of Write
by Steven Harper
I’ve written my share of steampunk: three novels, a novella, and a novellette.  I just realized today that when I finish the fourth Clockwork Empire novel, I’ll have written more steampunk than any other genre.

And the process always feels somehow wrong.

See, when I sit down to work on another chapter, I pour myself a tall glass of diet soda, boot up my dual-core processor computer with 2-terrabyte hard drive and flat-screen display, call up a word processing program and a streaming music player, and begin writing.  When I finish a book or story, I create a computer file for my editor and send it off by email.  Later, the same file returns to me with comments in the margin, asking for this change or that.  Later still, I get a PDF of the pages to proofread.  Never do I actually touch pen to paper.  I’ve only actually spoken to my editor once.  All the rest of our interaction has been by email.

This feels just . . . wrong.

Steampunk is (usually) set in the 19th century, and it should be created differently.  I should climb the steps to a drafty garret, slide a creaky chair up to a rolltop desk with a stack of foolscap on it, and pick up a pencil or fountain pen.  I should be wearing tweed and flannel, and a teapot with a leaky spout should perch on a spindly table nearby.

Or maybe I should sit in a comfortable, leather-backed chair in a book-lined study with a roaring fire in the grate while yellow fog presses against the windows and a maid in starched ruffles brings a lunch tray and the afternoon post.  Words are carefully tapped out on a cast-iron typewriter with a crooked M.  Scratchy music from a Victrola complements the hiss of gas lamps.  This version sounds less likely but a lot more fun.

True, I could write by hand.  But the modern world won’t really let me.  The speed of write has changed.

My publisher requires all manuscripts to arrive electronically, not on paper.  And modern bookstores don’t keep novels on the shelves for very long (unless you’re famous), so my publisher fights back by putting books out faster.  This is nice for readers–the next book in the Clockwork Empire is always no more than six months away–but it means I have to work quickly.  Fountain pens and foolscap simply won’t cut it, especially when I can type 80 words per minute.

Ah well.  I do have to admit it’s nice to have total control over the temperature in my office, and that my choice of music helps me stay focused at all times.  It’s easier to correct mistakes on a computer.  And I prefer diet soda over tea.

But in my imagination, I’m still wearing tweed.

–Steven Harper

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Strong and Sassy Steampunk Heroines! By Annie Seaton

Today we welcome author Annie Seaton.

Strong and Sassy Steampunk Heroines!

By Annie Seaton

When I decided to write my steampunk story, Winter of the Passion Flower, my heroine was constantly in my head, telling me what to do!  She wanted to be the one in charge, the one who called the shots, and the one who did most of the adventuring. Thus it became a very easy story to write as Indigo de Vargas y Irausquínno pushed the swashbuckling action to the limit.

One of the concerns when you  are writing about a strong heroine, particularly in the steampunk and romance genres, when most readers love an alpha male is to be able to balance the strength of your hero and heroine so that the action and the romance are believable and satisfying to the reader.

Gail Carriger has done this perfectly with Alexia Tarabotti in the Parasol Protectorate series. As well as being a strong female character, Alexia drinks tea, carries a parasol and has been known to faint!

Indigo appeared in my mind, all of her characteristics already in place. Being the ultimate pantser and one who does not take time to do character sheets and plotting, my characters evolve through their actions and this really works effectively for me. When the book was finished, I reflected on Indigo’s character and tried to marry it to words that would be characteristic of a strong and sassy heroine.

Is she a risk-taker, is she brave, and does she have attitude? Tick…yes to all of those.

Does she have a strong survival instinct in the face of adversity?
Does she passionately believe in a cause?

Does she have the respect and admiration of the other characters?

Does she recognize when she makes mistakes?

Tick… yes to all of those.

Sassy is defined as impudent, vigorous and lively and it can be very easy to overdo the ‘sass’ to the point where a character can become unlikeable. Sassiness must be balanced with strong by softness and an underlying reason for the sassiness must be demonstrated. A passionate belief in a cause, where the heroine fights for truth and justice in our alternate steampunk world, whether it be on a global scale or within a relationship must provide a backdrop for each of the sassy heroine’s actions and reactions.

So how does an author convey the strength of a strong and sassy steampunk heroine, yet still keeping her as a believable and likeable character? One of the most satisfying reviews of Winter of The Passion Flower recognized Indigo’s strength:

 I especially like that Indigo is the scientist and I love that Indigo needs to rescue Zane! Both characters were light and fun and fit in perfectly with this swashbuckling plot. (The Romance Reviews)

Detailed descriptions of both setting and physical characteristics are very important. The use of strong verbs, both when describing the actions of the heroine and in her dialogue are essential to provide a backdrop to successful characterization.

Strong dialogue, where the heroine shows her intelligence, and demonstrates her ability to make the right decisions under pressure, can convey much about her strength of character in very few words and can be a most effective tool for telling the reader about her.

Having the respect of secondary characters is integral to the success of a strong female character and this can be demonstrated successfully though both dialogue and action. Mr and Mrs Grimoult in Winter of the Passion Flower came alive for me in their love and respect for Indigo. It is essential that the soft side of the strong character comes to the fore when required and the reader gets a balanced view of the character.

Excerpt:

“Madam, here are your goggles,” insisted Mrs. Grimoult, holding them out to Indigo as she peered down through the transparent floor of the dirigible. Indigo glared at her as she observed Mrs. Grimoult roll her eyes at her husband.

“Madam, the putrid air will not be good for the baby’s health,” coaxed Mr. Grimoult. Indigo reached over, donning the goggles, without a word, taking great care not to disturb her magnificent hairstyle

When there is a fight or an action scene, it is essential to use the right creative technique to convey action. Short sharp sentences are effective. The heroine must always win! Indigo is physically strong and this made it very easy to convey her strength of character, which complements her physical strength and size.

Excerpt:

She bit. She slashed. She screamed. No holds barred, she fought dirty. Her life depended on it. Using her fingernails, she gave a grunt of satisfaction as skin ripped beneath them. Her adversary released her as she ran for the road, pulling the scarab controller from her bag.

The relationship of a sassy heroine with the hero must always be full of fireworks. After all, he is threatening her independence and making her feel emotions that she is unused to, as well as threatening her control. They must always be at odds—both physically and in dialogue.

I love this moment between Indigo and Captain Dogooder…

Excerpt:

Their eyes locked, and she moistened her lips in a slow and sensuous movement. Indigo moved in closer, and the captain’s eyes darkened.

She bit him sharply on the lip as she brought her knee up hard to his groin. Pushing him away, Indigo spat words at him. “You will learn your place in the scheme of things. Do not ever touch me without invitation. Do not ask questions about things best left unsaid.”

Summer of the Moon Flower, the sequel to Winter of the Passion Flower is set ten years later and follows the adventures of Sofia, Indigo’s younger half sister. It has been an interesting journey, as Sofia is petite and fragile and writing her as a strong character in an action packed romance, when she doesn’t have the physical strength of Indigo has been challenging.

Again, setting, physical description of characters and the use of strong dialogue have been essential in the creation of a vivid picture of her personality, and to convey her strength of character. Sofia is directing me through a process where she is more proactive than Indigo. Most of the action scenes and interactions in Winter of the Passion Flower were reactive; in the sequel Sofia is much more in charge of what happens!

Make your sassy steampunk heroines human… let them make mistakes, let them show their emotions, give them a soft side. So…when you are creating your steampunk heroines, make them the heroines that we all secretly envy!

~Annie Seaton

Winter of the Passion Flower Lyrical Press March 2012

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Collaboration: An Art within the Art by By Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

Today we welcome writing team Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris.

Philippa Ballantine is the author of the Books of the Order series with Ace- Geist and Spectyr out now, and Wrayth (2012) and Harbinger to follow. She is also the co-author of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series with Tee Morris. Phoenix Rising debuted in May 2011 and The Janus Affair will be out in May 2012. She also has the Shifted World series with Pyr Books, with the first book Hunter and Fox coming in June 2012.

Tee Morris began his writing career with his 2002 historical epic fantasy, MOREVI The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana. He won acclaim and accolades for his cross-genre fantasy-detective Billibub Baddings Mysteries, the podcast of The Case of the Singing Sword winning him the 2008 Parsec Award for Best Audio Drama. Along with those titles, Tee has written articles and short stories for BenBella Books’s Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs, and Killer Muppets, the podcast anthology VOICES: New Media Fiction, BenBella Books’ So Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions of Battlestar Galactica, and Dragon Moon Press’ Podthology: The Pod Complex.

Collaboration: An Art within the Art

By Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

People are fascinated by how the two of us managed to write Phoenix Rising and The Janus Affair, as well as pen several short stories for our podcast series, Tales from the Archives. The questions range between “How did you manage to keep your continuity straight?” to “How did you two manage not to kill one another?” Collaboration is a risk for publishers and, sometimes, for readers as the end result can be jarring when switching from one chapter to another. The running complaint for many collaborative works tends to be that the two-featured authors cannot effectively mesh their styles.

Somehow, we manage to avoid that pitfall. Exactly how do we do that?

We begin with an understanding that this book will not be a novel by Tee Morris and not by Pip Ballantine, but a novel written by the both of us. That means the style might have moments of Pip and moments of Tee, but a voice and a style completely different. This hybrid style is born from trust. If you were to talk to other collaborative teams, you will find that alongside communication, trust is an essential ingredient in a successful collaboration. We trust each other, not only in the way we write but in the way we plan and the ways we want to progress our plots forward.

From the trust also comes the faith in giving each other’s work a good, hard editorial eye. This is when the hybrid style matures. After Pip writes her scene, Tee steps in and begins an edit for not only grammatical and typographical slips, but also peppers throughout his own trademarks and touches. The same rule applies for Tee’s work when it comes under Pip’s red pen, and between each of our passes, this new voice emerges and the story begins to unfold.

Communication is also key in a successful shared story. To use a steampunk analogy, harbored grievances between authors are a bit like boilers building pressure. If you don’t release that valve, even slowly, you have a bomb on your hands; and when it blows, the damage isn’t pretty: Plot twists and characters flaws strewn across the furniture, and cliffhangers that — no matter how hard you clean — will never come out of the carpet. Yes, maybe relieving the tension is noisy and uncomfortable but in the end, that essential communication can save a story and (in some cases) a writing relationship. When collaborating with friends, family, and loved ones, keep the communication solid. If your communication falters, your trust soon follows.

These factors are all part of a successful collaboration, but they are also building blocks for any creative endeavor, whether you are sharing a byline or flying solo. How so? At the time of this posting, we are about to head up to Pennsylvania to shoot our book trailer. This time around, our trailer is calling on the talents of a cast of six, the resources of Brute Force Studios, and the filmmaking talents of our friend, Linc Williams. The brainstorming, the writing, and—across four days—the visual creativity of Linc, Thomas Willeford, and the two of us will come to fruition through six actors who have never worked together before and, in a few cases, never worked on camera before. We’ve been swapping emails, tweets, and text messages for weeks now; and in the final two weekends of April, it’s all coming together.

Trust.

Communication.

Faith.

Sound familiar?

Collaboration can yield amazing things, and while you may have a book under one person’s name, don’t forget that within those words, within those chapters of narrative, struggle, drama, and revelation, there is an editor offering an objective look, a proofreader attempting to catch any of the typos that may have missed the editorial passes, a designer that gives the book’s interior a flair and a polish, and a cover artist that makes people stop to look. It may vary from publish to publisher, but we believe that The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novels have been—from the beginning—true success stories from the beginning. From our writing, to the editorial and creative staff of HarperVoyager, to the marketing team of HarperCollins, to the amazing writers invited to podcast with us in Tales from the Archives, to the filmmaking talents of Bald Groove, The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences may have taken its first steps with us, but became a flash mob of epic proportions through trust, communication, and faith in some truly inspiring individuals. Consider the words of actor, producer, and director Kenneth Branagh when he was asked what his secret was in creating successful films: “Surround yourself with people more brilliant than yourself.”

We did, and now we’re headed up to Pennsylvania to step through a steampunk looking glass.

Shall we dance?

–Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

http://www.ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com/

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Heroic Steampunks by Andrew Mayer

Today we welcome Andrew Mayer, author of The Society of Steam series. One lucky commenter will win The Falling Machine (The Society of Steam Book One) AND Hearts of Smoke and Steam (The Society of Steam Book Two). I know there’s been a slew of North America only contests. Our gadget contest is open internationally, and I’ll put up a special open internationally contest this weekend with some steampunk goodies I picked up at RT. Now, back to our guest.

Andrew Mayer was born on the tiny island of Manhattan, and is still fascinated by their strange customs and simple ways. When he’s not writing new stories he works as a videogame designer and digital entertainment consultant. Over the years he has has created numerous concepts, characters, and worlds including the original Dogz and Catz digital pets. These days he resides in Oakland, CA where he spends too much time on the internet, and not enough time playing his ukulele.

Heroic Steampunks
by Andrew Mayer

I walked into a clothing store on Haight street in San Francisco this weekend. Sitting in the jewelry trays, below with all the pseudo-psychedelic trinkets, and to the left of the feathered jewelry that seems to have infested San Francisco like an avian flu over the winter, were a number of steampunk pins. They were mostly exposed wristwatch innards with a pin glued to the back—sitting there like clockwork butterflies, although not quite as colorful

After taking a long look at the items in the glass case I asked the women behind the counter the same question I ask almost everyone when I see steampunk themed items, “Do they work?”

After a bit of hemming and hawing her final answer was that no. That’s not unusual but it does make me sad—not just for the thousands of watches that have died so that we may have gear-encrusted jewelry and bowler hats, but for steampunk itself.

I know that may seem a bit hyperbolic, but I’m beginning to worry that even though steampunk itself has begun to penetrated mainstream culture, we’re missing the mechanized forest for the iron trees, and it may end up being nothing more than a broken fashion statement.

To me that Steampunk has reached a crossroads of sorts in the last year, with the true fork in the road being the Justin Bieber video Christmas video that featured a breakdancing Santa, and the Beebs wearing a mechanized arm. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the appropriation of the trappings of steampunk by mainstream culture, and I’ve said so publicly.

At the same time there’s a danger of the zeitgeist passing by without really ever really giving steampunk its chance to shine.  And like everything about this quirky, unique genre it isn’t easy to pin down where either of the many paths forward might lead.

One thing that’s become clear to me as I work on finishing up the final book in my own trilogy is that my own feelings about what Steampunk is, and the impact it has had undergone a transformation in the four years since I started writing them.

If I have any unique perspective to bring to Steampunk I think it comes from the fact that I decided to mix it with superheroes, another genre that’s had a long and winding road on its current path to mainstream success. As I’ve been pulling elements from the two genres to create my own (hopefully) unique blend, it’s also given me a chance to compare and contrast their impact on popular culture.

Superheroes are currently enjoying a strong resurgence. Not in comics, which have been on a fairly steady downward sales trend over the last decade, but in movies and television. And the genre has been here before: in the 80s, and the 60s there were plenty of superhero movies, although they were played more for camp. Even as far back as the 1940s, Batman and Superman both had serials that played in front of movies in theaters across the United States. And back then 1940s the comics regularly sold copies in the millions, and probably had as much of a hold in popular culture as the current round of films have in ours today, if not more.

Steampunk has been around since the 80s, but it seems to have never quite caught on in the same way. Despite making cameos in television, inspiring numerous video games, and clearly being the inspiration for the new Sherlock Holmes films it seems that we’ve yet to have a true culture-busting moment of impact.  Yes, a number of movies have been optioned by Hollywood, but so far none of them have reached the all-important first day of filming—usually the true point that you can tell a film is actually going to come out.

So what is it that Superheroes have the Steampunk doesn’t? They’re both visually appealing, both are highly metaphorical, and both often deal with popular themes of good vs. evil and right vs. wrong.

The first issue is that Steampunk exists in the mind of many as more of a pastiche than as an actual fully defined genre. It is, at moments, greater than the sum of its parts, but it is definitely made up of parts, with gears and corsets often being the main ones.

Secondly, I think the metaphors that Steampunk deals with best are primarily political in nature. That can present a problem because attempts to push the politics of the genre tend to run into two main issues: first is the fact that there is a strong “politically incorrect” undercurrent to the proceedings.

One of the features that makes Steampunk so enticing is that it was built on a worldview that was only possible due to massive British imperialism. While it’s fun to puncture the hot air dirigibles of political stuffed shirts, the need to keep it from going down like a lead balloon often end up either glossing over of that facts of history, or recoiling away from the more unpleasant details by moving it into a an “alternate world” setting that takes it out of any historical context at all.

Personally I think that’s a mistake as the greatest metaphorical impact of steampunk comes from the fact that the ability of mankind to inflict global suffering maintained by a rigid philosophy was what makes the Victorian era resonate so strongly. The 1800s were basically the birthplace of modern Western culture, especially technology and politics. It was, for all the ugliness it contained, the cradle for the global world that we live in today.

I can’t say that embracing the messy, uneasy parts of the genre more closely would fixe the problem, but it might add some edge to a genre that can be very hard to define. No, it’s not the easy power fantasy that superheroes enjoy, but embracing it might help us to find the elements of the genre that could resonate with a larger audience.

Steampunk also seems to defy a way to easily define the characteristics of its protagonists. Is it the spunky heroine or the spectacled engineer that is truly the archetypal hero of the genre? How about the bumbling gentry, or the intrepid scientist? Yes, superheroes come from all walks of life, but you can always expect them to overcome overwhelming odds whether they’re a playboy billionaire, or a geeky teenager.

So what’s next for this plucky little genre with a 20 year history? I do think that steampunk is going to continue to grow, but perhaps not with the same abandon that it did over the last decade. Barring a major successful movie or television series, I think it’s already lost the opportunity to make a major cultural impact on aesthetic or cultural grounds for the next few years. That saddens me not only because I love to write these stories, but because I think that there’s a case to be made that, given the right mix of ingredients it could have done a great deal.

But with the rise of post-cyberpunk digital culture, and a series of genuine political movements around the globe, we may be entering into an era where the Victorian metaphors aren’t quite as apt as they used to be.

That said, I do think the literary growth of the genre has been astounding, and does seem to be chugging along. So who knows? Maybe we’ll get that movie after all. And meanwhile this little genre that could is going to be worth watching for a while longer.

- Andrew Mayer
www.andrewpmayer.com
twitter: @andrewmayer

One lucky commenter will recieve The Falling Machine (The Society of Steam Book One) AND Hearts of Smoke and Steam (The Society of Steam Book Two). North America only please. Contest ends at 11:59 PM PST, April 24, 2012.

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Dancing Amid the Ruins by Mark Hodder

Today we welcome author Mark Hodder. One lucky commenter gets a copy of Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon.

Mark Hodder is the creator and caretaker of the BLAKIANA Web site (www.sextonblake.co.uk), which he designed to celebrate, record, and revive Sexton Blake, the most written about fictional detective in English publishing history. A former BBC writer, editor, journalist, and Web producer, Mark has worked in all the new and traditional medias and was based in London for most of his working life until 2008, when he relocated to Valencia in Spain to de-stress and write novels. He can most often be found at the base of a palm tree, hammering at a laptop. Mark has a degree in cultural studies and loves British history (1850 to 1950, in particular), good food, cutting-edge gadgets, cult TV, Tom Waits, and a vast assortment of oddities.

Dancing Amid the Ruins
(A Peculiarly British Perspective)
By Mark Hodder

We, in the Western world, are dancing amid the ruins of fallen empires. They died slowly, those great, lumbering beasts, and there are those who think to revive them, or to create new ones, but we won’t let them. We know that empires benefit the few whilst enslaving the many. We cannot support such injustice, such avarice.

In Britain (God bless her, and all who fail in her)—once the seat of the largest empire in history—it was young satirists who alerted us to the fact that the beast must die. The world wars had already destroyed the myth that the privileged were special, deserving, superior. Forced by conflict into close proximity with the smelly commoner, the Lords and Viscounts were revealed to be a mite funky themselves—rather ordinary, in fact—and, by golly, they got needlessly slaughtered just as efficiently as plain old Tommy Watkins.

After the conflict (which was really one long war with an intermission for ice cream), those toffy nosed twits who’d managed to survive dug in their claws and clung on to their riches and, of course, continued to propagate the cultural myths that kept them in their stately homes. But they were much weakened. And now they had a new enemy. Not Johnny Foreigner this time. No, it was Johnny Bird and Johnny Fortune and the other satirists of the snarky Sixties. Those guys ridiculed the heck out of any pompous idiot who tried to maintain a delusion of dignity. The aristocratic, the rich, and the powerful became the laughing stock of the country. Respect your betters? Are you serious? Take a look at what they get up to! Listen to the gibbering nonsense that spews out of their mouths! They’re too busy bothering foxes to understand the real world. Down with the upper class! Up with the lower class! We’ll mingle in the middle!

The gloss came off the posh.

The killing blow, the true end of the empire, was struck in the late Seventies. Again, it wasn’t at the hands of Johnny Foreigner. This time, it was Johnny Rotten. The punk movement jabbed the knife in good and proper, and did so with one very clear, very basic, very deadly war cry: “We don’t respect you.” You might have a plummy voice, country tweeds, a Range Rover, a family crest, and a comfy seat in the House of Lords—but we don’t care what you got; if you want respect, you gotta earn it, you greedy git.

Empire only functions when you know your betters. Punk didn’t know any.

So the British Empire snuffed it, just like the Portuguese Empire had done, and the Spanish and Dutch and Italian and Russian and all the many others. The time of empires is gone, but their ghosts still haunt us. Obviously, the pitiful remnants of the elite would like to resuscitate them, but, even more, now it’s the economists who want empires. Shiny new ones. Great big cash cows. Come on European Union, get your act together. Trust me, it won’t. We have no will for it.

Enter Johnny Steampunk.

Steampunk embodies the ghost to remind us that the dead are dead. It plays at empire with a wry smile. It toys with the romance of it—the unexplored territories ripe for exploitation, the pioneering spirit required for imperialistic colonisation, the promise of fabulous contraptions that will cower the less “civilised” into submission—but it does so with a knowing wink and a gentle dose of self-mockery. It’s the cool clothes without an evil bastard inside of them, it’s an airship that doesn’t drop bombs on the natives, it’s a blunderbuss that won’t mess with your face. See, a lot of the propaganda produced to bolster belief in the empire was actually tremendous fun. You just have to filter out all the guff. Back in the day, stiff upper lips and prodigious whiskers adorned the faces of heroes who, just beneath their very, very, very white skin, were racist cads of the highest (which happens to be the lowest) order. Now, though, you can square your shoulders, grow a fine pair of Picadilly Weepers, don a stove pipe hat, and everyone recognises that you’re affiliating yourself only with the joy of the wrapping, not with the filth of the content. Steampunk gives the icons, symbols, fashions and mores of empire a damned hard shake until all the confounded nonsense has fallen out of them. What’s left signifies that which deserved to die and must never be allowed to live again. It’s a celebration—a happily nihilistic jig on a well-earned grave, stamping down the earth so the corpse can’t rise, while a curious and optimistic eye is cast to the future.

Punk was the murder. Goth was the mourning. Steampunk is the wake.

Mark Hodder
THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF SPRING HEELED JACK
THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE CLOCKWORK MAN
EXPEDITION TO THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON

One lucky commenter wins a copy of Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon. North America only, please. Contest ends 11:59 PM PST, April 23, 2012.

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What is this Steampunk of which you speak? by Clay & Susan Griffith

Today we welcome husband and wife writing team Clay and Susan Griffith.  One lucky commenter wins both The Greyfriar: Vampire Empire Book One AND The Rift Walker: Vampire Empire Book Two.  Don’t forget to show us your gadgets and win great prizes.

Clay and Susan Griffith are the authors of the VAMPIRE EMPIRE trilogy (Pyr Books). The Greyfriar: Book1 (2010), The Rift Walker: Book 2 (Sept. 2011), Book 3 (2012).

What is this Steampunk of which you speak?

by Clay & Susan Griffith

 

We just returned from the RT Booklovers Convention. This convention is sponsored by RT Book Reviews magazine, which was once known as Romantic Times. Well, now RT covers all genres of books, including science fiction and fantasy. We were at their convention to promote our VAMPIRE EMPIRE series. RT has recognized the booming steampunk genre and sponsored a workshop track dedicated to it. We were on one of the panels because Vampire Empire is steampunk.

There was a lot of conversation around the convention about steampunk among readers and writers. The three most commonly heard comments at RT were:

1. “What the heck is steampunk?”
2. “I just read my first steampunk book, and it was awesome.”
3. “I’m writing a steampunk book.”

All these comments say interesting things about the genre…or subgenre or whatever it is.

First, even among a large group of seasoned genre readers, steampunk is still a relatively new animal. Or at least, the word steampunk is new to them. When you tell the uninitiated to think about Jules Verne or H.G. Wells or Wild Wild West, they immediately get it.

Of course, you can wade into a more complicated explanation, but that only opens the door to the whole debate about “what is steampunk…really?” Does steampunk have to be Victorian? Does it have to have steam power? Is it defined by what it is, or what it isn’t? If you add an airship to Lord of the Rings, does it become steampunk?

Hardcore steampunkers care a great deal about that argument, but we believe that generally most readers are looking for something new, and they want to be immersed in an innovative and exciting atmosphere. They intuitively grasp the workings of a world of established manners, usually Victorian in nature, that are then challenged by new technologies or alternative historical events or supernatural outbreaks.

That leads us to the second comment in which readers who are new to steampunk find they really like it. (Self-servingly, many people told us that Vampire Empire was the first steampunk they had read, and now they wanted to read more. Yay!) So will steampunk become the new Regency romance? The new Western? The new hardboiled private eye? Those genres have readers who return over and over with almost slavish love and, in the case of some readers, are the only type of book they enjoy. It’s too early to tell whether steampunk will become the go-to genre for very many readers, but it is certainly becoming a favored item off many readers’ menus.

There was a lot of discussion at RT about whether steampunk has legs in the publishing world. Some publishers seem hesitant to buy, while others are stockpiling. Is steampunk a flash in the publishing pan that has already peaked in its popularity expansion? Or are we seeing just the beginning of a growing trend? From the numbers of the first two comments noted above that we heard at RT, you might conclude that the trend certainly isn’t played out yet. And, in fact, it may just be reaching a mass market.

The third most common comment we heard at RT came from writers who were delving into the genre for the first time. Of course, writers being writers, there’s always going to be an upsurge in manuscripts in a particular genre any time a new blip hits the publishing radar screen. Vampires. Paranormal romance. YA fantasy. Zombies. And now steampunk. That’s natural. Writers want to sell their books, so they look for what the hot trend is, or they get swept up in the excitement of a new genre and want to be a part of it somehow.

However, that isn’t the case with many writers who are working on steampunk novels who talked to us at RT. They are writing books they have always wanted to write, but never had a market. Now the steampunk “explosion” gives them the chance. They might have to make a few changes to render the book a little more steampunky, but they truly aren’t just pulling an old unsold historical romance or epic fantasy out of their file cabinet, tossing in gears and top hats, and sending it off newly labeled as steampunk. They are truly fascinated by the tropes of the genre, and want to explore them.

Even faster than vampires, paranormal, and zombies before it, tropes of steampunk are being twisted and shattered. Steampunk may be the one genre where the ground rules are never even fully established before writers begin flying off into their own directions. And that’s pretty cool. It also calls into question what steampunk is…really.

But that’s not the issue here. At RT, we learned that there is great curiosity about steampunk, a growing love of the genre, and a massive productive force ready to throw themselves into exploring and exploding the genre.

Things are going to happen fast and furious in the world of steampunk fiction over the next year or two. So hold onto your hats and corsets, a lot of new readers are about to be swept up in a wonderful genre, and fresh voices will twist steampunk in wild directions.

~Clay & Susan Griffith

http://clayandsusangriffith.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/vampireempire

One lucky commenter wins both The Greyfriar: Vampire Empire Book One AND The Rift Walker: Vampire Empire Book Two.  North America only, please.  Contest ends April 22, 2012 at 11:59 PM PST.

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This did not happen by Control

Today we welcome the band Control.

Folklore and horror interface–laugh, but smile no more.

This did not happen

by Control

Why do we do steam punk?  We have to, because it gives us the power to fashion our own reality from fiction, future, and history.  Performances and productions fixate on the synthesis of artifacts and auguries, embellishing the dark side.   Essentially, this is what humans have always done.  That is how rockabilly informed psychobilly, and how folklore influenced sci-fi. In an age where it seems every deed has been done,  we look back at the past with a jealous eye, wishing there were just one original innovation left to be created.  We replay the past in a malicious light, editing to express our rage at the barren landscape of art and music today.  Steam punk is fan fiction for an age in which we should have lived.

Despite our obligation to antiquity, we don‘t play age-old instruments or wear ornate costumes in our band, Control.  Our lyrics cover topics from local news scandals and prevailing phobias to folklore and forensics.  All of these things can happen simultaneously and without explanation. Postmodernism offers us the tools to revise timelines and combine a diverse range of influences, and we’ve accepted the invitation to wield them artfully.

Our writing process is based on our urges and responses to art.  Images from fiction and film captivate and command our artistic impulses.  These moods spawn riffs, lyrics, and rhythms.  Then we elaborate. And suddenly we have crafted an epitaph for Magrathea or a threat against Abigail Williams.  Characters from our favorite works send us signals about their undisclosed desires and objectives, and we respond in song.  This constitution between fantasy, history, and sound is our only imperative.

Your iPod has both Strauss and Stooges.  Your bookcase shelves Dickens next to Douglas Adams. You can’t let go of things that should have happened.  Listen and we’ll go raking up old graves together…

~Control

http://www.reverbnation.com/controlrock

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Control/186838704667612?ref=ts&__adt=2&__att=iframe

 

 

 

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Something Old, Something New…World-Building in Fantasy/Sci-Fic By Inara Scott

Today we welcome YA author Inara Scott.  Steamed is playing host to her today as part of her blog tour for her new release THE MARKED.

Inara Scott is a writer, lawyer, teacher, mother, and coffee-addict currently growing mold in the beautiful (but rainy) Pacific Northwest. Inara writes for teens in her paranormal young adult series The Talents, and also writes paranormal and contemporary adult romance. You can find her latest release, THE MARKED (book 2 of the Talents series) on Amazon or at her favorite indie bookstore, Powell’s. Inara firmly believes in magic and fairy tales, and doesn’t think happily ever after is the least bit unrealistic.

Inara loves to hear from readers; you can find her on Twitter (@inarascott) or Facebook far more than is healthy. For contact information, event schedules, her blog, and much more, check out www.inarascott.com.

Something Old, Something New…World-Building in Fantasy/Sci-Fic

By Inara Scott

If you were to ask me what the essential components of a great fantasy/science fiction story were, I’d say 1) world-building, 2) world-building, 3) characters, and 4) world-building.

Okay, that might be a bit of exaggeration, sort of like a realtor saying that the key to real estate is location, location, location. But honestly, I think it’s true.

Every novel needs great characters and a compelling conflict/plot. I take that as a given. But fantasy/sci-fi readers (and I throw steampunk and paranormal readers under that heading) are looking for something beyond that. If they just wanted conflict and characters, they’d go read contemporary fiction.

They want more. They want a new world.

So what does great world-building entail? Here are my essential elements to building a compelling world in fiction: something old, something new, something borrowed, something true.

(Ha! Bet you didn’t see that last one coming!)

1) Something Old: Great world building often starts with something familiar. It may sound counter-intuitive, but if you are asking people to come with you on a journey to a new world, you’ve got to give them something to hang onto. As readers, we need to empathize with characters and imagine ourselves in the middle of the story. If writers don’t give us a hook we can grasp, feel, and emotionally connect to, they’re in big trouble.

This works in two ways. I talk about familiar tropes in (3) below, but here I’m talking about the world of the senses. In DRAGONFLIGHT, by Anne McCaffrey (my favorite book of all time), her characters drink a pungent, bracing, hot liquid called “klah” (which immediately reminds us of coffee). In Harry Potter, your journey to Hogwarts starts with a subway tunnel. Steampunk effortlessly combines real, familiar objects like goggles, wrenches, and airships, with all manner of fantastical elements.

2) Something New: Note to writers: if you simply recycle an old plot and familiar world, you’re finished. Great sci-fi/fantasy writers give their world something new and different. Harry Potter is a series of unexpected bits of creativity and complexity. Every book adds new creatures and new magic. Anne McCaffrey’s thread was something horrific falling from the skies—a threat to humanity that no one had ever seen. I loved Suzanne Lazear’s INNOCENT DARKNESS for all of her wonderful, creative details, including the inseparable connection between Human and Fey worlds.

3) Something Borrowed: Like “something old” this is the way you ground readers in something familiar, while you take them on a journey to somewhere new. Familiar tropes are essential to sci-fi and fantasy because they are an anchor for the reader while traveling in a new and strange world. If you don’t believe me, try this: how many books about an abandoned/abused/orphaned child, who discovers he/she is the savior of the world, can you name? (I’ll start you off with Harry Potter, and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series). In sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal romance, how about the ordinary girl whose spunk and spark attracts the attention of the most beautiful/tormented/alpha male/powerful creature ever to live? (Can you say Twilight, Hush Hush, Shiver, every werewolf story ever written?).

Tropes aren’t evil or bad, though they can obviously become a crutch for a lazy writer. The key is combining the trope with something new, so the reader doesn’t feel like they’re treading the same road they’ve been down before. Take what’s old and make it new. A seemingly impossible task, but one writers have been working at for centuries.

4) Something True: Once you’ve got all the ingredients, you’ve got to mix them up right. The world must fit together seamlessly, in a way that feels natural, safe, and true to the reader. As a writer, you must demand absolute consistency. No cheating. You can’t solve a major plot bunny by creating a magical new gift for a character. The “rules” of the world must be internally accurate. If you’ve got magic, you’ve got to explain why and how people use it. If magic can be used to solve one problem, you’ve got to explain why it can’t be used to solve another problem. Push yourself to go beyond the convenient and easy answers to make sure you’ve created something true. If you do, readers will follow you anywhere you want to go.

~Inara Scott

www.inarascott.com

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Patent Medicine by Ray Dean

Today we welcome Ray Dean!

A reenactor and educator, Ray Dean has delved into many eras of the past, but Steampunk speaks to her in a retroactive futurism that opens so many possibilities. Her blog, My Ethereality(http://raydean.net), explores history, culture, war and love in eras and countries that might influence a Steampunk world.

Patent Medicine

 by Ray Dean

“Step right up, yep, step right up! That’s right, folks, don’t be shy. Shy don’t get you good health! Shy don’t get you a cure for your ills.” The man in a sharp suit with a sharper eye steps up to the edge of the stage erected before his wagon and takes the measure of the audience. “A wise man knows that fortune favors the brave, my friends, and I’m calling on you to be one of those brave people that listens to what I have to say… Come closer and I’ll tell you about the miracle of modern medicine that has brought me here today.”

The crowd, most of them drawn in by curiosity or perhaps drawn in by the day to day boredom of a Western Town on the verge of some many disasters, would lean in and listen with rapt attention as the medicine salesman gave his pitch.

“Do you suffer from dyspepsia,” he’d ask, his eyes serious and concerned, “or does the ague keep you awake at night?”

Some in the crowd would murmur and nod.

He’d continue, listing diseases and symptoms that would make a list as long as his arm or even some mens’ beards. Still, he’d promise that he had the ONE medicine to cure all their ills!

A Patent Medicine.

Contrary to  the name, the only thing patented about this medicine was the  name. Dr. Flint’s Quaker Bitters. Professor Lowe’s Liniment.  Dr. Davis’ Painless Catarrh Specific. Such eye-catching names came  with fancy labels on pretty bottles. Who knew health could be  so attractive?

“And who among you have children?  There’s no need for them to suffer through bouts of quinsy. Nor for those among you bent at the joints with rheumatism to endure the pain.”

Behind him an assistant tugs on a rope and a banner unfurls behind the  salesman. A wild and brightly colored picture of an Indian is revealed.

“That’s right, folks! Genuine Kickapoo Sagwa! The medicine  that up until now has only been known to the medicine men of the Kickapoo tribe! “

If the terrifying visage of the Indian painted on the sign didn’t cause the women to faint or men to walk away grumbling he launched right into the rest of his pitch. “What price is your health, dear friends? Wouldn’t you rather pay me a single dollar than six to the undertaker?”

For those unconvinced, they had only a moment to wait before a feeble cry would arise from the back of the crowd. “Here, I’ll try one.” A thin, bony hand would rise up above their heads, a shiny coin held aloft. “Here’s my money.”

The crowd would make way for the elderly man, bent nearly in half from pain and old age, as he walked to the stage. In exchange for the coin he was given a bottle of the elixir and the crowd waited while he drank down a few gulps.

No sooner than the liquid had settled in his middle a miraculous change would occur! Straightening his back with artful glee, feet dancing about in the dirt, a chortle of laughter would give way to a shout. “I feel young again!”

The cheers would soon be drowned out by people shouting for  their own bottle of whatever elixir that the salesman had to offer.

Medicine and Technology have a push-pull relationship where one influences the other, trading back and forth in the dominant role. Where would Steampunk take the Medicine salesman/chemist? Or, what kinds of Steampunk technology would influence the creation of Medicine?

~Raye Dean

Glossary:

Dyspepsia – indigestion

Ague – malarial fever or chills

Quinsy – tonsilitis

Images courtesy of Steam Dust Studios 

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Ideas in Action by Christopher Beats

Today we welcome author Christopher Beats.  Cruel Numbers releases on April 30, 2012.

Christopher Beats has been exiled to the asphalt prison of South Florida for crimes against philosophy. Before his exile he taught history for several institutions around the state. He shares his exile with a gluttonous dog, a blind cat, and the only two humans who can tolerate him. He spends his days contemplating infinity and writing fiction.

Ideas in Action

by Christopher Beats

My historical view is focused on ideology. After several years of teaching, this paradigm has saturated my consciousness and dripped into my writing. When I dream of other time periods and worlds, they inevitably become blood-soaked arenas where philosophies hotly contest each other. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a prominent German thinker of the late 18^th century, viewed history as a contest between two opposing ideas. Every period of history has a “winner,” which would proceed to the next era. This winner would divide into two opposing ideas or be challenged by a new one. As you can imagine, this was a popular interpretation here in America during the Cold War.

If history is about ideas, why should alternate history be any different? Ideas have power. They shape societies and behavior. The 19^th century was a Baby Boom of ideologies. Many different ideas came into being, some of them with negative connotations today. Racism and cultural chauvinism were normal in the 1800s. Cultural chauvinism has always been pretty common. The idea that your own nation or people are superior can be found in almost every period of history. Racism, on the other hand—with a big R—was new, and it took this idea to a whole new level. It was a philosophy (that’s right, I said philosophy) that developed in the 1800s as an effort to explain how the world worked. People were proud to call themselves ‘Racists.’ They believed that different races were like different species of animal occupying the same ecological niche. Like two species battling it out, human groups would inevitably turn on one another. This philosophy was strongly influenced by Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher who spectacularly misinterpreted Darwin (Darwin actually argued that evolution made men more cooperative, since it created civilization, a point largely ignored by Spencer). Spencer’s theory, called Social Darwinism, was used to justify the stratification of society as well as races. Factory workers were poor because they’d failed to compete as well as the plutocrats above them. England was triumphant because evolution had made them so.

Spencer’s ideas sound harsh to us, but like Racism, they were accepted by many respected figures of the day, including Teddy Roosevelt. Racism and Social Darwinism were a tidy explanation for the harsh truths of realpolitick. Nations—even ‘good’ ones—do horrible things. Social Darwinism justified this behavior. Warlike nations—and races—weren’t bullies. They were doing what came natural.

It’s important to understand that this theory of racial war wasn’t just about white vs. black. Obviously, people recognized that other folks had different skin colors. But in the 19^th century, linguistic and ethnic differences were just as important. Jules Verne was so worried about Germans developing a sense of superiority that in 1879 he wrote The Begum’s Fortune. His villain, Professor Schultze, believes that Germans are the master race. Anyone living in our time would expect this to mean an attack on Jews. Yet Professor Schultze rants about Latins, a vague term for Mediterranean people that somehow included France. Like many real life Racists, Verne’s antagonist didn’t do his homework. The Franks who created France were related ethnically to the tribes that settled Germany. Verne, being French, was no doubt aware of this glaring inaccuracy, probably because he knew that many Racists were misusing history to justify political agendas.

For Schultze and the Racists he was modeled after, it wasn’t about skin color. It wasn’t Africa vs. Europe vs. Asia. It was about a person’s home country versus EVERYONE ELSE. It was about differences in language, outlook, and religion (protestant countries hated Catholic and vice versa). If the Irish were uncouth savages who needed to be taught the ways of civilization then England was justified in conquering them. The same applied to India and Africa. This attitude wasn’t just in Britain, either: it was also used to justify the latent prejudice which Poles, Italians, and Irish felt when they came to America, a country dominated by Anglo culture.

Professor Schultze is an example of how these beliefs can be used to stoke up a villain. But I didn’t tell you about Teddy Roosevelt’s beliefs because I want you to hate him. Far from it. I think Roosevelt is a fascinating individual. He’s on the list of people I’ll meet for coffee once my time machine is finished. But he was a man of his time and we have to understand that about him. These beliefs, as repugnant as they are, would likely show up in protagonists as much as antagonists.

Part of Steampunk’s lure is stepping back into another mindset, even when that mindset is unpleasant. Rather than shrinking from the uglier parts of the 19^th century, Steampunk authors should embrace them. Anytime there is conflict—and these ideologies scream conflict—the story gets interesting. Gail Carriger’s protagonist, Alexia Tarabotti, is an excellent example. What would these books be if the heroine could go where she pleased and say whatever she liked without consequence? The Alaskan tundra challenged and defined Jack London’s characters. English society serves the same purpose for Alexia, offering a stark foil for her personality. Absent the rigid Victorian ethos, we would never get to know Alexia. The men around her, meanwhile, have to reconcile this strong-willed female with their worldview. The same environment that helps define Alexia also gives the male characters a chance for development. How will they reconcile a capable, headstrong woman with their worldview?

This doesn’t mean writers should feel constricted by historical reality. In a divergent timeline, things are different. That’s the point. But things should never be different without a reason. This is where understanding causal relationships is important. Causal relationships are what history is all about. Historians essentially spend their time trying to understand cause and effect. Writers can benefit from this. By understanding cause and effect, one can predict or explain why a society develops in the way it does, even a fictional one.

Feelings about women were very different, for instance, in the American West. Women pulled their weight around the farm. They were not expensive window dressing like their upper class counterparts in London or Boston. By being important members of the economy, women earned respect and afforded rights they wouldn’t have in the “civilized” east. They could even vote in some states.

It’s entirely possible for people to have rights they didn’t have in our reality. Those rights may even change from place to place. Your female inventor or African American ornithopter pilot don’t have to spend the whole book being shunned if it hurts the narrative. Just show how and why ideas in your timeline have evolved. This is another fun aspect of writing alternate history: alternate ideologies.

Explanations are important because nothing ruins a story like characters that are inexplicably modern in outlook. Take, for example, the main character in The Patriot, Benjamin Martin. Benjamin’s a Southern planter but, for some reason, all his workers are freemen. He doesn’t use slaves at all. This is a powerful statement that the filmmakers glossed over. I assume they found the topic of slavery uncomfortable. In one scene, Benjamin is kindly hidden by runaway slaves. So he must believe in emancipation. Why didn’t they say this? Why not show the reaction of the other planters? While he might be popular with slaves and former slaves, many of his neighbors should despise him. They would worry that he was ‘poisoning’ the minds of their slaves. Benjamin would have been a lone planter following his conscience—and facing ostracism as a result, making him a much more compelling character.

As authors, uncomfortable subjects should excite us, not deter us. Whatever you write, you will offend people. Just read ten lines of an internet message board if you don’t believe me. So don’t worry what a few outliers might think.  The best books make people—including the writer—think. I’m not saying every story needs to have a moral. But the books which entertained me most also had me thinking long after I put them down. The Muggle-bashing in Harry Potter wasn’t a homily. It was a frank acknowledgement of how some people react to having power. Tolkien’s presentation of Sauron isn’t preachy. It’s a sublime meditation on the nature of evil. This enhances the story without resorting to an Aesop-style punch line. This is the role ideology should play in Steampunk: enhancing without hijacking. When done properly, it adds more than world-building. It adds depth, something every book can use.

~Christopher Beats

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Confessions of a Steampunk Jewelry Maker by Jim Best

Jim Best is the director of youth ministries at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Charles, Illinois.  He creates jewelry and clockwork creatures in his spare time and is a member of the Promethean Society.  He has a new Etsy shop called Clockwork Curiosities and can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Jabsloth.

Confessions of a Steampunk Jewelry Maker

 by Jim Best

I want to begin by thanking Suzanne for letting me stretch my virtual pen and introduce my own two cents into Steampunkapalooza.  I apologize for my ramblings in advance, but this is what happens when you give a preacher a podium.

I get laughed at a lot.  Okay, some of it I bring on myself, and some of it is just because I am more than a little eccentric, but last year at TeslaCon 2, several people poked fun at me because during the dance, I stopped to pick up little bits of broken jewelry from the floor and put them in my pocket.  I get the same reaction when I stop to pick up a rusted piece of metal on the street, or go to the hardware store and peruse the nuts and bolts looking for something interesting.  The people at Ace have learned to stop asking me if I need help finding anything.

 People a lot smarter than I have talked at great length about what has drawn people to steampunk over the past few years and turned it into the movement that it is today, but for me it came down to one major point.  I had spent most of my time doing things like playing computer games or watching TV; activities that, while fun, created nothing lasting.  I felt like I needed to be doing more.  I felt like I should be adding something to the beauty of the world.  Seeing some of the amazing creations of people at steampunk events around Chicago and Milwaukee, I knew I had to try my hand at creating things as well.

  The first piece of jewelry that I tried to create was really basic.  I wanted a pin that would look like a clockwork bug.  I had a nice watch movement to use as the base, but was having problems finding something I liked for the wings.  I was sitting at my desk with the idea of looking online for ideas, when my eyes glanced down at a flattened penny I’d been given at the Frenzy Universe booth many years before.  I have no idea why I’d kept it all this time, except that when I was given the pressed coin, the girl at the booth told me to “take it and make something out of it.”  Holding it up to the watch movement, I knew I’d found my wing.

Since that day, I’ve made a lot of jewelry.  Most of it I give away to friends, some I sell, and some just clutters up the house, waiting for its moment.  And for me, making the jewelry has really solidified what I love about steampunk.  Whether it is making an airship out of a flattened penny, some wire, and some watch parts, or turning some broken metal found on a dance floor into a clockwork beetle, when it comes to steampunk fashion and art, absolutely nothing is useless!  Everything can be turned into something beautiful and wild.

This right here is my own steampunk philosophy.  Everything and everyone has a purpose!  It may not be the expected thing; we’ve all seen pepper shakers turned into ray guns, or mason jar lids turned into goggles.  And it may not be what society tells you is the proper use; I’ve seen copper toilet floats turned into mechanical owls, and cardboard and spray paint turned into the fist of an emperor, so none of that matters.  We don’t have to worry about what society tells us our place is, or worry that we’re not doing what is expected of us.  We are steampunks, emphasis on the Punk!  And in steampunk nothing is useless and nothing is junk.  We all have a place in the world.  We are all useful and all beautiful!

–Jim Best

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EVOLUTION by Jay Kristoff

Today, as Steampunkapalooza continues, please welcome YA author Jay Kristoff.

Jay Kristoff is a Perth-born, Melbourne-based author. His first trilogy, THE LOTUS WAR, was purchased in the three-way auction by US publishing houses in 2011. He is as surprised about it as you are. The first installment, STORMDANCER, is set to be published in September 2012 in the US, UK and Australia.

Jay is 6’7, has approximately 13870 days to live and does not believe in happy endings.

EVOLUTION

 by Jay Kristoff

Once upon a time, there was this fellow called Neanderthal man. He was handy in a scrap, well-suited to the freezing climates in which he hung his furs, and possessed of a brain larger than the average human. He was an apex predator, had a language and complex societal groups. Maybe not complex enough to develop grand concepts like us (reality TV, 4-chan, Sarah Palin) but you know, close.

And around 25,000 years ago, he and all his buddies disappear from the fossil record.

No-one quite knows why. The most popular theory is that he was wiped out by a more complex evolution of his genome that we now call homo sapiens, who essentially rolled up in his cabbage patch and a) Killed every Neanderthal he saw, or b) Did the sexah with every Neanderthal lady he saw, and essentially bred poor Neanderthal right the frack out of a job. Some scientists hypothesise that rapid climate change did him in. But in any event, Neanderthal’s inability to adapt cashed his check for him.

In short he didn’t change. He liked the way he was and he was going to stay that way, dammit. Extinction be damned.

Which brings me to steampunk (See what I did there? No? Maybe I need to work on my segues…)

25 years after KW Jeter coined the term ‘steampunk’, the tropes of the SP genre are pretty well established. Any geek worthy of his Browncoats membership will have a clear image in mind when you mention the word – an industrialized Victorian setting, with technology you wouldn’t expect to find in said setting, either flitting about the air or clanking about the streets amidst clouds of phlogiston or aether or another fantastical fuel source. And this is all good. Tropes need to be established. There needs to be rules before you can break them.

But.

My personal theory is that steampunk sits at a crossroads in its evolution. Down one fork lies experimentation – the challenging of rules and norms, spectacular failures and amazing successes. And down the other lies the tropes we’re all familiar with; all goggles and corsetry and top hats and howdoyoudo’s, and Mr Neanderthal crouched on his haunches wondering WTF hit him.

I’m not saying steampunk is at risk of dying anytime soon – I’m just saying evolution from what we know and expect from it is probably a good thing. And granted, any novel, no matter how steeped in tropes it is, can be wonderful. ‘Write it well’ should always be the golden rule when it comes to fiction, genre or otherwise. But take a look at the more successful acknowledged steampunk authors around – people like Scott Westerfeld (NYT bestseller) or Cherie Priest (awards goddess) or Alan Moore (yeah, he’d probably pop an artery if anyone called him that, but hey…). These folks took the tropes and fracked with them. They took the norm and challenged it, and came up with books that really woke people up to the idea that steampunk can be almost anything we want it to be.

I like the idea of a world where people aren’t quite sure what Steampunk is. I like the idea of we as creators and community members doing our best to defy codification and tropes and convention. Steampunk doesn’t have to be corsets and goggles and phlogiston. It can be the siege tanks in Avatar: The Last Airbender. It can be iron walkers clashing with genetically engineered warbears in the Leviathan series. It can be clockwork ballerinas in The Music of Razors. You can crossbreed it faeries and other, less friendly fae. It can be set in the frontier age of colonial America. Or a magic-inspired version of tsarist Russia.

Or maybe even the samurai age of Japan.

Yeah, that segue was much better… J

Point is, it can be almost anything you want it to be, within a few sketchy guidelines. The only limit should be your imagination, and that shouldn’t be any kind of limit at all.

Go forth and evolve!

–Jay Kristoff

http://misterkristoff.wordpress.com/

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Fashion in a Time of Steam by Seleste deLaney

Today we welcome back author Seleste deLaney.  One lucky commenter will receive a digital copy of Badlands as well as the opportunity (if they wish) to have one of the Badlands warriors named after them in a future story.  Contest ends April 15, 2012. 

Seleste deLaney never lost her love of the fantastic, and her stories now always reach into other realms. The worlds and people she creates occupy as much of her time as the real world, and she is most fortunate to have a family that understands her idiosyncrasies and loves her anyway.  Visit her website at http://selestedelaney.com/

Fashion in a Time of Steam

by Seleste deLaney

When I created the world of Badlands, I wanted four very definite regions: the Union, the Confederacy, Texas, and (of course) the Badlands. Along with their different social attitudes—about pretty much everything—I came to realize that each place would have different ideas about clothing.

Ever was easy. The Badlands is a place where life revolves around the necessary. Ideas like “decency” and “propriety” don’t mean a lot when you’re a woman dealing with violent criminals on a daily basis. Clothes for Ever are more for protection than fashion, which is one reason she viewed her dress uniform with such disdain. It was so fitted she couldn’t fight in it effectively and, in that scenario, fighting without “armor” became preferable. It’s an attitude women from the Badlands, including the Queen, share and respect.

Aboard the Dark Hawk, however, there were two other women. As a former slave, Mahala didn’t care about a little bare skin one way or the other. To her, clothing was a sign of choice, and choice was a sign of freedom. Though she grew up in the Confederacy around women of status who dressed like traditional southern belles, her tastes skewed in a different direction. She loved and appreciated having the right and the means to purchase her own clothes, but she wanted very badly to leave her past behind her, so she disdained anything that would make her feel “like a lady.” Frilly clothes and the accessories that go with them were things slave-owners wore. So Mahala chose utility in the form of fitted breeches and men’s style shirts in bolder colors than she would have been allowed in her past life.

One womann, however, clung to her past life desperately. Out of the Dark Hawk’s crew, Henrietta was the only one to really balk at Ever’s state of undress when she came aboard (and that included the men). Born to Philadelphia society, Henri was raised to be both a scientist and a lady. The traditional steampunk garb of corsets and bustles became something that were a part of her because of that history. Even rushing around to deal with crew injuries, she made sure to always present herself in such a way that she would feel equally comfortable walking into the halls of Congress to visit her father. For her, those articles of clothing were her nod to propriety on the Dark Hawk, they were the thing that linked her to the life she left behind.

For those of you who have read Badlands, you know I like to challenge the way in which my female characters view themselves. Ever had to accept certain conditions in order to fulfill her mission—one of them being clothes—just as Henrietta had to accept that sometimes clothes and a veil of propriety are nothing more than masks.

Discussion point: When reading steampunk, do you require the bustles, corsets, vests, and pocket watches, or does the lack of them make you look for the reason behind their absence?

One commenter will receive a digital copy of Badlands as well as the opportunity (if they wish) to have one of the Badlands warriors named after them in a future story.

 ~Seleste deLaney

Website: http://selestedelaney.com/

Blog: http://selestedelaney.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seleste-deLaney/111903172206874

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/SelestedeLaney

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/selestedelaney/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4243796.Seleste_deLaney

 Badlands

After a brutal Civil War, America is a land divided. As commander of her nation’s border guards, Ever is a warrior sworn to protect her country and her queen. When an airship attacks and kills the monarch, Ever must infiltrate enemy territory to bring home the heir to the throne, and the dirigible Dark Hawk is her fastest way to the Union. 

Captain Spencer Pierce just wants to pay off the debt he owes on the Dark Hawk and make a life for himself trading across the border. When the queen’s assassination puts the shipping routes at risk, he finds himself Ever’s reluctant ally. 

As they fly into danger, Ever and Spencer must battle not only the enemy but also their growing attraction. She refuses to place her heart before duty, and he has always put the needs of his ship and crew above his own desires. Once the princess is rescued, perhaps they can find love in the Badlands— if death doesn’t find them first…

You can read an excerpt here: http://selestedelaney.com/Seleste_DeLaney/Stories/Entries/2011/2/28_Badlands.html

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