Rambling About Editing an Alternate History Anthology

Pat Rice here:I have just joined the author's co-op at Book View Cafe and was fascinated to read their new steampunk anthology, THE SHADOW CONSPIRACY. I had not realized how carefully researched and what historical detail is involved in producing one of these tales.

So I'm ceding today's space to Phyllis Irene Radford aka Ramblinphyl:

Last summer the Book View Cafe (http://bookviewcafe.com ), a consortium of authors on the web, decided to put together an anthology of original fiction.  Steampunk seemed like a hot topic so we explored the possibilities.  I jumped at the chance of adding the title of Editor to my resume.  It couldn't be that hard.  I'm an historian with 5 massive historical fantasies under my belt.  I'm reasonably knowledgeable about Victoriana, and I've run critique groups before.

Wow was I in for a surprise.  In the first place, editing is different from critiques.  This is almost as much my work as the author’s.  Therefore, it is much more intense, and the depth of revision requests startled me.  I have to hold the entire book in my head and work for a blended whole.  When I question a word choice or sentence structure, I'm doing it for the whole book, not just one story.  It is more than a suggestion and less than a demand.  Phrasing that has to be tooled to the unique author sensibility.

Then I got into  the research.  Steampunk starts with Victorian fashion, locations, and technology and spreads out from there.  No two people in the Steampunk community will define the sub genre the same.  I think the starting point is imagining what if science and technology grew up in the mid 1800s and people developed fabulous machines powered by steam.

I can work with that.  I watched the original “Wild Wild West” on TV and read some Jules Verne.  Victorian sensibilities demand that these machines must be as beautiful as they are useful.  That makes inventing things even more fun. 

The fashions speak for themselves. The Steampunk community spends a great deal of time and detail on their costumes.  All their adventures require proper fashion.  Modern feminist sensibilities allow the ladies to dress in more practical garments than their Victorian counterparts so they can accompany the men on the adventures.  Victorian ladies probably did too, but no one admitted it.  Modern thought also allows women to openly take on roles traditional assigned to men, dirigible pilots, boiler mechanics, and weapons experts.

Along my journey into Steampunk I re-discovered the romance of the movement.  That's Romance in the classic literary sense, not a couple in a clinch on the cover.  There's the romance of the grand adventure in exotic locations, the romance of lost empires and fabulous treasures, the romance of seeking the answers to universal questions of what makes ocean currents flow, how a volcano works, and why rivers change their courses. The edges of continents have been explored and largely settled.  The 1800’s saw the first expeditions into the unknown interiors.  This is the era of seeking. 

We start our stories with a detail, an odd factoid about an historical personage, or a lately discovered document that changes the perspective of long held opinions.  Then we allow the story to follow a new course of events.  The marvelous what if factor that blends the best of historical and speculative fiction.  We at Book View Cafe started with the documented mathematical genius of Lady Ada, Countess of Lovelace, the only legitimate child of Lord Byron. She and her partner Charles Babbage designed a difference engine, the first practical computer.  In our world they honed the technology to build it, and  it worked,  We added in some quirks of Lord Byron and Mary Shelley, a different take on the truth behind “Frankenstein”, and took them on a fantastic journey of the imagination.

I had so much fun delving deeply into Steampunk that I couldn't stop with one anthology.  We're planning a second.  And apparently few of my authors want to leave the world we have created.  Nearly all of them (myself included) turned in novellas instead of short stories. 

So, I’m here to announce the launch of SHADOW CONSPIRACY, Tales from the Age of Steam, edited by Phyllis Irene Radford and Laura Anne Gilman on Tuesday December 15, 2009 in a variety of e-book formats, available at http://www.bookviewcafe.com and on Amazon for the Kindle.

Ramblin' Phyl is dealing with a family health situation today, but if she can't check in, other members of the Book View Cafe should be by to help answer questions. I always related "steampunk" to purple spiky hair and resisted reading until recently, but the history in some of these stories is incredible, and the stories are lovely "what if" fantasies populated by fascinating historical figures. Have any of you read steampunk? Comments?

Comments

[theo]

Thanks for the post, Phyllis. I'm like Pat in that I associated steampunk with goth/mohawk hair/young adult. I had no idea so much goes into the stories.

I might just have to try it after all :)

[Linda Banche]

Sounds good to me. I love any kind of historical stories where the heroines do all kinds of things out of the norm for women. I especially like it when they find love with heroes who want them because they're nontraditional. I gotta buy this book.

[maryjoputney]

Aren't purple Mohawks cyberpunk, not steam punk? *g* I've read some steampunk, and love it. Love the idea, the combination of history and science fiction, and the open ended possibilities. How lovely that the talented writers of Book View Cafe have collaborated on this anthology.

But Phyl, your piece leaves me with a fervent desire never to edit anything!

Mary Jo

[Pati Nagle]

Yeah, the purple mohawks are not a steampunk thing, really (though there's a lot of "anything goes" in steampunk). Think Victoriana, polished brass, earth tones, lace, intricate weapons that are also beautiful.

Steampunk is a visual arts movement as much as a literary/film movement (there are several steampunk films in theatres right now, including the new Sherlock Holmes film). It's a fashion movement, not just in clothing but in design and decorating. People are giving their homes steampunk makeovers. It's pretty wild!

--Pati Nagle (Shadow Conspiracy author)

[Nancy Jane Moore]

I tend to think of steampunk as retro science fiction: Assume some of the science and technological ideas people had in the 19th Century worked then -- like Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, which modern people have actually built -- and write a story set in the 19th Century in which those things exist. Likewise some stories work with the religious and occult ideas in vogue then, adding a fantasy twist.

Once you get past the "gee whiz" of the tech or fantasy, you can start thinking about the effect those changes would have on the larger society, which was part of the fun for me as one of the contributors to The Shadow Conspiracy.

[Patricia Rice]

The Victorians had such perverted ideas that I've always rejected England in that era and preferred the Wild, Wild West version. But I have to admit, bringing in Byron and Ada Lovelace and the scheming Lady Byron has really upped my interest. Sort of--how did the Regency really end, merged with psychic melodrama and science. I'm fascinated.

[Katharine Kimbriel (BVC writer, but alas had no time for Vol 1 Steampunk)]

Here's a link to our blog -- we've got a picture of the actual difference engine up, plus a link to the NPR web site and a difference engine article:

http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2009/12/10/gimme-steam-2/

[Dana Sherwood]

I'm a big fan of the steampunk genre, and I'd add League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and even Neil Gaiman's Stardust to the list of movies in that genre. Robert De Niro makes an unforgettable airship sky pirate in Stardust.

The Illusionist also has a bit of steampunk in it. There's some in The Prestige, as well, but the electrical gadgetry negates the steampunk feel somewhat, at least for me.

I will definitely check out this anthology!

[Anne Gracie]

I don't know much about steampunk -- I'd heard it mentioned in passing, but never really investigated further, so I've found this really interesting.

Thanks Phyllis and Pat.

[Tori Lennox]

I am so looking forward to this book!!!

[Lyn S]

My daughter is now obsessed with Steampunk. As you state it is more than literature, it is clothes and lots of do-it-your self fabrication. See the exquisite keyboard at this site. http://steampunkworkshop.com/keyboard.shtml Scroll 2/3 way down to see the final product. The main site has an excellent explanation of all things Steampunk. Steampunk is getting a new generation interested in Victoriana. A series by Libba Bray crosses over between the old fashioned Victoria Holt books (gothic romance, though my daughter would argue that definition)you remember reading and the new strong female protanganist that this generation expects, with magic thrown in. Although Bray's series is not Steampunk, it has many of the same elements, such as alternative history and detailed dress descriptions. The strong female is a good part of how Steampunk has updated Victoriana. A nice example I just read is Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti.

[Maggie Robinson/Margaret Rowe]

I'm all for suspending/altering reality. And the clothes are divine! This book sounds fascinating. I'm asking santa for more time to read next year.

[Patricia Rice]

I hadn't realized Steampunk was such a large movement until I started picking up a few books in the genre. There are mysteries and romance as well as fantasy. But Victorian clothes really do need altering. "G"
And Maggie, if you figure out how to gift time, let me know!

[Andrea Penrose]

Well, you have me hooked! I have to confess, when I first heard the term "steampunk" I thought it meant some very hot, edgy, modern urban fantasy genre, and as such, wasn't on the top of my TBR list. Butyour anthology sounds absolutely intriguing. Love the idea of taking historical facts and people, then letting yours minds spin in the "what if" mode.

Thanks for sharing!

[Jennifer Stevenson]

I'm more a romance writer than a science fiction writer but I had no trouble thinking of something to write about when The Shadow Conspiracy was floated around Book View Cafe as an anthology idea. My interests about class issues and the borders between magic, religion, and science came together in, duh, romantic comedy. (Don't everyone's?) I don't play well with bibles, though. So I found a time pocket in the group universe where nobody else was playing and wrote my little revolutionary ethical humanist romcom in that.

[Patricia Rice]

Thanks everyone for stopping by the wenches and 'splaining steampunk to us! Blue skies and good sales ahead...

[Patricia Barraclough]

Have heard a lot about steam punk lately. Jules Verne was the first name that came to mind. Hadn't thought of The Wild, Wild West. Loved that railcar.
Too bad I don't do e-books. Your anthology sounds good.

[henrylow]

Having been a part of the Online Universal Work Marketing team for 4 months now, I’m thankful for my fellow team members who have patiently shown me the ropes along the way and made me feel welcome

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