Today's
Lecture by SteamU Professor: Emma Jane Holloway
Author of: A Study in Silks (book one of The Baskerville Affair)
A Study in Silks
September 2013
Evelina Cooper, the niece of
the great Sherlock Holmes, is poised to enjoy her first Season in London’s high
society, but there’s a murderer to deal with—not to mention missing automatons,
a sorcerer, and a talking mouse . . .
In a Victorian era ruled by a
Council of ruthless steam barons, mechanical power is the real monarch, and
sorcery the demon enemy of the Empire. Nevertheless, the most coveted weapon is
magic that can run machines—something Evelina has secretly mastered. But rather
than making her fortune, her special talents could mean death or an eternity as
a guest of Her Majesty’s secret laboratories. What’s a polite young lady to do
but mind her manners and pray she’s never found out?
But then there’s that murder. As
Sherlock Holmes’s niece, Evelina should be able to find the answers, but she
has a lot to learn. And the first decision she has to make is whether to trust
the handsome, clever rake who makes her breath come faster, or the dashing
trick rider who would dare anything for her if she would only just ask . . .
Further
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Visit my web page: http://www.emmajaneholloway.com/
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Twitter: @EmmaJHolloway
Read the first 50
pages here: Click Here
Read the prequel
short story here: Click Here
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| SteamU Professor Emma Jane Holloway |
Ever
since childhood, Emma Jane Holloway refused to accept that history was nothing
but facts prisoned behind the closed door of time. Why waste a perfectly good
playground coloring within the timelines? Accordingly, her novels are filled
with whimsical impossibilities and the occasional eye-blinking impertinence—but
always in the service of grand adventure.
Struggling between the practical and the artistic—a family
tradition, along with ghosts and a belief in the curative powers of
shortbread—Emma Jane has a degree in literature and job in finance. She lives
in the Pacific Northwest in a house crammed with books, musical instruments,
and half-finished sewing projects. In the meantime, she’s published articles,
essays, short stories, and enough novels to build a fort for her stuffed
hedgehog.
Because Steampunk is Really All About my Electricity Bill
by Emma Jane Holloway
Steampunk, in my view, has two basic requirements: steam and
punk. Seriously, it doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. The punk
aspect is the notion of rebellion against the status quo, whatever that means
to the author—breaking out of the bonds of tradition, adventure, outright
anarchy, or a more utopian spin.
Naturally, one of the first questions I faced when creating
my world for The Baskerville Affair
trilogy was—what makes it steampunk? It sounds like an obvious question, but in
my opinion it had to be more than clockwork-powered tea trolleys and fancy
goggles. I wanted the steam theme (pardon the rhyme) to be something that truly
mattered to the characters and to be an issue that readers could relate to.
As I frowned in writerly concentration, a muse in clerk’s
eyeshade writing up the order for Really Good Inspiration, two random ideas
collided. One came from a period map of London that a friend found one for me
on-line. It showed the different areas of the city served by different power
companies. As you can see, the streets served by the various firms are shown in
different colors.
The other was a news item talking about present-day conglomerates
making their fortunes from conventional fossil fuel sources. They were buying
up and shutting down entrepreneurs who specialized in alternative or “green”
power.
When these two ideas came together, the villainous,
moustache-twirling Steam Council was hatched. In my story world, they have
interests in coal, gas, electricity, railways, airships, and the industrial war
machine. They don’t need to be aristocrats to rule; they have all the control
they need. Any company or individual who tries to generate his or her own power
is shut down if not killed. Those that displease the council are
Disconnected—not only are the unlucky victim’s utilities turned off, but their
credit rating and social status disappear as well. Magic is also forbidden,
mostly because it is a form of power that cannot be bought or sold as a
commodity. Steam is king, but it’s far from kind.
Back to the map. I rearranged the boundaries of the areas
served by different utility companies but I kept the idea of giving each member
of the council a color. They’re
nicknamed the Gold King, the Green Queen, and so on. They use their chosen
colors on the globes of the gaslights to identify the territories under their
control. The night sky is pretty, but a symbol of oppression. Of course, everyone
from Queen Victoria down to the street hawkers wants the Steam Council gone. Cue
the rebellion.
So it is that steam power in my story becomes the source of
conflict. Why I think this works is because the basic idea—an Empire torn to
bits by predatory corporate interest—is as relevant to the modern imagination
as to my characters. The folks that finally stand up to the barons are the
makers—the rebels that kept building machines in secret despite the council’s
edicts.
If I were forced to define the spirit of steampunk, I might
say it was a stubborn insistence on independent creativity in the face of the
industrial machine. Or I might not. I hate defining things because it somehow
limits them, and when I use that many long words in one sentence I begin to
second-guess everything I say. I don’t think the genre has to be serious all
the time—please, no!—but in this case the nastiness of the Steam Council gives my
story a dose of edginess that it needs.
And I think everyone can relate to greedy businesses making
it hard to afford the basic necessities of life. After all, I think about the
barons whenever I look at my electricity bill. The Steam Council is alive and
well and living in my mail box. Curses!
I really loved Emma Jane's explanation of her world building in this post. Her image of a color and oppression all in one is whimsical and dangerous as once-bittersweet. A Study in Silks is a fantastic steampunk work. I encourage all SteamU students to connect with Emma Jane online (she shares great steampunk finds on Facebook) and to pick up a copy of A Study in Silks! Thank you for joining us today, Emma Jane. It was a treat!
-Class Dismissed!
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