I'm so very late in posting it, but this is the list of YA Steampunk reads that was compiled for the Steampunk YA panel at Steampunk World's Fair 2012. There aren't links cause I don't have the time or patience for that, but they are all easily found on Goodreads. If you have any more suggestions or comments on the list, please feel free to leave a comment!
NOTE: This should be for YA reads only, please don't suggest adult Steampunk books, that's a post for a different day! :D
My list:
Scott Westerfeld: Leviathan, Behemoth, Goliath
Kady Cross: The Strange Case of Finley Jayne, The Girl in the Steel Corset, The Girl in the Clockwork Collar
Lia Habel: Dearly, Departed
Leanna Renee Heiber: Darker Still
Cassandra Clare: (The Infernal Devises: Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince)
Alison DeLuca: The Night Watchmen Express
Cheri Priest: (The Clockwork Century) Boneshaker, Clementine, Dreadnaught, Ganymede
Arthur Slade: The Hunchback Assignments, The Dark Deeps
Kenneth Oppel: Airborn, Skybreaker
Philip Reeve: (Larklight Series: Lark Light, Starcross, Mothstorm); (Hungry City Chronicles: The Mortal Engine, Predator’s Gold, Infernal Devices, A Darkling Plain); (Hungry City Chronicles Prequel: Fever Crumb, The Web of Air, Scrivener’s Moon)
Philip Pullman: (His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Skyglass), Sally Lockhart Mysteries
This giveaway is part of the Summer Reads giveaway. You can enter the rafflecopter here or go to the Summer Reads giveaway/hop page (here). Either way, it's the same rafflecopter entry panel.
For today's Feature Friday we have Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris! Together, this husband and wife team write the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novels and orchestrate the accompanying anthologies that are part of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences collection. They even do fun podcasts of the shorts in the anthologies! You can visit their awesome page here.
Philipa (Pip) Ballantine: Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Philippa has always had her head in a book. For this she blames her father who thought Lord of the Rings was suitable bedtime reading for an eight year old. At the age of thirteen she began writing fantasy stories for herself.
She first earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Political Science and then a Bachelor of Applied Science in Library and Information Science. So soon enough she found herself working in the magical world of libraries where she stayed for over a decade
Her first professional sale was in 1997, and since then she has gone on to produce mostly novel length fiction. In 2006 she became New Zealand’s first podcast novelist, and she has voiced and produced Weaver’s Web, Chasing the Bard, Weather Child and Digital Magic as podiobooks. Her podcasts have been short listed for the Parsec Awards, and won a Sir Julius Vogel award.
Philippa 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.
When not writing or podcasting, Philippa loves reading, gardening, and whenever possible traveling. With her husband Tee and her daughter, she is looked after by a mighty clowder of five cats.
Tee Morris: Tee Morris began his writing career with his 2002 historical epic fantasy, MOREVI The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana. In 2005 Tee took MOREVI into the then-unknown podosphere, making his novel the first book podcast in its entirety. That experience led to the founding of Podiobooks.com and collaborating with Evo Terra and Chuck Tomasi on Podcasting for Dummies and its follow-up, Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies. 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.
When he is not writing, Tee enjoys life in Virginia alongside Philippa Ballantine, his daughter, and five cats (3 female, 2 males). Considering the male-to-female ratio in his house, Tee understands how General Custer felt near his end.
The Giveaway:
Phoenix Rising:Evil is most assuredly afoot—and Britain’s fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade . . . and a librarian.
These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences—the Crown’s clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling—will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest . . . and she’s prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the perilous fray.
For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Books and Braun—he with his encyclopedic brain and she with her remarkable devices—must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot . . . or see England fall to the Phoenix! Read Goodreads Reviews. Get it on Barnes and Noble. Get it on Amazon.
The Janus Affair: Evildoers beware Retribution is at hand, thanks to Britain's best-kept secret agents. Certainly no strangers to peculiar occurrences, agents Wellington Books and Eliza Braun are nonetheless stunned to observe a fellow passenger aboard Britain's latest hypersteam train suddenly vanish in a dazzling bolt of lightning. They soon discover this is not the only such disappearance . . . with each case going inexplicably unexamined by the Crown.
The fate of England is once again in the hands of an ingenious archivist paired with a beautiful, fearless lady of adventure. And though their foe be fiendishly clever, so then is Mr. Books . . . and Miss Braun still has a number of useful and unusual devices hidden beneath her petticoats. Read Goodreads Reviews. Get it on Barnes and Noble. Get it on Amazon.
How to Enter:
Enter the giveaway using Rafflecopter. Hit the green "Do It" buttons, follow the prompts, and hit the green enter buttons when you're done. (You may have to log in using Facebook to do this). There will be one winner (selected by Rafflecopter). I will contact the winner via email. This contest is open to international entrants.
So, one of my followers asked me to talk about HOW to get punk'd when writing a Steampunk piece. This is a little difficult for me to explain because punking things up seems organic to me (blame it on my revisionist tendencies), but I'm going to try my best to explain how I do it. In the process I'm going to cover, in general, how to write Steampunk. In the interest of space and time, this is a little disjointed and it's quite close to midnight and I've been going since the wee hours of the morning, so yeah, apologies ahead of time.
Action One: Decide on a story to tell.
One: TELL A STORY. Just because there is Steampunk in your book doesn't necessarily mean it has to completely swallow your MC whole. Stop focusing so much on making everything Steampunk and let it develop organically. I think where a lot of people get caught up with writing Steampunk is the fact that they focus too much on how it will be received. "Is my technology right?" "Did I adequately describe the taste of treacle?" "Would a woman say that back then?" "Is it "punk" enough?" It becomes all about how your readers could bash you for getting it wrong. Before you worry about any of that, you need to worry about the kind of story you want to tell. Is it about a romance between a maid and an airship captain? Because if she's the main character, she's not going to understand anything about the technology she's seeing on your Captain's lovely ship. And, if you're that worried about what your readers are going to say, then perhaps she is the POV you should be writing? There's an idea: Write to your handicap! If you are the type than can imagine something up but have no clue how it might work in real life, then write from the perspective of a character that doesn't get it OR knows it so well that they talk and think about it like you're an idiot for questioning how it works.
Two: TEASPOONS vs. SHOVELS. Once you know what kind of story you want to write, figure out WHO your readers are. Are they YA readers? Cause they aren't going to get half the techno-babble you throw at them and you may be making that political entanglement too complicated for them to follow. Are you writing romance? Romance readers care a lot more about the way someone's dress looks than how the mechanical "toys" function. Your readership is going to determine how much of what goes into the story, including how punky you want to get.
Action Two: Once you have a story to tell, punk it up.
One: PERIOD CHARM. The first part of Steampunk is "steam," which means you need to have a "steam" period element in your piece. This is pretty much the Steam Era or the industrial revolution. Though it has a mostly Victorian connotation, I've seen Steampunk swing all the way into what others might consider Dieselpunk. Since I have an anthropology background, I enjoy building entire cultures; which is why my Steampunk tales take place on an alternate world that looks similar to earth during the Victorian Era. But most Steampunk is alternate history, so I'll focus on that. Writing alternate history isn't easy. Remember that whole Writing What You Know post I wrote? Well, you should know as much about something as you possibly can before you completely pull it apart and re-write it. Depending on WHEN and WHERE your blip in history takes place will depend on how much you need to do research. If, for example, your blip happens during the Victorian Era, then you're going to have to build a believable Victoriana. Know the area, the clothes, the language, the social hierarchy, the political structure, etc. Then find out who was in charge and who didn't like it. That's a perfect platform for your punk establishment.
Two: ATMOSPHERE. Whether you're building from the ground up or going back in time and trying to re-write history, if you're going to put the "punk" in your steam, you need to have some kind of socio-political hierarchy. If there's no one to rebel against, there's no room for your punks. I think first and foremost, if you write fantasy or science fiction of any kind, you need to get in touch with your inner social scientist. Having a believable socio-political structure is one of the pillars of making you a good writer in any reader's mind. Whether your focus is social, political, economic, or religious, there needs to be an established system and there needs to be someone who doesn't like it. There will always be discontents in a society and in your Steampunk these will be your "punks." If you've studied anthropology, political science, or sociology it should be easier for you to build a believable socio-political system for your characters. If you make a set up where someone benefits more than the others then you've got a very easy situation where there is an obvious villain and an obvious person who will fight to get what the one on top has. Then, all you need to do is make the person who want son top to be active in that desire. Women wanting to break out of social molds can dress or act certain ways, miners can picket, young lads being drafted into the military can start holding up trains. Anything goes in punk.
Three: INSPECT THE GADGETS. Part of what makes Steampunk appealing is all the fun gadgets. You'll have to decide who makes the gadgets, why, and when they started coming about. Also, make sure to research what was available to tinkers during the Victorian era. If you incorporate something that was not available in that time period, you'll have to explain why it's there in this alternate history. Keep in mind that part of the punk ideology is a strong DIY mentality, so it might be beneficial to have a couple of tinkers or engineers in your punk group, and it might be necessary to let your imagination run wild. If you can't churn out tons of fantastical things to play with, then you may want just one crazy piece of technology that your MC is working on (like a time machine or a weather balloon or something), and have everything else be normal.
Four: NOT ALL PUNKS ARE ROCKERS. Remember that your punks can run the gamut between just being a little off-color to blatantly wanting to bomb parliament. All people are different, some more extreme than others. Keep that in mind when deciding just how punky you want your punks. You could have something as simple as a cooky old codger who tinkers in his basement, to an avaunt garde aristocratic explorer, to a surly airship pirate, to an alchemist who's into pyrotechnics. The beauty of Steampunk is that your MCs don't have to be the "punks." What we need to understand as writers is that there are always bystanders in any world. The hero doesn't always have to be the guy with the ball-peen hammer or the airship. Watson anyone? And even if they are, these characters are people too! They have other aspects to their lives than just repairing clockwork soldiers or hijacking the Empire's latest dirigible. You could write about an airship pirate who doesn't go anywhere near an airship for the duration of the story; or your character can be someone who has never experienced the punks until one fateful day when XYZ happens; or they can be someone who is watching the "punks" from afar. Whatever you choose, just make sure that your punks know what they want and aren't afraid to fight for it!
Five: HAVE FUN.
I hope that helps? Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Do you really know what Steampunk is? Mini top hats and brass ray-guns, right? I thought I knew...until I went to a Steampunk convention and ended up watching a panel full of Anarchists talking about upholding the Steampunk culture...Wait, there's more to this genre than pretty Victorian clothing and airships? I can't just take my YA paranormal romance, put in a few canes, cogs, and corsets and sell it like that???
Nope, not if you want it to actually be good Steampunk. There's a reason why "Punk" is in the title.
If you write Steampunk, it's a good idea to have a clear grasp on what the mentality behind the genre and the movement actually are. Why "steam" why "punk." Don't just keep it contained to Steampunk either! Trust me, adding the "punk" mentality to any piece of literature will only serve to enrich your work.
Wikipedia, always a good place to start: GET PUNK'D
My very first publication just came out today! It is called The Alchemist's Perfect Instrument and it is going to be part of a collection of short stories called City Steam: Tales From the Heart of Dormorn. This is a short tale about an Alchemist searching for the next victim for his "Perfect Instrument." It's meant to be a weird Steampunk tale that borders on the verge of horror. It makes the reader a little uncomfortable, but ultimately (and hopefully) self reflective.
I'm admittedly a little worried about the reception of this short because it's both an uncomfortable story and pushes the bounds of what the general population is coming to accept as the Steampunk genre. I might as well say right now that my work is a revisionist piece that takes place in another world. In other words, I take liberties and I like it! You might too!
It is now available through OmniLit/AllRomance/AReCafe. I hope you'll all take a look at it and let me know what you think!
The edits on my two shorts for Tease should be coming along in mid-July. My cover for The Alchemist's Perfect Instrument is done. It's lovely!
Also... My agent likes the edits on Scar-Crossed!
She's meeting with one more editor on on the 19th and then we're going to start sending out the manuscript for Scar-Crossed. I'm so excited it's finally happening! Now all I have to do is come up with a clear idea for the sequel o.O
I have a couple of ideas, but then I've had sequel ideas for the past year and none of them seem to thrill me when I write them out. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to deal!
On top of figuring all that out, I have a couple of little projects that I can work on. I think I'm going to take her up on the short for a Chicken-Soup spoof and I'll put the erotica on hold. Erotica isn't really my thing and I'd rather work on the things I'm passionate about...at least until this becomes something I do as a full-time professional. She wants me to put Tamrin and Fawning on the back-burner and work on something that's in another genre so she can show it to an E- or an Indie-Publisher. That way I can get my foot in multiple doors. So, I'm going to try re-vamping (no pun intended) Will of the Fallen and finishing The Great White Light.
I've decided I truly enjoy getting all gussied up and having my picture taken by people who know what they are doing. Is that narcissistic?
Had a Steampunk photoshoot with Stella, P.J., and Brandy yesterday. It went quite well and I can't wait until PJ processes the pictures so that I can show you! Until then, here's a teaser!
So, got through a solid 25K this week. Nothing to sneeze at. Of course, it would be better if that was 25K in the Steampunk that I'm supposed to be working on. If I could get through 25k in that, I'd be done by now! Sigh. I'm a bad girl.
Well, at least I'm writing, right? And the sequel to Scar-Crossed does need to get written eventually. So, now I can pick from any of four sequels. Maybe I can make a choose your own adventure novel? Grar. In my own defense, I've been fussing with so many story lines that it was difficult to decide what to put in the sequel. Now I've made the executive decision to push one of the major issues off until the third book and focus on Lacey's discovery of who her father is and what that means for her in the second.
While I work on that, I'm attempting to live-wire the original passion that got me started on the Steampunk by reading the sequels to the two books that got me writing it in the first place. I just started Iron Angel and then I'll move on to Behemoth. We'll see how that goes. I'm also under the impression that because the Steampunk is yet unnamed it isn't yet a being. (This goes back to me feeling like my books are my children and my Anthropological background, don't ask.) So, I'm trying to think of a good title for it. Thinking being the operative word... I'm also going to have a Steampunk movie extravaganza. Hopefully it will get me to write some kick-butt action scenes.
In other news the final version of Scar-Crossed is with more than ten betas. Only one has finished so far and things look good from where she stands. They've got until Christmas to finish it up, but hopefully they'll finish sooner. *Everything crossable, crossed*
I'll also be working on attempting to remodel Will of the Fallen in the case that the Steampunk continues to allude me. I need to be able to show something else once Scar-Crossed gets accepted. Let's just hope I can figure out how to get someone excited about a longish book with a cliff hanger. Hello Tor.
This weekend I sat in on a panel at FaerieCon and I learned that I'm not the only author whose characters are like real people.
Odd, I know, but I think every other author will agree with me on this. No, we don't need meds and we're not all fans of Inkheart. We're just really good at creating characters. So good, in fact, that sometimes it's almost like they have a life of their own. They become like children or friends. You end up having discussions and arguments with them. Sometimes they do things that you don't want them to do and then you have to figure out how to get them out of it. ...And as Maggie Stiefvater put it, sometimes you just get so frustrated with them that you have to drag them through a side story where they die horribly before you can get them to cooperate.
So, in light of that I decided to spin a little spoof between myself and one of the characters from my WIP. I've been having some problems because Neek (Nekehleis) is trying to jump the gun in this YA steampunk romance. So I think I'll let him try it his way and see what happens. *Sinister Smile* Maybe he'll cooperate after this. Hope you enjoy!
I’m about a quarter of the way through chapter twelve.Neek and Adelle are meditating after one of their classes. Neek opens one eye, peeks at Adelle.She’s got her eyes closed, her brow is furrowed in concentration and she’s got that pout she does.He thinks about how much he likes that intense expression on her face; how much he wants to touch the hair that spills around her face and shoulders; how hard she's trying to get this right -- all for that brat, Madlyn. Neek suddenly shakes his head.
I growl under my breath, annoyed that he’s interrupting my process.“What now?”
Neek takes a deep breath, lets it out.I stare at him expectantly, knowing he’s about to say something he knows I’m not going to like.“I’m going to kiss her.”
I blink.“What?" I squeak. "Now?You can’t do that!”
He cocks his head, stares at her lovingly.Oh, if only she saw that expression.She’d kill him for sure.“Why not?”
I throw up my hands, upsetting my tea and scaring the cat.“Are you stupid?She’s your enemy’s daughter!”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, she’s trying to kill you.”I start mopping up my tea.
“Yes, I know. I had a vision about that, remember?I’ve got that whole Solar Seer thing going for me.”
“See?Even Ehleis is trying to tell you that she’s trying to kill you. Use your head, Neek, I made you smart for a reason.”
“And?”
“What if you mean “and?”Hello!If she kills you I won’t have a story and Ehleis won’t have a Blessing.We’re covering our asses here.”
Neek bites his lip.“Maybe if I kiss her, she won’t kill me.”
“If you kiss her I’ll have to make her kill you,” I say with a sigh.“I made her that way.The readers expect it.”
“I’ll take my chances and hope you like me enough not to let Adelle kill me.The readers will like it better if I kiss her.Sex sells.”
I get a bad mental image of attempting to navigate a love scene around Neek's wings and Adelle's ridiculous outfit.Scowling, I attempt a new approach.“Sleeping with the heiress of the Empire?The empire that’s besmirching the natural world with it’s mechanical abominations and alchemical warfare?Ehleis wouldn’t like it.”
Neek’s eyes widen.“No?I think it’s an excellent idea.”
“You’re seventeen, Neek, the only thought processes you have come through your penis.”
“Well, my penis thinks it’s an excellent idea,” Neek says with a shrug.“Besides, wasn’t Ehleis the one who told us to go forth and prosper?”
I cross my arms.“There’s no way in hell I’m letting you two prosper, Neek.This isn’t Twilight.”
Neek glances out the window.“No, I’d say it’s just about mid-morning. That's a great time for sex. We can have lunch afterward.”
I slap my palm against my forehead.“No it’s a- Oh, just forget it.”
“So,” Neek ventures cautiously.“Kissing Adelle?”
“If I had my way you’d wait a few chapters before doing that.I’m not responsible for what happens if you kiss her before she’s ready.”
Neek grins.“Of course not.”
I give him a worried look. He's really going to do it. Stupid kid.“She’s still carrying that dagger under her skirt.”
His grin grows a little wider.“I know.”
I lean back and give him my most petulant expression I can manage.“I really hate working with you sometimes.”
Neek cuts his eyes at me.“You’re no gift to fiction yourself, A.L..I mean, violet eyes?Come on, even Lilith got it better than I did.”
"Oh, have I offended your masculinity?" I reach out, pull the keyboard closer, and threateningly settle my fingers back on home row.“It's not too late to make them pink. Now shut up and kiss her already, I want to get to the part where she circumcises you.”
Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm some sort of under-programmed automaton.
Anybody else ever feel like that?
So, I'm slowly winning the battle with my writer's block. It's taking a lot of television, various visits to random fairs of interest, and tearful therapy sessions with my muse (she needs a leash and about five pints of Schnapps before she'll even listen to my demands, I swear). Ha, that makes me sound like some kind of BDSM alcoholic. Disclaimer: my muse is entirely a fickle creature of fiction and in no way shape or form reflects my personal sexual tendencies or drinking habits.
In all honesty, the best method I've come up with for combating my block is Writer's ADD. Tried and true, jumping from one project to the next -- often times scrapping what I've already written and starting anew (trust me, my characters are just as confused as I look) -- seems to be working. It's also spilling into my personal life. I've started like ten new television series (thank God for Hulu and NetFlix) and I'm in the middle of about five books. All I can say is: It's a good thing I'm happily married.
I'm cutting down on the audio books, listening instead to NPR and music while I'm at work. And I've decided to start reading things that wouldn't normally intrigue me enough to shell out the cash to purchase them. Lucky for me I recently attended a conference where I was generously showered with gifts. I came home with about 32 books, most of which are some kind of erotica.
So, I picked up the book full of paranormal gay erotica and I'm finding it quite enjoyable. Who would have guessed? And who knows, maybe I'll try my hand at it one of these days. Eh, who am I kidding? Everyone knows I've secretly written a steamy scene between every character of romantic interest for each of my books. Yes, all you Jeremy/Silver Rings/Amaya and Connor/Taylor/Lacey shippers, it does it exist! Even I can't deny the fanficer inside! And I utterly refuse to be judged.
Anywho, I'm still fighting the good fight, refusing to go down and all that. Still looking for an agent, but I feel really confident with everything that's been happening lately. So, fingers, toes, and other prehensile body parts crossed. On a breathtakingly good note, I finally finished plotting out the As-Yet-Unnamed-Steampunk. If I shoot for a low word count, I'm like 3/4 done.
But we all know I haven't even begun to tell the story! My issue is too much of the Free State and not enough Empire face time. If I'm going to sell this as a legit Steampunk, there has to be enough technological wonder. While the techno-babble I need for the Empire is continuing to elude me, I'm making headway on constructing the required scenes. Adelle's journey into the Free State allows for a lot of this. One airship trip to the intercontinental steam train and then an attack by Her Majesty's Fourth Air Raid Squadron should make it more interesting. It allows a couple spots for Neek and the other Seers to combat the Empire with the Suldal. It will probably be the highest action sequence in the book, so it has to be perfect.
Would you believe I spent 45 minutes last week just listening to YouTube clips of steam trains and steam engines? I think I finally have the noises and processes down. The airships are something entirely different. Sometimes I wish this book was in first person. It'd be so much easier to be all like, "I'm a spoiled princess that grew up in a social bubble, how would I know what that springy thing does?" I'm lucky that I'm at least working with one POV at a time.
Anyway, I should finish my descriptions for this poll so that I can get to working on said action sequence. I'm hoping to finish this manuscript within the next few weeks. Wish me luck!
