News

As publication day approaches things are heating up in Steampunk!ville:

We got books! Woot!

Also: Holly Black’s “Everything Amiable and Obliging” will soon be available on the Storyville app. If all goes well, next week another story should be available on tor.com. There’s an interview with Kelly and me on the Book Smugglers. Yes, we smuggle.
And, turning the tables, Kelly just interviewed Kate Beaton (author of the absolutely huge Hark! A Vagrant) for the Boston Phoenix.

That interview should be out in time for the Boston Book Festival—where Kelly, me, and Holly Black will be on a panel with Mrs. Grymm about, you know, steampunk!

Is it a literary genre, an aesthetic style, or a way of life? It may be all of the above! Join Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, co-editors of the new Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, as well as Spiderwick Chronicles co-author Holly Black and steampunk creator Allison DeBlasio (aka Mrs. Grymm) for a discussion of all things steampunk, from goggles to gyrocopters. Wear a costume and you may win a prize or get to see the session while seated on stage. Moderated by Maya Escobar, Teen Librarian at the Cambridge Public Library.

We’ll be in Baltimore this Saturday. Please come by and say hello!

In fact: here are some newish events for Kelly and Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories edited by Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant . . . out now (well, Oct. 11, really): 14 stories! 4 starred reviews!

Saturday, Sept. 24, 6:30 PM: Baltimore Book Festival: Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant lead a discussion about the Steampunk genre with Michael Kirby and Eden Unger-Bowditch. Come find out what Steampunk is all about! (Eek! Their description, not ours.)

October 5, 7 PM: Center for Fiction, NYC: “Why Fantasy Matters” with Kelly Link (Magic for Beginners) Felix Gilman (The Half Made World), Naomi Novik (the Temeraire series), and Lev Grossman (The Magicians) moderated by Laura Miller, a contributor to the online magazine Salon.

October 15, 11 AM: Boston Book Festival: Steampunk! with Gavin J. Grant, Holly Black and steampunk creator Allison DeBlasio (aka Mrs. Grymm). Moderated by Maya Escobar, Teen Librarian at the Cambridge Public Library.

November 3, 7 PM: Steampunk! event with Gavin J. Grant and Cassandra Clare, Odyssey Books, South Hadley, MA

We’re completely bowled over to report that Steampunk! just received another starred review: this time for the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. They really nailed a lot of what we love about steampunk and what we loved about making this book:

“While there are plenty of YA novels dipping into this area, this impeccable anthology can serve as either an introduction to much of what makes steampunk what it is or a creative take for established fans who will be intrigued by the authorial tinkering. And since tampering and tinkering is not only how steampunk evolved into a subgenre but also is very much part of each of these stories, that is a nice point of intersection indeed.”

Yesterday Kelly and I were lucky enough to take part in one of NEIBA’s All About the Book days where ten authors got to introduce their books and do a little reading for booksellers from all over New England. Alma Katsu‘s The Taker was a huge hit, as was a mystery, William Landay‘s Defending Jacob. Also a huge hit: Rosie’s cookies! Rosie, who has 5 bakeries in the Boston area, has a new book out and she brought these “Soho Globs” which were absolutely fantastic.

It was great fun to throw some answers near the permanent question “What is steampunk? but it’s always more fun to just point and say, This! and this! rather than try and come up with a definition.

Also: this Sunday Kelly and I are at the Brooklyn Book Fest and the Saturday after that we’re off to Baltimore for their Book Festival and we’ll be doing Steampunk! events at each. Come by and say hi!

We just heard the amazing news that Steampunk! just received its third starred review! Wow! This one is from School Library Journal. It’s so great that these early readers and reviewers are enjoying the book so much:

“Most readers have become familiar with the essential steampunk elements: clockwork automatons, brass goggles, mad scientists, brave adventurers, and Victorian imagery. However, this collection of short stories by some of the best YA authors today, including Libba Bray, Garth Nix, and Cory Doctorow, offers something different and takes the steampunk ethos to a new level. Within these pages, there’s a little something for everyone. . . . There is not a weak story in the bunch. This exceptional anthology does great service to the steampunk subgenre and will do much to further its audience.”

A PW starred review for Steampunk!

“. . . a delicious mix of original stories from 14 skilled writers and artists. . . . Chockful of gear-driven automatons, looming dirigibles, and wildly implausible time machines, these often baroque, intensely anachronistic tales should please steampunks of all ages.”

Are you Team Punk or Team Steam?

Wow, the book just received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews! It’s a lovely review all through and ends with a great line:

“Steampunk is hot at the moment in literature, art and fashion: This collection taps into the ethos without ever seeming topical or transient, thanks to contributions rich with much more than just steam and brass fittings.”

This week Boston’s best alt. weekly The Phoenix, is running an excerpt from M. T. Anderson’s most excellent story from our book: “The Oracle Engine.”

When we asked for the widest possible interpretation of the idea of steampunk we couldn’t have imagined getting such an excellent, off kilter story such as this. But we had high hopes and Anderson—who’s a genius! see Feed or Octavian Nothing for proof—blew our minds with this story.

On io9 Jess Nevins points towards an 1867 poem by John T. Trowbridge that while it may not have been the first steampunk epic, was one of the most popular and influential. See what you think:

Darius Green

If ever there lived a Yankee lad,
Wise or otherwise, good or bad,
Who, seeing the birds fly, wouldn’t jump
With flapping arms from stake or stump.
Or, spreading the tail
Of his coat for a sail,
Take a soaring leap from post or rail,
And wonder why
He couldn’t fly
And flap and flutter and wish and try —
If ever you knew a country dunce
Who didn’t try that as often as once.
All I can say is, that’s a sign
He never would do for a hero of mine.

read on!

Why Has Steampunk Lasted So Long?

Because it’s fun!