LIZBETH: I’m just going to put this out there: I don’t write steampunk (okay, maybe about
3000 words now) and I’ve read precious little (although what I have read I
enjoyed). So, a little while ago when my
talented friend and fellow author Naomi Stone suggested we combine our styles
and write a steampunk short story for
submission to a contest I was skeptical.
Nevertheless, I agreed to try my
hand at this unfamiliar genre, and when Naomi—who is a gifted fantasy writer
already—came up with the hook and the premise, I even got excited. The result of our collaboration was CLOCKWORK WHALERS, the story of 1800’s
whaling captain John Akins (Naomi wrote his parts) and research scientist
Felicity Howard (I wrote hers) who meet over a brand new steampunk technology
that works like today’s Skype. Here’s a
little blurb to tell you more about this mini-novella.
CLOCKWORK WHALERS
Whaling Captain John Adkins has
mixed emotions about the new steam technology that allows him to communicate
face-to-face with other ships as well as people on shore. While it's convenient
to see those he speaks with--he now can't get away from the whims of his
fiancee while pursuing his career. Then one day, a mistaken call leaves him
staring at a sight unheard-of in his puritan 1800's world: a beautiful woman naked from the waist up.
Felicity Howard is tough,
self-confident and used to adversity. When she realizes John is not her own
affianced, she proceeds to berate him for being a murderer of whales--gentle
creatures she has spent her life studying. Although from competing worlds, John
and Felicity embark on a journey of discovery—not just about about whales but
also about love.
Naomi and I did not win the contest
we entered, but we did fall in love with our little story. Now we’re offering
it to our readers for free to give them that “something completely different”
from us. And we’re eager to tell you the story of its creation!
NAOMI: The introduction to our novella tells how it was inspired
by author Lisa Norling's talk at our local RWA chapter’s meeting on her book
CAPTAIN AHAB HAD A WIFE.” By happy coincidence, at about that same time RWA
sponsored a short-story contest, the theme being 'wrong numbers.' The wrong
number in this story is on a Victorian-era version of Skype aboard an old
whaling vessel...
Writing from the perspective of
Captain Adkins came more easily to me when remembering the sea chanties beloved
by a friend in our local Rise Up Singing group. These old chanties were work
songs that lightened and coordinated laborious shipboard tasks. Opening with
this particular chanty, "Rolling Down to Old Maui" not only set the
scene, but had the added benefit of providing some back story to the short
tale.
I've been an avid reader of fantasy
and science fiction throughout my life, and that includes experience reading
Steampunk's more serious early works by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, as
well as the online comic series, 'Girl Genius' by Phil Foglio and later, more
romantic works such as the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger. This
background gave me a good sense of the Victorianesque language appropriate to
the subgenre.
LIZBETH: I was very happy to write Felicity’s part since I know
nothing about Victorian history (I’m a totally contemporary writer) much less
whaling history. But, my contemporary roots did give me a love of incorporating
important issues into my stories, and Felicity is very much a woman ahead of
her own time. She’s strong and secure and brilliant—not afraid to take on a
stubborn sea captain! It was really fun bantering with Naomi’s John and calling
him out for his part in an activity Felicity found abhorrent. And it was really
fun throwing the bits of attraction and romance in with the feistiness.
Naomi also set the right tone for
dialogue and made it easy for me to learn to adopt the more formal older
English. She says I succeeded—I hope I did!
NAOMI: We thought it would
be fun to show you how we developed cover art for a book we want to use as
promotional giveaway. We used our readers and even took polls! The earliest
cover for CLOCKWORK WHALERS included gears and whales and a woman in Victorian
dress, but since its original publication I've gotten more experience in
designing book covers and was no longer satisfied with it.
I studied the covers of books in the
Steampunk sub-category on Amazon and came up with several possibilities for new
artwork. Too many of the covers in that category seemed to have nothing to do
with Steampunk, but those that did tended to feature brasswork machinery or
people in period costumery.
One potential cover was inspired by
fantasy writer Erin Morgenstern's 'The Night Circus' series; it used a
background of brass gears arranged like waves, and the silhouette of a
Victorian woman.
Another option used the image of a brass compass revealing a
leaping white whale in its center. 
The third option showed a man and woman in
Steampunk dress, the ocean and whale behind them.
LIZBETH: I was impressed with the bones of the cover art Naomi
created, but I wanted there to be some kind of romance image, and the people Naomi
first found felt too stilted to me—so I sent her some suggestions and then she
got her fantasy readers involved!
Between those readers and Naomi’s own creativity—we found a winner!
NAOMI:
To get feedback on which cover our
readers might like best, I set up an online poll and sent the link out to
everyone on my mailing list. The results came in with the overwhelming majority
(about 60%) in favor of the central compass. But, while the compass design
clearly told readers about the Steampunk character of the story, I agreed it
didn't speak to the romantic element - so we found a high quality stock photo
of a couple closing in for a kiss, and I framed that close-up in the center of
the compass for the final version of our cover.
LIZBETH: That’s pretty much the story of how a semi-silly exercise turned
into serendipity! And I guess the lesson for writers and especially for readers
is to never be afraid to try something new and different. I certainly am
excited to be offering this freebie to readers, to newsletter subscribers, and
giveaway winners and letting them know that they’ll never find anything else
like this from me—so they should get the story while it’s hot! And although Naomi normally writes closer to
this genre—it’s different for her, too, and her readers will love John and
Felicity’s story.
Now we’d love to hear from YOU! I’d like
to know what experience (reading-wise or otherwise) you’ve tried in your life that
made you nervous, but you ended up liking.
And, if you’re interested in grabbing your own copy of CLOCKWORK
WHALERS here are two links—one will allow
you to sign up for Naomi’s newsletter and one will let you sign up for mine.
Enter the Code FREEClockwork
Enter the information requested
Feel free to sign up for both—get
your two free downloads and share the file! You can also share the Instafreebie
links—this is one book we’re happy to have you help us spread for free!
And check out our individual books on our websites:
Happy reading everyone. We can't wait to have you come and
punk the steam with us!!
Sounds so good but can;t do downloads or ebooks so will look out for it in print thank you for coming to this page and sharing it with us! peggy clayton
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