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Month: December 2011

REVIEW: “Peatsmoke & Primroses”

Post Views: 272 “Peatsmoke & Primroses” by Fiona Johnson 7 pages, 3 stories (“Love of My Life”, “Together”, “The Whisky Island”) $0.99, Amazon  First, I want to start out by saying that I normally am not into romances, beyond a while of reading my Mom’s Daniel Steel novels. I don’t think these are what most people mean by romantic short stories. They are instead, in my humble opinion, clever flights of human emotion, all related to each other by romance. Are they good? Yes. Easy to dive into, immediately engaging, sufficiently sharp to make you pay attention, and provoking. Kind of like romance-novel potato chips. Are they short? Very. Short enough, in fact, that in every case I was really felt like “where is the rest of the…

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Published: “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name”

Post Views: 421 Today the dream came true for me.  I am proud to announce that my first novel, a Steampunk pirate adventure romance novel, became available for sale via Amazon and Barnes and Noble in eBook format. The core story is about a young man who breaks out of the shell of his own making and realizes there is a bigger world around him. The main character, Hans Sauder, is on his way to university on an airship when he gets shanghaied by infamous pirates. He eventually winds up traveling with the pirates all over Europe and beyond as part of the crew. His life gets complicated when the woman in charge of the gunner-marines decides she’s attracted to him. Things get even more complicated when the…

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A Bit About That Steampunk Thing

Post Views: 177 I found a few fascinating and well polished videos on YouTube concerning Steampunk as an art, an aesthetic and a social group. Take a few minutes with your favorite cuppa, and have a look! Off Book | Steampunk | PBS Arts Steampunk exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford. Make: Steampunk Aesthetic and Design with Jake Von Slatt Steampunk Studio – Abney Park – Airship Pirate Any other good substantial ones you know of?  Throw some links into comments and share!

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My Thoughts On World (Re)Building

Post Views: 272 … For Steampunk or any other historical-fantasy setting, you are obligated to mess with the world. Even with a near-future setting, you have to be mindful of the current condition of what we know about the world. “This is Charlie Two.  I am heading north of Old Toronto.  I’ve got five Birds available for a micro if anyone can give me a road report.” “Charlie Two, this is Daniel Five.  I’m on the Eleven, in the Park, blade raised, rolling at one-fourty in the clear, over.” That’s a snip from a short story I’m working on titled “After Three Degrees and One Percent”.  It’s set in Canada, after global warming turned out to be true, and the Occupy movement didn’t get us to wake up.…

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Justin Bieber’s “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (Arthur Christmas Version)” “Steampunk” Video

Post Views: 390 The Justin Beiber video, with a Steampunk panache to it, is generating a lot of flap in the Steampunk community. So I am going to be really unpopular and shake my head at everyone who is upset.  Let me explain why. First, let’s talk about Mr.Beiber’s credentials. First off, Usher and Timberlake were in a bidding war to sign this guy. In the R&B world, that’s a very interesting comment. If you don’t know who they are, then that is likely why Justin Beiber’s music is annoying you. His achievements in the R&B and pop music space stand for themselves. You can read up on him at Wikipedia.  If you don’t like R&B/ Pop, then you’re not going to enjoy Beiber’s music. So now lets…

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Here there be (Steampunk’d) Dragons

Post Views: 175 “RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! DRAGON!” Annika shouted. As if cued, another searing arc of electrical energy cut the bell-tower off the Church. It crashed to the ground and the echoes of the bells rang cacophonously against the sounds of smashing timber and planks . It came into view at the lighted edge of town, lumbering out of the night. The lights of the town glinted off its armored hide as it advanced. It was easily two heights of a man to its shoulder, if not three, and double that to the top of its steel head. It was probably the length of a Pullman railway car including its tail, advancing on three pairs of legs. Six bombard-styled cannon barrels were set along its spine, each…

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