This is one of a series of blogs promoting the Steamfunk! anthology by MV Media, which features my short story “The Sharp Knife of a Short Life.” This blog was supposed to publish on March 7th alongside ones from other writers in the anthology. Woops. Here we go …

When creating my “steamfunk” story, one of my biggest goals was to not place it on Earth in some kind of alternative history space. “Hannibal, what’s wrong with you? That’s where steampunk is from!” I know. That’s also one of the elements I don’t like about it. Sure, stories like “Men in Black” or the one positing a Black nation in the continental space of north America might feel good, but for me they only remind me of our failures as a people (which is why I would write that sort of wish fulfillment stuff in the future, therefore hoping it could still happen). So, I had to get the heck off of Earth … which led me to Pless.

I created the “planet” Pless for a number of logistical reasons that’d help me in telling the story. I could perfectly set the technological level to whatever I wanted it to be, which was crucial in establishing this as a “steamfunk” style of story, with all the brass and pageantry and pneumatics and what have you. Normally, I go for more … esoteric and futuristic technologies (which savvy readers might note at the end of my work, the moment linking this story to my larger fictional universe), so this was a challenge but one I accepted in looking at the assignment.

Another reason is that Pless’ ambiguous racial history allowed me to sidestep the aforementioned challenges that alternative history poses for my sometimes overcritical brain. The arguable “love interest” is essentially Latino. Two main characters are Black. The lieutenant governor (or whatever I made him, I barely remember some days) was white (based on some late 1800s politician I looked up). The town’s madam is an ambiguous Asian mix. There’s a whole new race that’s nothing like anybody else. Add that to the flora and fauna differences and my little alien “steamfunk” world is almost a character in and of itself.

Finally, growing up at the foot of my great uncle while he religiously tuned in to Gunsmoke gave me a deep sense of possibility in those old western tropes, if I could just sci-fi ‘em up a bit (apologies to Firefly fans). Pless became my untamed frontier, a striking contrast to the super-technological trappings of ‘Dam Clara Perry, a much broader expanse for my lunacy than cobblestone streets lit by gaslamps, patrolled by constables and what gave you.

Where is Pless? Ah, that’d be revealing a big part of Clara Perry’s overall story, which would continue if the proposed Dieselfunk anthology comes along or if I do a set of short stories past the one on my current docket (seeming more likely as more ideas come to me). Suffice it to say there are well-considered reasons for dropping our cryo-frozen NASA scientist there and I have every intention of finishing the larger story begun here. Maybe I just need a new country music song to get me inspired …

The camera shop was a suggestion from the real NASA scientist who consulted, as she said it’d be a place where strange smells and exotic chemicals and/or technology wouldn’t be looked at too oddly and she could continue the real work, using the “futuristic” technology she brought with her. That worked out really well for what I needed to accomplish for the “apprentice” Jenny Taylor.

I also had to give this place its own depth and nuances, like a fully realized culture. Creating their shared religion, with elements familiar yet haunting differences, was important. They believe in a trinity, but it’s a distant father god Avshalom who sparked life and then buggered off to explore the cosmos, a nurturing, forgiving mother god Iya’a and a daughter Muhsinah cast in the vein of Yeshua ben Josef, sent to redeem through sacrifice. The religion uses elements of traditional African belief (matrilineage, hunter/explorer men and gatherer/nurturer women) as well as tropes from Judaeo-Christianity and some other sources I stumbled upon. The framing device for the story (the song “If I Die Young” by The Band Perry as discussed previously) called for a casket to be sank into water “to the words of a love song,” so that meant composing a kind of hymn that would work as both a devotional of spirit and a romantic overture. Yes, that means I had to sing it, but composing a soundtrack of Plessi spiritual music was a bit more ambitious than I planned. If I ever do a reading of the work, digitally or in person, maybe I could be cajoled into at least humming the tune, for reference. It kind of sounds like “How Do I Live?” by LeAnn Rimes (still very country western influenced, and I heard that a lot as a south bay karaoke host). Anyway, I spent the better part of two nights parsing it all out.

I gave the people of Pless some alterations in their biology. Tying together purple blood with the purple clothing of their funerary rites was a nod to my youngest daughter and two of my wife’s friends, all of whom adore the color, so that’s purely cosmetic. Other alterations had practical purposes — I’d been aiming to redesign humanity since I was maybe six, so tired of the tedium of waste product. If it was all converted into carbon dioxide, something the ecosystem could conceivably handle, well, that’d eliminate some technical concerns and toilet humor all in one swoop, making for a more mature society (I guessed).

Other stuff — ‘Dam Scarlett’s Diversion Emporium, “fluffener,” or the twelve legged bjekk — was just me riffing, kind of like a pianist when the band is playing “Red Clay,” tickling extra ivories here and there but staying pretty much within the boundaries of the tune. I created a small frontier-styled corner of one fairly parochial planet for a reason … that will likely be revealed in a book I hope to put out in late 2014.

The Vanity Pomp was my excuse for a big, splashy visual scene that combined action (you’ll have to read to see what) and steampunk excess and pageantry. It seemed to work and made a good climactic crescendo for the story to achieve. I just kept going back and making the elements of it more ornate and ridiculous until I couldn’t take it (at one point, everybody in the parade was flying), then dialed it back to what I felt would work.

I think it turned out okay. What do you think?

The Steamfunk! anthology is available now.

Playing (Music): “Story” by King

For the longest time, I had one sentence I used in reference to all things steampunk:

“I don’t get it.”

From what I’m reading, I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. I saw people posting their cosplay, which for all intents and purposes to me seemed like it could have been costuming from the movie Hoodlum that had a watchmaker throw up on it. The idea of whirring and clanking gears left me indifferent, the corseted pomp and circumstance felt contrived. The different steampunk takes on Star Wars even left me cold, and honestly, if you can’t hook me with Star Wars, it might be impossible. Based largely in the Victorian era, my mind couldn’t help but think of the global realities for Black people in that era, with metal accoutrements that were not at all ornamental and much less shiny.

I don’t remember how I got into the Facebook group State of Black Science Fiction, which (at least in my initial estimations) was a place for fairly serious writers and fans of science fiction who wanted more of an African slant, focusing largely on events and programming in Atlanta, Georgia. I read posts from writers like Balogun Ojetade, Milton Davis, my own friend Geoffrey Thorne and more talking about steampunk and I thought to myself, “Well, they don’t seem to be cape wearing wackadoos, so maybe there’s something to this …”

Then either Milton or Balogun (I honestly cannot remember, probably Balogun) announced the request-for-pitches that would lead to the Steamfunk anthology on Milton’s MV Media Publishing imprint. I’d missed the deadline for the last Sword & Soul anthology, which had material close to stuff I’d done for Stranger Comics and had been on this real “publish or die” kick as (at the time) I approached my fortieth birthday. I said to myself, “Well, I’ve always said I could write anything, this is a chance to expand my horizons and figure out whether or not that’s true.”

I started poking around the web, Googling my way towards comprehension, as is my way. Technology based on hydraulics, steam power and what have you … well, that’s a limitation, but I looked at it like it was a villanelle or a press release or any other formulaic kind of writing I’ve had to do in the past. There seemed to be a focus on extravagance, so my brain started envisioning this big, impossibly ornate parade (which ended up being the big dance number for my story). I wasn’t really on board mentally until I saw this image …

… when I saw this sister, probably dead more than a century (unless it was staged), so serious, so stoic … I started to get an idea.

I know an actual NASA scientist, a woman of great knowledge and even greater whimsy, a friend of a friend. However, she wasn’t Black. I started to remix her personality and reactions through the differences of a Black perspective and the woman in this photo started to come to life in my head. My NASA friend was willing to play along and answer a lot of personality and technical questions, which was truly invaluable.

I still needed a way to get her into a steampunk environment. I probably was flipping through my files and saw something Futurama related (a favorite of my NASA scientist friend) and remembered Phillip J. Fry, falling into a cryogenic chamber and waking up somewhere very different. The elements of this character excited and interested me, and with a personal narrative to hook into, I was suddenly excited to see where I could put my plucky scientist and what sorts of experiences she could have.

I have built a fictional universe through my novels The Crown: Ascension and Faraway that has a ridiculous amount of room for my imagination to run wild, so I posited a scientist worried about the climate of the world and in a mood to run away from it, only to have her cryogenic chamber rerouted … somewhere else. I didn’t really figure out the location until my iPod was playing its thousands of songs on random and coughed up this …

… and I should note that, before writing this blog, I’d never seen the video.

I don’t regularly listen to country music, but this song snagged a spot on the pop charts, so when I got a big download of “pop” music, there it was, and eventually it found a way into my consciousness. The detailed storytelling and delicacy of the singer’s voice did it for me. This provided a loose framing device for my story, which would give the events happening to my scientist lead emotional resonance (I hoped). Likewise, the open frontiers and lawless possibilities of a western setting seemed to provide more room for my narrative to work without hundreds of years of colonial oppression to stifle my politics.

Anyway, my brain put Taylor Swift in the role of the character from the song, because I’m a horrible, twisted human being and it amused me to put an end to America’s sweetheart (that’s not much of a spoiler, as the funeral is literally the first scene of the story). With all those pieces in hand, it became time for research.

Newave Comics owner Rashida Lewis and contractor Michael Inskeep provided much of the technical data I’d need outside of what my NASA pal told me she would pack if she were climbing into a cryogenic chamber (and her list was quite interesting, as she provided the means of income as well). My own fictional universe gave her a “place” to be, and I spent about a day developing the religious beliefs of the people of the planet Pless (you’d never believe what Pless really is, and if I do three or four more stories, maybe you’ll find out). From there it was just riffing — a flamboyant character who’s essentially a steamfunk T-Pain mixed with Foghorn Leghorn …

… and an ethnic mix that’d make things interesting. From there, it was easy.

For me, anyway.

Putting those pieces together — spending the time researching bleed off valves and open compressors, weaving the religion of a non-existent people into the events of their lives — is the alchemy of fiction, the building of worlds, and one of my greatest joys. It affords me a level of control real life cannot match. Despite my initial indifference, I did enjoy the steamfunk settings and would be happy to return there, as I’d submit work for pretty much anything Milton or Balogun offered.

You’ve taken a look behind the scenes of my story for the Steamfunk anthology, and next (in theory) I’ll talk about how this kind of “difference” makes one, if you grok.

Playing (Music): “If I Die Young” by The Band Perry

We will be here forever

Do you understand?

FOREVER

Forever and ever
And ever and ever

We will be here forever

Do you understand that?
Get what I’m saying?

FOREVER!

- KRS-ONE, “KRS-ONE Attacks!”

The essense of Black creativity in the shadow of the western world has been one of necessity and scarcity. “Make way out of no way” is the only consistent commandment from be-bop to hip hop, from STEM education to, finally, the science fiction that fueled many of those who sought it.

Steampunk, as defined by the fine people at Wikipedia, is as follows …

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century. Therefore, steampunk works are often set in an alternate history of the 19th century’s British Victorian era or American “Wild West,” in a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has regained mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power. Steampunk perhaps most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retro-futuristic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them, and is likewise rooted in the era’s perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art.

A quick web search for “steampunk” will deliver tons of images, comic books, short films, cosplay conventions and discussions … and dangerously few people of color. Google Images has their first non-white person under the search for the term 18 rows down, a single spot of brown in a drawing with three white people. One might take this data and believe that not only are Black people (and people of color, by extension) not interested in the sub-genre, but that they have no place in it.

Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade disagreed.

The co-editors of the new anthology Steamfunk! from MV Media Publishing offer up a definition that might not be found on Wikipedia …

The co-editors of the new anthology Steamfunk! from MV Media Publishing offer up a definition that might not be found on Wikipedia …

Steamfunk: a philosophy or style of writing that combines the African and/or African American culture and approach to life with that of the Steampunk philosophy and/or Steampunk fiction.

Their collection of short stories (nothing could be over 12,000 words) features the work of writers from the worlds of television, journalism and fiction, all positing a slightly more diverse world of fantasy and possibility than many have had access to in the past.

Anthology contributor Valjeanne Jeffers said, “Within this new genre we are witnessing the birth of worlds in which Black folks and that which moves us reign supreme. In short, Steamfunk is just as different from Steampunk as Black Science Fiction is from White science fiction. Imagine a Steamfunk hood, an antebellum South in which abolitionists fly airships. Or, as in my novel, Immortal IV: Collision of Worlds, folks living in a post-apocalyptic, steam-world with meta-humans…policed by androids. Now imagine each of these worlds predominated by folks of color: worlds in which Black, Native American, Latino, and Asian folks are not sidekicks but heroines, heroes and villains. That’s what Steamfunk is.”

Geoffrey Thorne, an actor and screenwriter with scores of credits to his name including Leverage, Star Trek: Titan: Sword of Damocles, Honor Brigade and more, said, “At some point in my lifetime I realized, ‘if I wished to see stories about people who looked like me engaged in the fanciful activities I loved in the books I devoured … the only way was to write them myself.’ That’s the best thing about being a writer; if you don’t like the world, just make up another one. So, I did. I did it a lot. I did it a lot A LOT and eventually came to the place I call THE OTHER COUNTRY. When you read the STEAMFUNK anthology, you will get a quick tour of the place and I hope you like what you see because that’s the point of that.”

Hannibal Tabu, weekly comics reviewer for Comic Book Resources and editor in chief of Komplicated at the Good Men Project, said, “When I started out, I didn’t even like steampunk. I didn’t get it. I’d seen the images and thought it was a little anachronistic — my eye was on tomorrow, not a brass-covered look at yesterday. However, I saw the amazing work Balogun and Milton were doing and, frankly, took it as a challenge to myself. Write a ’steamfunk’ story I’d wanna read, one with possibility and pomp, science fiction extremism and atmospheric flourishes. Along the way I developed yet another Black female protagonist who thinks first and kicks butt, and along the way … I kind of got sucked in. It’s just another kind of thing to like, you know, like I am nuts about Star Wars or the Patternists of Octavia Butler. You’re not gonna see me in a bowler and goggles, but I now like these fantastic ideas way better than I did when they tried that abysmal steampunk Transformers series a few years ago.”

Davis himself said, “I hope to see it expand. Hopefully other writers and readers will see the possibilities and share their own interpretations. As for me, I have a couple of novel projects planned that are set in my alternate history steampunk country of Freedonia: From Here to Timbuktu, an action adventure novel and Unrequited, an action romance series. After that, who knows?”

What is “steamfunk?” It’s Kool Herc behind the turntables, it’s Coltrane taking a deep breath, George S. Schuyler’s smile as he put pen to paper or Obama stopping to take it all in after the second inaugural. Taking the pieces of whatever’s available and making it wonderful, be it soul food or impossible situations and characters, coming to you one scintillating syllable at a time. Now there’s another new way, a path to “the other country,” and you’re welcome to take a trip.

“… there is a deeper world than this
tugging at your hand …

– Sting, “Love is the Seventh Wave”

The Steamfunk! anthology is available now.

[Originally posted on Komplicated at The Good Men Project]