Magic, Metal and Steam by Tickety Boo Press Ltd

[Jo Zebedee]

I had fun reworking my last 300 and subbed it today. Thanks to my two fab betas for having a look. it's a nice, flexible, genre.

 

[Gary Compton]

"Aaah the lovely Springs," rubs knees like Vic Reeves

 

[ralphkern]

Damnit my draft involved airfrigates... if you say its in an alternative crimean war i'll be deeply unhappy

 

[Gary Compton]

Damnit my draft involved airfrigates... if you say its in an alternative crimean war i'll be deeply unhappy

You're the man, Ralph.

Loved your last offering which is in the Tickety Boo mill

 

[ralphkern]

and heres me thinking it was lost in a slush pile somewhere.

Is there room for the good ship HMAS (Airship, not ozzie navy) Iris and her crew to be battling their way past a pesky Russian blockade in the Himalayas to deliver a mysterious cargo to a waiting Chinese aircruiser? Or are you flush with clanky airships now?

All in the name of Queen Victoria and the excuse to give a few good broadsides?

 

[alchemist]

Damnit my draft involved airfrigates... if you say its in an alternative crimean war i'll be deeply unhappy

Whoops...

Mine's an alternative WW1, although a bit early, so hopefully we'll have quite different stories.

 

[Gary Compton]

and heres me thinking it was lost in a slush pile somewhere.

Is there room for the good ship HMAS (Airship, not ozzie navy) Iris and her crew to be battling their way past a pesky Russian blockade in the Himalayas to deliver a mysterious cargo to a waiting Chinese aircruiser? Or are you flush with clanky airships now?

All in the name of Queen Victoria and the excuse to give a few good broadsides?

Just write the story you want to write. Anything else doesn't matter!

 

[Nick B]

I started a work set in the Caribbean in the early 1700s; the golden age of piracy, involving steam powered canons and voodoo assisted ships but it didn't seem to go anywhere back to the lab...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I started a work set in the Caribbean in the early 1700s; the golden age of piracy, involving steam powered canons and voodoo assisted ships but it didn't seem to go anywhere back to the lab...

It sounds very promising to me. I hope it won't all be Victorian, and that we'll see some stories set in the 17th and 18th centuries.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Still not done with mine. It's not set in the real world, but the feel is pre-Victorian.

 

[ctg]

Have I missed something? Did we had to include an airship into the story? Because there seems to be a page about them in workings, and now I'm scared that the details I included into the first draft aren't acceptable enough.

 

[Gary Compton]

Have I missed something? Did we had to include an airship into the story? Because there seems to be a page about them in workings, and now I'm scared that the details I included into the first draft aren't acceptable enough.

Calm down, dear. It's only an anthology.

No you didn't have to include an airship

 

[thaddeus6th]

Glad to hear that, as most of mine takes place in a crypt.

 

[Gary Compton]

Glad to hear that, as most of mine takes place in a crypt.

Thad I hope your story doesn't include the line. "The cat crept into the crypt, crapped and crept out again."

 

[thaddeus6th]

Ha, no. There is a dog, though.

 

[Mr Orange]

how about an alternate history set in elizabethan times which also happens to be post-steam and at the dawn of magic? (it's only really elizabethan so's i can get me some ruffs in...)

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

how about an alternate history set in elizabethan times which also happens to be post-steam and at the dawn of magic? (it's only really elizabethan so's i can get me some ruffs in...)

If you can make all those work together, it sounds like the sort of thing we are looking for.

______

Remember, everyone, it's Elizabethan through Victorian, science-fantasy, and it doesn't have to have an airship. In fact, if all we got were stories with airships that would be very disappointing. It doesn't have to have steam, either. You can use "metal" and "steam" literally, or as metaphors for science and experimentation within that period (or settings that have the flavor of that period).

How you combine your magic with technology or science is up to you, so long as it makes a good, well-written story, but stories where magic and science work together in a way that scientists and natural philosophers of the period actually believed they worked together would be especially welcome. At least by me. I don't know what is most likely to spark Gary's or Jeff's interest.

 

[Gary Compton]

Sounds great to me, Teresa!

There seems to be alot of interest - whoopee!

 

[Nick B]

It sounds very promising to me. I hope it won't all be Victorian, and that we'll see some stories set in the 17th and 18th centuries.

I'll see if I can build something with it makes me feel a bit guilty that I'm not working on our main project though.

 

[Gary Compton]

I'll see if I can build something with it makes me feel a bit guilty that I'm not working on our main project though.

I am finding it rewarding to have a rest from the WIP and write in a different style, different voice. I actually think it helps you improve. IMO