What is Steambunk?

In my book Walking a Fine Timeline I have a character named Dr. Wendell Howe. When Dr. Serendipity Brown and her assistant, Sherman Conrad, get stuck in the year 1851, they run into a gentleman in a top hat and frockcoat calling himself Dr. Howe. They assume he is a native, until he recognizes Serendipity as the inventor of time travel. She has not announced her invention to anyone, save Sherman. How could Howe know who she is unless he himself is from the future?--Serendipity’s future!

Wendell tells them he is a Temporal Anthropologist from the 27th century. Temporal Anthropologists are trained to fit so well into their chosen time period of study that they no longer fits in their own. Wendell can’t stand 27th century clothes and wears a frockcoat in 2660. He even shaves with a straight razor. What necessary future technology he has with him is carefully disguised to look Victorian.

A lot of people have told me Wendell is steampunk. Purists would beg to differ. Steampunk is Victorians with futuristic things like computers and rockets created with Victorian technology. Think H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. Wendell is just the opposite. He is a man from the future with Victorian things like pocket Bibles and glasses that are really a computer and camera using 27th century technology. He is faux-Victorian. Wendell is what I call “steambunk.”

I wrote a story called “The Spirit of Tea,” which features Wendell throwing a tea party for the Wild Bunch (the real Wild Bunch, not the warm fuzzies of popular culture) and living to tell the tale. I was surprised when it was accepted into Gears & Levers 2: A Steampunk Anthology. So I guess steambunk is now an “official” subgenre of steampunk.

I invented the term just as I invented Temporal Anthropology. I have since learned a few other people who never heard of me have also invented Temporal Anthropology. Let’s face it, it’s a no-brainer term. What else would you call someone who travels into another time to study another culture? And even though Wendell is from England, Victorian England is a totally different culture than 27th century England (or even 21st century England.)

Perhaps all those folks who show up to steampunk conventions in carefully recreated period Victorian garb and not the pseudo-Victorian that is true steampunk are really steambunk.

Now here is the kicker. After I wrote my book I ran across a forgotten novel called The British Barbarians by Grant Allen. Published in 1895, the exact same time as H.G. Wells The Time Machine, it is also a time travel story. While Wells has a Victorian inventing a time machine and traveling into the future, Allen has a man from the 25th century travel back to the Victorian Age and try to pass himself off as a native. By the way the time traveler, Bertram Ingledew, talks he appears to be an anthropologist. He later admits he has come back in time to study the barbarians of Victorian England. Allen never uses the term Temporal Anthropologist but that is what his hero is. (Just goes to show you, no matter how clever you are, someone else has already came up with the idea.)

So if H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine is steampunk, then Grant Allen’s The British Barbarians is steambunk. There you go, my newly invented term has a long and illustrious history.



Grant Allen - the first steambunk author?
(He stole my idea 113 years before I invented it.)
 

Support Your Local Indie Author

Okay, I don’t like bugging people because you all have lives of your own, but if you read my book and like it, please tell someone. Put a review on Amazon, Good Reads, SmashWords or your own blog. Then let me know about it so I can put it on my website.

Now you are saying “I don’t know how to write a review.” You don’t have to be a literary major with a detailed critique. It doesn’t have to be long. A few sentences are fine. It also doesn’t and shouldn’t be over the top like “the greatest book I ever read.” Just give your honest opinion. What would you tell a friend if you recommended the book to them?

The New Yorker sure as heck won’t review an Indie author. We are rebels, an underground movement fighting the establishment. And when you support an Indie author instead of some big publishing house telling you what to read, then you are a rebel, too. We don’t have the backing of mass media, we need a grassroots campaign.

Most people probably assume I am self-published because no publisher wanted me. It’s just the opposite. I never submitted my book to anyone. I have heard too many horror stories. The New York Publishers are using practices that would not be tolerated in other business community, like contracts a lawyer couldn’t understand (you have to get a specialized one) or tricking writers over the phone into “signing” verbal contracts (legal in New York.) Even if they play fair the best you can ever hope for is 8% of the profits (and that’s only if you are a superstar.) I’m a small town girl who is used to being treated fairly. I decided I didn’t want to deal with these guys.

Another problem is I’ve heard so many authors complain about how they get rewritten by publishers--not to make a better book but to sell more copies. They don’t recognize their book anymore. Throw in some S&M scenes and some zombies. I have heard of many authors being turned down with “we love the book, but we don’t think the general public (who we think are morons) would like it.” I am willing to rewrite to make a scene better, but not to make it “sell better” to people who watch slash films.

Thanks to Print On Demand and ebooks, authors can circumvent the big boys to get to the readers. The good news anyone can publish now. The bad news is anyone can publish now. There is a lot junk out there from writers who don’t bother to get an editor and polish their first draft. So Indies need reviews, word of mouth, to let other readers know what is worth reading.

If you don’t like my writing, that’s fine. It just means you prefer a different genre or style. (If everyone liked the same thing I would have to write about sparkly vampires.) However, I do want you to support the Indies you do like, since they are in the same boat as me. At least hit the “like” button on their Amazon page.

Be part of the Indie Uprising. Viva la Revolution!

Where's Wendell?

TimeTweets, which allowed Dr. Wendell Howe to tweet to the folks back in the 27th century from the 19th was an experimental application. Unfortunately the Institute of Time Travel Enforcement Agency has found out those tweets were somehow bleeding into the 21st century! They had no choice but to try to convince everyone on Twitter this was all a hoax. The Enforcers were also forced to erase Wendell’s memory of Twitter and all the friends he made. He will miss not being able to Tweet on those lonely nights in the field...except he doesn’t remember so he can’t really miss it. He will however feel there is a void in his life.

Soon Wendell will disappear mysteriously on his trip to 1851 in a few months. After a long hunt, the Institute will announce they found bits of him in the past. The University of Cambridge and the whole town will have Wendell’s funeral in 2662, but don’t worry, he is very much alive. And you will just have to read my book to find out what happens to Wendell. (Okay, the free 14 chapter preview will tell you where he went, but not the whole story. For that you have to buy the book.)

My @Wendell_Howe Twitter site was an experiment in marketing. (Gawd, I feel cheap.) But writers have to market their own books nowadays, no matter how they publish. In reality, the aim of a writer is not to make everyone buy his book, since not everyone will like it, but to just let as many people as possible know it exists.

I was going to promote myself on Twitter back in 2009, but after a couple of months I discovered just how boring my life is. So I decided to Tweet as one of my characters. I set Wendell back four years before the events of the book. I figured I would have the book published in a year (naïve me.) Now I have to stop Wendell's Tweets, or I will have to rewrite the book with him Tweeting all the way through it. If I had been smart I would have set @Wendell_Howe back twenty years.

But then maybe that would not have been good, either. Wendell’s tweets were taking up a LOT of my time. I had to do a lot of detective work to find out if a certain building was where Wendell was in the past. What did it look like then? What sort of food would he be eating? How long would it take in 1894 to go from point A to point B by ship? Could he run into a certain person on that date or were they somewhere else? I would spend hours tracking someone down only to learn they were out of town that month. And I’m such a stickler for accuracy, it had to be right.

Not that it wasn’t fun. I’m one of those crazy people that actually likes doing research. I also learned more about Wendell. If you have been following @Wendell_Howe all this time you will recognize some of the things he mentions in the book as things he did while on Twitter. (Like seeing Central Park being built or the driving of the Last Spike on the Canadian Railway.)

@Wendell_Howe was cutting into time I could have been working on my novels. I have a first draft for my second book I need to rewrite, polish and get edited. I also need to finish the draft on my third book, but keep getting distracted by scenes in my head from the fourth book I have to write down. (Yes, there are voices in my head and it’s usually my characters having conversations.)

Also things have come up in my personal life that require more attention. No, thank God, my husband doesn’t want a divorce. My Mom is pushing 80, is having health problems and needs more of my help.

Though Wendell is gone, he is not forgotten. Archibald Cocker, the student Wendell was mentoring to become a temporal anthropologist, will have a Dr. Wendell Howe (@Wendell_Howe) memorial Tweet site. He will also be the webmaster of the Association of Temporal Anthropologists blog. On the blog will be articles by other temporal anthropologists out in the field, doing things Wendell could never do in eras he could never go to. Archie will also occasionally put up old articles written by Wendell before his disappearance. Since I won’t need to know where every building and person in town is, I can just concentrate on one event. I plan to do a post a week. And Archie will announce it on Twitter.

Keep in mind I love forgotten historic trivia, so I promise some surprises. I also have other Temporal Anthropologists I want you to meet. They are from my next book (as well as in my head.)

Thank you for following Wendell and keeping him company...yes, I do think of him in the third person (and so does my husband.) And I know you will all make Archie feel welcome.


Go to Scablander.com and download the 14 chapter preview of Walking a Fine Timeline. Try it on for size; see if you like it.

Ebook available for $2.99 at Smashwords, Amazon, AmazonUK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and iTunes.

Trade Paperback available for $13.99 at Amazon and AmazonUK.

Pulp-O-Miser

Okay, this has nothing to do with anything except it's just neat-o. Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual has an onsite application called a Pulp-O-Miser. With it you can make mock covers of mid-twentieth century science fiction magazines. You simply choose a mag title, foreground figure, background, and come up with your own story titles, or just let the mad scientist who designed this generate random ones. Here are a couple I made:

As you can see they are even look pre-worn to give it a more authentic appearance.

Pulp-O-Miser claims to be the brain-child of mad scientist Cornelius Zappencackler but is fact from writer and illustrator,  Bradley W. Schenck. Bradley is also the talent behind Retropolis: Art of the Future That Never Was

So go ahead and create your own circa 1950 sci-fi mag cover with Pulp-O-Miser.

Hey! I'm Exotic...Somewhere

I really haven’t been keeping up this blog because I feel I really don’t have anything worth saying. I live my life vicariously in my writing. However as dull as I think my life is, there are places in the world I would be considered exotic.

Anyone who gets on Twitter and just talks to people in their own neck of the woods is really missing out. As homogenous as the world has appeared to become, there are still cultural differences brought on by history, environment and attitude. We all live someplace unique even if it doesn’t seem so.

One time on Twitter I was complaining about my husband and his friend (both Gemini) getting lost on some back road in an attempt at finding a shortcut. (I was dragged along.) We found ourselves in the middle of nowhere with only a farmhouse every ten miles. Wheat farmers have to have HUGE fields to grow enough to survive. Beyond that was land completely empty because it was too rocky to plow.

A girl twitted back to me “OMG what a lonely country you live in!” I looked at her location. She was from India, a land known for being crowded. I realized this poor girl would be as freaked out standing in an empty wheat field as I would be in a noisy city like Bombay. She considered my world as exotic as I would find hers.

Indeed many have romantic notions about the West, yearning to see sagebrush and tumbleweeds. Sorry but sagebrush is related to goldenrod and wrecks havoc on your hay fever, and tumbleweeds are a nuisance that pile up like snow drifts. And there is nothing romantic about a dust storm! And yet there are bars in Tokyo where people dress up like cowboys, yearning for them wide-open spaces.

People in Britain drive past castles until they are invisible to them. Sitar music is background noise to people in India. Brazilians don’t look twice at wild orchids. Australians cuss out kangaroos jumping in front of their cars. And New Yorkers think anyone who can’t talk AND listen at the same time is mentally challenged.

So as you go about your daily grind and figure you have to live in the most boring place in the world, remember someone somewhere would consider your town exciting and you quite exotic.

Twelve Days of Christmas

Here is my story submission "Beautiful Woman" to the 12 Days of Christmas project for "Seven Swans a Swimming". 12 Days of Christmas

The title is not what you are thinking, and neither are the seven swans.

By the way, it has nothing to do with my books or time travel.

Tales of Twelve Characters

Illunse tagged me for a challenge called Tales of Twelve Characters. Apparently Illunse was tagged by Kendra who swiped it from Earwen--or something like that. Basically you first list twelve characters from any genre and then answer a couple of dozen questions with them.

Illunse said I could use my own characters. I don’t know if that’s fair to you since you won’t know most (or all) of them. I listed the characters in order of appearance. The first seven appear in my first book Walking a Fine Timeline as well as the second book, and the next five are introduced in the second book Fairhaven House for Wayward Time Travelers.

Here are a couple of excerpts: Chapter 1, book 1 and Chapter 5, Book 1. Also I have a short story The Debriefing, showing the Enforcers and Wendell’s world before Serendipity.

I hope this doesn’t give too many spoilers.

1. Dr. Serendipity Brown - Inventor of Time Travel from 2353
2. Sherman Conrad - fast food worker from 1985. Serendipity’s assistant.
3. Bruce Dawson - Serendipity’s womanizing, gambling, verbally abusive ex-husband #6
4. Dr. Wendell Howe - Temporal Anthropologist (T.A.) from 27th Century studying Victorian Age. Persona: English scholar. Becomes Serendipity’s Time Travel Consultant.
5. Dr. Tobias Leach - T.A. studying Victorian Age. Persona: English gentleman. He’s been recording 19th century brothels--not the history or social impact, just his own exploits. His books outsell all other T.A.s books combined. The other T.A.s consider Tobias a sell-out and a pervert.
6. Dr. Henry Darrel - T.A. studying 19th century American working man. Persona: cowboy.
7. Agent 5 - Leader of Team 5 for the Institute of Time Travel Enforcement Agency in the 27th century. His job is to make sure time travelers don’t affect history. Serendipity is outside his jurisdiction.
8. Dr. Matilda Warwick - T.A. recording art and culture of Medieval Convents. Persona: lay nun.
9. Dr. Abubakari Djata - T.A. recording lost books of medieval Timbuktu. Persona: Mali scholar
10. Dr. Eric Olafson - T.A. studying European Dark Ages. Persona: Viking Blacksmith. Looks like a blonde grizzly bear.
11. Nathan Brown - Serendipity’s ancestor, founder of Brown family. Freed slave, Revolutionary War veteran. Serendipity saves him on day he “disappeared” and takes him to the future to retire.
12. Dr. Veronica “Sunshine” Drew - T.A. studying 1960s & 1970s. Persona: Hippie

1. Who would make a better college professor, 6 or 11?
Henry is associated with the University of Wyoming and like all Temporal Anthropologists has to give lectures on his findings. Nathan is in his seventies and is illiterate. He is learning to read though at a fast rate. If Nathan had the opportunities and same education as Henry, I think he might have made the better professor. Henry would chafe at a desk job.

2. Do you think #2 is hot?
Sherman is only nineteen. I like younger men, but not THAT young. Sherman wears glasses and is too short, too skinny, too geeky--so yeah, I think he’s hot.

3. 12 sends 8 out on a mission. What is it? Does it succeed?
Sunshine (12) is in love with Eric (10). Matilda (8) would be more familiar with the dark ages than Sunshine. Sunshine just might send Matilda out to find the perfect gift for a Viking. Maybe Matilda would come back with mead. You can’t go wrong with mead.

4. What is or what would be 9's favorite book?
Dr. Abubakari Djata’s favorite book is Tarikh al-Sudan, or History of the Sudan by Abd al-Rahman al-Sadi, written 1653. It’s a history of Timbuktu from its founding to 1653.

5. Would it make more sense for 2 to swear fealty to 6, or the other way around?
Sherman is a teenager from the 1980s and Henry is a cowboy ingrained in the 19th century. Neither is going to “swear fealty” to anyone. Both would however without hesitation promise to help the other in any way possible.

6. For some reason, 5 is looking for a roommate. Should (s)he room with 9 or 10?
This actually happened in book two. Serendipity got four motel rooms, each with two double beds and she can’t get any more rooms. There is one unoccupied bed in one room either Tobias, Eric or Abubakari can have, and the other two will have to share room four. Everyone is a little reluctant to share a room with a Viking, but nobody likes Tobias. So Eric volunteers to share a room with Tobias just so he can make Tobias miserable. That’s about as mean as Eric gets.

7. 2, 7 and 12 are going out to dinner. Where do they go and what do they discuss?
Sherman, Agent 5 and Sunshine? Agent 5 isn’t allowed to fraternize with Temporal Anthropologists like Sunshine or people from the past like Sherman. If Agent 5 did “invite” them to dinner it would be to either interrogate them or to give them some crucial information that would prevent history from being changed by some renegade.

8. 3 challenges 10 to a duel, who wins?
Blowhard Bruce challenge Eric? Come on, Wendell took on Bruce, and Eric can pin Wendell like he was a little kid. If Bruce was stupid enough to challenge Eric, Eric would probably just pick him up and ask “Do you really want to fight?”

9. If 1 stole 8's most precious possession, how would (s)he get it back?
I suppose Matilda’s most prized possession is a small wooden box with photos and letters from friends she takes with her when she gets homesick. I can’t imagine why Serendipity would want to steal it, even if Wendell’s old love letters are in there.

10. Suggest a story title in which 7 and 12 both attain what they desire.
“Revenge on the Renegade” Agent 5 would like to find the leader of the Time Keepers and Sunshine would to find who kidnapped her. Neither knows who it is, or that it’s the same person.

11. What kind of plot device would you have to use if you wanted 1 and 4 to work together?
Serendipity just shows up, announces who she is and Wendell instantly destroys his career to help her. (Chapter 5, Book 1) Of course there is some questions if this past and future incident contributed to that. (excerpt Chapter 5, Book 2)

12. If 7 visited you for the weekend, how would it go?
Agent 5? The Enforcer? It would not be a social call. Trust me, you don’t want him to visit.

13. If you could command 3 to perform any service or task for you, what would it be?
We would all like to tell Bruce to go drown himself. Perhaps just tell him to go away and leave Serendipity alone.

14. Does anyone on your friends list write or draw 11?
Nathan is illiterate because he was never able to go to school, so he’s never had a letter. Wendell is teaching him to read and write. Everyone he knows in 2010 lives in the house with him. Abubakari is the first to leave, so Nathan might get a letter from Timbuktu. However if Nathan ever commented on the fact that he never had a letter around Serendipity, I could see her hopping back in the past a week or two to go to the other side of the world to send “grandpa” a letter.

As for who might draw Nathan: Eric might carve him on a wooden panel, but he would look like an abstract Viking design. If Matilda drew Nathan, he would look like a figure from a medieval manuscript. Sunshine would make Nathan look like a Peter Max poster.

15. If 2 had to choose sides between 4 and 5, what side would (s)he choose?
No contest if Sherman had to choose between Wendell or Tobias. Wendell has always been nice to Sherman and he considers Wendell one of his best friends. Tobias has always been rude to Sherman and he considers Tobias a jerk.

16. What might 10 shout out while charging into battle?
“GO GOLDEN GOPHERS!” Eric isn’t allowed to fight in battles in the past. I’m sure though he has attended many University of Minnesota football games.

17. If you had to choose a song to best describe 8, what would it be?
If I said “Waltzing Matilda,” the Aussie wouldn’t appreciate it. Her Dad named her after the Australian National Anthem in a fit of whimsical patriotism. Perhaps this song would: Kyrie Eleison by Hildegard von Bingen.

18. 1, 6 and 12 are having a dim sum at a Chinese Restaurant. There is only one scallion pancake left, and they all reach for it at the same time. Who gets it?
Serendipity. Henry, being a gentleman, would pull his hand back when he saw two ladies reaching for it. Sunshine, the flower child, would avoid the bad vibes taking it would bring. Serendipity acts, then thinks. After she stuffed it in her mouth and realized the other two were reaching for it too, she’d order another plate of dim sum.

19. What would be a good pickup line for 2 to say to 10?
Pickup line? That’s not happening, neither are gay. Sherman might invite Eric for some male bonding with “Wanna go get a pizza?” Now, if they were both gay, “Wanna go get a pizza?” would still work.

20. What would 5 most likely be arrested for?
Trying to solicit a hooker, who was really an undercover cop.

21. What is 6's secret?
He knows Matilda and Wendell have an “Understanding.” (Or at least did, before Wendell met Serendipity.) Henry can’t mention it to Wendell or Matilda. Wendell knows about Henry but can’t mention it to him or Matilda. He also knows Henry is her favorite. Matilda can’t tell either one about the other and feels most guilty about the fact that Henry is her favorite because she is fond of Wendell and doesn’t want him to feel second best. Wendell knows this though it‘s never been mentioned, which makes him all the more fond of Matilda, because she goes out of her way not to make him feel second best. This would make a great soap opera if everyone involved wasn’t being so polite.

22. If 11 and 9 were racing to a destination, who would get there first?
Abubakari is the oldest at 120 although physically he is in his late fifties. Nathan is in his seventies, but has had to work hard all his life, so he’s in good shape. Maybe Abubakari might win, but Nathan wouldn’t be far behind.

23. If you had to walk home through a bad neighborhood late at night, who would you feel more comfortable walking with, 7 or 8?
Matilda would be better company, but Agent 5 is an Enforcer. He could probably defeat any mugger just by glaring at them.

24. 1 and 9 reluctantly team up to save the world from the threat posed by 4's sinister secret organization. 11 volunteers to help them, but it is later discovered that s/he is actually a spy for 4. Meanwhile, 4 has kidnapped 12 in an attempt to force their surrender. Following the wise advice of 5, they seek out 3, who gives them what they need to complete their quest. What title would you give this fiction?
Huh? Wendell sinister? Tobias wise? Bruce give anyone anything? All right, this is fiction. Here goes nothing.

One day Wendell is brewing a pot of tea. He pulls out his pocket watch to time the brewing while a storm brews outside the window. He accidentally triggers the Theta Wave in the watch just as lighting strikes a tree, ricochets off and hits Wendell. It shorts his brain making Wendell more susceptible to the Theta Waves. Since he was concentrating on the tea at that moment, he becomes even more obsessed than normal with the brown brew. Wendell goes bonkers and decides to destroy all the “nasty” coffee in the world, so everyone will be forced to drink tea.

Realizing the threat this could be to her morning cup of coffee, Serendipity enlists Abubakari’s help. He is the African history expert and would know where and when to find coffee trees in Ethiopia, if Wendell succeeds. Nathan volunteers to help his “grand-daughter” Serendipity, but they discover Wendell has brainwashed Nathan with a compliance disk. Serendipity uses another compliance disk to free Nathan.

In the meantime, Wendell kidnaps the trusting Sunshine, promising her tea. The hippie thought he meant the kind you smoke, not the kind you drink. Serendipity and company dare not move directly against Wendell now that he has Sunshine hostage.

Serendipity goes to the other Temporal Anthropologists asking advice. No one can suggest anything except Tobias, who mumbles that maybe Wendell should get laid. Serendipity tries to seduce Wendell, but he is too obsessed with his diabolical plan to notice her. Abubakari suggests that Tobias’s idea might still be the answer, if they raise the stakes and make Wendell jealous. They seek out Serendipity’s ex, Bruce.

Bruce recalls the humiliation he suffered at Wendell’s hand, tells him he’s going to take Serendipity back. Remembering how miserable Bruce had made Serendipity’s life, Wendell comes to his senses, and scares Bruce off (which doesn’t take much). Serendipity takes Wendell to a 24th century hospital and has the brain damage fixed. Coffee is saved! Wendell is back to his former self and all is forgiven. Happy ending!

Synopsis for upcoming novel “To Tea or not to Tea” or “Coffee, Tea or Me.” (Nah, this is too far-fetched even for me.)

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Now, I have tagged the following people so we can keep this going. As soon as they do theirs I will put in a link to their sites. If this sounds like something you would like to try, feel free to ask to be tagged in the comments below, or better yet at my Twitter site, @Scablander.

@mousewords - Christine Taylor Tale of Twelve
@Invextrix - Twelve Character Story
@SimonScotland - Simon Lloyd
@jcimpellizzeri - Jorge Impellizzeri