Readers familiar with my work will be well aware that when I don't have anything profound to say, rather than just put up a post consisting of mindless drivel, I highlight the work of a friend. I was recently accepted into a rather exclusive group called Punk Fiction, which with my arrival now boasts 14 members. There is a fair amount of lively conversation therein, and one of the most prolific conversationalists is a lady who goes by the nickname of Jazzfeathers.
Her site is almost a parallel universe mirror of mine. A native Italian, she writes of a place on the other side of the world, The Old Shelter, a haunted speakeasy in Prohibition Chicago. She blogs primarily about her book, and her chosen field, dieselpunk. She initially knew as much about Chicago as I did about Kenya, and a good portion of her blog is about the mountains of research she had to do to build her world from the ground up. Her chosen handle, Jazzfeathers, is as perfectly evocative of her Craft as Blimprider is of mine. When she doesn't have a lot of material to present, she reviews books she has enjoyed. The parallels go on, and are striking, from the steps she took learning to write to the one gifted teacher who inspired her. Is it any wonder I view her as a kind of sister of the spirit? When you begin a blog, you are given a blank page, and carte blanche to put whatever you want on it. It is uncanny how many decisions we made that line up almost perfectly with each other's work. Unlike me, though, she participates in an ongoing event hosted by http://www.dieselpunks.org/ called 8-sentence Sunday in which she teases her work in progress by posting an eight sentence snippet for wider dissemination on their site. I'm not a DP writer, but I'm going to try that here and see how it's received.
Her Old Shelter trilogy is a ghost story at its heart. It’s speculative fiction. Fantasy, if you like. The story is mostly set inside the Old Shelter, a speakeasy hidden in a building which has been haunted by a ghost for some one hundred years. Adam Brailsfield owns the club… and the ghost. The ghost has been connected to his family for a few generations and he fears it’s turning him mad as – rumor has it – it did to his grandfather. Sinéad O’Flanagan was entrusted with a coin by a friend, so she could give that coin to a niece of the giver. But the coin seems to drag her again and again to the Old Shelter. Michael and Blood meet Sinéad on a night out and they all end up at the Old Shelter. Blood and Michael have a strong bond with the worlds of spirits. They realise the ghost is not merely haunting the place, it seeks revenge over the Brailsfields, and the power of that curse is set deep inside Sinéad’s coin. If they let themselves be involved with the ghost, the curse might bend their life too – but they may also be able to break it.
The synopsis is straight from her blog, and I have to tell you something. I've never looked twice at a dieselpunk story, but maybe it's time for me to broaden my horizons. I don't add everything that comes along to my "to-read" list, because I don't want to be one of those people with a thousand books on there, and the whole world knowing I'm not going to read a tenth of them. But when The Old Shelter reaches release, I'm going to find room for it, because having pulled Beyond the Rails together from scratch, I know in a very personal way how much effort and work has gone into what can only be a labor of love. You can visit this warm, personable, witty, intelligent lady in person at http://theoldshelter.wordpress.com/, and I recommend you do so at your earliest opportunity. The password is "Blimprider sent me!"
Her site is almost a parallel universe mirror of mine. A native Italian, she writes of a place on the other side of the world, The Old Shelter, a haunted speakeasy in Prohibition Chicago. She blogs primarily about her book, and her chosen field, dieselpunk. She initially knew as much about Chicago as I did about Kenya, and a good portion of her blog is about the mountains of research she had to do to build her world from the ground up. Her chosen handle, Jazzfeathers, is as perfectly evocative of her Craft as Blimprider is of mine. When she doesn't have a lot of material to present, she reviews books she has enjoyed. The parallels go on, and are striking, from the steps she took learning to write to the one gifted teacher who inspired her. Is it any wonder I view her as a kind of sister of the spirit? When you begin a blog, you are given a blank page, and carte blanche to put whatever you want on it. It is uncanny how many decisions we made that line up almost perfectly with each other's work. Unlike me, though, she participates in an ongoing event hosted by http://www.dieselpunks.org/ called 8-sentence Sunday in which she teases her work in progress by posting an eight sentence snippet for wider dissemination on their site. I'm not a DP writer, but I'm going to try that here and see how it's received.
Her Old Shelter trilogy is a ghost story at its heart. It’s speculative fiction. Fantasy, if you like. The story is mostly set inside the Old Shelter, a speakeasy hidden in a building which has been haunted by a ghost for some one hundred years. Adam Brailsfield owns the club… and the ghost. The ghost has been connected to his family for a few generations and he fears it’s turning him mad as – rumor has it – it did to his grandfather. Sinéad O’Flanagan was entrusted with a coin by a friend, so she could give that coin to a niece of the giver. But the coin seems to drag her again and again to the Old Shelter. Michael and Blood meet Sinéad on a night out and they all end up at the Old Shelter. Blood and Michael have a strong bond with the worlds of spirits. They realise the ghost is not merely haunting the place, it seeks revenge over the Brailsfields, and the power of that curse is set deep inside Sinéad’s coin. If they let themselves be involved with the ghost, the curse might bend their life too – but they may also be able to break it.
The synopsis is straight from her blog, and I have to tell you something. I've never looked twice at a dieselpunk story, but maybe it's time for me to broaden my horizons. I don't add everything that comes along to my "to-read" list, because I don't want to be one of those people with a thousand books on there, and the whole world knowing I'm not going to read a tenth of them. But when The Old Shelter reaches release, I'm going to find room for it, because having pulled Beyond the Rails together from scratch, I know in a very personal way how much effort and work has gone into what can only be a labor of love. You can visit this warm, personable, witty, intelligent lady in person at http://theoldshelter.wordpress.com/, and I recommend you do so at your earliest opportunity. The password is "Blimprider sent me!"
EIGHT SENTENCE SUNDAY
As promised, I'm going to try this. Let me know if you think it's worth continuing. In this scene from Episode 10, the crew of the Kestrel report to Major Ulysses Cole, Commander of the military garrison at Nairobi for whom they have agreed to perform a job.
“There you are, Monroe,” he said, waving it about to speed the drying of the ink. “Five pounds, your first month’s stipend. I suppose this completes your transition from a soldier of the Crown to a low-life mercenary, for sale to the deepest purse.”
“It may interest you to know that as a soldier of the Crown, I was paid a regular wage by a military paymaster, just as I suspect you are. Perhaps we aren’t as different as you like to think,
Major.”
“Eh, what? Apples and oranges, Monroe! I’m a member of the thin red line, while you and your ragamuffins are, are, privateers, that’s what, profiting from the misfortune of others.”
Eight sentences. A scene to whet the appetite. Anyone care to see more of this?
THE BLIMPRIDER CHRONICLES
Writing Progress: Since my last post I have only completed one section. That's due to my pesky job getting in the way again. I had day shifts Thursday through Saturday, followed by a sleep-in for a night shift Sunday. I really only had meaningful writing date yesterday, but I did make prime use of it to produce one of those creepy-crawly sections where they enter a killing ground and get their first look at the results of the bad guy's activities. I think you're going to like it!
The Writing Life: Feeling a little edgy right now. Tomorrow I return to work on a day shift and begin the process of breaking in my new Department Head. He's had three days to meet everyone else and look around, so he will have all the time he wants to get involved with me. I sincerely hope he's a substantial improvement over the last one, but if he isn't, my ace in the hole is that I've been eligible to retire for ten years. I guess the religious among you could say that how he acts will be a sign from God on what I should do.
Friends up to Mischief: This week I'm highlighting Cavalcade of Awesome, by Paxton Holley. He is a co-broadcaster of the Nerd Lunch Podcast, which is repeated in today's post, but Monday he took a nostalgic (and humorous!) look back through a SkyMall catalog from 1996. It's also way past time that I direct your attention to Aging Disgracefully, presented by Doris the Great. Also known as Sandy, DtG blogs about a homespun life in a smaller Canadian town filled with the kind of quiet adventures that those of my generation (the Baby Boomers) miss a lot. This week she has pictures up of her vacation to her home town in Newfoundland, and they are spectacular. Finally, for the writers who read this, I direct you once again to Easy Reader, where Lynda turns the podium over to Sarah, a professional beta-reader. If you've ever had any question about what this vital link in the publication chain does, or is supposed to do, here is your chance to get it straight from the horse's mouth. She may even respond to questions left in the comments section, though I can't guarantee that, but this is a good opportunity to collect some solid, reliable information. Finally, we move on to
The Writing Life: Feeling a little edgy right now. Tomorrow I return to work on a day shift and begin the process of breaking in my new Department Head. He's had three days to meet everyone else and look around, so he will have all the time he wants to get involved with me. I sincerely hope he's a substantial improvement over the last one, but if he isn't, my ace in the hole is that I've been eligible to retire for ten years. I guess the religious among you could say that how he acts will be a sign from God on what I should do.
Friends up to Mischief: This week I'm highlighting Cavalcade of Awesome, by Paxton Holley. He is a co-broadcaster of the Nerd Lunch Podcast, which is repeated in today's post, but Monday he took a nostalgic (and humorous!) look back through a SkyMall catalog from 1996. It's also way past time that I direct your attention to Aging Disgracefully, presented by Doris the Great. Also known as Sandy, DtG blogs about a homespun life in a smaller Canadian town filled with the kind of quiet adventures that those of my generation (the Baby Boomers) miss a lot. This week she has pictures up of her vacation to her home town in Newfoundland, and they are spectacular. Finally, for the writers who read this, I direct you once again to Easy Reader, where Lynda turns the podium over to Sarah, a professional beta-reader. If you've ever had any question about what this vital link in the publication chain does, or is supposed to do, here is your chance to get it straight from the horse's mouth. She may even respond to questions left in the comments section, though I can't guarantee that, but this is a good opportunity to collect some solid, reliable information. Finally, we move on to
STEAMPUNKS IN THE NEWS
Best new science fiction and steampunk
Washington Post
- Aug 19, 2014
It's all steampunk and circus wonder as we follow the adventures of Elizabeth Barnabas. She flees her home after a corrupt duke ruins her family's fortune, essentially shutting down their carnival and demanding that Elizabeth become his slave. Now she ...
Nevada Day 150 celebration features new events, 'Steampunk Ball' and Famfest
Carson Now
- Aug 26, 2014
Steampunk Ball: A limited number of tickets are now on sale for the first ever Nevada Day Steampunk Ball, a costume fundraiser at the Carson Nugget Ballroom on Oct. 31, from 7 p.m. to midnight. The event's theme combines the formality of old-time ...
6 Fantasy Steampunk Contraptions Made Only From Cardboard
Wired
- Aug 21, 2014
Daniel Agdag works with a limited arsenal of tools: a surgical scalpel, some cardboard, every so often a circular cutter and lots of glue. But from that humble toolkit, he makes sculptures that are mind-bendingly
complex. For the past 10 years, the ...
A scheduling note: Due to a conflict with *blecch!* work, this blog will be moved to Tuesdays beginning next week. Mark your event calendars accordingly.
And that's 30 for this issue. As always, play nice, look out for one another, and above all else, get out there and live life like you mean it!
Washington Post
- Aug 19, 2014
It's all steampunk and circus wonder as we follow the adventures of Elizabeth Barnabas. She flees her home after a corrupt duke ruins her family's fortune, essentially shutting down their carnival and demanding that Elizabeth become his slave. Now she ...
Nevada Day 150 celebration features new events, 'Steampunk Ball' and Famfest
Carson Now
- Aug 26, 2014
Steampunk Ball: A limited number of tickets are now on sale for the first ever Nevada Day Steampunk Ball, a costume fundraiser at the Carson Nugget Ballroom on Oct. 31, from 7 p.m. to midnight. The event's theme combines the formality of old-time ...
6 Fantasy Steampunk Contraptions Made Only From Cardboard
Wired
- Aug 21, 2014
Daniel Agdag works with a limited arsenal of tools: a surgical scalpel, some cardboard, every so often a circular cutter and lots of glue. But from that humble toolkit, he makes sculptures that are mind-bendingly
complex. For the past 10 years, the ...
A scheduling note: Due to a conflict with *blecch!* work, this blog will be moved to Tuesdays beginning next week. Mark your event calendars accordingly.
And that's 30 for this issue. As always, play nice, look out for one another, and above all else, get out there and live life like you mean it!