Steampunk

HFC member - Dorlana Vann

Have you heard of steampunk? I was familiar with the term but really didn’t know much about it. Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and science fiction that is set in the steam powered era (19th century) but includes today’s technology, as if it were invented back in Victorian days. I just realized that a new television show I’m watching, Warehouse 13, is actually steampunk inspired. And beyond fiction, there is a huge steampunk world of fashion, music, etc.

What has brought this intriguing genre to my attention is Gypsy Thornton’s short story, Cages. It is a steampunk retelling of Grimm's fairy tale, Jorinde and Joringel. I will be posting the story, plus a podcast, on my blog, Supernatural Fairy Tales, in 5 parts starting Aug. 1, 2009.

If you get a chance, stop by and read or listen to her short story. Also, Gypsy Thornton interviewed me for her blog, Fairy Tales News.

Upcoming Book Reviews and Contest!

by Sheryl Tuttle

To help celebrate the success of two of our Humble Fiction Cafe writers, I will be giving away their newly published books on my blog, WordProverb. To enter to win the free books, just post a comment on the following blog post. It's that easy!

Upcoming Book Reviews and Contest!

Please visit and enter. You may be the lucky winner of a great new book! Good luck!

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A Woman Hanging in the Waves

We shall begin this episode of Heat Advisory Theatre with a brief word from our sponsors, SunSpot Artists International. Please adjust your a/c at this time and remove sensitive plants, pets, and children from direct southern exposure...

I capsize in time, ego overblown.
I hang over the invisible,
Muddy obscure years beneath.
I would have been no captain
On those drowned low seas.
Wife, worshipper, or dead
Willing, wise, or dumb;
My longest upward stare
Scattered by the bright sun silt
That sifts in darkness below
A woman hanging in the waves.

Well now, I am slightly dizzy and seeing little dots right now! What a perfect evocation of too much heat from our sponsors. Shall we get on with the blogisode?

Yep, probably shouldn't have begun this post under the influence of too much sun and too much caffeine. Now that the summer is here in all its brazen glory, though, I'm finding that my writing has taken on a different cast. I don't want to linger in fairy lands, but I am willing to pull out and gut last year's NaNo novel. The novel takes place both planetside and in a space station--neither setting based on any familiar landscapes (at least not right here right now landscapes).

It seems that my fantasy stories are somehow tied more closely to where I live or at least how I experience where I live, to the extent that being at least partially comfortable outdoors is necessary to being able to write them. Part of that is that details of color and smell and feel are borrowed from personal experience. This heat crushes my senses against my own skin, pushing my eyelids down against glare and filling my nose with a hot blankness. I walk outside and I am stunned.

Couple the sensory deprivation of summer with the increasing number of times phrases will flash through my thoughts while I'm driving on the freeway, and you have a seasonal change in the way that I write. Never would have guessed that this would be the case, but I would be very interested to know if others experience a similar link between seasons or time of day and subject matter or type of story.

-- Chrissa

MAKING A “HOME” FOR OURSELVES

Where is home? Do you think of it as where you live now, or is it where you grew up? Most of us have a warm, nostalgic feeling for that place where we were raised and consider it a somewhat different version of “home.”
My childhood home was a small town in Kansas. Picture perfect. Complete with town square and band stand, ice cream socials and Fourth of July parades.
I knew every crack in the sidewalks, all the peoples’ faces and everyone’s cars, what churches they attended, who hung out at which beer joint and which doctor they saw. Everyone knew everyone’s business. It was a great place to grow up and I couldn’t wait to leave. When I did, I was excited, lonesome and lost. Every face I saw reminded me of someone I knew from “home.” Now, I’m thoroughly convinced there are only about fifteen or twenty basic “faces.”
Small towns are great if you can stand the cliques and the slow pace, but beneath the surface, there’s plenty going on and lots of stories to be told.
Humble Fiction Café has a new project. Our second anthology of short stories is now in its first stages of development. While the finished product is months away, we’re excited about it. The working title is “Ravel” and all the stories will have a common thread – the town of Moot and its many characters.
What will we learn about the people and the town? Whose secrets will be revealed? Where are the cracks? Even we don’t know yet, but that’s the fun of it – making it up as we go along…

ESCAPE

Nadia glanced once again in her rear view mirror. There was only the horizon framed on either side by tight canyon walls. Only five minutes ago, she had been able to see Moot small and getting smaller as she drove West away from town.
The highway was narrow, with sweeping curves, but the car was easy to handle. The solid rock walls came nearly to the pavement’s edge giving her a feeling of shooting through a tunnel. Her long, slender fingers curved around the steering wheel a little tighter. She had never cared for tight spaces. The sooner through the canyon, the better.
When she glanced in the mirror again, she blinked and had to look twice. Impossible, but there they were, the unmistakable red and blue flashing lights of a police car.
“It can’t be,” she thought. “It hasn’t been long enough. No one could possibly have found out so soon.”
Her foot pressed the accelerator. Beneath the hood, the car’s engine moved a little faster and the Maserati surged ahead…

Theresa Laws

Can You Stand The Pressure?

Amid my excitement about the publication of a book containing a story of mine, I was honored to be asked to speak at a yearly event the local library holds.

"Now, is public speaking a problem for you," the head librarian asked.

A fair question. I was able to reply quite honestly that the fear of making a fool of myself never troubles me anymore.

You see, some years back, I had an epiphany in an elevator of a high-rise office building in Houston, Texas.

I had just walked into the building, dressed in the most Conservative of gray suits when my ankle gave way, and I sprawled on the floor of the foyer like a beached whale, skirt hiked up in a most un-ladylike manner. Two businessmen got to witness the whole sorry scene. They hauled me to my feet, and, as luck would have it, entered the same elevator as I did. I waited for the floor to swallow me; I waited for my face to turn red. But neither of these things happened.

And suddenly I realized that this was not the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to me.Probably wasn't even in the top ten. It wasn't as bad as when I tripped and fell over a bale of hay at a county fair, taking a small Asian woman out on my way down; and it certainly wasn't as bad as when I inadvertently typed an "S" where the "W" should have been in a letter to a Mr. Whittaker.

Maybe it was just a part of growing older: that little things just don't bother me that much anymore. Or maybe it's because of George Bush,senior. After he threw up on his plate at that state dinner, I figure nobody could ever top that in terms of embarassing things to do. I owe him a debt of gratitude!
By the way, the book is "A Cup of Comfort for Dog Lovers II" and my story is "The Dashchund That (Almost) Conquered the World."

Susan H. Miller

What Makes a Successful Writers Group?

by Sheryl Tuttle

Do you ever wonder what makes a writers group tick? Why some groups come together and stick, while others dissolve over time?

One of the keys to a successful group is communication. For example, with the Humble Fiction Café (HFC), we have easy, frequent, and honest communication between our members.

Easy communication

• One email sends to the whole group
• Yahoo group for uploading files; this is where we post stories, chapters, or poems for critique, as well as a place to share other information

Frequent communication

• Weekly meetings; approximately every other week the meetings are open to the public
• Regular email; emails are used for communications between meetings

Honest communication

• Written and/or verbal critique is offered highlighting strengths and weaknesses
• Critique is offered on the written piece, not the writer, and is intended to help the writer improve in the craft

Recently, members of HFC participated in an interview by John E. Murray, III with Story Institute. In the interview, we discuss the dynamics of our group and what it is we believe makes it work so well. We also talk about some of our projects, including the writing of Split. You can listen to the interview in its entirety at the Story Institute Rambling Verser – Episode 16.

What are some other characteristics of a good writers group? How and where do you go about finding one? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

New Post on Endings

by Sheryl Tuttle

Please visit my novel blog, Hope and Faith, where I've posted Six Common Types Endings, the information gleaned from an endings class given by Linda Lindsey of HFC. It was an outstanding class full of valuable insight, too good not to share!