Now that the blog tour is done, and done well, I thought it would be a good time to announce the Second Dun Scaith Carnival. The last blog carnival I did went really well - about eighteen people blogged on why they went Indie.
I personally had over 200 readers spread over 3 days, and my blog was really knew and had never had as many as thirty readers i a day before that.
If you were involved in that carnival, you know the rules. Write a post and I'll link to it. The last time the posts had to all go live the same day - it was a complete nightmare. This time put your post up on Friday or Saturday, I'll do mine on Sunday, and we can all do Monday Mentions on Twitter and Facebook on the Monday.
The Blog Carnival has a subject: If I knew then what I know now... essentially, if you were starting out Indie right now, but had all the knowledge you now possess, what would you do differently?
And if you want involved, post a comment here or shoot me a message on Facebook, Twitter, or by email.
And the date of the carnival is probably going to be... the 13th of December.
Spread the news, people.
Showing posts with label blog carnival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog carnival. Show all posts
Saturday, 30 October 2010
Thursday, 19 August 2010
The Carnival Is Here
This is a blog carnival by indie authors. Indie is the new term given to self-publishing authors to try and get away from the stigma foisted upon them. Stereotypically self-published books are all worthless crap put out by deluded desperadoes who can't get a publishing deal.
This is far from the actual truth. There are high quality self-published books out there (there must be, else why would publishers offer self-publishing authors book deals?). There are authors who don't want a traditional publisher to publish them – note: don't want is vastly different to can't get.
Here are 12 self-published authors ready to tell you why they stopped submitting to traditional publishers (or in some cases, never started). Two more are going to tell you why they are planning on going the independent route.
If you've never read a self-published book because you've bought into the crap that they are all written by talentless hacks, then this blog carnival is just what you need. Hopefully, reading the reasons why so many talented people have turned away from traditional publishing will inspire you to try their work.
If you're an author just ready to submit, and your looking at your options, and the stigma attached to self-publishing is scaring you, then read the blog posts gathered below. They might inspire you one way or the other, but chances are they will inspire you.
Jess C Scott offers up ten reasons why Indie is a better bet than traditional publishing. You can find her reasons on her blog. There's not much point listing the genres she writes in, as Jess writes in almost every genre.
Claire Farrell is on a time scale to write before she gets back to work because she has hundreds of babies. Oh, okay, 5, but I've got 3 and I thought that was pretty bad. For more on the reasons Claire went indie, and her 5 kids, check out her blog. Plus, her fiction is about fairies, and I love fairies.
Ty Johnston has worked in newspapers for 12 years. He's seen first hand what happens when digital takes the place of print. He started self-publishing to pay bills but still manages to get publishers to pick up some of his work, which puts the lie to the idea that if you self-publish a traditional publisher will not go near you.
Levi Montgomery is chasing dreams. :) He is looking for a publisher to give him a contract where he has full control. I respect his reasons for going independent, but I doubt he'll ever see that contract. He's not stupid, though, he knows this, too. He has a full, and very extensive list of the things a traditional publisher would take away from him. Not only this, but for all the self-publishing naysayers out there, it should really be pointed out that Levi has turned down several offers from publishers already. Way to go, dude.
Moses Siregar III has had his first novella out on Amazon for seven days now, but he isn't closed to the idea of a traditional publisher either. He sees the benefits of going both ways, and has even linked his post to one that states reasons why traditional publishers and agents are still important.
Paranormal romance authors are up next. The first of these, Kait Nolan, hates her day job. And from what she's tweeted about it, I'm not surprised. If you scroll down some on this blog, you'll find a recent interview we did with Kait, if you're interested.
If you like your indie authors (Hell, even if you don't) you've probably heard of the second of this blog carnival's paranormal romance authors. She's everywhere on the net, she's the she-hulk of self publishing as Ty Johnston describes her. What else can be said about Zoe Winters, except that she (like Levi) wants full control over her work. People warned her not to self-publish, and she ignored their advice. With the amount she is selling, it seems she made the right call.
Camille LaGuire has put the other self-publishers in this carnival back in their place. For her, it isn't about the money, the control, the cover art, giving up the day job or sticking two fingers up at the establishment... she just really enjoys what she's doing. Besides, trad publishers wouldn't buy a cozy western mystery about gunslingers who play with dolls. I can't imagine why, it sounds awesome. Check out the Daring Novelists's blog, if you dare. Haha.
Targoun is tired playing it safe, and has decided to throw his dice into the self-publishing game. With the quality of writing in his blog posts, I'm sure his fiction must be good, too.
Luna Lindsey is looking at the music business, and thinking similar things will happen to the publishing industry. Will readers start looking specifically for indie authors? Strangely enough, a reader posted a comment on Kait Nolan's blog today, stating that because of the strength of Kait's novel Forsaken by Shadow, she now does exactly that.
One more published indie author to go, and he has promised us a limerick. I was looking forward to this, but sadly it is the worst limerick of all time (made worse by the hideous lie it contains; he doesn't even like fish) check out M T Murphy's blog, Werewolf Kibble.
This is starting to look badly organised (to which Zoe will leave a comment mocking me. Grr. Shut up, Zoe. :p ) but I just found another entry in the carnival. Susan Bischoff, author of Hush Money, wanted to write a series regardless of whether it would sell. As soon as I get my Kindle, Hush Money is the first book on my to buy list. It's about super-heroes.
And another late edition. This is going to be so much better organised for the one I'm planning in November. Stacey Wallace Benefiel, author of Glimpse and Glimmer, wants cotton candy. It's not that type of carnival, Stacey. :) Stacey didn't have the patience to do the whole traditional thing, especially not after gathering 70 rejections.
Well, that's it for published authors. Lisa Yarde emailed me to apologise as she couldn't manage to make a post for the carnival, and Fran MacDonald was going to post but hasn't. I'll check Fran's blog later, in case a post is up.
Now for J A Marlow, who will have a book out in early 2011, and is already planning on going indie.
Oh, wait, I nearly forgot. My novella will hopefully be out in September. And the major reason I want to self-publish? It's in the post right under this one, but I'll link to it anyway. Here.
And that's all. It's been fun, and totally exhausting, doing this. Writing this post has taken five hours (including reading all the other blogs). I hope it inspires you.
Chris Kelly.
(PS if you wrote a post for this and I missed you, leave me a comment somewhere).
Why I intend to go Indie
On the cover of the third book in the Sword of Truth series there is clearly a dragon. Which doesn't seem that odd (it is a fantasy after all) until you consider that there is no dragon in Blood of the Fold. Yes, the first two books have dragons in them, but the third is curiously dragon free.
On the very first page of Dragon's Keeper by Robin Hodd there are 3 mistakes. We are supposed to believe that in a self-pubbed book these are spelling mistakes. In a publisher produced book these would be called “printing errors.”
A cookbook this year had a recipe that required “ground black people.”
A Terry Pratchett novel had the entire middle of the story reprinted and tucked in instead of the end.
There is every chance that going indie will lead to monumental fuck-ups on my part.
But they will be my fuck-ups. Not someone else's. Mine.
And that's important to me.
The Ship has Sunk! There are Sharks! Modern Publishing is Lost at Sea! (The Blog Carnival Cometh).
Imagine that there has been a great shipwreck, and we are all in the water together. The land isn't far away, but there are sharks.
Six old men get into the only lifeboat. They are professionals and have had a lot of big meals over the years. They know they should swim for the island, but they are scared. Those big meals have led to lots of extra weight they can't easily shift. They know if they strike for the island, most of them will go down. The ones that do make it will lose limbs, and be nothing like what they were before. In the meantime, the tide carries the lifeboat further away from the island, making it harder by the hour for these six old men to survive.
Everybody else is in the water on their own. Some people grab broken doors, dining tables, anything they can find that will float. They head for the island together. But you can't be saved by consensus. One person has to take charge, and its not going to be you.
All the rest strike out on their own. Some are stupid, and think they have a much higher chance of survival than they do. Perhaps they can't even swim. These are the first to die. Some are stupid but lucky. A very few that seemingly had no chance will make it to the island anyway. There are only so many sharks, and determination beats tiredness.
Some have a much higher chance. Perhaps they are really good swimmers. Perhaps they know how to deal with sharks. Perhaps they have a ten year marketing plan, lol.
You know the score, right? The Agency Six publishers languish in the lifeboat. They might be the last to fall, but only an idiot would swim away from land to climb onto the lifeboat for temporary safety. Those committees trying for land, they are the small publishers. They are doing the same thing indies are doing, but they are doing it together.
Which is great if you need the support of your peers. If you need someone to decide your books title, or the cover art. If you want someone to manage your career (read: tell you what to write) or wipe your ass for you, then this is the best option.
I'm not mocking the small pubs. They offer a much needed service. They do it better than the bigger ones. These are the guys that for the most part will survive the storms ahead.
The self-publishing indies are heading for the shore on their own. Some are no talent hacks, and can't swim. Most of these will go down. A few lucky ones will make it through. Of the rest, the ones with real talent, they'll make it to the island.
In fact, some of them already have. Tomorrow you'll hear from 12 writers already on that island, as they tell you just why they they struck out on their own. Furthermore, you'll hear from 2 writers still in the sea, ignoring the "you'll never make it," cat-calls of the folk in the lifeboat as they drift further from safety.
At the end of the day, survivals down to your own choices no matter which path you take. But in tomorrow's blog carnival you may find the inspiration you need to decide one way or the other, especially if you've been on the fence.
There's been a fight brewing between self-pubs and trad-auths for a while. Remember, either way, we are all still writers. Some better than others (some probably delusional) but all writers.
So, whichever route you choose, good luck.
Six old men get into the only lifeboat. They are professionals and have had a lot of big meals over the years. They know they should swim for the island, but they are scared. Those big meals have led to lots of extra weight they can't easily shift. They know if they strike for the island, most of them will go down. The ones that do make it will lose limbs, and be nothing like what they were before. In the meantime, the tide carries the lifeboat further away from the island, making it harder by the hour for these six old men to survive.
Everybody else is in the water on their own. Some people grab broken doors, dining tables, anything they can find that will float. They head for the island together. But you can't be saved by consensus. One person has to take charge, and its not going to be you.
All the rest strike out on their own. Some are stupid, and think they have a much higher chance of survival than they do. Perhaps they can't even swim. These are the first to die. Some are stupid but lucky. A very few that seemingly had no chance will make it to the island anyway. There are only so many sharks, and determination beats tiredness.
Some have a much higher chance. Perhaps they are really good swimmers. Perhaps they know how to deal with sharks. Perhaps they have a ten year marketing plan, lol.
You know the score, right? The Agency Six publishers languish in the lifeboat. They might be the last to fall, but only an idiot would swim away from land to climb onto the lifeboat for temporary safety. Those committees trying for land, they are the small publishers. They are doing the same thing indies are doing, but they are doing it together.
Which is great if you need the support of your peers. If you need someone to decide your books title, or the cover art. If you want someone to manage your career (read: tell you what to write) or wipe your ass for you, then this is the best option.
I'm not mocking the small pubs. They offer a much needed service. They do it better than the bigger ones. These are the guys that for the most part will survive the storms ahead.
The self-publishing indies are heading for the shore on their own. Some are no talent hacks, and can't swim. Most of these will go down. A few lucky ones will make it through. Of the rest, the ones with real talent, they'll make it to the island.
In fact, some of them already have. Tomorrow you'll hear from 12 writers already on that island, as they tell you just why they they struck out on their own. Furthermore, you'll hear from 2 writers still in the sea, ignoring the "you'll never make it," cat-calls of the folk in the lifeboat as they drift further from safety.
At the end of the day, survivals down to your own choices no matter which path you take. But in tomorrow's blog carnival you may find the inspiration you need to decide one way or the other, especially if you've been on the fence.
There's been a fight brewing between self-pubs and trad-auths for a while. Remember, either way, we are all still writers. Some better than others (some probably delusional) but all writers.
So, whichever route you choose, good luck.
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Okay, one more time people (this is supposed to be easy :) ) Blog Carnival Instructions
It should hopefully be simple.
1) Write a post on why you are indie.
That's it. I'll write a post on Fri linking to your post (and everyone else's).
2) Edit your post to include a paragraph that says basically "This pot is part of a blog carnival. To find the other posts in this carnival, go here." Then link to me.
Easy. Told you.
1) Write a post on why you are indie.
That's it. I'll write a post on Fri linking to your post (and everyone else's).
2) Edit your post to include a paragraph that says basically "This pot is part of a blog carnival. To find the other posts in this carnival, go here." Then link to me.
Easy. Told you.
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Blog Carnival Update 2
I believe I have now commented on all 13 blogs of people involved in the carnival. If I missed you, I'm sorry.
Okay, dudes, write your post Thursday. I'll write mine Friday linking to each of your own posts. It would be beneficial if you then update your post to link to mine. And everybody facbook/tweet etc about it. Let's do this...
Okay, dudes, write your post Thursday. I'll write mine Friday linking to each of your own posts. It would be beneficial if you then update your post to link to mine. And everybody facbook/tweet etc about it. Let's do this...
Sunday, 15 August 2010
We are so Utterly, Majorly, Totally, Awesomley, Ridiculously Excited
Blog carnival is this week. On Friday.
Which means Blog Carnival Week has officially began.
And that is all we are saying today, laochs. See you tomorrow.
Which means Blog Carnival Week has officially began.
And that is all we are saying today, laochs. See you tomorrow.
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
A Fantastic Opportunity for Indie Writers
We're organizing a blog carnival for authors who use Smashwords. It is happening on the 20th August 2010, a Friday.
What is a blog carnival?
A collection of different bloggers write posts on one topic, in this case why you decided to publish independently rather than going the traditional route, on their own blog. The host blog (hi, us) posts an article summing up each of the other blog posts and with a link to your blog.
On your post you mention at the top the post is part of a blog carnival, and link back to our post. This way any reader who reads any blog post on the subject and is interested has the potential to go to any or all of the other blogs.
Does it have to be on that topic?
Look, dudes, the topic is set. We're looking to do a monthly blog carnival if this works, and we don't care if you end your post with a synopsis and a link to buy your book. But the first carnival is about why you went indie.
How High Profile is this going to be?
Want to know a secret? Here at Scathach we don't read other writer's blogs for funzies. Oh no, we read Think Traffic, Liz Strauss's blog, itty biz, Mars Dorian's blog, and more. We love marketing, tiz fun.
And we pick up tips, by osmosis. We will try really hard to market this blog carnival. We'll use SEO techniques and link-building and more. You can do your bit, too. Tweet about it.
How do I sign up?
Leave a comment. Honestly, it is that simple. Leave your comment and write your blog post on the 19th of August, and post it. On the 20th we will come around, write our article, and link to the posts of everyone who has commented here.
You can also email us at Scathachpub@gmail.com
Why do we post on Thursday?
Our way of making sure you get included. We live in the UK and we're working nightshift over the Summer. If you post in the states in the evening, we'll probably miss it. So this way we know we'll include your post.
What do we get out of it?
Exposure to readers who wouldn't normally read your work? The chance to feel like part of a community? Free marketing? A coconut?
Okay, the coconut was a lie.
What is a blog carnival?
A collection of different bloggers write posts on one topic, in this case why you decided to publish independently rather than going the traditional route, on their own blog. The host blog (hi, us) posts an article summing up each of the other blog posts and with a link to your blog.
On your post you mention at the top the post is part of a blog carnival, and link back to our post. This way any reader who reads any blog post on the subject and is interested has the potential to go to any or all of the other blogs.
Does it have to be on that topic?
Look, dudes, the topic is set. We're looking to do a monthly blog carnival if this works, and we don't care if you end your post with a synopsis and a link to buy your book. But the first carnival is about why you went indie.
How High Profile is this going to be?
Want to know a secret? Here at Scathach we don't read other writer's blogs for funzies. Oh no, we read Think Traffic, Liz Strauss's blog, itty biz, Mars Dorian's blog, and more. We love marketing, tiz fun.
And we pick up tips, by osmosis. We will try really hard to market this blog carnival. We'll use SEO techniques and link-building and more. You can do your bit, too. Tweet about it.
How do I sign up?
Leave a comment. Honestly, it is that simple. Leave your comment and write your blog post on the 19th of August, and post it. On the 20th we will come around, write our article, and link to the posts of everyone who has commented here.
You can also email us at Scathachpub@gmail.com
Why do we post on Thursday?
Our way of making sure you get included. We live in the UK and we're working nightshift over the Summer. If you post in the states in the evening, we'll probably miss it. So this way we know we'll include your post.
What do we get out of it?
Exposure to readers who wouldn't normally read your work? The chance to feel like part of a community? Free marketing? A coconut?
Okay, the coconut was a lie.
Thursday, 18 June 2009
Game Plot Ideas (Victorian London)
I love RPGs. I used to play at Uni. I miss it, but I know no one out here who plays...
So, here are a few ideas for steampunk RPGs set in London.
1) Joseph Bazalgette needs the heroes help. It is 1860 and he is building the sewers, but something dark and dangerous is using the new sewer tunnels as a lair. The heroes must hunt it out.
2) There were 4 assassination attempts on Queen Victoria in her lifetime. It is not hard to make up a fifth attempt, and have the heroes pursue the would-be assassin through Victorian London.
3) It is 1851, the Great Exhibition is in full swing, but suddenly one of the main attractions begins killing people. It is a one hundred feet tall steam-powered man and was last seen leaving a trail of destruction heading towards the river.
4) It is 1888, and Jack the Ripper is on the prowl. But he is not a man; he is a demon from the deepest pits of Hell, and only the heroes can send him back where he came from.
5) A man with a strange tale in the pub sparks adventure. His name is Jonathan Harker, and he spins a tale of a blood-sucking fiend from a distant land praying on the women of our fine city.
6) A mad scientist hires the heroes to bring him dead bodies. Dig them up or kill them yourself, he doesn't care. But when the heroes learn he plans to reanimate the pieces, sewn together as one monstrous man, they must stop him before it is too late...
7) A mad scientist needs a test subject and one of the heroes, strapped for cash and facing debtors jail, volunteers. But when the scientist accidentally makes him permanently invisible, and very slowly becoming permantly intangible, it is up to the heroes to find a cure.
8) The famous Egyptologist Dr Albert Napier returns to London with the results of his recent looting, including a mummy that comes to life each night... think Brendan Fraser's The Mummy in Victorian steampunk London
9) A werewolf in Hyde Park
10) Chinese Triads have a weapon of mass destruction. They plan to test it on Paris, firing from London. This could lead to a massive war between the two empires...
11) Dr Jekyll, Mr Hyde
12) Florence Cook, the famous medium, is haunted by ghosts... indeed, the spirits of the departed are rising all over the city. The heroes must help the restless dead to rest in peace.
13) A sorceror plans to summon Cthulhu to earth... (I love Lovecraft, too).
A nice mix of techie and fantasy ideas, there.
See also http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm. With the ideas above and this link I'm sure you'll have great games. I'm so jealous...
So, here are a few ideas for steampunk RPGs set in London.
1) Joseph Bazalgette needs the heroes help. It is 1860 and he is building the sewers, but something dark and dangerous is using the new sewer tunnels as a lair. The heroes must hunt it out.
2) There were 4 assassination attempts on Queen Victoria in her lifetime. It is not hard to make up a fifth attempt, and have the heroes pursue the would-be assassin through Victorian London.
3) It is 1851, the Great Exhibition is in full swing, but suddenly one of the main attractions begins killing people. It is a one hundred feet tall steam-powered man and was last seen leaving a trail of destruction heading towards the river.
4) It is 1888, and Jack the Ripper is on the prowl. But he is not a man; he is a demon from the deepest pits of Hell, and only the heroes can send him back where he came from.
5) A man with a strange tale in the pub sparks adventure. His name is Jonathan Harker, and he spins a tale of a blood-sucking fiend from a distant land praying on the women of our fine city.
6) A mad scientist hires the heroes to bring him dead bodies. Dig them up or kill them yourself, he doesn't care. But when the heroes learn he plans to reanimate the pieces, sewn together as one monstrous man, they must stop him before it is too late...
7) A mad scientist needs a test subject and one of the heroes, strapped for cash and facing debtors jail, volunteers. But when the scientist accidentally makes him permanently invisible, and very slowly becoming permantly intangible, it is up to the heroes to find a cure.
8) The famous Egyptologist Dr Albert Napier returns to London with the results of his recent looting, including a mummy that comes to life each night... think Brendan Fraser's The Mummy in Victorian steampunk London
9) A werewolf in Hyde Park
10) Chinese Triads have a weapon of mass destruction. They plan to test it on Paris, firing from London. This could lead to a massive war between the two empires...
11) Dr Jekyll, Mr Hyde
12) Florence Cook, the famous medium, is haunted by ghosts... indeed, the spirits of the departed are rising all over the city. The heroes must help the restless dead to rest in peace.
13) A sorceror plans to summon Cthulhu to earth... (I love Lovecraft, too).
A nice mix of techie and fantasy ideas, there.
See also http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm. With the ideas above and this link I'm sure you'll have great games. I'm so jealous...
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
RPG Carnival
There is a blog carnival on steampunk rpg's this month, courtesy of Mad Brew Labs. I thought I'd get involved. http://www.madbrewlabs.com/index.php/2009/06/01/steampunk-klokwerks/
There is some idea that steampunk isn't punky enough, unlike cyberpunk. I think they just aren't thinking things through.
According to wikipedia, steampunk often lacks dystopian elements. Again according to Wikipedia, these elements include... poverty, war, violence, disease, pollution, and oppression. Because the Victorian era was so nice that this nonsense could be ignored... eh, no.
There was a lot of poverty in Victorian London. Work houses, debtor's prison, etc. Violence, Jack the Ripper. The Crimean and Boer Wars and the Taiping Rebellion. Cholera, tuberculosis, etc.
I think the problem is the name itself. Victorian gives rise to images of Victoria, who is usually pictured in a sombre all-black outfit (the clothing she wore after Albert's death). This gives rise to thoughts of upper class or middle class houses where the men ruled. Dinner jackets, cigarettes and tea in the lounge, and strict rules of etiquette were the order of the day.
Victorian Poverty
The Victorian era showed a vast increase in population. This seems to be a combination of larger families, of more children surviving infancy, of better understanding of disease and better medical care, and immigrants fleeing the Irish potato famine. By the end of the century, the population had tripled.
Because of the large number of people looking for work (skilled and unskilled) wages were low. People worked long hours, and so wanted to live near their work. Because of this there was a housing shortage. This led to extremely overcrowded situations, and unsanitary living conditions. There were no state benefits.
In 1848 Cecil Frances Alexander published a hymn:
The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high and lowly,
And order’d their estate.
(All things Bright and Beautiful). This hymn sums up Victorian attitudes to the poor. God made them poor, so they'll stay poor, the next life is more important than this one, anyway.
Children
Children had to also support the family. There were very few schools, and most kids worked; climbing boys employed by chimney sweeps, or to crawl under machines, or in coal mines, or as errand boys... Crime was rife in the city, with pickpocket gangs mostly made of children. In 1848, Lord Ashley made reference to these "naked, filthy, roaming, lawless and deserted children" claiming that there were more than 30,000 "in and around the metropolis." (Victorian Town Child, Pamela Horn).
Women
In a time when a hard working man might earn £3'6 a week, and a prostitute could earn as much as £1000 a week, it is no wonder London was heaving with prostitutes.
Pollution
This is often seen as something new, but pollution was widespread in Victorian London, a city famous for its unnatural fog. This was the heart of the Industrial Revolution, a city where the queen ordered sewers to be built because the stink became so overpowering that something had to be done, a city so polluted that when Cholera came from Germany it spread like wildfire.
The rich took the attitude "out of sight, out of mind," which is why there were so many prisons (Australia being the biggest ;) ). If a starving man stole a loaf of bread to feed his family, he was locked up...
Violence
In our child-centred society today, it is hard to comprehend a time when there were dead babies by the thousands, droves of missing Madeleines, scores of Myra Hindleys, and hardly anyone batted an eyelid. The "Angel Maker" was the worst of these, and there's a chilling article here... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-484575/The-baby-butcher-One-Victorian-Britains-evil-murderers-exposed.html
So murder, pollution, poverty, and crime were rife in the Victorian era, and this is where we'll find the punk. It was very much a time of "behind closed doors" with the Victorians fascinated by sex and death. This even extended to the royals, (look at Edward, who had numerous affairs. Infact, husbands encouraged their wives to sleep with the king because it would further the husbands position in society). Edward was involved in divorce proceedings and was in court twice, and was also embroiled in a cheating lawsuit about a game of cards at a gentleman's club.
You'll find it all in the Victorian/Edwardian era, from obsessive lesbian love affairs, to murder, from gangs of feral, lawless children, to high society, from the slums and rookeries to the mansions and palaces, from baby farming to drug taking, there is more than enough room and inspiration for punk. Be inspired.
There is some idea that steampunk isn't punky enough, unlike cyberpunk. I think they just aren't thinking things through.
According to wikipedia, steampunk often lacks dystopian elements. Again according to Wikipedia, these elements include... poverty, war, violence, disease, pollution, and oppression. Because the Victorian era was so nice that this nonsense could be ignored... eh, no.
There was a lot of poverty in Victorian London. Work houses, debtor's prison, etc. Violence, Jack the Ripper. The Crimean and Boer Wars and the Taiping Rebellion. Cholera, tuberculosis, etc.
I think the problem is the name itself. Victorian gives rise to images of Victoria, who is usually pictured in a sombre all-black outfit (the clothing she wore after Albert's death). This gives rise to thoughts of upper class or middle class houses where the men ruled. Dinner jackets, cigarettes and tea in the lounge, and strict rules of etiquette were the order of the day.
Victorian Poverty
The Victorian era showed a vast increase in population. This seems to be a combination of larger families, of more children surviving infancy, of better understanding of disease and better medical care, and immigrants fleeing the Irish potato famine. By the end of the century, the population had tripled.
Because of the large number of people looking for work (skilled and unskilled) wages were low. People worked long hours, and so wanted to live near their work. Because of this there was a housing shortage. This led to extremely overcrowded situations, and unsanitary living conditions. There were no state benefits.
In 1848 Cecil Frances Alexander published a hymn:
The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high and lowly,
And order’d their estate.
(All things Bright and Beautiful). This hymn sums up Victorian attitudes to the poor. God made them poor, so they'll stay poor, the next life is more important than this one, anyway.
Children
Children had to also support the family. There were very few schools, and most kids worked; climbing boys employed by chimney sweeps, or to crawl under machines, or in coal mines, or as errand boys... Crime was rife in the city, with pickpocket gangs mostly made of children. In 1848, Lord Ashley made reference to these "naked, filthy, roaming, lawless and deserted children" claiming that there were more than 30,000 "in and around the metropolis." (Victorian Town Child, Pamela Horn).
Women
In a time when a hard working man might earn £3'6 a week, and a prostitute could earn as much as £1000 a week, it is no wonder London was heaving with prostitutes.
Pollution
This is often seen as something new, but pollution was widespread in Victorian London, a city famous for its unnatural fog. This was the heart of the Industrial Revolution, a city where the queen ordered sewers to be built because the stink became so overpowering that something had to be done, a city so polluted that when Cholera came from Germany it spread like wildfire.
The rich took the attitude "out of sight, out of mind," which is why there were so many prisons (Australia being the biggest ;) ). If a starving man stole a loaf of bread to feed his family, he was locked up...
Violence
In our child-centred society today, it is hard to comprehend a time when there were dead babies by the thousands, droves of missing Madeleines, scores of Myra Hindleys, and hardly anyone batted an eyelid. The "Angel Maker" was the worst of these, and there's a chilling article here... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-484575/The-baby-butcher-One-Victorian-Britains-evil-murderers-exposed.html
So murder, pollution, poverty, and crime were rife in the Victorian era, and this is where we'll find the punk. It was very much a time of "behind closed doors" with the Victorians fascinated by sex and death. This even extended to the royals, (look at Edward, who had numerous affairs. Infact, husbands encouraged their wives to sleep with the king because it would further the husbands position in society). Edward was involved in divorce proceedings and was in court twice, and was also embroiled in a cheating lawsuit about a game of cards at a gentleman's club.
You'll find it all in the Victorian/Edwardian era, from obsessive lesbian love affairs, to murder, from gangs of feral, lawless children, to high society, from the slums and rookeries to the mansions and palaces, from baby farming to drug taking, there is more than enough room and inspiration for punk. Be inspired.
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