I’m sorry for the late notice! It’s been kind of a crazy week, so I haven’t been online much.

This is just a reminder for those of you in the Portland area — on Sunday, November 13th at 4:30pm, I’ll be in Beaverton, OR and signing at Powell’s local Authorfest. Directions are here.

If you can’t make it Sunday, remember that I’ll also be at the Cheeky Pages book club meeting at Powell’s on November 18th with Theresa Meyers, whose steampunky-paranormal The Hunter just released last week. I’ve heard that she’s bringing treats of eatin’ kind.

November 4th marks the release day for the German translation of The Iron Duke – Die Eiserne See: Wilde Sehnsucht (Translated by Beate Bauer) from EGMONT LYX.

I also just spotted this calendar/wallpaper for November on EGMONT LYX’s Facebook page.

For my German readers — it hasn’t been translated, but I have a rudimentary guide to the Iron Seas here, including a map. I hope you love the series!

Happy reading!

Questions about steampunk, and my two romance series? A Heart of Steel giveaway? It’s all right here

Here is the Audible link.

ISBN 978-1-10-152319-3

ISBN 978-1-10-152318-6

ISBN 978-1-10-152317-9

The second book in the Iron Seas series is a bit different than the first — a little faster-paced and less angsty because Yasmeen and Archimedes simply weren’t those types of characters — but I hope just as fun for everyone! As per usual, I’m going into hiding online so that I don’t obsess over reviews and rankings and all of those things that can easily drive an author mad, but I’ll be checking @replies on Twitter, my Facebook pages, blog comments, and my e-mail.

Readers and bloggers — please feel free to post links to your reviews in the comments! I won’t be seeking them out (see going-into-hiding note above) but I know that a lot of readers like to read reviews/discuss what they did and didn’t like about the books, so I’m happy to make those reviews easy to find.

Don’t forget that I have a rudimentary Iron Seas guide now!

Click here to read an excerpt. Here’s the official description and bits:

“Rising star Brook has created two completely mesmerizing characters whose journeys in this gritty and treacherous world make for heart-stopping fun!”
—RT BookReviews ½!

Named one of Publishers Weekly’s “Best Books of 2010,” The Iron Duke introduced the gritty, alluring adventure of the Iron Seas. Now, Meljean Brook returns to the world where nanotech fuses with Victorian sensibilities — and steam.

As the mercenary captain of the Lady Corsair, Yasmeen has learned to keep her heart as cold as steel, her only loyalty bound to her ship and her crew. So when a man who once tried to seize her airship returns from the dead, Yasmeen will be damned if she gives him another opportunity to take control.

Treasure-hunter Archimedes Fox isn’t interested in the Lady Corsair — he wants her coldhearted captain and the valuable da Vinci sketch she stole from him. To reclaim it, Archimedes is determined to seduce the stubborn woman who once tossed him to a ravenous pack of zombies, but she’s no easy conquest.

When da Vinci’s sketch attracts a dangerous amount of attention, Yasmeen and Archimedes journey to Horde-occupied Morocco — and straight into their enemy’s hands. But as they fight to save themselves and a city on the brink of rebellion, the greatest peril Yasmeen faces is from the man who seeks to melt her icy heart…

I’m not going to be able to do the next Q&A today, or even Friday — I realized that with the trip north and the signing on Saturday, a family thing on Sunday, and then the release next week, there’s going to be a span of about four days where the chance of getting any work done is zero. So I’m going into a hole for two days to get as much done as possible.

So, unless I see you at the signing in Bellevue, I’ll see you Monday!

For those of you who aren’t reading through my book-length Q&A posts and who might have missed this link in the middle of it or my tweet on Twitter, I’ve set up a basic guide to the Iron Seas, with a map at the bottom.

It’s ugly. It’s rough. It’s very basic. But I hope it helps you visualize the political geography of the world a little better.

ETA: There are no meanings behind the colors chosen for the map. I just wanted them to contrast so that the different territories would be clearer.

Here are more of Maili’s questions – and my (sometimes overlong) answers.

d) What’s the difference between a Steampunk novel and a Gaslight fantasy novel? What about alternative historical novels like Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula?

Agh. I always feel a little weird when I get into this, because although I’m happy to talk my mouth off about steampunk, when it comes to other genres I’m not as comfortable saying: This is what they are/aren’t. So let me preface everything that I say with the caveat that these are my impressions of the differences between genres, based on my (could be faulty) understanding of them.

First of all — just because a historical-set novel includes something like an airship or a scientist, that does NOT make it steampunk. Scientists really did exist in history, after all; so did airships. So did submersibles. So did Wimshurst machines. So did Leyden jars. These are all things that existed in true history, and their use or appearance in a historical novel can be fun, but it isn’t necessarily steampunk. There needs to be an application and/or an evolution of that technology that ventures beyond the reality of history.

So, imagining the inclusion of technology in historical set works as a sliding scale, a historical novel that includes steam technology but no real science fiction application of it is just … well, it’s a historical novel.

Then there’s gaslight fantasy/gaslamp fantasy (I’ve seen it called both and I don’t know if there’s a difference; if there is, please someone feel free to tell me in comments! I don’t mind being called out as ignorant, because then I can know better and not be ignorant anymore.) – To me, gaslight fantasy is more explicitly Victorian (because the ‘gaslight’ part immediately brings to mind London streets; I can’t help it.) It also includes some sort of magic/fantasy…and here is where I might be completely wrong, but that magic/fantasy is more occult-type of magic rather than, say, a werewolf or vampire running around the city. I always think of it as more like ghosts and weird-paranormal magic rather than an abundance of supernatural creatures. In addition, I always think of gaslight fantasy as having a certain oppressive atmosphere that feels almost gothic in nature.

But again, it’s a sliding scale. It’s not that gaslight fantasy can’t include vampires or werewolves, because it can. But what is the overall feel of the book and what is the underlying basis of the ‘difference’ from the real world? If you’ve just got a Victorian-set historical populated by vampires, that’s not gaslight — it’s a historical paranormal romance. If you’ve got arcane societies practicing dark magic, if you’ve got ghosts, if you’ve got a dark, wet atmosphere — and there just happens to be a vampire around, too? That feels, to me, more like gaslight fantasy.

The key always seems to be: What is the difference from the ‘real’ world, and what is the driving force behind that difference? What is the mechanism through which the world is changed?

In steampunk, that mechanism is science-based. In gaslight fantasy, it will be magic-based. I made up this little graphic for my workshop in San Diego. I’m not completely happy with it, but it gives a visual representation of that sliding scale that I’m talking about. You can click to enlarge it.

Steampunk <-> Gaslight

The more supernatural elements you have, the more magic, the more paranormal beings, the more that it is gaslight fantasy … even if it has a few gadgets or airships here and there.

Then there are alternate histories. Maili mentions Anno Dracula, but although I’ve read it, it was during my Anne Rice craze in 10th or 11th grade and I can’t recall exactly the differences in the world itself, and how much science fiction/magic was involved. Generally, however, I would say that an alternate history is one where there is a break from real history, and even though the course of the world might have changed dramatically (and that includes a different trajectory for technological and social evolution), that break in history and the social/cultural impact is the driving element behind the differences in the world, rather than magic or science, even if magic or science (or a supernatural creature) was the cause of the break.

And again, it’s not that a book has to be completely one or the other. The Iron Seas series is an alternate history — and that break came when Batu Khan became the Great Khan rather than one of Ögedei’s heirs. The driving force behind the differences in the world, however, is the technology created by the Horde, along with the technology created by those trying to stop them (and later the tech created as they adjust to their new world).

e) Does historical accuracy matter in a steampunk novel?

Yes and no. It doesn’t have to be accurate in the sense that events happen in the same way (in a historical novel, the date of certain battles are either accurate or they aren’t — but that battle might not even take place in a steampunk/alternate history novel.) It does have to be accurate, however, in that the worldbuilding has to be internally consistent and make sense. It has to be accurate in that, if something is out-of-place to that time, there has to be a reason behind it.

The technology (and everything else) can be anachronistic from *our* perspective. It can’t be anachronistic from the perspective of the characters and the world; it has to fit, it has to make sense — it has to be accurate according to the rules of that world.

f) what’s the difference between a steampunk romance and a steampunk novel?

I have no idea. Obviously the romance is the primary plot/story within a steampunk romance, but my difficulty comes because I have no idea what a steampunk novel looks like. The more I think about it, the more most steampunk seems to be a subgenre of something else — mysteries and adventure novels being the most popular. I’m often torn between calling steampunk its own genre, and just calling it a ‘setting.’

(I’m excluding steampunk art from this, by the way, as well as the steampunk lifestyle. I think that those are very clearly their own. But in literature, I honestly don’t know if it’s self-contained as its own genre.)

I would love to hear other thoughts on this, actually. Does steampunk feel like its own genre, and what books/movies would you use as examples of a steampunk genre?

g) What web sites and blogs would you recommend for us who want to learn more about steampunk?

I mentioned Beyond Victoriana last time. Also, every October, the publisher Tor has a steampunk month on their blog, and I think it’s worth checking out the articles and essays on steampunk (most easily found with the ‘steampunk’ tag).

For romance, The Galaxy Express does a great job of keeping SF romance readers apprised of upcoming steampunk titles — and is also great for links.

Girl Genius online — because it’s fun. The same goes for 2D Goggles (a.k.a. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.)

Airship Ambassador has a huge number of links to definitions, art, all kinds of stuff. The Steampunk Chronicle has great links, too.

Also, because the visual aspect is so strong (I’ll admit that I don’t read a lot of steampunk blogs aside from Beyond Victoriana, but I do love to go searching for artwork) I love pointing to sites like Deviant Art and simply searching for steampunk. When CGSociety was having their Myths and Legends steampunk art challenge, it was the greatest thing ever — and the winners (to which I just linked) are fantastic, but there was a lot of work showing up in the forums that was spectacular as well.

I know there are blogs and tumblers out there that repost steampunk art, but I usually just end up doing Google searches instead. If you know of any great steampunk blogs, please post a link in the comments!

h) Which films would you recommend for us who need to see what steampunk is like before we could read a steampunk romance/novel?

I’m saving this until tomorrow/Friday, because it will be another long answer (and Maili sent me some awesome links to videos, too, and I want to include those.)

g) Will your ‘Iron Seas’ map ever see the daylight?

Okay, well. I didn’t scan them in, because the more I thought about it, the more I realized that a lot of what is on those maps will either be spoilerish/will be more fun to develop in the books themselves. It’s not that I’m trying to be secretive, it’s just that I want to save some stuff to be revealed in the books, and the maps totally give it away.

But I totally understand that readers want a general history and a way to better visualize the world, and so instead of scanning it in, I spent time last night on a map in Photoshop, and on sketching out a general history on a page. It’s crude, the boundaries are not exact, it’s vague in some areas, it’s definitely a work-in-progress — but I hope it helps visualize the world a little better.

So, here’s a rudimentary Iron Seas guide. Please feel free to ask questions about it in the comments here.

Also, er — the fact that Ireland is orange doesn’t signify anything. I just wanted to make it clear that its fate was not linked to England/Wales/Scotland’s, and chose a contrasting color, and only later did I realize that it could be taken as a statement re: religion.

So, I saw today that Amazon marked Wild & Steamy to FREE! Yay! So you can find it at B&N and Smashwords for the same price.

That’s not the only Wild & Steamy-related news today. As many of you know, my friend Jill Myles from that anthology is also Jessica Sims, and she debuted her new Midnight Liaisons series with BEAUTY DATES THE BEAST. If you missed my earlier post about this book, simply scroll down for a description and cover.

Today also marks the audiobook releases for Carolyn Crane’s Disillusionists series — including the third book in the series, HEAD RUSH. If you’re like me and you can’t listen to books, this might drive you crazy, because there’s still a bit of time until the ebook releases from Samhain. But if you do listen to audiobooks and the ending of DOUBLE CROSS made you want to scream and have the next book now! this is a great way to get a jump on the rest of us (you lucky bastard).

UPCOMING SIGNINGS AND APPEARANCES

For those of you in the Pacific Northwest, I might be in your area soon!

On October 29th, I’ll be in Seattle and signing at the Emerald City Writer’s Conference Book Fair from 4:30 – 6pm at the Westin in Bellevue, WA. I think I will have copies of HEART OF STEEL.

On November 13th, I’ll be in Beaverton, OR and signing at Powell’s local Authorfest. If you can’t make it that night, however, check out November 18th!

On November 15th, I’ll kind of be at the Denver Lady Jane’s Salon — I’ll be using Skype to answer questions about the Iron Seas series.

On November 18th, I’ll be at the Cheeky Pages book club at Beaverton Powell’s with author Theresa Meyers, who will be talking about her steampunky-western-paranormal THE HUNTER. I’ll have copies of HEART OF STEEL to sign.

As before, I’m answering questions that were posed in my “Any Questions?” post. The following are from Maili — and I’ve broken this up into two parts and put them out of order because a) she had a lot of questions b) my answers are long, and c) I still haven’t gotten to a scanner and made pictures of my maps.

This first one is out of order because I’m going to refer to this answer when I answer the others:

Did you explain the ‘punk’ part? I think that’s the core of all -punk genres. Cyberpunk = futuristic technology versus big brother, for instance.

To me, the ‘punk’ part is critical to steampunk, and includes some form of social/cultural criticism or commentary, and a challenge to the status quo. I think the criticism can vary from overt to subtle, and the issues taken up can also vary, but it should be there in any ‘punk’ genre.

Here’s the thing about steampunk, too — it’s set in historical times, and so there often is (simply by nature of writing from a twenty-first century perspective) some kind of criticism of historical social/class/gender/sexual/racial attitudes. It’s very, very difficult to write about something like child labor or social inequality without including some criticism of it. It’s easy. And, IMO, that sort of criticism/challenge to the status quo (while fine) is not the kind of “punk” that steampunk is about. Poking at those issues is like shooting monkeys in a barrel. “Slavery is bad. So is gender inequality.” No shit, really?

Whatever issue/challenge it is obviously will be part of the novel and the characters’ world, but the manner of the challenge/criticism and the resolution (if there is one) should reflect a more contemporary discussion — contemporary to the author and the readers. But I think that’s true of most science fiction: whatever is being explored or examined has much more to do with current events than it does with whatever time the novel is set in.

a) Why aren’t many other mainstream Steampunk books more racially diverse and LGBT-friendly like your The Iron Seas series?

Ha! Maili knows I can’t answer for other authors. In fact, I can’t even say much about many other mainstream steampunk books because I’m not reading them right now. So honestly, I don’t know. I can guess a few reasons, based upon anecdotal evidence and a general familiarity with comments around the blogosphere.

One reason is that writers might be afraid — afraid of screwing everything up and afraid of reader reaction if they do. I absolutely know this fear. I hate knowing that I’m going to offend people, because I am trying to get stuff right, but I still know I am going to portray some things badly or suggest something that I don’t mean to. Hell, I have already. And my next book probably will, too. And my next book. But despite knowing that, I’ll keep trying to get it right — because I don’t know about you, but I look around me and I see a lot of people who aren’t white and aren’t straight, and I’m writing a science fiction world that can be anything I want it to be, and I love science fiction that actually reflects the contemporary world, so I’m including it.

I’m censoring myself with my comments about the fear of sales/marketing fails, because frankly, I think it’s a chicken-egg problem.

But I also think this is a genre-wide problem, not just an issue in steampunk. I don’t know what to say. I can’t speak for other authors, only myself, and I can relate one little story from my recent signing in San Diego, where I was speaking with a reader and she thanked me for having Mina as a heroine. Thanked me. On one hand, I am so, so glad that Mina was a character that she loved, and that I didn’t screw that up for her; on the other hand, I’m horrified that including an Asian heroine is so rare in romance that I was thanked for it.

I think, in general, romances as a whole are doing better (and in general, that romance epubs are doing better than mainstream publishers, but I also don’t know if that is an issue of who is submitting where, or if it’s all about marketing, or something else, or a combination of everything). We’re not even close to reflecting contemporary reality yet, but I think that more authors are trying to. So, there’s that. It’s not much, but I keep hoping this trend continues, until it’s not a trend anymore, until it’s not even remarkable anymore.

Because you know what I want more than anything in the world? That by the time my daughter grows up and begins reading romances, she never EVER has to thank any author for including a character whose race is the same as hers.

b) Does it have to take place in Britain and the US only? Does it have to be 19th century, too?

I answered this in the other Q&A but I’ll say it again, because it needs to be said again and again and again, because I keep seeing the opposite being said otherwise in other places: No, it doesn’t have to be Victorian. It doesn’t have to be set in Britain or the U.S. It doesn’t have to be 19th century. It has to be steam. It has to be punk. The setting is up to the author.

c) Are H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine and Jules Verne’s novels like 20000 Leagues Under the Sea steampunk novels?

Nope. They are science fiction novels.

I know that they are often used as examples of steampunk — heck, I do it, too, because so many more people are familiar with Verne and Wells than with … well, any steampunk author that I can think of. I find myself continually saying, “It’s kind of like Verne or Wells.”

But they aren’t steampunk writers/their novels aren’t steampunk novels.

To me, the key difference is the direction of the writer’s gaze and speculation. Verne and Wells were looking forward into the future; steampunk authors are looking backward into history. Even though Verne, Wells, and steampunk authors are all using historical tech and imagining its future evolution, Verne and Wells were only bound by what they knew, not by future technological developments. Steampunk writers are informed by an entirely different technological history and are bound by that ‘steam’ threshold.

More tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on time.