Airship Ambassador Interview #100, Conclusion

Welcome back for the conclusion, Part Ten of Interview #100. Here are answers to the seventh and last question.

Read Part One here. Current Involvement, Part one

Read Part Two here. Current Involvement, Part two

Read Part Three here. Opportunities, part one

Read Part Four here. Opportunities, part two

Read Part Five here. Changes, part one

Read Part Six here. Changes, part two

Read Part Seven here. Next in Steampunk

Read Part Eight here. Personally affected

Read Part Nine here. Items of Note

 

Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Lev AC Rosen:  I have had three books come out since All Men of Genius: Depth, a noir science fiction that takes place in NYC after the ice caps have melted and it’s all tops of buildings, but written in a very classically noir style.  Woundabout: a children’s book illustrated by my brother in which a brother and sister come to a strange, mechanically driven town where nothing every changes.  This one is probably my most steampunk.  And just this September, my most recent book, The Memory Wall, was released.  It’s a younger YA/older MG book about a boy who’s mother has early-onset Alzheimer’s, which he’s determined to prove is a misdiagnosis by proving a character in his video game is actually his mother, playing online from the home she lives in.  It’s told alternately in the real world and in the high fantasy game world, which has some steampunk bits.

Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine: With the fifth and final season of Tales from the Archives launching soon and Operation: Endgame slated in 2017, it may sound like we are bidding farewell to the genre; but the truth is we enjoy it too much to step out. We’re launching a Y.A. series, and we are brainstorming ideas for another spinoff. So while the adventures of Books & Braun are drawing to a close, it doesn’t mean we are no longer writing steampunk. If people still enjoy our adventures into the Past That Never Was, rest assured—we will continue to write them.

Arthur Slade: Just keep creating. And having fun.

Jaymee Goh: There is more to steampunk than the shiny. Whether in the literature or in the aesthetic, there is an underlying challenge to re-think the way we do technology and history, both separately and together.

Many of us doing steampunk also do other things which are fun and shiny, and I invite readers to check out the oeuvre of steampunk’s favourite artists beyond their steampunk work.

Jean-Christophe Valtat: I am currently rereading Kafka’s In the Penal Colony, and I was telling myself it’s excellent steampunk !

Nick Valentino: Thank you for including me in part of the 100th interview! I am truly honored. It has been so much fun!

Evan Butterfield: Well, I think I’ve probably said enough. Of course I’d encourage them to visit ebutterfieldphotography.com, and to buy my photos and books and calendars, and share ideas for projects we could do together, but other than that–no, nothing.

James Ng: This is a good opportunity for me to say thank you. Some readers might remember me from your early interviews, I think I was one of your first interviewees? I was just a student back then, but the interview drew me into this Steampunk community that supported me for my whole career. It was completely unexpected at that time, I only did these artwork as entertainment to myself, but the feedback from the Steampunk crowd taught me that there is value in my work and that my art is worth investing into. The support gave me courage to invest my money and time to push my project to the next level. I’ve started a company and have invested alot into a comic book based in my Chinese Steampunk world. Please look out for JamesNgArt’s Imperial Steam & Light on Kickstarter in the coming future. I can’t wait to share more!

Gail Carriger: My latest book, Romancing the Inventor, is out November 1, 2016. It features a fan favorite character, Madame Lefoux, a brilliant lonely cross-dressing inventor, and the parlourmaid who falls in love with her. It’s relatively light on steampunk, but still there, and several other familiar faces also show up. However, you don’t have to have read any of my other books to enjoy this one. http://gailcarriger.com/books/romancing-the-inventor/

Richard Preston: I urge them to support Airship Ambassador and participate in the steampunk community doors opened here. You helped me a lot when I was just getting started and you still do, and it is much appreciated.

Diana Pho: I think I covered all my bases 😉

 

Thanks to everyone who has participated:

Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine, read the first interview here.

Evan Butterfield, read the first interview here.

Gail Carriger, read the first interview here.

Jaymee Goh, read the first interview here.

James Ng, read the first interview here.

Mike Perschon, read the first interview here.

Diana Pho, read the first interview here.

Richard Preston, read the first interview here.

Lev AC Rosen, read the first interview here.

Arthur Slade, read the first interview here.

Nick Valentino, read the first interview here.

Jean-Christophe Valtat, read the first interview here.

 

Thanks for all of your support and encouragement!

Here’s looking forward to the next 100 interviews!

 

Airship Ambassador Interview #100, Part Nine

Welcome back for Part Nine of Interview #100. Here are answers to the sixth question.

Read Part One here. Current Involvement, Part one

Read Part Two here. Current Involvement, Part two

Read Part Three here. Opportunities, part one

Read Part Four here. Opportunities, part two

Read Part Five here. Changes, part one

Read Part Six here. Changes, part two

Read Part Seven here. Next in Steampunk

Read Part Eight here. Personally affected

 

What is something noteworthy about steampunk which people should know about?

 

Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine: There are no limitations to this genre. It is open to all ages, all genders, all races, all sexual orientations. You can set your steampunk in our past, or you can set it in a universe completely your own. Because of the limitless possibilities of steampunk, anything is possible.

Jaymee Goh: Steampunk is the funnest form of counter-history. I love big machines and cannot lie.

Jean-Christophe Valtat: Well, everybody knows that, I guess, but I am struck by the fact that early steampunk had an interest in evolutionary science, which perhaps has been superseded by a more industrial, mechanical approach to the genre. I think the broader scope is always the best.

Nick Valentino: Steampunk is an all inclusive, no-holds-barred ride of wonderful. There are few things like it in the world and I hope that people continue to be drawn to it and make it even better than it is today. Sure it has it’s drama and egos and BS from time to time, but it’s noteworthy not only because of it’s creativity and ability to inspire, but it’s a fun )and good looking) culture that everyone can be a part of.

Evan Butterfield: I think the thing that saves steampunk for the longer term is that it’s not recreating or reenacting, it’s creating and making and developing something very new that just looks old. We all have these alt-hists going on, and some of them are parallel and mesh together and some of them veer off wildly and just barely stay on the “steampunk spectrum.” But that’s what makes it unique, that diversity and all the different visions. Some people are all Cthulhu and Lovecraft, and some are total pirates and airships and badass women in corsets; some are just Proper Victorians with elaborate timepieces, and some people just stick gears on stuff and call it steampunk, and others go whole-hog into dieselpunk and teslapunk, which–and I know this is heretical to some–are still on the steamy spectrum in my mind: it all sort of flows together. OK I know that this wasn’t the question, but here’s my beef: there appears to be a growing number of orthodox steampunks in the digital world who are always poised to archly condemn this or that as “not steampunk.” A lot of what I’ve done has fallen into that critique, and I think the very last thing that we need are keepers-of-the-flame who pronounce what is and is not allowable. The way a culture grows is by evolving through experimentation and diversity; the way it dies is to define everything to death until it all calcifies in a boring, gray, lifeless monument to what was. I think we really need to beware of these self-appointed “protectors.” Anyway, you didn’t ask, but that’s my speech.

Gail Carriger: One of the places steampunk still thrives is on Pinterest. I hang out there a lot these days.

Richard Preston: I think people should know that steampunk, even though it has such a gorgeous exterior in terms of look, such as the clothing, accessories and architecture, is also a place where the great themes of life and love can all be explored as deep as a creative artist wants to go. I’m not knocking costuming and cosplaying in any way–its such a joyous expression of the creative heart, and it is a vibrant community–but I hope people realize that steampunk goes far beyond its costumes, just like Star Wars and Game of Thrones do.

Diana Pho: Happening now? There is Steampunk Universe, which is the latest fiction anthology focusing on disabled and neuroatypical characters, coming from Alliteration Ink. Or Like Clockwork, the latest academic anthology from University of Minnesota Press this December. And the Airship Ashanti is producing a 2017 multicultural steampunk calendar too! What I love about the community is that it is always growing and producing things that can be expanding our creative horizons–nd in some small way, have an impact on our greater world.

Mike Perschon:  You aren’t doing it wrong.

 

Join us tomorrow for answers to the last question in Part Ten of Interview #100!

 

Thanks to everyone who has participated:

Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine, read the first interview here.

Evan Butterfield, read the first interview here.

Gail Carriger, read the first interview here.

Jaymee Goh, read the first interview here.

James Ng, read the first interview here.

Mike Perschon, read the first interview here.

Diana Pho, read the first interview here.

Richard Preston, read the first interview here.

Lev AC Rosen, read the first interview here.

Arthur Slade, read the first interview here.

Nick Valentino, read the first interview here.

Jean-Christophe Valtat, read the first interview here.

 

Thanks for all of your support and encouragement!

Airship Ambassador Interview #100, Part Eight

Welcome back for Part Eight of Interview #100. Here are answers to the fifth question.

Read Part One here. Current Involvement, Part one

Read Part Two here. Current Involvement, Part two

Read Part Three here. Opportunities, part one

Read Part Four here. Opportunities, part two

Read Part Five here. Changes, part one

Read Part Six here. Changes, part two

Read Part Seven here. Next in Steampunk

 

How has steampunk, the culture, and the community affected you personally?

 

Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine: We have met some of the finest people—con organizers alight with passion for the punk, talented people like Thomas Willeford, Voltaire, Doctor Q, The Men Who Will Be Blamed for Nothing, and those voices of the movement like The Steampunk Ambassador, Suna Dasi, and Diana Pho—through this genre. It’s a wide-eyed wonderful community, some whom have read our books, some whom have heard us talk about steampunk, and we feel welcomed. The creativity is nothing less than inspiring. The community continuously keeps us driven.

Arthur Slade: It’s curious. I’m just a writer. And I write whatever comes to mind for me. So in many ways I fell into the steampunk world by accident. But I’ve come away from the experience with loads of respect for the creativity of that community. Even though steampunk is about the “old” days, it’s also about creating something new from the old. Whether that be books, movies, clothing or really cool devices. I’ve found it to be a very welcoming community. So thanks for letting me step onto the airship.

Jaymee Goh: I’ve met some of my most favourite people through steampunk, and had some really unique experiences that I don’t know if I could have replicated elsewhere with some other lifepath. I appreciate daily little technologies a lot more, too, and I’ve learned that working with my hands has a distinct pleasure that doesn’t contradict the life of the mind.

I’ve also learned more about history, and histories, which I was probably happier not knowing, because they’re such painful histories. But the sadness I have spurs me on to a refined sense of justice that is neither reductive nor simplistic (even though I can be a reductive and simple-minded person at times).

Jean-Christophe Valtat: Beyond what I said about having an audience that could “get it”, I think that first and foremost, the huge amount of research one has to do has  to as a streampunk writer, has considerably enriched my own culture and made me reflect on the impact the past has upon the present. As to the community, what I found the most interesting perhaps was this drive to change your daily life, make it more harmonious, more significant, not only through reading, but also through dressing up, or surrounding yourselves with beautiful objects. I like this idea of reading seeping in real life, instead of just being a separate reality, or pure escapism. It certainly changed the way I dress…

Nick Valentino: I guess the biggest thing for me, is that it’s opened my eyes to so much. It’s made me a more open person, and I’d like to think it’s made me a better person.I feel that interacting with so many people over the years has made me more fun, and generally happier than I ever have been. It’s been a chain of awesome that seems to exponentially compound for me. Personally, a simple Steampunk book begat friends, connections, travel,  opportunities, and meeting the most amazing person I have ever met. Who knew? It’s funny how such a seemingly small thing can change your life.

Evan Butterfield: I’ve met some delightful, creative people, which is always nice. I’ve always had a steampunky aesthetic even when I didn’t know that’s what I had, so I can’t say it showed me The Way, but really more confirmed what I already felt. I suspect that’s not a unique experience. Mostly it’s given me a really interesting thing to explore in my photography, and keeps me from spending all my time randomly surfing the Internet.

James Ng: It has given me a community where I could connect with other artists and fans. It has done a lot more for me than I ever expected. It is more than just work.

Gail Carriger: Aside from changing my life? Well I just ordered a new corset, does that count? I suspect if I weren’t a steampunk author I would have long since gotten rid of most of my costuming, and likely wouldn’t still be creating, mending, and modding as much. For that, I’m grateful. I like still having an alternate creative output to writing.

Richard Preston: I think I have had a very good experience, overall, with the steampunk community. When I published my first book I contacted both Cherie Priest and Gail Carriger with a sort of “Hi! I’m publishing a steampunk book and do you have any advice?” kind of thing and they were both so kind, supportive and full of good advice. Writing steampunk has enriched my life intellectually and also in terms of adventure and fun, and I think I’ll always keep my hand in the genre one way or another.

Diana Pho: It’s strange to think that I’ve been active in the community for about 8 years now — a good chunk of my independent adult life. It has affected me on so many levels; I mean, looking through photos from my steampunky-Vietnamese beachhouse wedding this year says a lot. 🙂 Without being involved in steampunk, my life could have dramatically veered into a different direction — now that is a what-if to ponder!

Mike Perschon: I’ve traveled across the world and had the opportunity to meet some really wonderful people. The greatest gift steampunk has given me is a bunch of good friends.

 

Join us tomorrow for answers to the sixth question in Part Nine of Interview #100!

 

Thanks to everyone who has participated:

Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine, read the first interview here.

Evan Butterfield, read the first interview here.

Gail Carriger, read the first interview here.

Jaymee Goh, read the first interview here.

James Ng, read the first interview here.

Mike Perschon, read the first interview here.

Diana Pho, read the first interview here.

Richard Preston, read the first interview here.

Lev AC Rosen, read the first interview here.

Arthur Slade, read the first interview here.

Nick Valentino, read the first interview here.

Jean-Christophe Valtat, read the first interview here.

 

Thanks for all of your support and encouragement!