For Curtsies & Conspiracies, the second Finishing School book I got a music video! To be clear this isn’t really a book trailer. Not as you imagine them anyway. It’s an original song about Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing School with live action meets animation. Even if you aren’t into the books or don’t read YA, it’s […]
Gail Carriger’s Finishing School Music Video Lyrics & Story Behind the OTS!
25+ Tips for Researching a Victorian Setting (Steampunk & beyond)
Good morning, Gentle Reader, some tips for the writers amongst you today! How to research a Victorian setting for fiction authors – Steampunk, Historical Romance & Beyond In this post I offer tips for online, book, and other sources for researching a Victorian-set novel. Including tips you’ve not read elsewhere. 25+ Tips for Researching a […]
4 Common Questions on Categorizing the Parasolverse Books
1. How would you describe the Parasol Protectorate series for those who don’t know about it yet? Imagine Jane Austen dabbling in science and steam technology. Then imagine P.G. Wodehouse suddenly dropped vampires into the Drones Club. The Parasol Protectorate books are the resulting progeny. They begin with a soulless spinster confronting Queen Victoria’s grumpy […]
7 Steampunk-ish Things In France
It’s hard for me to turn the steampunk hunting instincts off, Gentle Reader. I’m like a truffle pig in this particular matter. Snuffle snuffle snort . . . steampunk! I thought there would be a more propitiatory connection to early flight, all my research suggests the French were once particularly enamored of floating about full […]
Bumbersnoot Art!
Bumbersnoot is a new and excitingly silly character in the up-coming Finishing School series. On his first introduction… It had four legs—four very short legs—and a small, spiky tail. Steam emanated slightly from its underbelly, and smoke came out from under its leather earflaps. It looked a little like one of those sausage dogs the […]
Octopus for the Holidays with Gail Carriger
If I had time to get contemplative and nostalgic I might. Perhaps next week. Holidays are busy in the world of Gail, full of hugely trying bouts of vast food consumption, epic rivers of tea, presents, and a great deal of driving. Woe is me. Look at me, all about the sarcasm this season. I […]
Holiday Gift Idea The Themed Book Basket!
As an example I’m using the Parasol Protectorate books but you can do this with any genre book. Just run with your imagination what about a Dune themed basket full of spices and spice cakes? Order a signed book (in my case the illustrated version of SOULLESS is all signed) Source a vintage looking basket, […]
Gail Carriger Interviews Lev AC Rosen About Steampunk
Today, Gentle Reader, I have an interview with the lovely Lev. His book, All Men Of Genius, is a kind of Twelfth Night meets steampunk meets Oscar Wilde. Cross dressing, ho! He and I also went to the same undergraduate university. Odd, I know. About you, the Author Lev AC Rosen Tea or coffee and […]
Gail Carriger Interviews M.K. Hobson Author of The Native Star
Today, Gentle Reader, please join me in welcoming the wonderful bustlepunk extraordinaire M.K. Hobson to my blog. I have asked her to come by for a spot of tea. A while back some of you may recall I read and reviewed her novel, The Native Star. The first in a series. I described it as, […]
Comic Con 2021 Report from the Author-Side ~ Saturday
I’m late posting today, Gentle Reader, for which I apologize. I lost my writing time yesterday and felt guilty enough to move my normal timing around and write early today to ensure productivity. Of course, I should have done double, but I’m a word count wimp. I believe I now think daily in 2000 word […]
Intellectual Salon: The Land Leviathan in Steampunk (Special Extras)
Guest blogger the Doctor of Phlogiston is back. He’s my resident steampunk philosopher. This little posting is a tilt at the one windmill that I forgot last time I visited here – that ol’ steampunk favourite, the Land Leviathan. This staple of steampunk has been hanging about ever since they first turned up in HG […]
Con Report: World Steam Expo
My dear Gentle Reader, what follows is a relying of my adventures in far away Dearborn, Michigan. Steampunk shenanigans and the excursions of the Author Beast in far off climes will follow. You have been warned. For some reason know only to the strange and fickle gods of flying (who have suspiciously similar capricious overtones […]