Sneak Peek of CHARMED VENGEANCE!

Two months until CHARMED VENGEANCE (book two in my YA fairytale steampunk series THE AETHER CHRONICLES) releases! ~launches cupcake cannon~

Have you pre-ordered your copy yet? Seriously, I love this book even more than INNOCENT DARKNESS and I hope you love this book too. There are some new characters who I just adore. We also meet Noli’s brother, Jeff, the air pirate.

Unlike book 1, which takes place mostly in the Otherworld (faerie), book 2 takes place mostly in the mortal realm. This means MOAR STEAMPUNK. There are airships, air pirates, explosions, and cake. (No cake was harmed in the making of this book.)

Anyway, I made a short video with me reading an excerpt from Chapter One of CHARMED VENGEANCE. I hope you like it! (I’m pretty technologically awkward, so the video’s not fancy.)

I have all sorts of fun things in the works for Book 2’s release–giveaways, twitter chats, signings, a blog tour. There will even be a read-along of INNOCENT DARKNESS in July to get everyone ready for CV! I’ll keep you updated. (The AC facebook page or my author page are always good places for updates.) In the meanwhile, I have to get back to my book 3 edits…

~S

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Suzanne Lazear is the author of the YA Fairytale Steampunk Series The Aether Chronicles. INNOCENT DARKNESS is out now, CHARMED VENGEANCE releases 8-8-13. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and a menagerie of pillow-pets.

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Steampunk’s Place in YA’s Future

I wrote this for I Read to Relax but I wanted to share it with you all.

Also, don’t forget to join me, Seleste DeLaney, and Cindy Spencer Pape on Friday at 6 pm PST for #steampunkchat on twitter.

Steampunk’s Place in YA’s Future

By Suzanne Lazear

Young Adult books push boundaries. That’s what many teens do, why shouldn’t some books do the same? When someone says “you can’t do that in YA”, much like a teen, it juts out its jaw, meets the challenger’s gaze defiantly, and mutters “watch me.”

Steampunk, by its very definition is respectfully defiant. Its roots in innovation (and rebellion), Steampunk, especially as a written genre, is constantly changing, discovering, seeing if it is possible to go places no Steampunk has gone before.

That’s partially why all of these discussions on what Steampunk isn’t or shouldn’t be irk me. To me, this seems adverse to the very ideals of Steampunk itself. Sure, like all genres, there are establishing parameters, but Steampunk, like YA, is a genre grounded in exploration. Perhaps we should focus more on what Steampunk is. After all, we do that in YA, focusing on all the great and wonderful things the genre is instead of nitpicking and compartmentalizing.

So much about the very nature of Steampunk (rebellion, identity, hope, innovation, adventure) lend itself quite naturally to young adult stories. YA steampunk writers aren’t afraid to stretch the limits, borrowing and mashing up genres until perhaps it’s not even steampunk anymore yet still has that spark and spirit that make steampunk such an attractive genre to writers. My book, INNOCENT DARKNESS, is “fairytale steampunk”, a mashup of faeries, fairytales, and steampunk. Jay Kristoff’s upcoming novel STORMDANCER is set in Japan, and SHADOW AND BONE, by Leigh Bardugo is what she coins “Tsarpunk.”

I foresee Steampunk and Steampunkian tales (or those with Steampunkatude) as becoming a mainstay of YA. Because both genres have similar guiding principles. Because in both genres, when someone says “you can’t do that”, we say “why not?”

Because YA and Steampunk is.

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Suzanne Lazear writes steampunk tales for teens. They have faeries in them. Her debut novel, INNOCENT DARKNESS, book one of The Aether Chronicles, is now out from Flux. Visit her personal blog for more adventures.

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Confessions of a Steampunk Sequel — Part 8

I’m still chugging away on the sequel to INNOCENT DARKNESS which is due at the end of the month.  I’m getting really good feedback from my betas.  It’s not perfect, but for the most part it’s coming together.  It seems that one of the most common bits of feedback is that I’m rushing through descriptions, so I’ll have to pay special attention to that (while not going off the deep end and compensating with too many) as I get this ready for my Editor.

Since INNOCENT DARKNESS releases in six months I’m going to start doing a giveaway each month.  This month the prize is a tiara and some cupcake stickers.  To win all you have to do is like my facebook page.  If you’ve all ready liked my page you’re all ready entered.  Contest ends Feb 29, 2012.

Also, my steampunk panel has been picked up for RWA 2012 conference in Anaheim, so I’ll be there with bustles on.

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Suzanne Lazear writes steampunk tales for teens.  Her debut novel, INNOCENT DARKNESS, book one of The Aether Chronicles, releases August 2012 from Flux. Visit her personal blog for more adventures.

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Confessions of a Steampunk Sequel — Part 7

My apologies for the lateness of this post.

And the sequel adventures march onward…

I’ve spent the last week taking that completed draft and attempting to make it fit for human consumption. 

This included putting in the proper names for ship parts, adding a few literary quotes/references, adding in some proper Victorian terms, and fixing any errors I came across.

The draft is by no means perfect or finished, but off to the beta readers it goes.

Some of them were quite excited about it.  The day after I tweeted that I finished the draft I got an email from a beta going, “Saw it’s done, where is it?”  LOVE LOVE LOVE such enthusiasm.  I hope everyone likes it. 

The synopsis has also been written.  Often I’ll work off at the very least a skeleton of a synopsis, but this story has been so wonky in so many respects that I had to actually finish the draft because I *didn’t know how it ended*.

I’m still not sure if the first chapter works, we’ll have to see.  I listened to “Through Glass” by Stone Sour on endless loop through much of my December drafting (with a dash of Emilie Autumn for Steampunk-spiration) and I think it shows. 

Now, to get those first three chapters and the synopsis off to my editor….

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Confessions of a Steampunk Sequel — Part 6

Ding Dong the Draft is DONE!

Yesterday I typed THE END for book two of my Aether Chronicles series.

~whew~

I was really afraid I wasn’t going to make it.

Well, technically I didn’t since my self-imposed goal was actually December 31, but Jan 2 isn’t too shabby.

91k in 2 months and 2 days isn’t shabby at all.

However, I’m not anywhere near done.

For the sake of vomiting out this draft and getting it on paper I glossed over some things….mostly the technical aspects and proper part names of the airships.  I will be spending this week researching all the things I didn’t research and filling in all the blanks I left.  I’ve never done that before and I’m not sure I liked doing it.  Certainly it took me out of my comfort zone.

I also need to clean up all the errors.  I am really bad about leaving out words, writing the wrong words, and the like. 

Then, it’s off to a couple of betas. 

Book 2 was tricky for me, mostly because I had to take it in a direction other than I’d originally intended and I really, really, really pantsed it.  Usually I know how a book begins and ends and just have to pants the middle.  Not so with this book…

It also didn’t end where I wanted to, and took some twists and turns I hadn’t planned on. 

We’ll see how it all goes.  Hopefully it’s for the better. 

Now…back to filling in those blanks. 

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Suzanne Lazear writes steampunk tales for teens.  Her debut novel, INNOCENT DARKNESS, book one of The Aether Chronicles, releases August 2012 from Flux. Visit her personal blog for more adventures.

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Twelve Days of Christmas — Steampunk Style

‘Tis the season, so I’m posting this again, like I do every year.

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…

12 Air Pirates

11 Painted Ladies

10 Clock Hands

9 Ray Guns

8 Pairs Brass Goggles

7 Aviator Caps

6 Cogs and Gears

5 Mad Scientists

4 Flying Cars

3 Top Hats

2 Pretty Corsets

And an Airship in a Pear Tree!

 

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Suzanne Lazear writes steampunk tales for teens.  Her debut novel, INNOCENT DARKNESS, book one of The Aether Chronicles, releases August 2012 from Flux. Visit her personal blog for more adventures.

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Confessions of a Steampunk Sequel — Part 5

Did you know Steamed has a facebook group? 

If Steamed has helped you at all with writing your Steampunk novel (or any novel) could you please nominate us for “Write to Done’s” top 10 blogs for writers? 

So, I won NaNoWriMo with my whopping 51,109 words I wrote on Aether Chronicles #2.

Of course, I’m nowhere near finished.  I’m probably about the halfway mark, plus there’s all that editing and revising and stuff to do.

~Whew~

I did get  32,703 written on the “project that hijacked NaNo” but that’s not due soon.  I’ve given it a cookie and shoved it in the drawer to take a nap until *after* I finish my sequel.

Did I get a bajillion words written on the sequel over the weekend? 

Um, no.  I’ve been doing edits on the Eflpunk for my agent for the past few days, but those should be done shortly.

Then, it’s back to the sequel.

This time I’m bringing my raygun just in case those airpirates continue to misbehave. 

How are your projects going? 

 

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Suzanne Lazear writes steampunk tales for teens.  Her debut novel, INNOCENT DARKNESS, book one of The Aether Chronicles, releases August 2012 from Flux. Visit her personal blog for more adventures.

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