"Through Your Eyes at Christmas Eve" by Abney Park: An Album Review

Given it's that twinkly-light, holly-edged time of year, I figured I'd do a little Christmas-y review.  Pour yourself a little rum toddy, and settle in.

Since my cd of Abney Park's Christmas album, "Through Your Eyes on Christmas Eve", has arrived in the post, well, that's just handy!  (If you want to make your own decisions, it can be purchased here.)  I had listened to their sampler (found at the link above) and decided to order the album.

So I extracted the CD from it's beautiful package (Abney Park does know how to make lovely album covers!), and listened to it for the first time.  Twice, in fact. 

Unfortunately, I have to confess I'm a little underwhelmed by this album.  (Please don't hit or boo me!)  I have thoroughly enjoyed much of Abney Park over the years, and truly love a lot of their songs.  However, they don't really add anything to any of the Christmas songs they covered, to make them theirs.  Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordan will remain the definitive version of "Baby It's Cold Outside" for me - Captain Robert's only addition to the song is the highly entertaining addition of the word "Rum" at a key moment - very funny, but not enough to save the song.  

On the good side, Abney Park does pull off some lovely and very different instrumentals in their pieces (with the exception of Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy, where the second half is marred by an annoying DJ-disc-spinning element).  However, their singers lack good clear voices for Christmas songs - they either come across as too monotone (sorry Captain) or too rough (particularly in the case of his female singer).

If, however, you can get your hands on one song, The title song, "Through Your Eyes on Christmas Eve", is an excellent piece, and an original, which suggests to me that Abney Park is far better off writing their own songs, where they clearly know their strengths and talents, versus doing covers.  The only cover they pull off decently is Winter Wonderland, where they add interesting instrumental elements, and Robert's low voice seems to blend better.

So on the whole, this album wasn't exactly a glowing success, but neverless I am happy to add it to my collection (the album art alone makes it a lovely addition to my shelf), and, by buying it, to have done my part to support a band whom I generally wholeheartedly enjoy.  

Maybe they should just steer clear of the treacherous skies of Christmas.

Cheers all!  

The Steam Wench

Author Interview - Michel Vaillancourt of The Sauder Diaries

I cast my mind back to almost a year ago, when I reviewed a piece of addictive serial steampunk fiction, entitled The Sauder Diaries, that was being written and delivered episodically on Scribd, by Michel Vaillancourt.  

Now, just 11 months later, I am delighted to announce that The Sauder Diaries: By Any Other Name, by Michel Vaillancourt, has not only been accepted for publication by Trestle Press, but is being released in ebook format on Monday, December 19th (paper book to follow early in 2012).  (Amended July 2012:  After the fiasco with the original thieving publisher, the book is now published by Avenger Press Services and has finally been released for Kindle and in trade paperback on Amazon.com). Needless to say, well, I'm excited, as this was an engaging piece of airship pirate steampunk fiction.

In preparation for the release of his debut novel on Monday, I decided to interview Michel Vaillancourt.  (Proper full novel review to follow, once I've had the pleasure of the reading the whole thing all of a piece.)  Please find below our interview, held late at night, from West Coast to East, Friday December 16. 

Hi Michel, thanks for agreeing to this interview regarding your about-to-released Sauder Diaries.

It's my pleasure.  I'm really enjoying this whole new world of being interviewed as an author.

Let's get right to it.

Sure thing!

First of all, to start, how would you summarize the Sauder Diaries (sans spoilers)?

It's a Steampunk-themed pirate adventure romance.  The core story is about a young man who breaks out of the shell of his own making and realizes there is a bigger world around him.

The main character, Hans Sauder, is on his way to university on an airship when he gets shanghaied by infamous pirates.  He eventually winds up traveling with the pirates all over Europe and beyond as part of the crew.

His life gets complicated when the woman in charge of the gunner-marines decides she's attracted to him.  Things get even more complicated when the ship he is on undertakes a dangerous mission into the territory of the Russian Empire.

What made you pick this moment in history (well, in alternate history) for your novel?

Really, I was reverse engineering a justification for airship piracy.  How does airship piracy work?  You can't have it without the economics to support it.  There is no point in stealing something unless you can sell it or trade it.  So who are they selling it to?  What made air travel more practical than land travel such as trains?

I needed a point in time that represented a major war in Europe that pre-dated the "core" of the Victorian Era.  For airship piracy to work, Europe had to be in a condition that meant that railroads and canals were unusable.  So, the Russian War, aka the Crimean War, was the event in history I was looking for.  From there, I started working forward in time to choose my year and date.

And why pirates?

The full explanation is on my blog, Split Horizons.  The short version is that I was listening to Abney Park's "Airship Pirates", and one line made me think, what sort of lunatic swings on a leather thong at 15000 feet in the air?"  And I wanted to answer the question, "who are the sort of people that live in a world where airship pirates are possible?"  

Originally, the Sauder Diaries was released as episodic fiction, on Scribd, as each portion was written.  In an ideal world, where any form of published work is available (and will of course provide a living), which is your preference ... releasing a solid novel, or the Victorian style of serial fiction, released chapter by chapter, as Dickens etc did?

Absolutely serial fiction.  In fact, if the fans would go for it, I'd love to release the second book that way.  Every week, release another chapter on a subscription arrangement or something.

However, I know authors who have tried this route and in this world, no one wants to buy at a buck a chapter. 

The Sauder Diaries contains some very strong, very independent female characters.  Was this a deliberate choice on your part, and why?

Absolutely.  One of the most iconic moments in the adventures of the Victorian Era is Henry Morton Stanley’s popular quotation, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”.  In the real world, that question could not have been delivered by a woman of the era.  But what about a world where it could?  What an interesting place that would be!

One of the things that the Victorian Era served as was a kind of watershed for the Suffrage Movement.  To me, to be true to "Steampunk" as I see it, you pretty much need a female lead or supporting character to be ahead of the curve;  already be out there, doing the sort of things that the women of the time rallying in the streets could only dream about.

I also have a pet peeve about what I call the "Dry Ice Heroine" ... "Strong and frosty, strong and frosty, whoops here comes the hero / hunk, she melts."  I refuse to write that character, unless she's clearly a plot device.

And your female characters don't do that?

Absolutely not.  They may have moments of vulnerability, they might get scared or worried, but when the chips are down, they're as dependable as the men they work and live alongside.

What makes them different?

They're all women living in a men's world, and they've earned their equality, and they'll be damned if they'll be treated any different.  They work as hard, they fight as hard, they risk as hard.

What was the process, or motivation, that embarked you on your voyage to write the Diaries?

It's a complex answer.  Mostly, it was a goal-driven process for me;  I had never done this sort of a project before.  I had done short stories and serial fan-fic, but never a novel.  So, it was a matter of setting a goal -- write a chapter and publish it -- and then do it.  Rinse and repeat.  Then I had a novel.  So, set the next set of goals:  Get a Facebook community page.  Get a publisher.  Get the book out there.  Get people talking about it.  Start working on the next book.  One goal at time, achieve it, celebrate it, and aim for the next thing.

Has writing a novel been in your head for a while?  Or was this a new idea that just overtook you?

It is actually something I had wanted to do since my late teens or early 20's. I just had not found the right combination of life circumstances and story to have it happen.

Is there a character in The Sauder Diaries you have had more trouble writing than others?  If so, what was the challenge or difficulty?

The two female lead characters, Arrieta and Annika.  I'm not a woman, and so I can't claim to really understand what they think and what they hold important.  So, I did research;  I'm a lucky fella that knows a lot of attractive professional women that are also good friends.  They were willing to answer questions about how they thought and what they felt.  So, in a certain way, Arrieta is one group of women I know, and Annika is another.

Alternately, was there a character who came to you particularly easily?  If so, in what way?

Michael O'Raedy, known as Captain Blackheart.  He was the easiest to write, as I've known a lot of captains, and people in the real world who work in leadership and command. I've gotten to talk with them and learn about what they do, what they handle, and what they don't show.

Is there anything in The Sauder Diaries that surprised even you, when writing it?

Two things.  The first was the good Doctor Koblinski. He was supposed to be essentially a one scene character who was irrelevant to the long-term plot. The fans, however, were enamored with him and insisted he had to stick around.  I had tremendous feedback at the release of Chapter One that everyone loved his wit and clear common-sense.  So, the Doctor is around to stay.

They second thing that surprised me was how often I cried writing my first book.  I found that when I was writing the Sauder Diaries, I intentionally went places with my writing I'd never gone before, in terms of inspiring big emotion in the reader.  There are parts that I can't read aloud without choking up.  Both Book 1 and the in-progress Book 2.

Is there any little tidbit, which I'm not covering with the questions I've asked so far, that you'd like to share with us about the novel, or your process?  This is your opportunity to answer a question you want to answer, that you haven't been asked yet.

Don't tell me this isn't Steampunk.  It might not be your Steampunk, but that's okay.  This is my take on Steampunk.  It is what I see the fans and advocates at Cons, concerts and meets talking about as cool.  This is a book for Steampunks, written by a new member of the Steampunk movement.

As well, I'd like to stay that to me, the word Steampunk is composed of two words:  "Steam" and "Punk". 

"Steam" is the temporal reference marker;  the Age of Steam which firmly brackets the Victorian Era.  There is so much factual and pop-cultural imagery in that period that it is astonishing.  On land, at sea, and in the air,  History was happening and the world was changing like never before.

"Punk" is the conceptualization of social ideologies that are mostly concerned with individual freedom and anti-establishment views.  It's about freedom, it's about walking counter-class or caste, it's about doing things that would scandalize the "main stream culture" of the day.

So, that's part of what this story is about.  Underneath the pirates, airships and clockworks is a story with themes that take at least passing looks at the social norms of the day.  The treatment of servants, class-based poverty, the perception of women as objects or property, and Calvanist morals...  there is a lot to run at angles to here.

On a slightly off-book bent ... Steampunk:  what draws you to it?  And do you think it has to have a nailed down definition ?

Something I heard Phil Foglio say at Steamcon was that "Steampunk fiction is about when technology can save humanity.  It isn't the problem, it is the solution."

I agree with that.  Steampunk fiction is, to me at least, inherently hopeful.  It is about people doing incredibly cool things at a point in time when when no one knew what the boundaries were and they seemed to be on the brink of revolutionizing the world.  Everything was within the realm of possibility; everything was within reach.  The right man (or woman) with the right perseverance and the right science at the right place could change the world for the better.  That's pretty empowering.

In "The Sauder Diaries", being a pirate is as much about freedom as anything else. It is an inherently hopeful act; taking ownership of their own futures by their own actions and associations.  Maybe it isn't very nice, but I'll leave that for the moralists.  The pirates in this world are inherently the rebels and underdogs.  They are living outside the physical, social and moral walls of the setting. 

So you're more on the Jules Verne "optimist" camp of Victorian science fiction, then H.G. Wells "pessimist" camp (note for readers, the opposites are excellently described here.

That's one way of looking at it, yes.  

To me the best way to define Steampunk is by inclusion.  I prefer to be inclusive; it's all Steampunk, unless we all agree that it isn't.

Oh man, that's probably going to produce comment.   Yay!  I love it when the conversation gets exciting.

Thank you very much, Michel, for taking the time out late tonight for this interview, and congratulations on your debut novel!  I very much look forward to having it in my hot little hands, and even more to reading future work from you.

Dec 20/12 UPDATE:  If you're keen to get your hands on this book (and I do highly recommend it!) the ebook is now available for purchase online at Amazon's Kindle store here.

Feb 2/12 UPDATE:  Due to reprehensible actions on behalf of the small publisher, Trestle Press (stealing artwork from multiple sources and artists without permission, and presenting them to the authors as legitimate), Michel Vaillancourt, along with numerous other authors, has had to remove his book from sale at present.  You can see his blog entry on this situation here.

July 2012 UPDATE:  After the above fiasco, the book is happily now available again!  Published by Avenger Press Services and available on Amazon.com for Kindle and in trade paperback.

The Innocent's Progress: A Foray into Steampunk Erotica

Greetings good folks.  Before we venture any further, I must point out that the subject matter of today's salon is a review of adult-oriented, hence, reader discretion is advised, and you may wish to move along to another post.  I shall give you a moment while I review my notes.

And now we can commence.  Feel free to have a cup of tea, or a sniff of something stronger, if you wish.  My automated valet can bring you something.  

My voyage through steampunk literature has recently brought me to The Innocent's Progress, by Peter Tupper, published in electronic format.  This is a collection of 6 short stories set in an alternate world of the author's devising.  This is no common set of erotic tales with minimal plot and excesses of sexual content, nor is it overdone steampunk riddled with gears and parasols; this is intellectual fiction, subtly written and focusing more on the people and the stories.  Several characters are interwoven through the tales, slowly drawing back the curtains around this Victorian-flavoured world.

The best part of this work, for me, is the slow reveal of this unique world, story by story.  Readers are first introduced to the Commedia, a form of theatre in which archetypes are performed on the stage, and privately performed offstage, for the pleasure of the audience.  One quickly realizes that dichomoties are rife in this world, as in Victorian England.  Performance and sexuality are blended and blurred in the Half-world of the actors, yet it is clearly unacceptable for them to stray, in any way, from the limited range of traditional archetypes.  Sexuality is quite acceptible within the Commedia, yet the Decency Board strives to remove the threat of pornography from society, to protect women and the lower classes. There are allusions to historical figures and works throughout the tales, which enhances the reading experience.  Peter Tupper even thoughtfully includes an Afterword, in which he gives background information and historical references for each tale.

My favourite story is "Delicate Work", where the reader is taken deep into the Honeycomb, an "Institution for the Reclamation of Wayward Women".  The Honeycomb is the Victorian workhouse writ very large and very dark.  In true Victorian fashion, this is where wayward women (those who do not live within the rigid and narrow boundaries defined by society) are "helped" by permanently hiding them out of sight.  The Honeycomb is seen through the eyes of Tangwen, one of the Tinker Girl inmates employed in producing technology for the world outside.  "Delicate Work" shows us the dirty, dystopian, dark side, which is all too often neglected in much of steampunk fiction.

There is one tale in the collection, "The Impurity", which differs from the others.  "The Impurity" is an imaginative retelling of the Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde story, into which the author breathes new life.  I don't want to reveal the details here, but suffice to say, it is refreshing.

I recommend the reader look beyond the cover of Innnocent's Progress.  Peter Tupper takes the reader into a familiar yet foreign world, which is richly textured and multifaceted - part Victorian, part steampunk, part intellectual foray, part erotica.  If you wish to acquire this book yourself, the various forms and manner of procuring it can be found at Peter Tupper's site for Innocent's Progress.

Inspiration and Resource: 1000 Steampunk Creations by Joey Marsocci

For any of you good folks who want to embark in the maker side of steampunk things, but are pehaps having a hard time finding inspiration, this is the book for you.

As a result of my love of books and my inability to stay away from Amazon.ca, this little gem arrived in my post fairly recently.  Compiled by Dr. Grymm (Joey Marsocci), 1000 Steampunk Creations contains, well, precisely that: 1000 lucious colour photos of a mind-boggling variety of steampunk contraptions, clothes, jewelry, home decor, gadgets, accessories, artwork and scuptures, created by numerous steampunk artists and artisans.  

This book has done but I've been floundering to do for myself:  I have 1080 steampunk inspiration photos on my memory stick (categorized into 28 folders) which I have downloaded over the last couple of years.  I had even printed out a bunch of faves and partly assembled a Steampunk Scrapbook (with the idea of using it to bring to events as a "this is steampunk" book).  

I have pored over this book many times since it arrived - I can't get enough of perusing the smooth glossy pages and dreaming of the many awesome things portrayed within.  

This book has proven to be the perfect addition to my stack of stuff to bring to the local steampunk Craft Meets I have started holding (first one last week!), as it gives new folks and old-hands something to paw through while trying to figure out what to make (or, in the case of the new, a graphic illustration of what steampunk can be).

In my opinion, 1000 Steampunk Creations belongs in every dedicated Steampunk's walnut and brass library.  As do many of the items pictured therein.

Victorian Resources for the Curious Steampunk (and the re-creationist)

Greetings, dear visitor.  Please have a cup of tea, or cordial, or, if you are currently enduring the grippe, as I am, I do have a small selection of remedies you may try ... perhaps a cup of bracing Peruvian Wine of Coca (wondrous sustaining powers) or perhaps you may wish to indulge in a pinch of Siberian Catarrh Snuff (I normally don't touch the stuff, but this is guaranteed to produce immediate relief of sore throat, nasal catarrh, hayfever, or cold in the head).

I thought today I could recommend a very small sampling of interesting resources for the steampunk looking for inspiration from the past, or the Victorian recreationist seeking ideas.  I am an avid bookhound, and I would like to share with you a couple of my favourite resources for day-to-day aspects of Victorian life.

As a costumer, the first couple of things I will recommend to you relate to costuming.  Alas, these largely involve women's attire, but gentlemen, I do have suggestions for you later.

The first book is Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazar 1867 - 1898 (published by Dover). 

This book contains 1000 illustrations, giving excellent black and white drawings of the variety of fashions current during the specified years.  It's a great resource for inspiration to make / craft your own outfit.  Dresses, cloaks, hats, parasols, hairstyles, are all shown here.  Many outfits are shown in front and back views.  For those interested, children's outfits are also shown periodically.

The book second is Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Woman 1840-1949, by Kristina Harris (published by Schiffer).

This text is geared for the fashion collector, to give information on authenticating garments and on appropriate pricing.  However, this book provides actual photographs (many in colour, often on modern models) of period garments.  This book is good for the dieselpunk as well as the steampunk, with its inclusion of garments from the first half of the 20th century.

Admittedly, these books are geared for women's costumes.  Alas, there is less available for men (and, as a gal, I've been spending my pennies on women's fashion).  However, men can find similar information in Men's Clothing and Fabrics in the 1890's (another Schiffer guide for fashion collectors, though admittedly limited to a single decade) and Men's Fashion Illustrations from the Turn of the Century (another Dover book).

 

Men's fashion information can also be gleaned from the following two resources.  

One of the best views into day-to-day living is the old-fashioned catalogue.  Two reproductions which are easily available are two North American department store catalogues, both from Chicago (and both published by Skyhorse Publishing):  Sears Roebuck & Co Catalgue from 1897 and the Montgomery Ward & Co Catalogue from 1895.

These volumes are fascinating.  In the Victorian years, you could order everything from dry goods (tinned foods, flour, sugar, salt) and drugs, to shoes, dresses, suits, coats, and undergarments, to carriages, furniture, and farm equipment, to valises, trunks, and guns.  A stroll through one of these volumes is truly a stroll through the daily life of the North American Victorian person.  Men, you can find sections in here on suits, vests, coats, shoes, shirts, hats, and undergarments.  Here's a wee taste for you:

 

 

These catalogues provide an endless supply of ideas and inspirations for makers, costumers, those seeking character ideas, recreationists, and those wanting to decorate a space or make their artwork more accurate in detail.  I lost hours wading through the sections - guns, farm equipment, cookware, undergarments, personal items, purses, luggage, carriages, fashion, furniture, pocketwatches, jewelry, hats, etc.  My favourite remains the "drug department", which makes for a highly entertaining read.  Sears Roebuck sold an alarming array of quack cures, all "guanteed immediate results" and "guaranteed harmless" (two of which I mentioned above, in today's welcome to my salon).   I won't spoil your fun by listing all my favourites.  Perhaps I will save that for a separate entry on quack cures.

Another similar resource, which I lucked into used from Amazon.ca, is The Victorian Catalogue of Household Goods (published by Studio Editions)

This is essentially a wholesale catalogue for retailers - it lists no prices, but has detailed drawings of everyday household objects and ornate luxury items.

If you are interested in the social history of Victorian London, then I strongly recommend reading Molly Hughes' autobiography, A London Family: 1870-1900 (published by Oxford University Press).  You will likely have to look for this in used condition.

This is a combined publishing of three separate books by Mary Vivian Hughes (M.V. Hughes): A London Child of the 1870s, A London Girl of the 1880s, and A London Home in the 1890s.  This book is a very personal and somewhat rambling work, but I found it a compelling read, and it gives a view into the era from a first-hand point of view.

A modern text which gives an excellent view into domestic social history is The Victorian House by Judith Flanders (published by Harper Perennial).

This modern work gives a detailed view into the domestic life of an average English Victorian household, by taking you from room to room.  While the focus is on the new Victorian middle class, you also see glimpses of the life of the serving class, as well as the upper class.  It provides intimate details gleaned from contemporary diaries, letters, domestic texts, cookbooks, and novels.  If you like to see how the daily life was lived, I can't recommend this book enough.

This by no means pretends to be anything close to a comprehensive list of resources.  However, I thought I would share the resource book which I have discovered, and which have entertained me and provided me with extensive information about what is truly a fascinating time period.  And perhaps I will assist someone in finding the book they were looking for.

Carry on, good people, in your steampunk endeavors.  As for me, my catarrh is worsening, and I must make myself another hot tisane with honey and lemon (perhaps I shall try that Siberian Snuff ... my neighbour insists that her husband's brother swears by it). 

Exhilarating Episodic Steampunk Pirate Fiction: The Sauder Diaries by Michel R. Vaillancourt

If, as I am, you are always hungry for new, quality Steampunk fiction, ready your plate for something new and toothsome.  The Sauder Diaries is an episodic tale being served for us online by newcomer, Michel R. Vaillancourt, at Scribd, at http://www.scribd.com/collections/2718398/The-Sauder-Diaries. 

Currently at seven posted episodes since its commencement in mid-November of 2010, this tale is being released with impressive speed, and a darn good thing, because each one is eagerly anticipated.  

Mr. Vaillancourt sets his story in an alternate world where the Crimean War has resulted in the development of advanced weaponry, such as the impressively-engineered HMAFS Bloody Rose, the airship on which the main character, Hans Sauder, finds himself after capture by notorious pirates.  Hans Sauder finds himself firmly persuaded to turn pirate (the alternative isn't shiny), and he joins the remarkably multinational crew (representing Scotland, Russia, Ethiopia, Norway, England, France, Spain, Arabia, and Slavic nations) of the Bloody Rose.

Each episode starts with an excerpt from Hans' diary, and is followed by a third-person narrative fleshing out the details of what actually occurred.  Each chapter is well-written and consistent, and Mr. Vaillancourt's tale is not marred by the plague of poor grammar and misspelling that taints much online and unprofessional fiction.

The characters are real, and are engagingly presented and developed throughout the story, which isn't as common as I'd like in the unpublished realm.  Included among the people you get to know is the upstanding and moral Hans (likeable for his foibles and yet occasionally making me yearn to smack him); the deliciously sardonic yet caring Doctor Koblinski, and two strong and quite different main female characters, Arietta the Chief Engineer, and Annika the Captain-Gunner.  These people are gritty, and most of all, REAL. 

The Sauder Diaries pose a refreshing change from much of what I've found in this genre.  This isn't trite and fluffy fiction, nor is it a series of unrelieved battle scenes, or endless intricate descriptions of incomprehensible tech for tech's sake.  There are sufficient action scenes, realistic characters, entertaining scenarios, conflict, humour, cool steam tech (love the dual-gas-bag airship with the EMIPALE - Electro-Magnetic Inductive Polar Aerostat Lift Engine and tempting hints of things to come with Galvanotaurs, Chimera and Dragons), and a spice of sexual tension to offer something for most readers of both genders to sink their teeth into.

I'm not into spoilers (hate coming across 'em) so I admit I am not giving you lots of details of the story itself.  And, as it is episodic fiction, none of us knows what happens next until the author tells us.

So, in summary, good people, if you have been jonesing for some awesome steampunk fiction and wondering where the good writers are, go read the Sauder Diaries.  You can find it online at Scribd (link below).  But be warned - it's addictive, and episodic, and Michel Vaillancourt will keep you coming back for more.  Keep an eye out on this new author - I hope we see more.  In print.

http://www.scribd.com/collections/2718398/The-Sauder-Diaries.