Tag Archives: steampunk

Writing Steampunk That’s More Than A Glint Of Gears: Resources for Finding the Other In Steampunk and Weird Western

One of my projects this year has been fleshing out the on-demand version of the live class I teach, “Hex Engines & Spell-Slingers: Writing Steampunk and Weird Western.” I recently finished up the project and wanted to share some of … Continue reading

Posted in classes & workshops | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Guest Post: R J Theodore Gives Away an Old Family Secret

Everybody’s tried to make a meal they mess up. A pile of perfectly good ingredients that just won’t come together into something palatable despite our best efforts. And when time and money and supplies are tight, sometimes tossing out the pot and starting over is not an option.

In each act of my new spacepunk steam opera novel, FLOTSAM, the four-person airship crew sits down to a meal. They come together to eat, to debate, and to problem solve. Their thoughts in these scenes are filled with worry over finding work, getting paid, keeping the ship in good repair, and staying out of trouble long enough to spend any money left after that.

Each meal is a backdrop to what’s going on in the story at that moment: an easy, familiar meal to celebrate getting away from a confrontation in one piece; a load of their favorite takeout as distraction from unpleasant news; and, finally, a dinner that goes horribly wrong before coming together in the end.
Continue reading

Posted in guest post | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

For Reviewers/Book Bloggers: ARCs and Review Copies for 2018 Projects

I have enough coming out in 2018 that some of the different campaigns are colliding a bit. Some are self-pubbed projects, others are with presses but I’m helping with the marketing where I can. If you’re someone who would like … Continue reading

Posted in publications | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Patreon Post: Web of Blood and Iron

This is the short story that I read from at Norwescon this year; many thank yous to the people who turned out to listen on the last day of the con when many of us were tired and hungover and … Continue reading

Posted in patreon | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

Patreon Post: Seven Clockwork Angels

If a clock has ticked, it must tock, and thus time moves along. And in every tick and tock, there’s a story, and sometimes more than one.

Once upon a tick and tock, there was a great Lord and a greater Lady, who were Patrons of the Arts and Sciences. They endowed libraries and laboratories, and commissioned portraits and poems and marvelous machines that could play chess or spin a silk thread so fine you could barely see it or that could even build their own, tinier machines to make tinier machines in turn, and so on and so on, until they produced the head of a pin inhabited by seven clockwork angels, all dancing.
Continue reading

Posted in free fiction | Tagged , , | 21 Comments

Patreon Post: Laurel Finch, Laurel Finch, Where Do You Wander?

Happy Monday to everyone. Here’s a piece of fiction for you, “Laurel Finch, Laurel Finch, Where Do You Wander?” It’s steampunk, and it fits into the world I think of as Altered America, a steampunk setting where one of the … Continue reading

Posted in patreon | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

You Should Read This: 6 Enjoyable Steampunk Titles

Steampunk continues to manifest as a genre, although it seems to me it’s not as relentless in its novelty as it used to be. Perhaps once you have reached the point of being parodied in a Key and Peale episode, you cannot claim to be cutting edge anymore? Not to mention that I’ve found steampunk jewelry making kits at the local craft store and the local Value Village flyers featured “How to Make a Steampunk Costume” along with Pirate, Vampire, Zombie, Superhero, and Sexy Barista.

I love the texture of steampunk and have been enjoying seeing continued riffs on a theme that has a long way to go before it’s played out. Here’s six that I’ve enjoyed in the past couple of years. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but each of these bring in aspects of other genres in a way that showcases how much life such a mixture can produce.
Continue reading

Posted in you should read this | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Patreon Story: Snakes on A Train (Steampunk)

Hello! If you’re new to this blog, this story is part of my Patreon campaign, which you can support here. This story is a prequel to Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart; I’m working on a third involving Elspeth and … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

From Today’s Writing

By six PM, his lordship was up and ready to be shaved and dressed. I had sandwiches sent up, something to tide him over till he went out. His haggard eyes were pouched and heavy as though he hadn’t slept.

“Where to tonight?” I asked as I stirred the lather, smelling of bay rum, and spread it over the black shadows on his jawline.

“Jenkins,” he said. “He’s set up some sort of game in his car on the train. Says it will be novel.”

“Novel” is not a word one likes to hear from an older vampire. So often their ideas of novelty involve pain.
Continue reading

Posted in teasers | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Teaser: More from Laurel Finch

This is the steampunk world (Altered America) I’ve been writing in lately, and I’m pleased to say Beneath Ceaseless Skies just took another of the stories set in it, “So Little Comfort.” The title of this story is “Laurel Finch, Laurel Finch, Where Do You Wander?”
Continue reading

Posted in teasers | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment