Steampunk Week – Guest Author and Giveaway: Meljean Brook talks Steampunk Romance

Janeen

Looking forward to the novella… and I’d love to read Clockwork Heart!

Kati

Hi Meljean! I’m on the record as really not caring for steampunk. In fact, I read Clockwork Heart as a Guest Dare for Ana and Thea, and I had to email Thea to get her to explain to me what the heck was going on, which made me feel like a remedial reading student, LOL!

All that being said, I’m intrigued by the fact that it’s *you* writing the romance. And thus, I’m taking another crack at it with your book. I’m actually really looking forward to it because Ana really seems to love it, and she’s never steered me wrong. Wish me luck! 😆

Zita Hildebrandt

I’ve been enjoying the steampunk I’ve been reading, so bring it on! Frankly, when I like a particular author, I really don’t care what genre they are writing in, I will buy it because I know I will enjoy it. Good writers write good, no matter what =). Okay, that’s probably a generalization, but true for the most part.

Julia

Looking forward to the novella!

And the book looks great- count me in for the giveaway. I’m really crossing my fingers for this one. Thanks for the great opportunity, guys! I’m in love with Steampunk!

Moonsanity (Brenda H.)

“I want the story to grab my guts and twist – and get a good hold of my heart, too.” This is SO true! I think it’s why I love dark urban fantasy– it’s the twisting of my guts:)

I’m wondering if the research aspect was more difficult for you with steampunk? Did you feel overwhelmed at any point with the science and the gadgets?

Lexi

I also have a world building question. How do you write so that you do not have too much world and have to remove some of it in order to focus more on story/ charecters?

Naomi

I read the full excerpt of the novella and absolutely loved it. I’m a big steampunk fan. I’m so, so excited to read it, August cannot get here soon enough.

My question is, were there any aspects of the tech or worldbuilding that played a particularly significant part in character development, rather than plot? Something that really influenced the way you portrayed a character or characters.

MarieC

I really enjoyed your novellas in ‘Must love Hellhounds’ and ‘Hotspell’, and I have a couple of your Guardian books.

I’ll admit that I’m just barely tapping into the steampunk genre, having only read a few books.

I was wondering how much research you do to make the technical stuff sound ‘real’ (not that I could tell the difference).

Thanks and can’t wait to read your new series!

katiebabs

I am waffling because I havent’t read an actual steampunk book, unless you count Gail Carriger’s books, but then again they are more paranormal with steampunk elements.

I am all for kick ass heroes taking down the bad guys with awesome gadgets.

Hopefully you can change my mind.

Christine

Hi Meljean,
Loved your commentary and I’m really looking forward to your upcoming steampunk romance. I think your interpretation of the genre is right on the money as to what I expect steampunk romance to be. Several trusted readers have recommended Clockwork Heart, but I have yet to read it. I’d love the opportunity to read it while waiting for your upcoming novel.

MaryK

I can’t believe we have to wait four months to read Here There Be Monsters! The Smugglers are getting way too good at the book pimping. 😉

Vero H

I love all of Meljeans’s work and I can not wait read her Steampunk

Cybercliper

Hi Meljean – huge fan and I’m definitely looking forward to Burning Up and the Iron Duke! This will be my first trip into the steampunk world and I’m definitely looking forward to it.

Tiffany M.

Hi Meljean,

I have read a couple of your novellas and have your first novel in my TBA pile (I bought it when I realized I read your novellas the fastest/couldn’t put them down out of the whole anthologies). I haven’t really read steampuck, though I do love the idea of it and have seen some anime/movies with with the elements. I am looking forward to your new series a bunch!

Roxy

I’ve never read d steampunk novel but I think I would like it. Sounds like a promising new genre.

On another note, I adore the cover for Clockwork Heart!

ThisViewOfMine

I’ve never read steampunk. This looks like a good place to start!

Barbara Elness

I’ve read a few steampunk books, including Katie MacAlister’s Steamed and Gail Carriger’s Soulless. I’m reading Gail’s Changeless right now and I have Crimson & Steam by Liz Maverick waiting to read. I’m fascinated with the ingenuity of gadgets and the world building. I’d read these books whether there were romance in them or not, but it certainly does add to the enjoyment. I’m looking forward to checking out Meljean’s new series, I know she’ll do a fantastic job.

Meljean

Christa asked, “An easy question & a writing question. : ) First, I’m fascinated by steampunk but I just can’t seem to get into any of the few books I’ve picked up. Any favorite authors you can recommend in the genre? (Besides yours, which sounds lovely & should go on my To Buy list if I don’t win).”

This is hard, and the simple reason is… there just isn’t a lot of it. Most of the books that I would name as influences (China Mieville’s work, Neal Stephenson) have steampunk-type elements, but aren’t necessarily steampunk. Other books that definitely are steampunk are hard to recommend because they’re difficult to get into (for example, THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE — my reaction was very close to Ana’s, who reviewed it here).

So one of the reasons I’ve wanted to write steampunk romance for so long was because I wanted to read it … and there just wasn’t any. And there wasn’t much steampunk in general. There were plenty of novels that were kind-of like it (I think this is why THE ANUBIS GATES is labeled steampunk so often; it’s easy to point to that book and say, “Steampunk is kind-of like that.”)

And although there have been a lot more steampunk works coming out recently … I haven’t read them. A couple of years ago, when I got the go-ahead from my editor to write the series, I stopped reading steampunk novels. I’ve heard amazing things about so many books (many of them have been reviewed here) but can’t personally recommend them, because I haven’t had a chance to read them. They are sitting on my shelves instead, lost and forlorn, and I’m dying to read them…but I won’t let myself until I’m well into my series. ::sigh::

I can wholeheartedly recommend graphic novels like Girl Genius and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, though. Loved them.

Second: Do you do your worldbuilding before you sit down to write or do you develop it as you go? If the first, how do you work in all the details without just info dumping? And if the second, does your world develop more detail as your plot does? Or (so many options!) do you depend on revising more than your first draft for worldbuilding details?

Worldbuilding is a mixture of working it all out before and building it as I go. For this steampunk series, I have maps, alternate histories for several different nations, trade routes — basically, all of the big-picture stuff worked out. I know which monsters (for lack of a better word) populate different parts of the world, so if I take my characters there, I know they’ll be facing certain dangers in addition to whatever human dangers pop up…and since that worldbuilding has been set, it’s kind of a cheat if my characters *don’t* face that danger. So there are many different aspects of the world that are set in stone before I write a single word.

But I also give myself some wiggle room. If I want to write a story about, say, a moon-worshipping cult of phrenologists determined to create a utopia by replacing everyone’s skulls with steel bowls pitted with craters that mimic the lunar surface, I can do that. I’ll just set it somewhere that hasn’t been mentioned before, make sure that the history of the cult and the location fits with the rest of the world, and I’m good to go.

As for not-infodumping, I find that letting my characters interact with the world is the best way to get the information across. And then if I need to insert a paragraph along the way that explains the history or how something works, that’s okay — it’s just a paragraph, maybe two. Hopefully, it will all come out organically as the story progresses.

Example from The Iron Duke (this is the first three pages of chapter one):

Mina hadn’t predicted that sugar would wreck the marchioness of Hartington’s ball; she’d thought the dancing would. Their hostess’s good humor had weathered them through the discovery that fewer than forty of her guests knew the steps, however, and they’d survived the first awkward quadrilles. But as the room grew warmer, the laughter louder, and the gossiping more vigorous, the refreshment table set the First Annual Victory Ball on a course for disaster.

Which meant Mina was enjoying the event far more than she’d expected to.

Not that it wasn’t as grand as everyone had said it would be; the restoration of Devonshire House had cost Hartington, and it showed. Candle-studded chandeliers displayed everyone in the great ballroom to their best advantage. Discrete gas lamps highlighted the enormous paintings gracing the room but their smoke had not yet smudged the silk-papered walls. Human musicians played in the gallery, and their violins did sound sweeter than the mechanical instruments Mina was accustomed to—and much sweeter than the hacking coughs from forty of the guests.

Nine years after England’s victory over the Horde, the bounders who’d returned to London had decided to hold a ball to celebrate their newfound freedom, though they had shed no blood to gain it. They’d charitably included all of the peers who had little to their names but their titles.

At first glance, Mina could detect little distinction between the guests. The bounders spoke with flatter accents, and their women’s dresses exposed less skin, but everyone’s togs were at the height of New World fashion. Mina suspected, however, that forty of the guests could not begin to guess how dear those new togs were to the rest of the company.

And they probably could not anticipate how stubborn the rest of the company could be, despite their thirst and hunger.

Near the southern wall of the ballroom, Mina sat with her friend and waited for the entertainment to begin. Considering Felicity’s condition, she might be the one to provide it. Pale blue satin covered her friend’s hugely pregnant abdomen. With such a belly to feed, Mina couldn’t see how Felicity wasn’t constantly ravenous, consuming everything in her path. If no sugarless cakes were available, she might start with the bounders.

“If it has taken Richmond this long, he hasn’t found anything.” Beneath intricately curled blond hair that had made Mina burst into laughter when she had first seen it that evening, Felicity’s gaze searched the crowd for her husband. With a sigh, she turned to regard her friend. “Oh, Mina. You are too amused. I doubt anyone will break into fisticuffs.”

“They should.”

“You think it’s an insult to supply sweet and strong lemonade? To stack cakes like towers?” Felicity rubbed her belly and looked longingly toward the towers. Mina supposed they were supposed to have been demolished by now, symbolic of England’s victory over the Horde, but they still stood tall. “Surely, they did not realize how strongly we felt about it.”

“Or they realized, but thought we must be shown like children that we can eat imported sugar without being enslaved.”

[INFODUMP AHOY!]

Two hundred years ago, the Horde had hidden their nanoagents in the tea and sugar like invisible bugs, and traded it on the cheap. The Horde had no navy, and even though Europe had fled before the Horde, Britain was protected by water and a strong fleet of ships. And so for years, they’d traded tea and sugar, and Britain had thought itself safe.

Until the Horde had activated the bugs.

Now, no one born in England trusted sugar unless it came from beets grown in British soil and processed in one of the recently built refineries—and no one had enough money to pay for the luxury, anyway. New to England, beet sugar was as precious as gold was to the French, and Horde technology was to the smugglers in the Indian Ocean and South Seas.

[INFODUMP END!]

“You judge them too harshly, Mina. This ball itself is goodwill. And it must have been a great expense.” Felicity looked around almost despairingly, as if it pained her to think of how much had been spent.

“Hartington can obviously afford it. Look how many candles.” Mina lifted her chin, gesturing at the chandelier.

“Even your mother uses candles.”

That wasn’t the same. Gas cost almost nothing; candles, especially wax tapers of good quality, rivaled sugar as a luxury. Her mother used candles during her League meetings, but only so the dim light would conceal the worst of the wear. Repeated scouring of the walls removed the smoke that penetrated every home in London, but had worn the paper down to the plaster. Rugs had been walked threadbare at the center. The sofa hadn’t been replaced since the Horde had invaded England. But at Devonshire House, there was no need for candles to forgive what brighter gas lamps revealed.

***

In the next page, I use desserts to explain how the northern American continent has been settled in this alternate history, and it all flows out of their conversation now.

So I have an infodump in here (actually, a lot of little ones), but as long as it comes from the characters — not robotic recitation, but genuine character interactions — it doesn’t feel so infodumpy, IMO. In three pages, we learned a lot about this world … and just as importantly, we learned a lot about Mina, and how she thinks and sees that world. If I had presented this scene from Felicity’s point-of-view, it would have read much, much differently.

So I think the best way to get all of the info you need across to the reader without drowning them in it is to color it with your character’s voice and to make certain that your characters are engaging with the information in some way.

Bianca F

Im still new to steampunk, but yours sounds like something i would be comfortable with, and the cover is stunning! please enter me! 🙂

Evy Valdez

i loved your guardian series so i am sure your steampunk is going to be great!

Meljean

Naomi asked, My question is, were there any aspects of the tech or worldbuilding that played a particularly significant part in character development, rather than plot? Something that really influenced the way you portrayed a character or characters.

Oh my gosh, yes. Except for little things — like the wiregrams people use to communicate — every bit of tech should influence character in some way, whether by influencing the society that they lived in and therefore their worldview, or influencing them directly. And hopefully everything else should illuminate something about character, if possible.

For example — the Horde’s nanotechnology controlled the emotions and actions of people in England for two hundred years. It wasn’t complete control, but it was enough for the people living under the Horde to feel and to know they’ve been suppressed in so many ways. And so when the Horde’s control is broken, there are severe emotional repercussions for many different characters.

Some of them just want to repress those emotions again, especially pain, and so there are tons of opium addicts. Others (like Mina) have deep-seated fears of anyone controlling them … but at the same time, her lack of control in the initial rush of freedom scared her so much that *she* has trouble letting go now.

But there are more issues — for example, many people in the underclass were used as slave labor, and were modified with machinery grafted to their bodies. Some characters hate it and themselves; others love it.

Or there’s the effect of creating machinery — one of Ivy’s internal conflicts in the novella is that she’s essentially creating a monster for a man who is a monster, too. The change in her relationship to the machine reflects much of the change in her relationship to Mad Machen, and her self-confidence, as well.

So basically, I think it’s fair to say that a good part of the technology’s purpose is to provide conflict and to reveal character. And that’s very much what I mean when I say that steampunk isn’t about the gadgets. The tech is necessary, yes — but it’s not just there as part of the plot, or to provide a fun fighting robot when the bad guy needs to be defeated, or an airship when our characters need to get somewhere. It does all of that, sure — but it *should* do more.

Meljean

Erin asks, “I have a quick question: what came first, the world or the characters?”

Ummmm….I can’t remember, honestly. Mina was the first character, I know that. I have scribbles in a notebook where she’s next to a dead body, and she’s got these little tendrils that come out of her skin and stab into a dead body, and the reads the ‘ghost’ that is captured by his nanotech.

None of that happens now, because the world evolved from those first scribbles — but from the very first the world and the character I was creating were intertwined.

For other characters, the world is coming first. I think: What type of person are we going to meet next, and why are they like that? And the ‘why are they like that’ part is almost always explained by some aspect of the worldbuilding.

heatwave16

Hi Meljean!!! Do you think that the steampunk genre will continue to gain ‘steam’? 😆

Carol Thompson

There seems to be a lot of discussion about what is steampunk and what is not going on all over the blogosphere.

My guess is that at this moment there is no real definition for it and it is still evolving.

Seems sofar it has to have steam driven machinery, use of wind or gases, be set in Victorian times or thereabouts and I am still not sure what the “punk” part of the title requires?

All the best with your new book.

Carol T

Chasity

The more and more I read the Steampunk reviews the more I want to try it out!!=) I am a huge romance fan so will be making a list from your reads with a few steampunk goodies!=)

ritu

I just read clockwork heart a few weeks back aft Ana and Thea did the Steampunk week. It really fascinated me and I went on a shopping spree to buy some of the books they recommended. Thanks guys for introducing me to the genre. I’m slowly going through the other books.

Meljean, I’m looking forward to the anthology. I recently started reading your Guardian Series (I’m not really an adventurous reader – It took me a year (or two) or so after i heard about the series to actually start reading them!) and I love love love it.

Jade

Hell yeah, this book sounds like a blast! 😀
I’ve never really touched romance books myself but maybe this’ll be my rude awakening? 🙂
Please count me in!

Stacie

I am really looking forward to some steampunk romance. I love steampunk, I love romance – what better combination. I am an aspiring author. I have finished several manuscripts and I recently started a steampunk romance of my own. I am loving the process as my first steampunk novel.

I hope to hear lot from you in the future Meljean! 😉

Meljean

Bella — CLOCKWORK HEART is by another author, Dru Pagliassotti. My series won’t be out until later this year, and begins with the novella in BURNING UP in August, followed by THE IRON DUKE in October. I hope that clears it up!

John J.

So, aside from general world-building, what, in your opinion does a steam-punk romance require, at least in your writing? Any specific types of technologies that you enjoy including, or specific character types that you think fit well into the genre? And, how well do you think it’s being recognized as a new genre/sub-genre, especially now that we have your books along with Kate McAlister’s Steamed series?

🙂

katiebabs

I just read Gaily Dayton and the first thing that came into my mind was it had a great steampunk feel but with magic. Heart’s Blood was a great read.

I think in a past life I lived in the last 19th century London.

Julie Swaney

This sounds like a great read. Please enter me in the contest because I would love to win it.

jellybelly82158 at gmail dot com

Spav

The book sounds interesting. I’ve never read any Steampunk book, but I have Souless on my TBR pile.

Raina

Comment number 67 is mine, sorry!

Gillian

Oops, comment #69 was me, by the way. *headdesk*

Marsha

Many thanks for this discussion. I’ve flirted with steampunk for a few years now but have felt the affair a trifle intimidating, and sorely lacking in the romance department. No pressure intended, of course, but I’m very much looking forward to this new series. It sounds as if it will be what I’ve hoped to find for some time. Yay!

Katrina

I just devoured Girl Genius, and am now simply waiting for school to be over so I can dive into the world of steampunk. I would love to read this book!

Laura

Pick me! Pick me!

OmNe

I’ve yet to read any (recent) steampunk, so I’d love to be able to read this book!

Stella (Ex Libris)

I have to admit that I’m still a newbie to the steampunk world: have Soulless on my nightstand, and can’t wait to discover other great authors and novels in the genre. Since I love the Victorian era, the setting, the clothes, the etiquette and social traditions, steampunk is for me: I love this new and unusual take on the classic setting 🙂

Please enter me, would love to have the chance to read Clockwork Heart.

Eva SB

What first attracted you to Steampunk?
And would you/have you ever written something in the horror-scifi genre a la Alien?

Llehn

I’ve never read a steampunk romance novel before. How is it different from other conventional romance novels?

Etta

I’m fairly new to Steampunk, but I find it fascinating, and your new series sounds very intriguing. I’m looking forward to it.

Clockwork Heart has been on my radar since it was reviewed during the last Steampunk week.

Raelena

I have been wanting to read this book for awhile now, especially since I have always found Steampunk interesting.

Kathryn

Ooh, that sounds very interesting! I’ve only just started to try steampunk, and this sounds like an excellent book.