Wollstonecraft: Kickstarter

Mary and Ada character sketch illustration © Claire Robertson of Loobylu

Clever husband and lovely friend are in cahoots... The potential of this idea is vast and awesome. Please have a look and if you like the idea, contribute what you can to support this project.


** Excerpt from Kickstarter **


Wollstonecraft
London 1826: The Advent of the Steam Age

11 year old Ada has a problem: her governess, Miss Coverlet, has quit her job to go get married (a dumb idea if ever there was one, if you ask Ada) and her new tutor Percy ("Peebs") is a total drip.  She'd rather be left to her own devices – literally – inventing things and solving math problems and ignoring people altogether.

She's also forced to study alongside the imaginative girlie-girl Mary, who's always going on about romance and exotic travels.  Fortunately, Mary's appetite for adventure leads her to propose the two girls open a detective agency, and when an heiress shows up with a case about a missing diamond, it's the perfect puzzle to coax Ada out of her shell.

This is the made up story about two very real girls – Ada, the world's first computer programmer, and Mary, the world's first science fiction author – caught up in a steampunk world of hot-air balloons and steam engines, jewel thieves and mechanical contraptions.  For readers 8-12.

This is a pro-math, pro-science, pro-history and pro-literature adventure novel for and about girls, who use their education to solve problems and catch a jewel thief.  Ada and Mary encounter real historical characters, such as Percy Shelley, Charles Babbage, Michael Faraday, and Charles Dickens – people whom the girls actually knew.  If Jane Austen wrote about zeppelins and brass goggles, this would be the book.



Why "Wollstonecraft"?  Mary names the detective agency after her mother, the famous feminist writer. If this is the kind of book you'd like to see, please support this project.

About the Author:

Jordan Stratford has been pronounced clinically dead, and was briefly mistakenly wanted by INTERPOL for international industrial espionage. He is an ordained priest, has won numerous sword fights, jaywalked across the streets of Paris, San Franciso, and Sao Paolo, and was once shot by a stray rubber bullet in a London riot. He lives on a tiny windswept Pacific island populated predominantly by realtors, and carnivorous gulls.

"Wollstonecraft" is his second novel.

"Stratford is the Archduke of Canadian Steampunk" – Cherie Priest

Michael Dooney: 1887 Age of Steam Superwomen

Huntress ©Michael Dooney

Death ©Michael Dooney

Catwoman ©Michael Dooney

Wonder Woman ©Michael Dooney

Lady Zatanna ©Michael Dooney

This is a great collection of classic comic book women in an 1887 Victorian style, by comic artist Michael Dooney (who is the cover artist for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) Visit his entire collection on deviant-art. I think the Steampunk Huntress is my favourite, but I'll admit to having a soft spot for Death.

Via io9

Cassia Harries: Steampunk Munny

Steampunk Gargoyle © Cassia Harries

Steampunk Gargoyle © Cassia Harries

Steampunk Dragon © Cassia Harries

Steampunk Dragon © Cassia Harries

From Cassia Harries, the "Dark Skies" collection currently in development. These guys are made using Super Sculpey over a Munny and are painted with acrylic paint. Stands 4 1/2 inches tall. via Creature Spot.

Victoria Steam Exposition III: Poster Art

VSEIII- Poster Art ©Zandra Stratford

Steampunk is the collision of history, technology, imagination, and attitude. Nineteenth-century sensibilities with impossible Jules-Verne-inspired technology. Teak-panelled computers, corsets and jetpacks, top hats and rayguns.



April 20th to 22nd, 2012, for the third year in a row, Victoria, British Columbia, will host an art-happening of steampunk art, tech, fashion, music, architecture, and story.

The show's literary headliners this year are Hugo Award winner Ann Vandermeer, and The Steampunk Bible's Hugo and Nebula nominee Jeff Vandermeer; Abney Park's Kristina Erickson and Captain Robert Brown, author of The Wrath of Fate.  Our featured artist is Ian Finch Field, who's incredible leather and brass creations have been featured in 1000 Steampunk Creations and international music videos.

More on VSE III can be found on the website.

Gail Carriger: Timeless~ Parasol Protectorate Book the Last

Timeless by Gail Carriger

It's been awhile since we've had a book up here but the release of Gail Carriger's latest in the Parasol Protectorate series deserves a spot here. I just got the iBook version of Timeless and have been thoroughly enjoying it so far. I'm pacing myself a little because it's the end of the Alexia series.

Also, Soulless has been re-invisioned as Manga, the artwork looks wonderful, you can get more peaks over on Gail's blog.

Soulless  The Manga Vol 1

Author Bio: (via Amazon)
New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger writes to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in Higher Learning. Ms. Carriger then traveled the historic cities of Europe, subsisting entirely on biscuits secreted in her handbag. She resides in the Colonies, surrounded by fantastic shoes, where she insists on tea imported from London.

The Parasol Protectorate books are: Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, and Timeless (March 2012). Soulless won the ALA's Alex Award A manga version with release in Spring 2012. She is currently writing young adult books set in the same universe ~ the Finishing School series (Feb. 2013). Soon she will begin a new adult series, The Parasol Protectorate Abroad (Fall 2013).

Dr. Grordbort Presents: The Deadliest Game

 

Dr Grordbort Presents: The Deadliest Game from Media Design School on Vimeo.

Excerpt from the Weta website.. Greg Broadmore has worked at Weta Workshop as a concept designer and creator of worlds for over 8 years.

In 2006, Weta revealed their Dr. Grordbort's Rayguns range, entirely designed and conceptualised by Greg. Dr Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators blew up across the Internet and was embraced by Wired magazine, Boing Boing, IO9 and others. He has since gone on to launch an internationally touring Dr Grordbort's Exceptional Exhibition, write two critically acclaimed books in this retro-science fiction universe, and is currently expanding the world into new creative frontiers.

The Edwardian Ball 2012: The Iron Tonic

Why I love San Francisco, reason #813 –The Edwardian Ball is an annual event. Plans must be made to attend next year... The 2012 video produced by Mark Day is an extraordinary visual feast (as usual.)

Here is the video from 2011 too...



And finally, head over to their Flickr stream for more stunning images like the one below. Swoon.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Well this looks like ridiculous fun... Based on the book by Seth Grahame Smith (of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.) Movie trailer and painfully awesome book trailer below. 

Riese: Kingdom Falling

  

A long overdue post... Riese: Kingdom Falling takes place in Eleysia, a dying kingdom where distrust and anxiety have clouded people's minds, causing a regression into primitive ways of thinking. Rituals and mythology have resurged, and the darker side of mankind has begun to reveal itself. Riese, a wanderer, travels across the decaying land with her wolf, Fenrir. Marked as a heretic by religious group The Sect and the new Empress, Riese must evade their assassins and discover their true intentions for Eleysia.

This series is shot in Vancouver, BC and it looks like the first book in a novel series to be published by Simon and Schuster, is scheduled to come out in June 2012.

AND there is an iPhone/iPod/iPad app narrated by Felicia Day to check out. Trailer for season 2 below.

The Woman in Black

In theatres Friday, February 3. Eek! via the Official movie website.