shawn
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Post by shawn on Sept 23, 2010 22:27:32 GMT -5
I notice in the sub-categories for genres there are no steampunk or dieselpunk categories. Its difficult to fit them into any of the others because they dont cleanly or clearly fit.
I'm working on my first novel which is essentially a genre mix of steampunk and dieselpunk (think world war one) set in an alternate history Britian.
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Post by choosybeggar on Sept 24, 2010 15:40:19 GMT -5
Yeah, this is about the best place for your thread so far. (There could be others. I'm just learning the ropes of this place, myself.)
Sounds cool! I'm assuming steampunk is to do with steam operated technology. But I don't really know exactly what you're talking about. Industrial stuff? War machines? Transportation? It's been a while since I've focused on that period of history very much (at all).
And dieselpunk sounds more like the war machines and transportation category.
Somehow the names, and the description you've given, gave me a very elusive and interest-piquing sense of the general story. I'd like to hear more, and see if I'm on the right track!
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shawn
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Post by shawn on Sept 24, 2010 21:20:14 GMT -5
Steampunk is generally focused on the Victorian era, or a neo-Victorian type society, and the cultural style and industrial/steam driven technology of that era. Usually changes are made, such as bringing in steam driven computers and advanced airships. Dieselpunk is more 1930's - 1950's. Again it takes the technology and style of that era and fast forwards it so you get a kind of WW2 retro-future thing happening. The wikipedia pages are a good place to get an idea of the genres. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunken.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieselpunk#DieselpunkThe setting for my story is a world almost exactly like ours (think of the multiverse idea where you have parallel worlds, some of which are close to ours but with slight historical and technological differences) and set in a large industrial port city in Albion (Britain) just after this worlds equivalent to world war one. So you have a fusion of Victorian style steam tech and WW1 - WW2 style diesel tech. Plus I'm adding in primitive computers, a basic internet, and a few other things. The story idea is that a totalitarian Stalinist type regime has used the chaos and destruction of the war to take over the country, kill most of the royal family and is now trying to eradicate the Church (I'm positing a kind of alternative Jewish/Christian religion in which the prophesied messiah has not yet come). A small ragtag group of street orphans, ex-soldiers, and various misfits and criminals (the least and the lost) will slowly come together and form the resistance to the new regime. There will be a strong spiritual warfare theme, with angels and demons actually manifesting in the flesh and taking sides in the struggle. Anyway, thats the gist of the story. The whole industrial look of the WW1 to WW2 era has always fascinated me.
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Post by choosybeggar on Sept 25, 2010 10:06:51 GMT -5
Somehow the faith part of your story just blew me away. The rest of the story sounds absolutely amazing. But the part about the Messiah not coming yet, well, not many people have tried that. I though of a different version of it for my current Work In Progress, but it didn't "go right." My main guys would be bringing the gospel to a fallen world, with no real hope of a savior in sight. Everything's been forgotten.
Anyway, great job on the basic idea! How far are you in it? Pro'bly further than my own progress.
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Post by metalikhan on Sept 25, 2010 10:29:59 GMT -5
Hey, shawn. Yeah, this is as good a spot as any for your genre. You've got alternate history, angels and demons, a touch of fantasy -- I'd say that's genres colliding.
Don't forget to check out the threads about posting the actual work on a public site. If you're eventually planning to submit your story for publication, you won't want to jeopardize its status as "unpublished".
Your story sounds really cool. The research for it must be a blast!
Write on!
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Post by newburydave on Sept 25, 2010 12:56:10 GMT -5
Shawn;
That sounds like a really good plot line. I for one would love to see how you play it out.
Metalikhan's comment about compromising your first publication rights if you post actual finished drafts on public forums is something you should keep in mind. If you would like to check out an alternative check out the link in my signature line.
Write on Bro
SGD dave
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shawn
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Post by shawn on Sept 25, 2010 20:11:53 GMT -5
Thanks to you both for the heads up and the encouragement. I made a point of leaving out the central character and three really important story threads in my description, just in case.
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shawn
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Post by shawn on Sept 25, 2010 20:26:27 GMT -5
choosybeggar,
I'm about a third of the way into a first draft. I'm studying full time as well (first year of a theology degree).
Good point about the messiah angle, that feeling of almost hopelessness was what I wanted, which may sound strange. Though there are action and adventure elements, and something of a "victory" at the end, I really wanted to write a fairly dark story with a strong sense of sadness and melancholy. This is in part because I want to explore the issues and reality of human lostness and suffering and how this relates to theodicy, our theology of evil and the theological reasons for its existence.
Oddly for someone who wants to write novels perhaps, but most of my inspiration for wanting to write has come from films. The look and emotional tone for my story was inspired in part by Michael Radford's film version of 1984, the one with John Hurt.
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Post by Kristen on Sept 27, 2010 20:56:33 GMT -5
Shawn -- this is a very cool story idea. I can't help but notice that the Stalinists killing the royal family actually happened in Russia -- only they were Bolsheviks then. And that's also reminiscent of the taking of the nobility into exile in Daniel. And the least and lost resisting the regime -- you got me.
Does the messiah come in your story, or is the whole thing pre-messianic? Either way, I'd read it!
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shawn
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Post by shawn on Sept 27, 2010 22:07:39 GMT -5
Kristen,
thankyou for your encouragement and kind words.
I am using twists on real world history for the meta-narrative, such as WW1 and elements of WW2, and yes I very much had the Russian royal family in mind with this idea.
This book is definitely pre-Messianic. However, if A: I get it finished, B: I can get it published, and C: it sells a few copies, then I have mapped out a very basic storyline for a possible trilogy in which the Messiah would come at the very end of book three.
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Post by Kristen on Nov 1, 2010 19:58:16 GMT -5
Cool! keep us posted...
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Post by Ranger Varon on Sept 17, 2012 14:42:11 GMT -5
Very interesting, especially how you change things in real world history to make yours a unique world.
Dieselpunk is one of my favorite genres, so I'll be following this.
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Post by Kessie on Sept 17, 2012 14:47:39 GMT -5
Ranger, do you know of any books that are diesel punk? I'm just starting to dabble in steampunk, but it's not very widespread yet and I don't know any titles.
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Post by Ranger Varon on Sept 17, 2012 15:35:43 GMT -5
Steampunk is easy. There are gobs of them. The one clsoest to what yours looks like would probably Scott Westerfield's Leviathan trilogy, which is an alternate WW1 that's classified as steampunk. It's not quite like yours, but it's close. Steampunk is in right now, so there are lots I don't know about. Dieselpunk, though, is a different matter. At least, in my subgenre of dieselpunk. Supernatural and paranormal dieselpunk is represented a bit better. Based on scouring the Dieselpunks forum and dieselpunk encyclopedia, I've found a few though. About 12. Here's a forum topic on the discussion. www.dieselpunks.org/group/authors/forum/topics/dieselpunk-fictionAnd the encyclopedia entry (One of the two.) dieselpunk.wikia.com/wiki/BooksNote: I have yet to read any of them yet since my dieselpunk project is still at the basics level.
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Post by Kessie on Sept 17, 2012 18:43:13 GMT -5
I just finished Westerfield's Leviathan trilogy, actually, and it was excellent! I think it counts more as diesel punk, though, since it's technically a rewrite of WWI, and they use kerosine and stuff for fuel, not just steam.
Thanks for the links! I'll check them out. :-)
Edit: After reading the links, there's sure not much out there yet. I was thinking more of new books. Including old dead guys like Lovecraft and Wells doesn't count, IMO. Everybody's read their stuff already. :-p
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