Babel Clash

Thanks for having me on Babel Clash! It’s not often that I get a chance to show up for the apocalypse… In the spirit of the Victorians, however, I refuse to let a little bad news get me down. Instead, let us sally forth!

George and I have both had novels set in New York City, so I thought I’d start out by examining the reasoning that led to me setting my first book in 1800s New York rather than the typical urban caverns of Victorian London.

First and foremost, I was actually born on the island of Manhattan; although I haven’t actually lived in New York since this most recent turn of the century, I still hold a very soft spot for the concrete canyons and mean streets of the five boroughs.

New York City, Times Square: Longacre Square in the Blizzard of 1888

But beyond my accident of birth, I was also attracted to the city’s amazing history, and the fact that the time period I was setting the book in (1880 to be exact) was a pivotal moment. After the devastating years following the Civil War, New York was once again growing at an incredibly rapid rate. It was just before amazing new inventions such as the telephone, electric light, and the elevator would allow for the construction of skyscrapers that would transform it into what we consider to be a modern metropolis.

New York of that period was also plagued by shocking displays of poverty and decay that would remain at odds with the city’s reputation for wealth and industry over the next hundred years. This was a Big Apple tilting from the old world into the new: a fertile ground for steampunk storytelling.

But London has similar charms. Even though it wasn’t the land of my birth, my mother had been born and raised in London. And where New York is locked into “the new”, the English capital holds many of the ancient mysteries and true grandeur that only a city 2,000 years old can hold. And during the late 1800s London was at one of its heights, blending together the ancient and the modern, as mysticism and antiquity rubbed elbows with science and technology.

London in the late 1800's: Fleet Street, by James Valentine c1890

So what was it that finally made me choose to go with the younger metropolis? The obvious answer is that I knew more about the city I grew up in. But I’m not afraid of research, I’m sure that given enough time I would have managed to create a British world every bit as dynamic and exciting as the American one that I’ve (hopefully) created for The Society of Steam. The clincher, in my case, is my book wasn’t just going to be steampunk tale, it was also going to be a story about superheroes.

It’s been great having Seanan and Devon on these past two weeks.  All of their posts were filled with lots of great content and ideas (and lots of good tips for aspiring writers).  While it’s sad to see them go, as is customary here, their last day shall be used to plug any past, current, or future projects!  Let the self-promotion commence!

Then, when the dust clears, we’ll be joined by two authors who combine some of my favorite things - steampunk, superheroes, and New York City!

First, let’s welcome George Mann back to the blog!  His latest series for Pyr follows The Ghost and should not be missed.

Joining George is Andrew P. Mayer, who debuts the Society of Steam series with Pyr this year! This series follows the adventures of Sarah Stanton on her path to becoming a hero in a time where women weren’t even allowed to vote.

Again, please join me in thanking Seanan and Devon for their time on the blog and welcoming George and Andrew!

Do the worlds and characters I’m writing about ever surprise me? Oh, heck yes. That’s half the fun of the writing gig, don’t you think?

I was at a steampunk event recently, and the audience asked us authors what came first in our writing, the world or the characters?

I was the only author who said I always, always know my characters first and the world develops out of their conflicts, emotions, hopes and fears. It’s not like I fill out a dating questionnaire for my characters, throw them off cliffs to find out what note they scream, or have their shoe size memorized. (Okay, maybe I do one of those things. I’ll let you guess which one.) I just sort of shrug into their skin, immerse in their emotions, discover their hurts, their wants and needs, and then I look out through their eyes at the world around them. It’s a method I developed back when I was writing a lot of short stories, and needed be able to get in and out of people and worlds quickly.

Even though I spend a lot of time in my characters’ heads, that isn’t to say I don’t put a lot of time into creating their worlds too. I could show you my reams of notes and scribbles and long conversations with my genius first readers, not to mention the giant whiteboard that takes up my office wall.

But all that happens after I know who I’m writing about. Because, as a reader, it’s the who that interests me most. I loves me a well thought-out and flawlessly created world, but don’t give a flying monkey poo about it if there aren’t interesting, engaging people in that world for me to love and hate.

Do I outline? Yes. Sometimes it’s as little as one sentence for each chapter. Sometimes it’s a synopsis of the major events in the order that they should appear–which has saved my bacon more than once trying to keep the nine-book urban fantasy series straight. Or sometimes at the beginning of a writing session, I’ll note what needs to happen next in the story: “surrounded by life-sucking ghosts. Someone better come up with a plan” or cue myself to a pivotal emotional point: “she realizes there is nothing she can do to stop his death.”

But the one thing I always, always know about a story is the final scene. I don’t start writing, not even one little word, before I know where the book is going to end. Once I can see that clearly in my mind, then I have at it. I follow the characters through the things I planned and things I most certainly did not expect, all the while aiming for that last scene.

Hopefully, by the time I get there I will have written a book that holds together on its own whether or not it resembles my original outline. Even though I am a plotter, it really is only by finishing the book that I find out what it’s all about. And then I set about the second draft business to make that story shine.

Which means, yes. I agree with you, Seanan. The writing comes first. See? No creepy Care Bears needed. Now tell them to put down those knives, m’kay?

But I am curious. Do you plan what scene you need to write next, or have an ending in mind for your books, characters, and world? Or do those Care Bears of yours bring you candy-coated plot bon-bons with your morning tea?

Creepy Care Bears aside, I agree with you, Seanan.  Switching between genres can be a trick.  I’ve never thought about using scents to clue me into the brain space needed for a certain project.  Probably because I don’t have a plethora of lovely perfumes to choose from. Not that I’m jealous.  Nope, not at all.  (Okay, I totally am.) But for me, I think music is the best trigger to indicate which of my worlds is on the writing block for the day.

You also mentioned brain freeze–when you get stuck in one genre and no matter what trick you use, you’re still in that genre. Yep. I totally get that.  I just go with it.  I figure the freeze will thaw once the shiny of whatever idea I’m chasing wears off, or the scene that has me brain-tight is finally down on the page.  My mantra is go with the flow, or the freeze, as the case may be.

But let’s talk more about TV, the great distraction on the wall.  I don’t watch a lot of shows regularly. But when I’m writing the steampunk, I find myself hungry for visual candy.  I’ve always had a fascination with history, and I love filling my brain with images of everything, from hats to the inside framework of old buildings.  And it’s not just the TV that fills that hole for me, though it certainly helps. 

I watch movies, browse old patent applications, look for failed or unmarketed inventions, and thumb through the pages of old catalogs.  I get excited about going to steam locomotive shows so I can look at bolts and welds and valves, find myself mapping ghost towns, visiting museums, and walking graveyards to read the headstones. TV, books, the internet, documentary clips, magazines, newspapers, audio clips, and anything else I can get my grubby hands on, all get stuffed into my brain and into the steampunk world I’m building. I can’t get enough of it.  I am hungry for the look, taste, smell and feel of times gone past.

Urban fantasy doesn’t set off my craving for images quite as much. Maybe that’s because I can drive through Portland Oregon (the town where my urban fantasy books are set) and look for a chocolate shop for a haunt, or a warehouse for a battle, or a neighborhood resistant to magic. There have been the occasions when I’ve hit a scene and suddenly thought, “how would this person decorate?  What kind of architecture reflects his personality or his lifestyle?” and gone to look through magazines, or online sites for interior design ideas. But mostly, the urban fantasy is clear in my mind, without me needing to go on visual research binges.

Some authors put together character boards with photos of their characters: the kind of clothes they wear, the car they drive, the house they live in, and the full background on their life history.  I don’t do that.  My characters come to me pretty much whole cloth, and then I discover cool little details about them as I write them on the page.

How about you, Seanan?  Are you one of those kinds of writers who puts together visual clues before you start writing?  Do you interview and chart and map out the details of your characters before you head into a project? Or do you just jump in and wing it?

Seanan pointed out that even before you open a book, the cover art and design is giving you clues about what kind of story it contains. She also says you can tell a lot about a genre by how your character walks into a bar.  (Care Bears with boobs and knives?  Really, Seanan? How am I going to scrub *that* image out of my brain?)  But even with cool covers and pissed off Care Bears, it can be tricky to figure out what makes a book fall into a specific genre.

I’m writing two very different series right now.  One is urban fantasy and one is steampunk set in the American west.  Both of these genres are the kind that people ask me to define.  I try.  Really, I do.  But there is so much crossover in urban fantasy (we know it must have a fantasy or “paranormal” element, but is it mostly a mystery? Romance? Noir? Comedy? Fantasy? Science fiction? Horror? Crime story?) that it is difficult to give a single description that fits all urban fantasy.  Plus writers are creative little critters and they like to mess with stuff.  So it’s pretty safe to say that urban fantasy pulls from the tropes of at least a dozen genres.    

Then we have steampunk.  I can’t keep track of how many people have asked me what steampunk really is.  Heck, I’ve asked what it is too–and I write the stuff!  I’ve heard some good definitions, but steampunk is another one of those genres that has massive cross-over appeal.  Is steampunk adventure fiction? Alternate history? Romance? Fantasy? Science fiction? Horror? Humor? Scientific romance? Yes, yes! And more.

Since I’m writing urban fantasy and steampunk at the same time, I often get interrupted to take care of something else in the other series.  That means I need some tricks to flip my brain toggle between genres.

Luckily, both series have a different emotional center for me.  Even as a reader, I’m looking for different things from urban fantasy books than I am from steampunk books.  It is not just the setting, characters, story lines and tropes that are different, it is also the “feel” of the books that make them two very different beasties in my mind.  The urban fantasy I’m writing is fast-paced, funny, dark, sarcastic, intense, sweet, dangerous, filled with a sense of awe and set in an alternate magical present.  The steampunk I write is a study in contrasts: dark/ poetic, gritty/melancholy, adventuresome/ down-to-earth, mechanical/magical, reserved/wild, and full of the what-if wonders set in an alternate historical past. 

And while the characters from one series simply would not fit into the world of the other series (kind of like Seanan’s stuck-in-a-jar/shot-in-the-chest analogy) there was the one time I pulled up out of a deep immersion in the steampunk to write the urban fantasy, and for a page or two, my urban fantasy smartypants character was talking like he lived in the 1800s.  My brain had gotten stuck in steampunk mode.  It was hilarious to listen to my street-wise big-mouth talk like a cowboy, but it didn’t fit him.  At all.

So I used a quick trick to shift my brain, and my emotional center: music.  For the most part, I listen to alternative rock when writing urban fantasy. It works for the mood of the book and really keeps me going. But when I started writing steampunk, I just couldn’t concentrate with all that rock and roll blaring in my ears.  Luckily, I love old jigs, reels, drinking songs and folk music. And the “era-gone-by” feel of that old music fit nicely with the feel I needed to enter steampunk-mood.

Seanan, do you use any tricks to get “in-the-mood” for your books?  Ever start writing in one world and realize you were writing with the other world’s “tone”? Or is it easy for you to flip your brain toggle?

Why do I write in two different genres?  It was an accident.  But, wait!  I can explain.

Seanan did a great job starting us off on the topic of why we write in multiple genres.  I agree that the concept of genre is rigidly defined and controlled, and there’s a good reason for that.  The good reason?  Readers.

We readers are looking for specific experiences when we pick up a book.  If we like horror, we want to be cowering under the covers.  Mystery?  Give us clues until our brains hurt.  Romance?  Love, baby, in all its frustrating, funny, heartbreaking goodness.  
   
As readers, we gravitate toward wanting to explore certain experiences when we crack open those covers.  And to make those experiences easy to find, books–heck, even  movies and songs–are sorted into genres.

But here’s a little secret: a lot of the things those genres contain can be found in other genres.  No really, it’s true.  Because no matter how we sort and separate, books are about human experiences, human emotions, human everythignness.  Cue my best Charlton Heston voice:  Books are made of people!

So when I started writing books, I didn’t give a lot of thought about which genre it would be categorized into.  Well, I knew there was magic in it, so it would fall somewhere under the fantasy umbrella, but really, I was focused on this woman who had been betrayed by her powerful father, and then blamed for his murder.  I was focused on loss, and love, and hatred.  I was focused on self-doubt and survival and humor while all the world, and magic was falling down around her.  It turned out to be an urban fantasy. 

Then I had this other story.  This one had magic in it too, so naturally, I thought it might be a fantasy of some sort.  But it also had these wondrous steam-powered machines, and was set in the 1800s with mad-scientist devisers.  To me, it was a story about a man grieving a past he could never recover, and fighting for a future he never dreamed of.  It was about a woman who wouldn’t follow the rules, and it was about the price of undying love.  That one turned out to be a steampunk novel.

Which is what I mean by I write in two different genres by accident.  For me–and I daresay, for most readers–genre is a nice way to clue us in to what we’re going to experience. Wise writers understand what those expectations are and willingly provide it.

But really, at the end of the day, we’re all looking for ripping good stories about people.  About us.  About human experiences, whether those experiences are set in a close facsimile to the real world with folks who remind us too much of our family and friends, or if they take place in extraordinary locals where the main characters aren’t even human–and still remind us of our family and friends.
   
So maybe I should restate my original answer.  I write in different genres by accident because hey, I’m only human.

Today is July 4th, but in the Babel Clash world, it’s the Monday before the changing of the guard.  For the last two weeks two of horror’s best authors, Jonathan Maberry and David Moody, have been gracing us with posts about zombies, the craft of writing, and giveaways.  Not bad for two weeks!  I wanted to thank them both for spending the last two weeks with us!  Please use today to promote to your heart’s content - past, current, and future projects (Oxford comma!)  Also, for those of you who have entered David’s giveaway, tune in tomorrow to see who won the autographed books!

You should also tune in tomorrow because we have another set of amazing authors slated to begin posting for us.  Starting tomorrow, we’ll be joined by Seanan McGuire and Devon Monk!

Seanan McGuire is the author of the October Daye series.  In the series, we learn that fairy tales are real, and the main character, Toby Daye, is a changeling - half fae, half human.  The latest Toby Daye novel is Late Eclipses, followed by One Salt Sea in September (notice the Shakespearean references?).  Besides writing the Toby Daye series, Seanan McGuire also spends some of her time writing under the name Mira Grant.  The books by Mira Grant form the Newsflesh Trilogy (the second in the series, Deadline, was just released) and they involve a very interesting take on zombies.

Devon Monk also writes an urban fantasy series.  Her series stars Allie Beckstrom.  Beckstrom is a Hound - someone who can track a spell back to its caster.  In Beckstrom’s world, the use of magic incurs a physical (or mental) cost.  It’s interesting to read how Monk touches on the implications of the use of magic in her Beckstrom novels. The latest Allie Beckstrom novel is Magic on the Hunt, with Magic on the Line due out in November.

Devon steps aside from Allie Beckstrom briefly for a new series. The first book in her new steampunk comes out tomorrow, July 5th. That book, Dead Iron, takes place in the American Wild West in a time where bounty hunters, gunslingers, magic, and steam all intermingle. If paranormal and steampunk are your thing, Monk’s new series starring Cedar Hunt is right up your alley.

Readers, please join me in thanking Jonathan and David while also welcoming Seanan and Devon to the blog. It’s going to be another great two weeks!

Hello Babel Clashers!

Hope you’re all having a great Valentine’s Day today.

Aside from being Valentine’s Day, it’s also Monday, which means we need to say farewell to our wonderful steampunk battle royale participants - Jay Lake, Felix Gilman, Mark Hodder, and Tim Akers!  It’s been a great two weeks and instead of declaring a winner, I think it’s safe to say we all won.  Cliche, sure, but oh so true!  Please join me in thanking them for their great blogging! 

Since today is their last day, it’s customary to let our contributors plug away before they make their exit.  Guys, if there’s anything you want to plug - past, present, future, steampunk, non-steampunk, the floor is yours!

Then, when the dust, debris, and zeppelins have cleared, I present you with the triumphant return of Nicole Peeler and Jaye Wells tomorrow!  Happy Valentine’s Day indeed!

Nicole Peeler is the author of the Jane True series, and her latest, Tempest’s Legacy, is on bookshelves now!

Jaye Wells is the author of the Sabina Kane series.  Her latest, Green-Eyed Demon, is on shelves later this month (February 22nd to be exact).

If you were reading the blog the first time Nicole and Jaye graced the blog, I think you know what to expect.  If you’re new to the blog (Hello newcomers by the way!), you’re in for a treat…and a laugh…and maybe some blushing!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Tim Akers posted here this past Friday about the optimism of steampunk, and how the retro nature of the genre is in the underlying time frame of the metanarrative. Smart guy, smart stuff.

We are living in yesterday’s tomorrow, as Tim put it. Sometimes I complain that I don’t have a jetpack or a flying car or a house in the sky. Neither do I have an aetheric compensator nor a portable Babbage engine with which to navigate my airship. Instead we got ATMs and cellphones and Google.

While I love the nostalgia and retrofuture as much as any of you, we didn’t do so badly with this future. The neverwas is fun, interesting, engaging. The present gives us blogging platforms to write about the neverwas, and Maker Fair, and Jake Von Slatt and Cherie Priest.

I’ll take it. Send the bill to Baron Von Monocle, please.

And on a final note, I believe our guest blogging window for steampunk draws to a close today. I want to thank Dane, Borders and my fellow writers for this time on the departure platform, and especially you the readers. As James D. Morrison, Esq. and his musical accompanists The Portals so famously sang, “This is the end, my friend.”

Tim Akers’ “Zeppelin Dreamers” post of yesterday was quite something. He made some excellent points to make about genres, cultural overlap, and steampunk as an end of the empire dream. Whatever it signifies in a critical sense, the nostalgia element is an almost mandatory component of steampunk.

I want to focus back on his comment about steampunk as fantasy versus steampunk as SF. While I don’t necessarily agree with Tim’s assessment of the difference between the genres, I very much appreciated his citation of William Gibson’s comment on SF being an expression of its time, and speaking to the present in which it is written.

Another way I sometimes think about the difference between SF and fantasy is the notion that fantasy happens to people, while SF happens to cultures. I’m not prepared to defend that vigorously, and it’s hardly a universal principle in any case, but I think it’s a useful tool.

As discussed earlier in this blogging series, steampunk is very concerned with the inventor-as-hero and the empowerment of extraordinary (and sometimes ordinary) individuals. That falls clearly under my posited rubric of fantasy.

Tim’s point about zeppelins is a point about what happens to cultures. Anglo-Imperialism, or now what many of us perceive as late American Imperialism. Ours is not a society inevitably in decline, but it is a society very much in flux. Steampunk reflects that flux, romanticizing both the decline and the changes it brings about. But most of all, it entertains us with dream-zeppelins drifting over an edge of the empire garrison town where our literary troops brace their spears and gaze over the next horizon.