First Chapter of a Novel

8.2.2010 by Traveler.

I announced a while ago that I am working on my first novel, based on the diaries found elswhere on this site. Well, I am making progress here but upcomming events, i.e. moving house and, the Gods and Saint Babbage willing, fatherhood in August, might delay the completion. Thus far, I have completed seven chapters, which amounts to about one third of what I have planned.

Anyway, here is the first chapter of “To the Ends of the Earth” (the title may still change). I hope you like it. Be aware that this is Steampunk from a German perspective, most of the main characters are German officers, it is a little different from other Steampuk novels and novellas, I guess.

Thus far, I have not encountered a single piece of Steampunk literature, that was not set in an English-speaking country. I am willing to be corrected, of course.

OK, once again, I hope you enjoy what I have created, feedback, suggestions and critcism are all very welcome.

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First Munich Steampunk Get Together

23.1.2010 by Traveler.

Today we held our first Munich Steampunk Get Together and decided it was not going to be the last. So here is the very short version of what happened:

We met in the Victorian House at 10 o’clock for a late breakfast (which, unfortunately, was less enjoyable than the last time, the waiter was a little bit out of his depth or something), we in this case is:

Glaurin Perdata

Robbie a.k.a. Captain Norad (yes, it was him!)

Martina

Horatio von Wirephil

Jason Crow

Myself (here’s my profile in the same community)

Lila (my wife)

Timo (good friend of the family)

I should also note that initially, we thought it would be four people. With some forsight I decided to order a table for six and we ended up being eight. This is, I guess, quite a success.

First topic of the day was: Tesla coils and practical applications of. Nota bene: This was OOC, we were talking about real people who really built Tesla coils and put them up in their

a) Living room

b) as above but as a Christmas Tree kind of thing

c) car

d) back yard

Oh yes, some people really take tinkering to the extreme. There are several Youtube videos around which tell the stories far better than I can. Some people really make the most out of Steampunk.

Around that time, breakfast arrived, so the conversations became slightly muffled. Topics than changed to general handycrafts from soldering to knitting and we all agreed that some skillin modifying stuff is a good thing to have. We also all agreed that most of the things you learn concerning knitting and similar things in school is basically tripe while the things you learn in metalwork (Technisches Werken, to use the proper term for the subject in school) actually can be used later in life.

Next we found out who came to Steampunk via which route. Interestingly, there were only two different ones present (both somewhat connected to internet searches): One via LARP, the other via the Goth scene. LARP is another thing, all people present had in common. So the third big topic was LARP and our various experiences with. Since Glaurin and Robbies house is equipped to house sci-fi LARPS, they had organised some, Lila has organised some LARPS and we all found each other to be quite likable persons, we also decided to repeat this event.

If we are lucky, there might also be some form of Stempunk RPG coming to Southern Germany in the summer, right now, this is just an idea, though. No reason to get overexcited yet. I will keep you posted, obviously.

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This Steampunk is a SEO

19.1.2010 by Traveler.

Hello my dear comment-spammers. I would like to make one thing absolutely clear:

Apart from being a blogger and having published in the sectors of Steampunk/Dieselpunk and the Cthulhu Mythos, I also happen to have a day job. I work in online marketing and my job title is Online Marketing Manger (SEO). I am versed in a range of  online marketing techniques including SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and I know about backlink-blog-spam.

So do us all a favor and cut it out. Each and every comment on this blog gets moderated and I know blog spam when I see it. Don’t waste your time and mine, trying to spam here.

Thanks!

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The pains of shopping for gear

17.1.2010 by Traveler.

Modern department stores seldom contain items a steampunk could use, not at reasonable prices anyway. Yesterday I thought I pop into town and check out what Kaufhof (a chain of department stores here in Germany) and Hirmer had on offer. Karstadt had absolutely nothing I could use or at least nothing that would fit my style, I was looking for smart, dark blue trousers, as I want to assemble a zeppelin’s captain uniform.

So, I went on to visit Hirmer, the leading supplier of good-quality men’s fashion in Munich. I encountered two obstacles: The stuff I would have considered suitable (good quality, good looking, machine washable, durable) was in the range of 80€ or more (around 110$) and the stuff they had on sale (up to 50% off) was simply not my size… Oh well… I guess I shall have to check out Oxfam and similar shops and hunt for something suitable there.

On the plus side: I got myself a more powerful soldering iron and can now procede to create a R’lyeh Squadron tie-clip. All the individual parts are assembled, all I need to do now is to solder them together.

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The Big Project - First Sneak & Peek

2.1.2010 by Traveler.

The novelization is far from finished but here is a first tiny glimps at what it looks like right now. It is yet unedited and subject to change. The following scene happens about a week into the first expedition of LZ-X1 Württemberg, somewhere over Cappadocia (Ottoman Empire). The Tesla array for catching lightning as a back-up source of energy has just been tested in a thunderstorm:

Suddenly, everybody on board felt their stomachs lurch. Von Kober and Gruson, who were the only ones not sitting down, had to grab hold of something not to get swept of their feet. Turbulences were another danger when flying through thunderstorms and one they had forgotten over their eagerness to test the array.
They stumbled to their seats and strapped themselves in.
Behind von Kober, Richnow and Gruson collected reports from the other sections of the zeppelin. so far, noone had been hurt and nothing had been damaged, but Dustermann had not reported back to the boiler room yet.
Without warning the Württemberg again lost hight in another downburst. Von Kober’s innards knotted up. “Richnow, report altitude.”
“Approximately 120 meters over ground, Captain. I recommend immediate steep climb.”
“Yes, steep climb, full throttle.” and with that, he pulled the master-tube which connected to every single room and chamber of the craft.
“Attention all stations, we are going for an extremely steep climb beyond the cloud level. Temperatures are likely to drop below freezing and breather-masks will be necessary, everyone, get ready. Boiler room, send someone to find Dustermann and report.”

So, that’s all for now. I will keep posting updates in the future, of course.

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Exclusive Interview with Kaleena Kiff of Riese the Series

4.12.2009 by Traveler.

A few weeks back I was offered the opportunity to conduct an interview with the creators of Riese the Series. An opportunity which I obviously took. So here is the interview between Daily Steampunk (Traveler) and Kaleena Kiff, co-creator/director of Riese the Series.

This Interview will very likely be available on this blog for only a limited amount of time before being transfered to the Gatehouse Gazette. Afterwards, it may also resurface in a dedicated section of my main page.

But for now, without further ado, here is the interview with Kaleena Kiff, co-creator and director of Riese the Series:

DS: How did you discover Steampunk?
KK: We both were familiar with steampunk beforehand, but didn’t realize we were creating a ’steampunk’ world until well into Riese’s development. Ryan and I were working with an artist, Jay Senetchko, on concept drawings for Riese. The more we described this world, and Jay’s drawings brought it to life, the more familiar it seemed. People began to identify it as steampunk, so we invesigated the genre further to learn more. It turned out that while we weren’t following steampunk to a ‘tee’, we were drawing heavily from it. Our world is extremely anachronistic, much like steampunk, but does not take place in a Victorian-era, for example. After that we began to infuse the genre more and more into our own world. We never want to claim to be purists by any means, but we hope to pay homage to the genre, while still remaining true to the original story we developed.

DS: Why did you choose a Steampunk setting for Riese the Series?- What do you consider particularly attractive about a steampunk setting?

KK: Steampunk is such a beautiful and inspiring world, and I’ve yet to see an episodic, mainstream series incorporate it. Moreover, we didn’t want to write a post-apocalyptic scenario. Instead we imagined a world like ours, but not ours, as if World War I never happened. Similar to how steampunk blends Victorian and Futuristic esthetics, we’re blending Norse mythology, pre-apocalyptic eerieness, and an almost fascist environment.

 

DS: What other influences apart from steampunk and post-apocalyptic have found their way into the series?

KK: Again, the Norse mythology has offered us a wealth of inspirations. From the Vikings to the Celts, the stories are rich with drama. We preferred to go pre-apocalyptic to make Riese more of a cautionary tale told in the middle of the story, rather than after the fall. It’s so much more interesting to watch people descend into darkness rather than view the wasteland they created after they’ve turned on one another.

 

DS: Could the force behind The Sect be described as a Lovecraftian Horror?

KK: I think that remains to be seen. Perhaps a bit Orwellian, but The Sect is more of a comment on the dangers of fanaticism or fundamentalism in general.

 

DS: In what other works have you been engaged previously, is this material available on the net?

KK: Ryan has directed 2 short films (Awkward Silence and Time Before the Light) while I have directed about 11 short films, most recently The Morning After (available online), and Alice & Huck (available online at allisonmack.com)

 

DS: Is Riese the Series an open project or is there already a fixed number of episodes?

KK: At this point we have 5 Chapters planned, though the story has multiple ways to carry on from these original 5 (which are comprised of 25 episodes)

 

DS: Will Riese the Series involve some romantic elements?

KK: I think we will, though I’d prefer not to say who will be having the fun. We have a number of new characters joining the cast for Chapter 2, RAND (Ryan Robbins), ALIZA (Emilie Ullerup), GARIN (Alessandro Juliani), in addition to our current cast, so there will be a lot more potential moments for such things.

 

DS: Fenrir’s out-of-character name is omitted from the official website, would you care to tell us?

KK: He is mostly played by a wonderful wolf-dog hybrid, Tundra. Occasionally we do use other wolves with additional skills to flesh out the performance.

 

DS: Do you have any idea yet how big Riese’s world actually is?

KK: Will we see many parts of the world during the course of the series? Eleysia itself is a large country, about the size of Spain or Germany, but its borders are constantly growing under Empress Amara’s reign. Each Chapter’s title reflects the place Riese journeys to, so there will be 5 distinct areas that she explores within this season. In addition, the nxt episodes also delve deep into other characters’ lives as well, creating a story that has the potential to take place all over this expansive world.

 

DS: You mentioned a booklet/pamphlet of the Sect which you handed out at ComiCon, is it available somewhere?

KK: We’ll be selling them in our e-store soon, though in a limited run. We don’t plan to reprint them.

 

DS: Who funded the project? Is it possible to support you?

KK: The show is entirely privately financed, so any support we can garner from fans would be a great help in paying back our generous backers! If we can recoup the costs of the first 10 episodes through online sales (HD downloads and/or merchandise), ad revenue or sponsorship, we’ll be able to continue making the series.

 

 

DS: When can we expect to see airships?

KK: If you look closely in Episode 2, over Amara’s right shoulder, you can see 2 at a dock. We hope to be inside one sooner than later!

See this post on this blog, they were spotted, obviously, here’s the screenshot once more:

 

 

DS: Who did the casting? Was there in deed a casting or are the actors involved also friends who showed interest in the project?

KK: It was a mixture of both auditions and offers to friends that are accomplished actors. Vancouver is blessed with an amazing talent pool of actors, and we’re lucky enough to have worked with many of them before on other projects. They all loved the story and wanted to be a part of bringing it to life.

 

 

DS: Who designed the costumes and scenery?

KK: Our costume designer is the massively talented Megan Leson, who has years of theater experience. She builds each costume from the ground up using found materials and gifted seamstresses. She lets us feel a part of the process by allowing us to tweak bits of leather here and there, which is so much fun. The production designer is Chad Krowchuk who combined his two talents as a successful painter and an actor to become an inspiring and tireless designer, crafting Eleysia by hand. He has a motley crew of ingenious builders, artists and craftspeople that help him tinker.

 

 

DS: Are there any concept drawings available online?

KK: There are concept drawings on our Facebook fan page in the photos section.

 

 

DS: What is the inspiration behind The Sect? Any Real Life cult?

KK: No real life cult inspired The Sect, though we did love a lot of what Jeunet and Caro did in City of Lost Children. Again, its more of a comment on allowing fanatics to rule people.

 

 

DS: Will we learn anything about the Eleysian religion prior to The Sect takeover?

KK: We plan to slowly introduce more and more of the Eleysian history as we proceed deeper along Riese’s journey.

 

 

DS: Will there be more parties, cults, interest-groups introduced during the course of the series?

KK: There is a Resistance movement that will surface in Chapter 2. They will have their own inner-strife to deal with. Moreover, Eleysia is simply one nation - there’s an entire world outside of these borders. So, yes, we’ll be seeing a number of different groups springing up in Eleysia.

 

 

 DS: Thank you for your time and for making this interview possible.

 

 Also, check out another interview with Kaleena at my friends from Clockworker.

 

 

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Steampunks against Fascism

14.11.2009 by Traveler.

I participated in a demonstration against certain undesireable elements in our society today. They pretend to remember the fallen heroes of our country, like I do, but in reality, they glorify fascist cruelty and idiocy and I have nothing more to say.

Let the image speak:

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Being recognizably steampunk

24.10.2009 by Traveler.

Yesterday I went to a pub moot of the Munich section of my favorite party:

I am member 6366 of the Piratenpartei, and when I saw my number, I thought “Damn, 300 too early.”
The pub moot was great, something I was afraid it would not be. I had previously been involved with University politics and found that the FSK and ASTA there were behaving like the People’s Front of Judea.

This pub moot was nothing of this sort. Everyone really was interested, there was an atmosphere of wanting to do things and getting it done. No unnecessary discussions at all. I shall go there next week again.

And now for the fun bit: After the official part was over, we all had plenty of time to socialize and I ended up standing in front of the room the pub moot was held discussing various things with Johannes, another chap who’s name I do not recall (I am terrible with names) and Steffi (Stephie?) and Christian, who are engaged (this detail has nothing to do with the story, I just thought I mention it).

So we were happily chatting away and I was checking my pocket watch every now and then and then Steffi asked me:

Bist Du ein Steampunk? (Are you a Steampunk?)

I was quite surprised for three reasons:

1. I did not expect that anyone would ever ask me that question.
2. I did not think that Steampunk had penetrated far into non-geek German culture, but than, a very high percentage of Piratenpartei members are geeks to at least some degree.
3. I was not dressed that steampunk at all.

Steffi told me after I answered in the affirmative that there were little clues:The vintage glasses, the suspenders and the fact I was carrying a pocket watch. She also told me that she found the aesthetics of Steampunk rather beautiful.

So it seems like the steampunk lifestyle has influenced my regular life far enough for me to be recognizable, even if I do not make an effort to dress up.

Very interesting in deed. Probably some form of evolution.

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Zeppelin Museum Finale

19.10.2009 by Traveler.

Some random Zeppelin related images:

So here is the final and rather delayed part of the Expedition to the very steampunk Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen.

First, a very stylish and beautiful Maybach Zeppelin:

A classy car. Fit for every steampunk or dieselpunk movie. Also: Notice the modern license plate. This car is actually still in perfect operating conditions.

Next, some almost cthulhuoid weirdness, a Zeppelin skelleton which seems to be formed from tentacles… Modern art weidness, that’s all I have to say…

Yes, the Zeppelin Museum actually has an arts section. The sculpures and paintings range from the Middle Agesto what could be called Modernism but what I call vision-pollution instead. The above image is a moderate example of that.

This concludes the series abiut the Zeppelin Museum, at least for now. But than, you never know…

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Another expedition looms

13.10.2009 by Traveler.

It has been a while since I have left the city of Munich for a greater length of time but now, another opportunity presents itself.

The gods willing, my throat infection will have cleared up by then and I will have my voice back. It is no use seing friends when you have a fever and can hardly speak. Which is twice as bad when you go to a roleplaying weekend, where you are supposed to talk a lot. RPGs are all about communictation after all.

I shall also have the opportunity once again to travel in style and at least wear some light travel worthy steampunk gear and there will be a few stories to tell afterwards.

Oh, this reminds me: There are still some photographies taken at the Zeppelin Mueum, which I should put up here, and there is the story of a freak chance encounter to be told…

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