Steampunks

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Comment by David Mark Brown on Saturday

Hey, Dan. Thanks for the shout out! Now I have to go clean up my site.

Have a good time on the road, I'll keep my eyes out for ya!

Comment by Dan G. on Saturday

Greetings David, Tome and All,

I do over the road truck driving for a living (leaving in the early am for another run, in fact) so I don't get all that much free time to be on the computer. And what time I get tends to be rather sporadic at best. I also have absolutely no idea on how to go about setting up websites. Especially anything this complex. ~~~ BUT, I would be more than happy to lend whatever time and little aid I can this project!!!

Tome ~ First off, THANKS for volunteering the DIESELPUNKS site. It would certainly make for the perfect home. Though I someday dream of writing (maybe after I win the lottery!) I am neither an Author or Storyteller (well, not in the "official" sense anyway. LOL) so it was only today that I gave that section a look over. Whereas it looks very interesting I would think that a review listing would require something a bit more structured than a forum. Something more akin to a reference catalog or even a page of listed links to members reviews of each work. Perhaps something similar to the Dieselpunk Wiki I saw here a bit ago??? (can't seem to find the link today) What do you think???

Dave ~ It ~ IS ~ a good "cheeky sort of joke"! I have absolutely no idea why I let it put me off. Especially since I really do love humor mixed into my sci-fi. I usually figure that if an author can't throw in at least a chuckle or two then he is probably taking himself too seriously. Life is trying enough without being able to escape The Grand Drama in the refuge of a work of fiction. But, MAN, that's a tough call. Changing the title to your works after they've been on the market for awhile could make for a load of headaches. But on the inevitable other hand, it could help get more uptight stodgy old timers like me to give them a go. Either way, I sure wish you the very best of luck!!! ~ I'm including a link to your works on my group today. Something I usually don't do until ~ after ~ I've read and reviewed (or read a members review) of a piece. Keep me posted if you change the title up!


Keep It FUN!                
Dan G

Comment by David Mark Brown on Friday

Dan, Yeah the reefer in "Reeferpunk" has come back to bite me as well! I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I just thought people would see it as a cheeky sort of joke and think "that sounds fun!" But marijuana is still too serious of an issue in the U.S. in particular. The books aren't really controversial in the reefer sense at all. The first book includes some friends growing it (in 1918!) as a means to make some extra scratch.

Anyway, I'm in the process of changing the series name to something like "The Texicas Chronicles" in an attempt to highlight the alternate history aspect of the books.

As for the reviews, I've been wondering how easy/hard it would be to set up a site to be able to allow people to rank and review stuff (and then compile those together to create an average). It is relatively easy to embed an Amazon bookshelf with whatever books you want, but then you have the star ratings from Amazon...

I couldn't find any review sites either. Just a smattering of books here and there. Goodreads has a huge number of books tagged as steampunk and there are reviews on there, but they run into the same issue as Amazon.

Comment by Tome Wilson on Friday

I think a review section would be excellent.  That's what we have the Stories + Authors group for.

Comment by Dan G. on Friday

Greetings David and All,

As far as I've been able to discover over the years there aren't any reader review sites for Steam or Diesel. A few sites list a couple of books (more so for Steam (VSF) since they can include the old classics (Verne, Wells, &tc)) with a very brief description at best. Within my own SCI-FI ARMOR Yahoo Group ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sci-Fi_Armor/ ) I do brief reviews of books I've read and try to add a new discovery to my links pages at least once a week. No reviews, just links. Even DIESELPUNKS only includes a short list of primarily older works. Again, no "Reviews". An honest fan based review list seems well and truly overdo.

~ Just an idea, though I have no way of knowing if this site could support such an endeavor, but why not do one right here on DIESELPUNKS + STEAMPUNKS??? With members contributing (as per Amazon, &tc) it could lighten any one person's workload and allow for a variety of feedback.

Categories can get a bit tricky. So many cross over genre types it makes it hard to pigeonhole them. (Horror in military, detective, super hero, adventure, other worlds, &tc) Probably why I love the stuff! LOL

I knew this was going to come back and bite me. I've seen your works (REEFERPUNK) for some time now. Been very tempted a few times to really check it out, but . . . well, in all honesty . . .  the "reefer" part kind of put me off a bit. (Too old to remember that I use to partake of the herb myself well back in the day, I guess. LOL) So now I'm going to have to give them a go. They do look FUN. THANKS for cornering me! LOL

Keep It FUN!                
Dan G

Comment by David Mark Brown on Friday

Dan, I've been thinking about starting a review site that would focus on a handful of genre niches like what you are talking. Each genre room would try to review and rate every book out there in the little niche (dieselpunk, zombie apocolypse, weird western, etc.) the matrix would need to include, like you have said, a rating for the genre elements as well as the quality of the story.

I'll do a more thorough search to see if these little genres already have good review sites out Ther or not.

Got any other specific types of reads you would die to find reviews on?

As for my stuff, my website is: www.davidmarkbrownwrites.com
The site has several shorts posted in there entirety. In a few days I'll have a totally new look, so if some glitches occur please check back! I'll be swapping to a new theme structure.

I call my invented genre Reeferpunk. It focuses on the developement of the U.S. during prohibition through the reefer madness era and combines elements of dieselpunk, western and horror. If you read any, let me know what you think.

Comment by Dan G. on Thursday

Greetings David and All,

THANKS for being an ~ Honest ~ publicists! I sure wish that there was more out there like you.

I would certainly like to find a reliable reader's review of Steampunk works. (Rate this work Five Gold Boilers??? LOL) Any suggestions???

I'm ALWAYS on the hunt for more Diesel Fired Sci-Fi /Horror /Pulp (more so these days thanks to the glut of so called "Steampunk" to be found packing the shelves.) I like that more new writers are taking to this classic venue! Do you have a website or someplace where I can check out your books???

Keep It FUN!                
Dan G

Comment by David Mark Brown on Thursday

I hear you, Dan. But I think this falls under the category of free markets. As a self pubbing author, I can choose how I wish to market my novels. If I thought it would help sales I could market my stuff as steampunk paranormal romance based on the fact that I have some overly sized insects, a steam engine and a guy who likes a girl all in there somewhere. But if readers quickly start to cry foul via reviews, forums and blogs, then I would have made a poor marketing choice.

So your point is dead on. It is up to readers to shave the fuzz and let other readers know which books are a 1 or a 10 on the steamy scale. For my part, I decided that since my books were really more dieselpunk than steam, I would use the more acurate discriptor even thou it was lessor known. So far I've only gotten one one star review from a reader who did not find what he wanted. (he wanted an alternate history without racism apparently, but I feel that a stretch even for fiction!)

I have been astounded lately at all the things considered steampunk. Then again, I thought that the last Sherlock Holmes movie was quite dieselpunkish, and I haven't heard anyone claiming it punk of any sort...

Comment by Dan G. on Thursday

Greetings Tome and All,

I fully agree ~ IF ~ there are actual elements of the Steampunk multiverse within a story the Fans certainly have the right to decide whether or not to clutch it to their boiler-plated and gear encrusted bosoms. To each his own.

However, in many cases what is being marketed as "steampunk" these days, purely in the interest of promoting sales, often stretches the imagination beyond the realms of perceiving exactly where the promoters attempted to ~ glue on a few gears ~.

From the aforementioned article I gathered that the author, in the interest of promoting steam universal world peace, was doing little more than encouraging Fans to capitulate to any and all claims laid forth by the Marketing Industry. Should the Star Wars franchise be accepted as Steampunk purely because some pitchman fastened to the concept that "Droids" are the same as the automatons featured in some VSF stories and games, and as such he might be able to sell a few more items from that line with his bit of misdirection??? I'm sure that would make promoters profitably happy. What's next than, they don't even have to bother to glue on a few gears just write "Steampunk" somewhere in the descriptive and that should be good enough for everyone??? Why not accept any sport or event containing the term "ball" into the World Series??? Why not? We could have "Ball"-room dancing at home-plate next time around! LOL


Keep It FUN!                
Dan G

Comment by Tome Wilson on Wednesday

Captain Kirk could put on a kettle to brew a spot of tea and the whole franchise of Star Trek thus becomes "Steampunk" by "fuzzy" default. 

Logically, yes.  If Captain Kirk was involved in some kind of sci-fi adventure that was inspired by the Victorian-era scientific romances, then yes, that episode would be considered steampunk.

The question is no longer "what is steampunk."  We know what it is.  The question is now "what stories have steampunk elements," or in the case of a website article, "what stories should be tagged with the 'steampunk' tag?"

By having the steampunk tag, it doesn't mean that the story is steampunk.  That's up to the readers and the marketers as you've stated.  It just means that the story includes steampunk elements that may appeal to people looking for steampunk in their fiction.

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