This is a little live snippet of the Dark Design playing The Red Queen live for the first time ever at Rae Gee’s book launch for Mars on the Rise….

An Extract fromThe Red Queen by The Dark Design

So basically when the planets align and the we can get the novella, the song and the band all together at the same time then something very special is going to happen and happen spectacularly….

I shall post more extracts soon and the recording is waiting

Photos taken in India in 1912 (including the royal visit). This is Lal Dighi, Calcutta:

And an article carefully explaining why gravity is a good idea, in memory of a wealthy eccentric.

Rango and Plagus hate each other but they’re stuck together.  Rango needs Plagus to help him achieve his goals of global domination and mastering the Theory of Mojo.  Plagus needs Rango to help bring on the final holocaust through social malfeasance, political manipulation and media control.  By using predictive analysis techniques and cloud computing, Plagus is plotting for the destruction of all mankind and lying about it constantly as he imitates people, synthesizes emails and phone calls, and generally tries to own every situation.  But he needs Rango, an actual person, to do the dirty work on his behalf.

Along for the ride, none other than the empathetic music-loving rabbit Franklin, who has constructed a complex of tunnels running right through the inside of Plagus.  Franklin doesn’t speak and he’s only rarely seen but he’s omnipresent.  His target: Plagus’s yummy power cords, the outdoors where he would inevitably be killed but briefly enjoy the freedom to shit where ever and whenever he wants without reproach.  He loves Rango for his music, apples and corn chips, and the fact that he’s smarter than Rango and can get away in the house.  Plagus is dead set on killing Franklin but he also knows Rango can’t succeed without him because Youtube virtually demands kittens for sacrifice.  The three of them are locked in a mortal conflict of needs.

The principle characters were unveiled in December 2011 with the release of Operation Rango: Check 1,2, but they had strong support from the chorus.  By integrating the narrative into the Facebook/Twitter stream, Rango videos are mashups that include real contributions from artists like Tim Hearn and Kerry Kelley and the crew at Reputation Presents, a crossover between real life and cyberspace across extremely vague lines.  It’s pseudo-reality at its finest (or at its worst, depending on your point of view), distinctly indie and completely unbridled.

For visually compelling musical content the series draws from Matthew’s dual careers as a ballet dancer and metal guitarist and two universally recognized icons of cool: martial arts and guitars.  As an adjunct to every adventure Rango must exercise his new form of movement, guitar kata, and use it in some way to contribute to the adventure.  Starting from the prototypes built in his basement using a projection system and multiple cameras, computers and mirrors. Matthew has given Rango a style of movement that includes Corner Workouts, Axe Handling, Somewhat Spidery, Close Quarters and other distinctly stylized forms of movement used as choreography against a spinning wall of psychedelia (The Mojo Wall) or the background of Seattle itself using the photography of artist Richard Wood to help frame his performance against his heavy metal arsenal that includes The Turk, Gravity, and The Ringmaster.  Indeed, Franklin himself gets his own song and the show craters on the edge of being purely animated sci-fi musical dramedy.

For Into the Snow Matthew relied on a tried and true method of ancient bards to construct the plot line: he took a video camera out into a snowstorm and played with his fiddle while Rome burned.  100% ad hoc improvisation, taken in direct sequence from the camera to the final reel, Into the Snow was filmed the day Seattle took it in the face from 2 inches of snow, shutting down one of the most highly regarded high-tech Meccas in the world with what Rango glibly characterizes as a “Michigan Recess”.  All of the sirens in the background are real, as are the helicopters.  Armed with survival gear that includes a gas mask and an extremely thin survival blanket, as well as some food reported to taste like chicken, Rango sets out into the snow with callous disregard when he learns his friend Tim Hearn may have set into the storm en route to Seattle to jam.

Things get dicey and he gets more than he bargained for.  As he ventures into the snow perspective shifts and somebody is indeed discovered in the snow, but it’s Rango himself.  Saved by the ubiquitous Clone1, who runs the command and control console at the Doghause, Rango is horrified to learn the fate of his bunny and faced with the grim reality that despite his most overly optimistic assessment the survival blankets really weren’t going to be enough.

The story concludes with episodes II and III, where we learn the fate of Tim Hearn and Franklin, respectively.  Without spoiling it, suffice it to say that there were several witnesses to the crime that included the local news flying their helicopters overhead.  It’s a cautionary tale about playing with guitars and computers and going into the snow, with a little something to say about what it’s really like to be bipolar, uniquely talented, and somewhat lonely.

\m/atthew

You can view Into the Snow here:

Tentatively titled The Aether Veil it features Dorothea Adams who at the age of 30 has settled uncomfortably into spinsterhood.  Her career as one of Boston’s most respected spiritual mediums provides her with a comfortable living and makes her socially popular but unsuitable for marriage.

Her drab but secure life is turned upside down when she is invited to conduct a séance for a brilliant and reclusive scientist.  Her employer believes he has found a way to augment Dorothea’s natural talents to contact the dead and actually bring a spirit into the physical world.  Dorothea is intrigued by the possibilities but she knows she is not being told everything about this experiment.  Worse it seems someone does not want her conducting this particular séance and is willing to go extreme ends, including violence, to stop her. 

Dorothea could sort it all out but she is smitten by a handsome gentleman caller and she is being hounded by the amazing professor Keays, world famous stage magician and denouncer of spiritualism who has set his sights on proving Dorothea is nothing but a fraud.

May into June sees the last of the Life in Bloom Hunt by Ava Carrasco@ the  FAR  Group – I am so  sad to see this Hunt end as its been a load of fun! However – its not all doom and gloom – in fact theres more hunts for your money starting shortly!!!!

Time for a Cure Hunt – ongoing – Unisex prize to be found!

1)A Midsummer Night’s Dream 3
Gridwide Hunt

June 21 thru July 21, 2012

2) The Silk Road Hunt 3 starts 1st June

3)The Medieval Fantasy Hunt 1-30th June

4) Mercury Rising Hunt June 1st – 30th

5)Click to view slideshow. Sinister Steampunk Hunt July 1st – 31st

From the Toronto Star:

The ruler who reigned over the British Empire for more than 60 years gushed to her diary about meeting her future husband and how “delightful” it was to go swimming.

For the first time, the public can access those passages and others from Queen Victoria’s diaries with a few clicks of the mouse. A website featuring the personal journals of Britain’s longest-serving monarch, who wrote exhaustively during her 63 years on the throne, was launched on Thursday, the 193rd anniversary of her birth.

Previously, the journals were only accessible by appointment at the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, meaning it was mostly academics who read them.

“It’s quite unusual for the entire journal of a leader who reigned over the country for over 60 years to be made available,” said Suzanne de la Rosa, head of communications at the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University.

Read the rest of the article, including some choice quotations, here.

One line that caught my eye: “Only 13 of the journal volumes are in the Queen’s handwriting. After her death, her youngest daughter Princess Beatrice spent more than 30 years transcribing and redacting her mother’s diaries.” Which makes me wonder how much Beatrice changed…

Happy long weekend to my American readers! It’s just a regular weekend here in Canada, so I’ll be blogging on Monday as usual. So long for now.

Steampunk Tattoos by Anil Gupta (Click on the image to see more!)

It’s been around since the 1980s, when the Generic Universal RolePlaying System (GURPS) first coined the term. Clockpunk is an off-shoot of Fantasy and Science Fiction that’s most similar to Steampunk. This subgenre takes its name from its technology– springs and clockwork– based on Renaissance and Victorian-era designs. Many stories, therefore, are set within these time periods or alternate versions of those histories.

As in most speculative fiction, the themes and social commentary within Clockpunk stories are driven by the technology, such as Jay Lake’s novel, Mainspring and Whitechapel Gods by S M Peters, the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare, and Heather Massey’s The Watchmaker’s Lady.

I recently had the pleasure to read The Watchmaker’s Lady and discuss Clockpunk with the book’s creator Heather Massey, owner of The Galaxy Express blog.

In The Watchmaker’s Lady, a watchmaker falls in love with a beautiful clockwork automaton of his own creation. But instead of marble, Matthew creates Isabel the automaton from gears, mainsprings, and other clockwork parts. This story falls under the genre category known as Clockpunk.

Given Isabel’s clockwork nature, The Watchmaker’s Lady is an exploration of the “Other.” She is a highly unusual lover/soul mate in terms of the story’s time period of 1840, New England, because she begins her life as a porcelain bisque head. If any of the townspeople were to discover her presence in the watchmaker’s home, they’d be horrified by her voluptuous brass body and vacant stare. In their minds, she’d be bizarre, kinky, and totally unlike them. With that kind of fear brewing, they’d probably want to destroy her.

But would they have the right to do that simply because she’s different?

Like other speculative stories of its nature, The Watchmaker’s Lady invites readers to contemplate the following elements:

* Issues of race, gender, and sexuality
* The nature of being human
* The dangers of one-sided, exploitative relationships
* The evolution of women’s independence

The idea of forging a relationship with one’s own artificial creation is the basic premise of stories that are based on the Pygmalion myth. Remember Pygmalion from your high school history classes? He was the sculptor who fell in love with a beautiful female sculpture he had carved.

What are some of the other themes?

SOUL MATES
One of the core themes in the romance genre is the idea of a soul mate. The fantasy of finding the perfect mate in order to meet one’s needs of love and belonging has a timeless allure. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds (e.g., time itself, distance, population density), romance stories promise that two people who are meant to be together will find each other.

The Watchmaker’s Lady invites readers to question their previously held beliefs about soul mates. What defines a soul mate? Who has the right to define the nature of a soul mate? What if your soul mate didn’t exist until you created him or her? Would that constitute a valid relationship? Would it be real? What if your soul mate wasn’t even…alive?

THE POWER OF IMAGINATION IN LOVE
Through the heroine’s evolution, readers witness the transforming power of love. The hero’s vivid and fertile imagination is the means by which Isabel becomes alive. She is as alive to Matthew as any other human. Their relationship provides commentary on the role that imagination plays in love and romance.

SUBVERSIVE EROTICA
On the surface, this erotic clockpunk romance story is about a man in love with a Victorian sex doll. But digging a little deeper beneath the kink reveals another layer: A romance between two soul mates who manage to find each other— and stay together— despite overwhelming odds.

The Watchmaker’s Lady also subverts the idea of such a Pygmalion-type relationship being one-sided. Because of Matthew’s progressive attitude and imagination, Isabel is no passive object of her creator’s lust. Her level of agency makes her an active participant in the relationship, sexual and otherwise. So even though the story is told entirely from the hero’s point of view, it has a distinct feminine tone.

Clockpunk– not your great, great, great grandmother’s cup of tea!
(Thanks, Heather!)

Pick up a copy of The Watchmaker’s Lady by Heather Massey from Red Sage Press, Amazon and other online retailers.

Clockwork Eye Tattoo designed by Stefano Alcantara / Clockwork Lady Tattoo designed by Edmar Sulaoja on Xerposa

Also check out Heidi’s post on Science Fiction Romance: Set Your Phasers to Love!

A style of.. well.. everything that I have got into in the past few years is Steampunk. I must admit that I do not wear the full attire, as I would love to, but I do wear accessories and single items of clothing based on the fashion of Steampunk.
However that is not why I am writing this. Basically, it is about 23.20 and I am exhausted after having had my last exam today, and so I thought it might be quick and easy to show you some music, and so I shall show you the music of the Steampunk band, Abney Park, which I like quite a lot.

More music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtAAEJSayMI&feature=related

My main reminder that, even if you are a professional Dominatrix,

one should attempt to avoid taking one’s self too seriously.

An article I wrote, which was picked up by Portland Monthly. A critical analysis of a rising Portland music star, disguised as a lowly profile. Read! Give us both hits like Huffington Post!

Take a peek & treat yourself…

100% Fine Cotton Pinstripe Grey Waistcoat, this dinky little fitted waistcoat is cut high on the waist. Curving gracefully towards the points at the front this is designed to be worn over shirts or dresses, & has been inspired by Victorian & Edwardian Gentlemens’ Waistcoats. With subtle design flourishes like contrast kingfisher blue stitching on the vintage buttons, which is carried through to the lining this is a lovely item of clothing, & the first for Laura After Midnight.

Made to order, at just £46 this ships in two weeks. Click here to buy https://www.etsy.com/listing/100076130/grey-pinstripe-fitted-victorian

Happy stitching!

May has come and (essentially) gone for us and our focus on steampunk with it. What have we gone over? Well, here’s a cheat sheet:

We delved into what steampunk is as well as its origins in science fiction for starters. We briefly assessed some of the original steampunk authors, as well.

We looked at what the typical settings are for steampunk. Furthermore, we focused on the 3 specific variables that must be considered.

We took a solid look at the machines in steampunk. We also considered a few factors for creating new steam powered tech.

We explored the people of steampunk worlds. Protagonists, antagonists, and support characters all play roles.

We formed an understanding of why prologues can be useful tools in steampunk. All genres, really, but steampunk in particular.

Finally, we discussed the way steampunk novels “feel”. A writer can never forget to install “feeling” in their work, after all.

As my wife and I are expecting our first child in June, I will not have as much time to focus on specific genres. As such, June will be focused on general writing tips, tricks, and practices – where we began in the first place. I have a couple of guest pieces already and welcome any submissions. I may not be able to use them all but will consider them. Feel free to send them to our email.

That’s all for May, folks! If you’re in America, enjoy your holiday weekend!

If found this on PINTEREST, but does anyone know who made it?

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So a few months ago there was this awesome con on my campus. It’s an annual con that happens every year and my favorite part is seeing what the vendors create. I love handcrafted jewelry because over half the time it’s one-of-a-kind amazing pieces. I never thought I’d be a fan of steampunk until I stumbled across a vendor’s table (ClockworkJungles) and discovered this AMAZING jewelry. Now I’ve been in love with steampunk jewelry every since. However in support of the locals here, I’m only going to buy my steampunk jewelry from her for now. Because after talking with her I know she takes pride in her work and that means a lot more to me than just buying some factory made product. It makes the jewelry that much more beautiful and personal when it’s handmade.

So I stole some of the pictures she took of her work, the last two pictures are two pieces that I own from her, Harvest Moon and Topaz Wings.

Harvest Moon, “this one of a kind steampunk creation is reminiscent of a golden harvest moon hanging in the fall sky. The moon consists of an aged golden piece of a watch movement decorated with carefully selected interlocking gears and a swarovski crystal in a pale gray. It is silhouetted against an unique vintage watch face in a deep cream with markings in a dark copper.”

Topaz Wings, “These simple and fun steampunk earrings pair a topaz swarovski teardrop crystal with a small wing charm. The crystal is wire wrapped with silver plated wire and ornamented with a small silver gear. They measure 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) from the top of the stainless steel ear wires to the bottom of the swarovski crystal.”

I absolutely love these pieces and wear them all the time!

You can check out ClockworkJungles jewelry at her Etsy site: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ClockworkJungles

And for more pictures check out her other pages:

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clockworkjungles/

DeviantArt: http://clockworkjungles.deviantart.com/

Heartless, by Gail Carriger

Potential Spoilers here folks, so if you haven’t read Blameless, Changeless or Soulless, do not read on. Instead, go buy her books or borrow them from your local library!

Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband’s past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux’s latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.

Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf’s clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama’s second best closet?

~ Heartless Back Cover, by Gail Carriger

I was weary about reading the fourth book in the Parasol Protectorate Series, by Gail Carriger, after Blameless didn’t quite live up to the first two books. However, Ms. Carriger won my interest in Heartless.

The story itself returns to its fast-paced nature. It builds on interesting character dynamics started in Blameless, between Lord Akeldama, Biffy, and Lord Maccon. Better yet, I couldn’t help laughing at Alexia dealing with the vampire hive, a plot on the queen, the mystery of her husbands past, all while waddling. Even though I haven’t been pregnant, I can imagine pushing myself the way Alexia does.

I love it when books play on my expectations. The way Ms. Carriger presents vampire threat in her books, leads the reader to believe the opposite will take place in Heartless, and I wondered how the plot could proceed that way. I was pleasantly surprised by Ms. Carriger’s twist at the end. Now, I can’t wait to finish reading Timeless.

On a couple of related notes, Gail Carriger’s blog is a wonderful blog for a writer studying the craft of writing. She often posts about the things in her books, from parasols, to character studies, to tea, and even some Q & A sessions with the wonderful Lord Akeldama himself. Her images pertaining to Professor Lyall inspired me to join Pinterest (see the link on the right side-bar) to develop images that relate to the characters in my head.

Long live the Parasol Protectorate.

*****

I received a Kobo e-reader for my birthday, and I’m looking for book suggestions. What has you reading electronically?

*****
Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Plus, sign up for free e-mail updates from this blog in the top right-hand corner of the page. If you are interested in Healthcare Architecture, check out my writing at Circadian Design.

Meet the Designer: Sensuous Maximus of Builder’s Brewery

Sen Maximus is the co-owner of what is probably the best known resource centre for builders in Second Life – Builder’s Brewery. They offer a range of classes, catering for all levels, from the newbie building to experienced designers who want to upskill in a particular area.  They also offer a wide range of full-perm resource for sale, so you can take what you’ve learned home with you, as well as a sandbox area and – a godsend to many – an area where you can safely prctise terraforming land.  In their latest venture, they are planning next weekend to open a market area for building resources and Sen will be telling us all about that!

Meet the Designer: Callie Cline of KittyCatS!

Our second guest of the day is Callie Cline of KittyCatS!, the hugely popular breedable cat.  They have produced some spectacular “special” cats for Relay for Life this year (and their Four Seasons cats last year got many of us hooked on KittyCatS!).  This year it’s steampunk cats – and their delightful steampunk display features in today’s jigsaw puzzle.  Callie will be talking about the cats, the SL9B celebrations (where KittyCats will be sponsoring two sims) and hjopefully sharing some business tips too!

Meet the Designers: DeAnn Dufaux of Park Place Home Decor and Kat Alderson of Clutter

Then, at 6pm, we will be meeting two elegant and stylish designers – DeeAnn Dufaux of Park Place Home Decor and Kat Alderson of Clutter.  Both are well known for their beautiful and detailed designs and both have created amazing displays here at the Expo! We’ll be chatting about their work and also about customer service and marketing.

We have a very full programme of Designers appearing at our Pavilion over the ten days of the Expo, every day at 2pm and 4pm (with a couple of talks at 12 noon and 4.30 pm. You can see the full schedule of planned talks here.

Watching the lanterns rise

And don’t forget our daily release of Chinese Peace Lanterns every day at 4pm on the Prim Perfect stage area on Home Expo 13. Everyone is welcome to join us and release lanterns for friends and comrades – both those we cherish with us, and those who we have lost. Come along, set your viewer to sunset (as in the jigsaw) or midnight, and release you own lanterns! You can read more about it here.

As some of my readers will know, especially if you keep track of my Facebook or my Twitter profiles, I contacted my friend (Nicole) earlier this year to talk to her about having a professional photo shoot done at her studio. I am pleased to announce that the images have arrived.

It was wonderful seeing Nicole again after so many months. We both lead busy lives and live quite a distance apart, which makes getting together frequently a little difficult.

This was my first visit to her studio (The Hourglass) and my first ever professional shoot. Needless to say, I was somewhat curious as to what the whole ordeal would entail. But her skill as a photographer is apparent, one only needs to take a glance at her work to understand just how excellent she is. I could hardly trust anyone else with my first studio experience.

Plus it gave me an excuse to visit and ‘catch up’ over a cup of tea.

The camera started on photo number 666. Excellent start. Incredibly appropriate.

I am also aware that I am quickly becoming recognised as having a particularly ‘Steampunk‘ style. To this end, I decided to play on it somewhat by grabbing a few props for use in the shoot. Most notably: my flintlock pistols. Grouped with Sasha, Tempest and the athame that I use for carving ginger root and similar into items for the art of figging, I felt my small arsenal was adequate to portray most of what I wanted in the images.

Nicole specialises in (but is not limited to) burlesque and pin-up photography. Have you ever seen a Demonic Mistress attempting to appear like a pin-up girl? No? Neither had anyone else. The collection has been aptly named “Demonic Cheesecake” for this very reason.

The day was incredibly entertaining. The smiles and laughter rarely stopped.

A couple of tasteful nudes were included for good measure. It seemed only fitting.

You can keep up to date with Nicole’s activities on her Blog, written by her wonderful stalker, Emma, at: http://thehourglass-nicole.blogspot.co.uk/

However, if you have the inclination to procure your own pin-up photos, you can find The Hourglass studio online at: http://www.thehourglass.eu/

Needless to say, I would highly recommend the experience. Which brings me to the result of the said experience.

Each image has multiple formats of black and white, sepia, colour and effects. There are also a few which are reserved purely for my private pleasure. For this reason, I am only posting select images. However, the majority of the collection that has not been shown in this post will be added to my gallery and profiles as soon as I find the time to do so.

Enjoy.

On a final note: Be aware that these images, like all the images on this Blog, are copyrighted.