GEARED UP! WRITING STEAMPUNK

Book Synopsis: “The best thing about Steampunk is getting to rewrite history.” Or so a reviewer said in commenting about Geared Up Writing Steampunk. But author Beth Daniels totally agrees with them! In this, the 3rd edition of the book, she adds a few more elements to the fun PLUS expands the listing of Steampunk publishers from 36 to 43, many of them new to the volume with no longer valid ones dropped. Since the first edition back in 2010, this has been the only volume to focus solely on writing Steampunk fiction and building the Steampunk stage on which characters play. Steampunk is, without a doubt, the most fun a historian in love with the 19th century can have since this is enhancement rewriting of what events might have been if technology got an extra boost a bit earlier. Among elements covered are:

• Characters – 31 classifications, covering professions, social strata, and how to build a “being” whether biological or mechanical
• Style of Story – tales of adventure, mystery, romance, dystopian, comedy, time travel
• The World Setting – Victoria’s England, Edward’s, Weird West, Weird Urban East, La Belle Époque, Canada and Australia, Parallel and Alternative Universe, off Earth (space travel, Steampunk style)
• Suggestions for how to Mangle History
• Creating machines
• Period language and jargon creation
• Steampunk meets Gaslamp Fantasy (paranormals, supernaturals, legendary beings, the Fae)
• To use magic or not to use magic. . .and more! Particularly the marketplace for Steampunk stories.

So, don those goggles, pack up the carpetbag, lace up the corset, brush off the bowler or top hat, choose your weapons, the country and spot within the Victorian, Edwardian, Gilded Age or Belle Époque that will serve as the stage. Decide whether your cast includes detectives or inquiry agents, government agents or the police, six-gun toting marshals or inventors with upgrades on weapons, machines, transportation, and communication. Board the steam locomotive, the dirigible, the automobile, or rocket-powered bicycle. Go questing for the unknown be it up the Amazon, into the jungles, deserts or mountains of Africa, South America, India, or to one of the poles, toward the center of the Earth or to the Moon or Mars, or a different dimension. Deal with lost worlds, find treasure, dinosaur bones, or alert mummies. Journey into the known and the unknown. Journey where history never took us. Get Geared Up and write Steampunk! Reviewers have said of previous editions:

• “[Daniels’] dual passions for history and storytelling come together in a way that makes history a playground.”
• “I read it, cover to cover because Ms. Daniels made the world steampunk draws on interesting. Because, in order to warp history, you've got to know it first.”
• “… packs a lot of useful information for anyone who is interested in writing steampunk fiction. Everything from archetypal steampunk characters to the various subgenres and time periods is covered here. My favorite bits are when the author discusses historical figures and events and how best to warp them to suit your story (especially in the appropriately titled chapter ‘Mangling History’).”
• “… just plain fun to read,”
• “… essential to anyone wanting to [dip] their toe into writing steampunk. It is told in a no-nonsense yet humorous way and gave invaluable info.”
• “Inspirational. Must read again with notepad and pen.”

About the Author: Beth Daniels discovered Steampunk when she was looking for a different market for 19th-century American West stories and fell in love immediately. Under the pen name Nied Darnell, she writes both Weird West adventure and London-based Victoriana Steampunk comedy. She also writes historical romance and romantic comedy as Beth Henderson and urban fantasy mystery comedy and fantasy comedy as J.B. Dane. Find her at www.4TaleTellers.com.