Dave’s Anatomy: My History As a Writer, #88: Steampunk/Wuxia: “The Weather God.”

Steampunkers

Steampunk is an intriguing genre to me, though I often think I don’t do a very good job of writing it (I haven’t been able to master its newest manifestation, Dieselpunk). But a call for stories intrigued me, especially the when I noted that the editor wanted stories that were not set in Victorian England, as many Steampunk stories are. This got me thinking. I find that many stories often start this way:  just thinking. The mind begins to go outside the realms of the ordinary and into the realm of the imaginative.

I began to realize that science and technology did not originate in Europe. The ancient cultures had their achievements as well, and many technological advances originated in China. It began to look like a good mix. What about combining some traditions of Chinese literature—in particular, the lore of the wuxia, the wandering warrior who possess incredible prowess as a fighter and used those powers for good? This led to the creation of an ongoing character, and then ongoing characters:  Princess Jing Lin, Chen Hao, and Soong Yuan. Since writing the story that came out of this exercise of the imagination, I’ve published several tales of these wandering knights. It’s a good exercise to get out of Western culture, and for someone who grew up watching David Carradine in Kung Fu and Bruce Lee movies. The first story, “The Weather God,” combined the wuxia tradition with Steampunk motifs.

Jing Lin

First the characters. Jing Lin is the Princess and heir apparent of Xingnoa, a nation I invented that lies north of China on the coast of the Yellow Sea. Protected by mountains and fiercely independent, the nation has managed not to be absorbed by China, though the Chinese have made annexation of Xingnoa an ongoing ambition. In the era of “Spheres of Influence,” when European nations came into the area and demanded trading rights, open ports, and political control of area of the country, Xingnoa.

Jing’s father, thinking he would have sons who could inherit his kingdom, put her in a Taoist convent. She lived there until she was fifteen and, as part of the disciplines of the place, learned ceremonial martial arts, including fighting with a wooden staff and hand-to-hand fighting. No children come for Quon and his wife and, at fifteen, Jing is taken from the convent and begins training to take over the kingdom. When her father learns of her abilities as a fighter, he is amazed. Jing trains with Shaolin masters (shades of Kung Fu) and periodically returns to her convent to further develop her abilities in fighting, meditation, and self-control. Eventually, she leads the armies of Xingnoa.

Jing lives many years as a chaste virgin, but after a while, she sees the impracticality of this for a military leader and takes lovers. She meet Chen and they become intimate. They also join as a pair of fighters, working at this time to keep foreign influences away from Xingnoa. The Europeans and Japanese have anchored a fleet in Xingnoa’s main harbor and plan to bully the country into giving them concessions. While meeting with a nobleman who knows a scientist, Shao Jiazhen, who is purported to have a weapon that can defeat the Europeans, they strumble upon Soong, who is a servant girl there. She is paid to poison Jing, almost succeeds and reveals that she has been suborned by Shao Jiazhen’s captors. When Jing hears her story, and sees her abilities at fighting with a staff, she gives her the opportunity to come on their journey to the interior of China with them to free Shao.

Shao is a remarkable scientist. When Jing, Chen, and Soon free him, he unleashes robotic warriors who fight their American captors and enable them to escape. Shao has a weapon that destroys the European ships, freeing Xingnoa from the threat of foreign domination. Chen and Jing also begin a relations (that will lead to their marriage in later stories). Soong is loyal and proves a good fighter. Jing begins to train her as a wuxia warrior. She has issues to work through. Because her family is poverty-stricken, she has hired herself out as a servant to a wealthy household. Part of her duties is to service the men and some of the women who stay as guests. The sexual abuse she has suffered has scarred her. Part of Jing’s task in training her will be to heal her soul as well.

Soong

This first story laid the groundwork for others. I have published three tales about these characters, including a novella, The Sorceress of Time. I plan for more stories about this trio of martial arts experts. The overlay of wuxia and Steampunk proved fruitful. Such combinations can often stoke the imaginative part of our brains into something that blazes brightly.

“The Weather God” appeared Penny Dread Tales, Volume II in and was reprinted in Best of Penny Dread. I’ll have more to say about Jing, Chen, and Soong in future blogs.

For more titles see my Writer's Page.

I would love to hear your comments.

How To Write a Story: #81: Steampunk: “Appomattox”

I’ve found that in writing, exploring new genres can generate good results. I wrote fantasy and horror and some literary fiction, but I had not tried Steampunk as of yet. Steampunk is a relatively new genre. According to Wikipedia, Steampunk is "a sub-genre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic design inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery.” It is a world of steam engines, dirigibles, submarines, but all powered by steam with the sort of technology that propelled the Titanic rather than that of the Space Shuttle or a modern jet. Steampunk also plays with the historical time line. It may rearrange history just slightly. It may put historical figures in different roles.

The notion of writing a story always, the thing that spurs the creative impulse can come from encountering a new genre like this and exploring it. When I did, I began to get the idea that became the story “Appomattox.”

Lee Surrenders to Grant

Even if you’re not a Civil War buff, must people who know anything about that conflict know that it ended when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Commander Ulysses S. Grant at the courthouse in Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865. By the month of June all other active Confederate armies had surrendered as well.

I thought it would be fascinating to jumble things up, beginning with history. In my revised history Frederick Douglas wins the election of 1860 on his promise to reconcile the North and the South. He dies after only four months in office, and his Vice President, a pro-South politician named Johnson (not Andrew Johnson) takes office. Lincoln accepts the post of Secretary of War. Four years later, Lincoln is elected President and the war begins. During his term as Secretary of War, Lincoln promoted the development of technology. The Union began to produce submarines and, more importantly, airships. The South has prospered from the slave-produced cotton it sells and is confident its troops are superior fighters to those of the north. But eventually a slave revolt, led by John Brown, breaks out. It is contained but not completely quelled. Lincoln sees an opportunity to win the war when two Confederate Generals, Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson make an appointment to negotiate with him near the city of Appomattox, Virginia.

Exploring the Steampunk genre released possibilities, flurries of creative, and the chance for a unique story simply by its newness. The story flourished because it opened up new possibilities for the main elements of a story:  plot, character, narrative, setting, symbolism, and theme.

The historical figures mentioned are not the main characters of the plot. Two engineers, a man and a women, are in fact the point of view characters for the story. Mitchell Judd and Electra Koteos are a couple who have built the airships the Union army has used to win the war. Electra is a woman who defies conventions of the time.  She owns a business, is a single mother, an engineer, and a formidable woman. Once when they are on date, a robber accosts them; she pulls out a derringer and shoots him. When he first meets her she is wearing a short skirt. He stares and she explains. “Long dresses are too hot and too dangerous in a work environment such as this [the research factory she owns]. Once we were riveting some plate and the hem of my dress caught fire. I have scars on my legs from that and  since then I’ve worn this costume. It serves me well.” They marry and begin to develop technology. 

The Civil War will end in 1865 like it did in history and at the place it ended in history. Lee and Jackson are ready to negotiate. General Nathaniel Bedford Forest, however, has learned about the negotiations and sends a large army to intercept Lee and his troops. By skillful use of the airships, however, the northern forces are able to repel Forest’s army. The negotiations to end the war begin.

In writing a story, the new and the fresh are sometimes the path to increased creativity. You might want to try a different genre:  if you write horror, try a fantasy story; if you write fantasy, explore the genre of literary fiction—or steampunk or cyberpunk, dieselpunk (a lot of punks floating around out there) or science fiction. It opens doors and gives shape to new thinking and new ideas.

“Appomattox” appeared in an anthology titled Conquest Through Determination. It was published by Pill Hill Press, which has closed, and the book is, sadly, unavailable—though when I checked Amazon there are copies of it offered for $500.00 (I'm not joking, that’s what it says—the people who priced the books must be joking).

For additional titles, check out my Writer's Page.

A great Christmas gift for readers of vampire stories is Sinfonia: The First Notes on the Lute, A Vampire Chronicle, Part One. The Sequel, Sinfonia:  A Painted Lady, A Vampire Chronicle, Part Two will be available for Christmas.

Happy reading, happy writing.

Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer #65, "Sita's Strategy"

Steampunk City concept

Steampunk emerged as a genre a few years back. Once I understood what it was, I tried my hand at writing it. Steampunk uses contraptions and devices from the Victorian era: steamships, dirigibles, early submarines, and other such devices. In fact, as with Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, it employs the fantastical and the scientific, combining them to create submarines like the Nautilus or the airship in Master of the World. My story, "Sita's Strategy," takes this idea a quite a bit further. Sita comes up with a much more sophisticated and destructive weapon—one that outstrips a submarine or an airship by light years.

Sita

I decided to bring some racial diversity into the genre, probably because I saw a call for papers that wanted steampunk with an African or Asian setting rather than the traditional European setting and Victorian time frame. The story does take place during the Victorian era, and in England, but I created the character Sita, who is Indian. By adding this character I was able to illustrate some of the challenges Indians living in England during the late 1800s might face.

Sita is a young woman who is half-caste (the term used back then), with an Indian mother and a British father. She has grown up in England and played the convert to British culture, but of late, as a married woman with a British husband, she has tried to identify more with her Indian roots, wears a sari, and does not affect British fashion or manners. Furthermore, she has studied physics at Cambridge and has the ability to transform her theories into mechanisms. The British government relies on her as a technical engineer who can produce superior weapons.

She demonstrates her abilities by defeating a massive Spanish invasion of England (a sort of second armada). One of the fun things about writing Steampunk is that you can alter history and politics to suit the world you are creating. In Sita's world, Spain is a massive empire that encompasses the Iberian peninsula and all of South America. The Spanish assemble a huge fleet of ships to invade England. England has airships, but not enough to stop the attack. Sita is able to transform production techniques so that England produces huge numbers of airships and is able to completely destroy the Spanish fleet. She is a hero but also feels remorse that she has caused so much death and destruction using her technological abilities.

Britain is once again facing an invasion, this time by Serbia, a nation that includes all of Russia and Eastern Europe. The Caliphate of Cordoba has allied with them, so that North Africa and much of the Middle East is in the alliance. Britain's usual allies—France, Germany, Italy, and the Lutheran Federation in Scandinavia—have declared neutrality. America is undecided. The Kingdom of Prester John—a vast Eastern Christian land that includes much of Africa and Central Asia—is not convinced it should come to Britain's defense.

Queen Victoria is meeting with Sita to discuss a weapon that will even the score. She trembles to think of using it and remembers how she developed the idea: Sita had long known energy is matter and matter energy. This was a startling concept in Britain these days, but the sages of China and her own homeland had known it for thousands of years. They had not, however, she reflected bitterly, used this knowledge to produce a weapon. She has worked with radium, studied Marie Curie's work, and knows that some elements are unstable and seem to bleed their energy out. The idea occurs to her that the massive energy of matter might be released. When a French scientist sends her mineral samples from Gabon in French Equatorial Africa, she is convinced she can release the energy in the material. Sita and a group of military leaders set off the world's first nuclear bomb in a remote section of the South Atlantic. The military men are delighted; Sita is appalled that she has invented such a destructive device.

She knows the Queen will want her to use the weapon she has developed against the armies and cities of Serbia and Cordoba. In despair, she goes to see Wu Li, a Chinese philosopher she knew from Cambridge and asks his counsel. He reminds her that the ancients taught that the skillful warrior wins without fighting and defeats the enemy by ruining alliances, cutting supply lines, discouraging and demoralizing soldiers. Sita is confident she can do this and will persuade the Queen to follow a different course than direct attack. Wearing her sari, she leaves for her meeting confident the horrific weapon developed under her supervision will not be used.

"Sita's Strategy" appeared in the September 2011 issue of The Wi-Files. You can read it here.

For more of my books, check out my Writer's Page.

Lybecca of Dunwood

This month I'm promoting my book The Sorceress of the Northern Seas. Lybecca, a village girl, becomes the most powerful witch in England. It's a long, hard road, but she is capable of walking it. Book One chronicles her rise through opposition to acquire massive power.

I would love to hear your comments and perspectives.