Hi there Lolitas and Rebels,
I am sorry if I have been away for so long. I am in the final stage of my Masters at UW and when I am not doing school work, I spend my extra time working on my steampunk manuscript. So I had to step back a little from the social media and blogging.
Nevertheless, I thought I’d share a nice visual writing prompt for today. Here are two lovelies that I would just die to put in my own steampunk world.
Since my stories are not of the steamy kind, I would not see any of them as the heroine. However, in my series, they would be called Odessa and Delphine and I think they would be aeronautic acrobats performing impossible aerial ballets, which would be both extremely dangerous and highly sensual, for the Cirque Acrobatique de La Penombre, a very secluded private club performing in the depth of the Paris Underground of the Belle Époque.
I am not sure how my hero would feels toward them, since Odessa and Delphine are not free women. They are in fact owned by Mr. Dupont, the circus manager who forces them to defy gravity over and over while performing in ways that pushes the boundaries of properties. Is my hero enticed by their young flesh so easily used and displayed to all, or does his noble sense make him want to take them away and shield them from the crowd ogling them?
I wonder…
Now let me know, how would you write those two beauties in your own steampunk fiction?
STAY STEAMIN’,
M-C xoxox
Location:Seattle
STEAMED! 
I write gritty “real” hard steampunk (hard = no fantastical elements) and while they may be pretty (of a sort, not my type), I’m having a real problem getting past their underwear 🙂 it’s just so terribly wrong.
(Being British I was brought up on self-cleaning sexual innuendo.)
With that underwear I wouldn’t put them anywhere. But with something a little more appropriate perhaps a Gentleman’s Club. Very sad, still considering the hard life they’ve had until now, they’ve not done badly – better than being on the streets.
However when they are forced to become part of an insidious plot to frame Quebec Separatists for the assassination of Edward VIII… etc
Hi Steve,
I love your take on this 🙂 what exactly is wrong with the underwear? LOL
BTW I love the Quebec separatists reference since I come from a long line of them!
Hi Marie-Claude, ça va?
Sorry about Quebec, but you did beat us in the American War of Independence**.
What’s wrong with the underwear? The bras (well I assume the one behind is wearing a bra) and the panties are too modern by about 100 years.
**For those who don’t know their history: the (entirely justified IMO) rebellion of the American colonies would have failed without the assistance of the French and Spanish (who were both very keen to stop British imperialism). In fact the Spanish were just helping with the finances initially but had to send in troops eventually because the colonists even with French military support were still losing.
So Steve, you are English then, right? With precise historical notes, I am now very curious to hear about your own writing!
I may be crazy but I see them as dual airship pirate captians that have no trouble boarding ships and very little trouble evading the law. A smile can get them almost anywhere they want to go.
Maeve, I love this! I suppose they are scantily clad right now because they are taking a well deserved break at their port of call.
I prefer “British” but yes. I write scripts rather than prose – and I’m currently producing a steampunk web series of mine. We (the director and I) are doing it full green-screen like “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” which means you’ll be able to see the full Steampunk world – but the story is about people. We also have a full feature script.
Can I plug our universe? http://voidships.com/ it’s a collaborative project.
As for the precise history – my wife is a historian, I’m not allowed to get it wrong.
Glad to have you plug in your work Steve! That’s how we build a community 🙂
British, of course. My husband is Scottish so I sometimes follow his lead and differentiate between the different parts of Britain without thinking 🙂
Damn, that replied in the wrong place – sorry.
[Disclaimer: I have never written steampunk before. My take on it is a little bit of an odd mixture so I hope it is alright to post here.]
…I am incredibly tempted to place them in my world. Excuse my rambling as I come to a conclusion. Disregarding their attire, their faces are interesting. The one in the back has such an odd contrast between her face and her arm which seems a bit brawnier than expected. This leads me to believe that perhaps, she’s a tinker or mechanic by night. Their veins are popped out on their hands. Probably a hard life, maybe injury… Maybe the one in front is unable to work…but neither of them have home, husbands, or the finances to support such a thing.
I name them Elizabeth and Juliet. Juliet may become involved in the political spy-game I am toying with… Meanwhile, Elizabeth knows nothing of it. They scarcely see each other now… They have been together for years since the days at the orphanage (I have a lot of orphans, though none my main characters, oddly enough) when they made a promise to never leave the other behind. Thus, they have a small place in the poorest section of Janassa as Elizabeth works at night to keep the place. Juliet, meanwhile, tries to uncover the frayed edges of the political circle and, more importantly, how to exploit it.
Questions then would be whether Juliet and Elizabeth are just friends? Do either of them possess certain feelings? Why is Juliet keeping this hidden from Elizabeth? Does Elizabeth resent having to work all night just to keep the place, much less trying to make 2 changes of clothes work without the mockery of the clothing-obsessed mob? Etcetera, etcetera. How curious… I am quite intrigued. Thank you.
Also, I do so love your idea on them being Delphine and Odessa and acrobats.
Silene, I love the political twist you added to your brainstorming. It’s something I wrestle with and don’t do very well! Thanks for sharing, very cool ideas!
Reblogged this on The Pennington Edition and commented:
Who ever said steampunk had to be boring?!
So true Jackie. I also heard that if it’s not at least a bit fun, it’s not steampunk!
Absolutely!