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Tag: QFTA

More Technology of “The Sauder Diaries” – A Steampunk Dragon; What’s Not To Like?

Post Views: 485 Introduction This is the third part of a three-part set answering this Question From the Audience. So, without further ado, allow me to continue on discussing the various technologies that Hans encounters and uses, and evaluate “The Reasonable Plausibility Level” (RPL) of each. Science and Technology of “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name” The “Dragon” One of the most memorable scenes in “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name” is the dragon attack in the chapter titled “A Quiet Little Town”: “It came into view at the lighted edge of town, lumbering out of the night. The lights of the town glinted off its armoured hide as it advanced. It was easily two heights of a man to its shoulder, if not three, and double that…

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Questions From The Audience – July 25th, 2012

Post Views: 260 “I’d love to hear some more about ‘real world science’ versus ‘technology used in The Sauder Diaries’. How does it differ?” – Matt Jenkins Introduction This is the second part of a three-part set answering this Question From the Audience. In the first installment I got about halfway through the first novel in “The Sauder Diaries”, sub-titled “By Any Other Name”. So, without further ado, allow me to continue on discussing the various technologies that Hans encounters and uses, and evalutate “The Reasonable Plausibility Level” (RPL) of each. Science and Techology of “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name”, Part 2 Double-barreled Flare gun The original flare gun was designed by American naval officer Edward Wilson Very (1847–1910). The system he developed and popularized…

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Questions From The Audience – July 18th, 2012

Post Views: 318 “Fanfic” — John Wiens While I am not sure how well I can deal with such a drilled-down and narrow-focus question, this is going to be the topic “du jour”. Fanfic is a two-word mash-up of “Fan” and “Fiction”. It’s loosely accepted to mean fiction writing produced by fans of an existing author, using that author’s story world and even sometimes characters. So in other words, if you are a fan of a 1980’s TV show called “Tales of the Gold Monkey”  and pen a short story about Jake and Sarah running into an orphan kid that they add to the crew, well that’s fanfic. You’re a fan and you’ve composed fiction set in your favorite existing setting. If you love the Twilight series, and…

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Questions From The Audience – July 10th, 2012

Post Views: 461 “I’d love to hear some more about ‘real world science’ versus ‘technology used in The Sauder Diaries’. How does it differ?” — Matt Jenkins Introduction One of the hallmarks of Steampunk is that it is often typified as “Victorian Science-Fiction”. In otherwords, the “science” component of the story needs to be within the scope of Victorian understanding. For example, Jule’s Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” is all well thought-out and reasonably plausible; the only hitch was that no one actually had the –ability– to build a ship like the Nautilus. The science theory supported the design, but the metalurgic reality did not. I’d like to draw your attention to a phrase I just used: “reasonably plausible”. What I term as the “The Reasonable Plausibility…

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Questions From The Audience – July 4th, 2012

Post Views: 199 “With the increasing popularity of steampunk, there seems to be some backlash from some of the more old-school steampunk enthusiasts, who resent the idea of ‘just paint something sepia and put some gears on it — steampunk!’ If you have any thoughts on that, I’d love to hear them.” — Daniel Swensen Hold onto your tophats, gentlemen, and clutch your parasols, ladies, because I am afraid I have to shock you all with the revelation that we have all been here before. Seriously. One of my favorite observations on human nature is that there is no more conservative a person than a rebel the day after winning the revolution. Fandom organizations, based on my own personal observations thus far, tend to bear this out.  The…

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