Jared AxelrodWriter of Adventure

Warren Ellis has a new idea:

ROTOR
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one site, five writers, five weekdays (five RSS feeds). every day each writer posts something new – either a piece of a serial, or a short fiction, or an article. Under 500 words, ideally (probably 100-200 words is the ideal), but whatever. Each writer is therefore, yes, generating content for free – but each writer’s sequence goes POD-book when it’s generated enough words, the spine and back of the book also bearing the ROTOR mark. And then start again. Or bail out and free up a slot for another writer, whatever.

Astute readers will notice that Ellis is, essentially, describing what we did three and half years ago over at  365 Tomorrows. I will take this moment to mention that my POD book of 50 stories that I wrote from that site is still available for purchase:

Ellis’s vision differs from what we cobbled together in that he proposes a far more structured system, and weekends off. I like both these ideas, and totally would have insisted on them if they had occurred to me four years ago when we were talking about such a project seriously. But we didn’t know that traffic would slack off on the weekend, nor did we think that we think that some added structure might make everything hold together better. We just didn’t know, because we hadn’t done it. No one had.

Now that Ellis has brought it up, it’s hard not to picture what a similar project would be if I started it now. With the knowledge gained, what would I do differently.  Heck, forget knowledge, the technology is different now. If created a M-F flash fiction site with four other writers on the 365 Tomorrows model, what would I do?

First off, we’d finish all the content before we started.  This is the major problem  we ran into our first year, and why so many similar projects crash and burn. And that’s understandable. Even taking off weekends, that’s 260 stories–52 stories apeice–and that’s is a huge amount of content to ask of anyone without the promise of payment. Sure, I wrote 78 stories for 365 that first year, and JR wrote 84, but still. Lot to ask.  All the more reason to wait until we have ALL 260 peices of content before you launch. And we’ll pre-load those suckers, so the site updates itself. Because when the site starts up, we don’t want to focus on it.

Instead, we want to focus on the 5 POD books we’ll be making with this content.  Contacting illustrators, adding extra material, designing a visual look for all 5 books. Make them real works of art in their own right. In other words, make them worth buying. That’s not going to be difficult, but it is going to take time, so we might as well start on that as soon as possible. Plus, we’ll also be busy  creating content for the next year. So, you know, the more the site can do without us watching it, the better.

Someone’s going to have to be in charge of  podcasting every single story as well. As my brief step into the world of daily podcasting has shown, people love regularly scheduled entertainment. So we’d capitalize on that, and podcast each story as it goes up. Again, something that would be good to have done ahead of time, but as long as the written work is there it’s less of an issue.

One thing that isn’t included in Ellis’s concept, but that we had huge success with is fan-created content. There was a great deal of fan-work, both written and visual that showed up on the 365 Tomorrows forums. So we’d encourage that, and post the best pieces of that on site on the weekends. This would be a great way to find new writers for future itterations of the site–that’s pretty much what 365 Tomorrows has done as I and other founding members left.

Going back to content, I’d also have a handfull of “theme weeks” spread throughout that first year. “Cyberpunk” or “Medieval Fantasy” or “Timetravel,” were all five of the writers would write around a theme, and those stories would be put together. This was an idea that was brought up in the planning stages of  365 Tomorrows that was ultimately decided against, but in retrospect, I think it was a good idea.  Something to bind the diverse opinions and styles together every now and then, to remind people that they weren’t just visiting a site of individuals, but a team. A group with a common goal.

I’d also add some film offerings. I wouldn’t ask for 52 shorts–though, how cool would that be?–but as another piece of erratic content to put on the weekends, that sort of content would be perfect. I’m not sure who could create multiple shorts for such a site–again, no payment promised–but since I’m fantasizing here, why not?

What it comes back to, basically, is that in order to this sort of project to work everyone has to be on the top of their game. Nevermind being a professional on Day 1, this sort of thing requires you be a professional through to Day 365, as well as 365 days before Day 1, or however long it takes to get it all done before you start. The more things I do, the more clear it becomes that the difference between success and failure is how much you plan ahead.

It’s not enough to run with ideas. You’ve got to make sure your shoes are on before you take off.

More of the amazing Kyle Cassidy shooting the astounding Miss Liza James and myself. I’ll quit posting these soon, promise.

But when they’re this good, it’s kinda hard to stop.

JR’s been downed with a virus for the past five days or so–and I got conked out on Monday–so little has happened in our life save for the creation of soup (chicken noodle and an industrial-strength chili) and various forms of tidying up.

However, certain plans were set in motion before illness struck. This contraption, for example, was completed the very day before the plague hit:

Also, tiny parcels have continually appeared on our doorstep:

We expect more any day now.

I was going to talk about WATCHMEN, really I was. And now, I just can’t.

I was going to talk about how the film differs from the book, how both relate to my 10 Rules of Quality Super Hero Ficiton, and screenwriter David Hayter’s letter to fans, asking them to see the movie again this weekend. I had heard of Hayter’s letter second and third hand, but I hadn’t read it until I started writing my WATCHMEN post, and now I can’t finish writing it. You can read the whole thing at the link, but here’s the bit that stopped my blood cold:

You say you don’t like it. You say you’ve got issues. I get it.

And yet… You’ll be thinking about this film, down the road. It’ll nag at you. How it was rough and beautiful. How it went where it wanted to go, and you just hung on. How it was thoughtful and hateful and bleak and hilarious. And for Jackie Earle Haley.

Trust me. You’ll come back, eventually. Just like Sally.

That’s right. On of the screenwriters of WATCHMEN, in an effort to get more people to see his work, just equated the act of seeing it to rape.

Let’s never talk about this film again, okay?

I spent yesterday morning with Kyle Cassidy and the lovely and talented Miss Liza James, shooting what will be lobby poster for the University of Pennsylvania’s “Performing Science” conference. One of the themes is “Modern Victorians,” so Kyle sent out the call for those with both style and costumery to spare. Liza and I were chosen among the multitudes, no doubt equally for our adventurous nature as our impeccable wardrobes.

The results clearly show Kyle’s faith in us was not misplaced:

Many thanks must go to the Franklin Institute, for letting us climb all over their nearly a century-old steam engine.

Such is the sense of humor of the universe that not long after I write a post about the nature of steampunk, I find myself advertising the Edisonade in the flesh. Clearly I should write something about how multi-book deals dilute the medium, and the last thing anyone should be given is huge amounts of free cash.

That said, I do make contextless, fashion-conscious steampunk look remarkably attractive. Kyle clearly knows how to bring the pulp fantastic.

All photos by Kyle Cassidy.

Starting The Day With A Proper Adventure, sent from the phone

It’s amazing what three creative people can acomplish with a little time and a steam engine.

Steampunk has become far too shiny. I don’t want to be that guy, the guy who stops liking something once it becomes popular, ’cause that’s not how I feel. I love alternate history, and have written many a technologically advanced 19th century tale. Steampunk, as a pure conceit, is a goldmine of story concepts and characters. My problem is that so few people have been mining it deeply enough. I mean, we’re talking about airships and bionic arms in the time of cholera and slavery, and no one seems to notice.

Jess Nevins—who, as the writer of Fantastic Victoriana is a bit of an expert—recently deconstructed what exactly steampunk came from, and what it has turned into. Here’s what Nevins had to say about steampunk’s origins:

Steampunk. Essentially, as I see it–and I go into more detail in my essay on this, which, again, is in the Vandermeers’ excellent Steampunk as well as the New York Review of Science Fiction–the history of steampunk begins with the Edisonades, which were about boy explorers using steam- and electricity-powered vehicles and weapons to explore, loot, and conquer. First generation steampunk, which goes from the 1970s up to Sterling & Gibson’s Difference Engine (1990), pulls a Levi-Straussian “raw and the cooked” on the elements of the Edisonade, inverting them on a number of levels: dynamic-v-static, rural-v-urban, American-v-British, mastering-v-surviving, optimist-v-pessimist, etc.

This first generation of steampunk, which in all likelihood was not consciously or deliberately written as a rebuke to the Edisonade, was political, self-aware, and angry and rebellious against much of what the Edisonades stood for–hence, the “punk” part of “steampunk.”

He goes on to speak about what steampunk has turned into—more on that further down—but let’s examine what that last sentence means. Edisonades, are essentially stories where technology makes it all better. Technology is used to reinforce the status quo, and better yet, spread the status quo to other, less civilized corners of the world. In a steampunk story, then, technological advancement is something to rebel against. becuase the ones who afford technology are the ones in power, the ones who can afford not to be covered in shit, not to be dying of cholera. Technology, then, is the tool of the Man. Technology is the badguy.

This makes perfect sense as a literary conceit. How many sci-fi stories about the abuse of technology? Cyberpunk, steampunk’s older sister, wallows in this: tech allows the anti-heroes to accomplish marvelous things, but never to make their lives better. One of cyberpunk’s most indelible characters, Molly Millions, has eyes that are covered with mirrored shades. This technology allows her an enhanced vision, among other things, but cuts off her main form of expression. Her tear ducts have been re-routed; she spits out the emotional residue that, is no doubt, distasteful to the character on several levels.

Cyberpunk is just another twist on punk, and carries on the punk themes of aggressive confrontation, anti-authoritarian behavior and the DIY atheistic. Steampunk then, should do no less. Which is, essentially, Nevins’s point. Steampunk originally celebrated the scrappy, angry underclass. Modern steampunkers (what a great term!) are mostly of the upperclass sort. Waistcoats and bustles abound, as do bowler hats, monocles, and complex skirting. Yes, there are mad scientists, but let’s not forget, in the 1800s, science and technology was a gentleman’s hobby.

Of course, there’s no fun in dying of cholera, either, the end result of many a 19th century rabble rouser. So why not embrace the hoi palloi, and ignore the racially and sexually segregated world around you? It is after all a fantasy, right?

Part of this argument is, of course, the difference between a litterary conceit and fashion conceit. Steampunk litterature is basically the same as it always has been; it’s fashion that’s taken a step to the side. I wonder if gothic fiction enthusiasists expressed their displeasure that “Goth” came to mean, in the words of my good friend and goth enthusist Nick, “Looking good while moping to a beat.” But this is not to say that fashion can’t get a more litterary. One of the great things about photographer Libby Bulloff’s steamy subjects is that they look just as punk as steam. Part of Nevins’s complaint–and certainly mine–may be the lack of imagination. The 1800s were a time of social and polical upheveal, and ripe for punks of every stripe. I mean, there’s a reason that Finn Von Claret, the model in the linked photo, wears blue stockings. I’m kind of surprised that she’s the only one I’ve seen wearing them.

Now, I’m as guilty as anyone of fetishizing the upwardly mobile. And while I take pride that my unfinished steampunk novel has the proper amount grit and grime, I’ve written my share of Edisonades as well. So perhaps my annoyance at modern steampunkers is, in whole or in part, directed at myself. I mean, we are talking about a century! There’s plenty to pick and choose from.

I was discussing with J.R. about who were the true punks of the American 19th century (one of my personal issues with modern steampunkers is that everyone seems to believe the 1800s only happened in Europe), and we came to a pretty solid conclusion: Abolistionists. Harreit “Moses” Tubman was hardcore. Why, then, are there no Underground Railroad Steampunks? The Underground Railroad plays a small part in Paul Di Fillippo’s Steampunk Triliogy, but where else? Granted, playing with the era of slavery is a tricky proposition at best, but considering the era already has such powerful iconography, it really shouldn’t be that hard to adapt. Heck, add some aether-powered nightvision lenses, and those goggles finally make sense.

Now, I intend to play with this concept, both in fiction and otherwise, but I don’t lay claim to it. In fact, I hope more people take it. Take it, use it, and then take more. There’s one hundred years of history full of punk concepts, cholera riots, gold rushes, sufferage, wars abroad and at home, and the fight for the right of entire subsets of humanity to be treated as people. The status quo was challenged often in the 19th century, often violently, and those challenges gave us the world we live in today.

By all means, let us add the airships and mechas to the 1800s. Let’s add the rayguns and the medical experiments and the mad scientists. Let’s steam the 19th century.

But let’s quit cleaning it.

Because what better way to celebrate a film of a graphic novel about the threat of nuclear annihilation than to get drunk novelty cocktails before we go?

The plan is hit Friday’s 9:30 showing of WATCHMEN at the Bridge, with cocktails at our place at 7:30. You probably want to get your tickets to the film in advance.

If memory serves me right, two equally matched cooking talents did battle last Saturday. Yours truly squared off against none other than the mighty Kate Eckert, cooking up a storm of which there truly can be no comparison.

Luckily we had a competent Chairman to reign us in.

But what ingredient did Chairman Collins have in store for us?

MUSHROOMS!!!

I put together five savory dishes and one sweet dish with this impressively varied ingredient:
Portobello lasagna bites with manchego cheese
Korean-style oyster mushrooms in fried rice
Mushroom ragout
Cremini mac & cheese
Cream of mushroom pie
Fried shitaki and goat cheese dumplings

Kate masterfully created 4 savory dishes and one sweet dish, proving the versatility of this ingredient yet again:
Stuffed button mushrooms
Emu egg frittata with beech mushrooms and sultanas
French mushroom soup with gruyere and puff pastry
Filet mignon with oyster and portabella sauce, topped with balsamic glaze and creme fraiche
“The Tentacle” brown sugar-glazed portobella mushroom slices

The winner by judgment: Kate! Despite the incredibly close battle, she gained a three point lead to dominate the competition!

Further details of the match will have to wait until I finish editing the video.