Steampunk Writing Accessories

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If it gets you in the mood to write use accessories. You don’t need accessories, but anything that helps you write go for it.

You can write with nothing more than a pencil or pen handed out by your local insurance agent or you scarfed at a writers convention and on a brown paper trash bag. Better yet you can write on a computer at the local library and save stuff on a free Drop Box or Evernote account.

More writers should write at libraries. It’s quiet and there’s plenty of reference material at hand. The big draw back is they won’t let you bring coffee into the library.

A fountain pen. What’s more 1880s than a fountain pen? What’s more Steampunk than to sign your book than with a fountain pen? I use a Pilot brand Metropolitain fountain pen with a fine or medium nib. Well made, you can get pre-filled ink cartridges or a fountain pen converter to load ink from a bottle. The pen cost $11.00 to &20.00. See the YouTube videos by the Goullet Pen company. Mine is a Black Plain pen although I liked the Gold Zig-Zang one. I thought a gold colored outside was too flamboyant for a serious writer like I am. Checkout The Goulet Pen company and give Mr. Goulet a call and ask him what he thinks is the most steampunk pen he sells.

I use Noodler’s No Feather ink. Feather is where the ink bleeds away form the line you drew. The Pilot ink is good too. If you buy enough ink from Noodler’s you get a free pen, but a 4.5 ounce bottle will last a long (years and years) time.

The one draw back with the Metropolitain fountain pen is that you can not see how much ink you have left. Other pens have clear windows or clear bodies that show how much ink is left. They don’t look steam punk.

Another steampunk writing accessories is a roll top desk. I just got one. Get a solid wood one, not one made from particle board. Do I need a roll top desk? NO. But it sets the mood for writing steampunk and I wanted one since I read a story that featured one in Analog Science Fiction magazine when I was in high school.

Surrounded by real, dark stained, oak. This is better than the old door held up by two, two drawer file cabinets it replaces. I typed on that lash-up for years and years. This desk has class. The desk is not new and I saw a blog where that author also got a roll top desk too. Must be something going around.

If it helps you write and doesn’t hurt anyone then do it.

Stray strong, write on.      Professor Hyram Voltage

 

Halloween Playlist

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While handing out Halloween candy I like to crank up the stereo and play Halloween music. What is music you ask, see the list;

Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Back. I use an organ version. It’s a classic.

Tubular Bells. People don’t recognize it but sets the mood for Halloween

Grim Grinning Ghosts by Thurl Ravencroft, from Disneyland’s haunted house. Lighter fare after the grim classics

Monster Mash by Bobby Boris Picket You got to play it on Halloween.

It’s Alive by Bobby Boris Picket. A little known song that I like.

Psycho Chicken by The Fools.

The Addams Theme by Vic Mitzy. A snappy tune that young trick-or-treaters have never heard.

Masochism Tango by Tom Lehrer. Tango during Halloween, what an idea.

Zombie Jamboree by Rockapella.

Ghostbuster by Ray Parker Jr.

Out of Limits by Marketts

The Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Thiller by Micheal Jackson. You gotta love the laugh at the end.

Werewolves of London by Warren Zevan.

What does a playlist of Halloween songs have to do with writing steampunk stories? If your writing a horror or spooky part of your story putting on the right music will get you in the mood or mind set to write a good horror bit. It might even entice the muse to come by. Try Tubular Bells the next time you want to add a Science Fiction or fantasy element to a scene.

Stray strong, write on, listen hard.   Professor Hyram Voltage

 

Contest and Insecurity

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My book was accepted into the contest. That can mean one of two things.

  1. That my book is better than I thought.
  2. The contest will accept anything that has a cover and words underneath. Is my insecurity showing? Yes. There will always be authors out there that are better than me. I’m competing against everyone. I don’t expect to win. But I entered and I was accepted. Which will frost some people that think my writing is terrible. Which may be true, but the people running the contest have not offered to sell me anything yet. They haven’t offered a “place higher in the contest by taking this course” promo. And it didn’t cost me anything to get into the contest.Could the book be better? Yes, but I don’t know how to make it better yet. I’m working on it. I will be working on becoming a better writer for the rest of my life. And you should be too, or I’ll past you.I sent my second book manuscript off to two Beta readers. I only need four more Beta Readers, at least that is what an author I respect said. I will read your manuscripts for Beta Reads of mine, if your willing to Beta Read reply via email at Professor@professorvoltage.com.

    This is something I have learned and is a step to make my second book better than the first. If it works out I will send the first book to these Beta Readers. Hey, I hadn’t heard of Beta Readers when I wrote my first book. Of course after I fix up the first book I will have to send it off to be edited again. That’s expensive. I hope to have better luck the second time I work with an editor.

    Stay Strong, Write On.   Confused, insecure, afraid. Professor Hyram Voltage

Writer, Optimist and Contest

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I entered the first book I wrote in a contest. I’ve written three books. It’s the 2017 Readers Choice Awards by TCK Publishing. See the 2017 Readers Choice Awards by TCK Publishing.

I did not write the next Harry Potter. I don’t expect to win this contest. The only chance I have to win something is if I’m chosen in one of the random drawings that will be held for books that were entered. It did not cost anything to enter. Low risk of losing anything. I may get one book sales out of it, and maybe someone will like my book.

I can use all the feed back I can get and I’m not expecting good feedback. Useful feed back does not have to be good feedback. I’m looking for feedback that will make the book the best book I can, so tell me what wrong or what you don’t like, I can change it and I may.

Remember it’s a book not a product. I don’t make products, I write books. A bag of cow manure is a product. My book is way better than any product.

I got an offer from a member of the screen writing group I belong to to Beta read the manuscript of book two. I am in panic mode reworking the manuscript to get it ready for someone to read it. It’s got some good scenes in it.

I’m always looking for more Beta Readers. I’m not looking for a proof reading or a spell check. I will hire an editor for that. Leave a comment if you would like to give a try at Beta Reading a manuscript. With luck you can be promoted to Alpha reader.

Stray Strong, Write On.                Professor Hyram Voltage

Book three, first clean draft, done

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Sunday I turned the last two chapters of book three to the critique group. A long road finished.

Now I have to start the edit cycle. This can take three times as long as writing the first good draft.

The current problem I’m having is finding Beta Readers. A couple of authors have told me to go to Good Reads for Beta Readers. I’m missing the details of how to do it. I’ve looked on the site for someone that is seeking Beta Readers and I would build my effort off what they have done, and I would Beta Read for them. I don’t want to get kicked off Good Reads for breaking the rules. I also want to look like I know what I’m doing.

Authors on YouTube make getting Beta Readers sound so easy.

Stay Strong, Write On                    Professor Hyram Voltage

 

The Race to Totality, 0 Dark Thirty

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It’s 3:30 A.M. August 21, 2017 and I’m loading stuff into the car at the Hotel in Walla Walla, Washington. Others were leaving or loading their stuff along side us. The hotel made a bag lunch/breakfast for us early checkouts.

Since we surveyed the route the day before getting out of town was painless. Next stop was Pendleton, WA on the boarder of Oregon. There is no direct connection between 11 the road we were on from Walla Walla and 395 the road we wanted. The  11 ends at Pendleton and the 395 starts there. Took a short hop on freeway 84 and made it to 395. The freeway was not jammed or packed with last minute travelers headed for the eclipse like was worried about.

I’m on the look out for deer, but a short distance down the road a five ton box truck is pulled off to the right side of the road. The truck pulls across the road in front of me blocking both lanes. I lean on the brakes and make it around the truck on the gravel along the road side. I am now more awake than I wanted to be.

Traffic gets thicker and we become part of a long line of cars on a two lane road. There were mountains ahead and I don’t drive mountain roads often. It’s flat where I live. Driving twisting narrow roads in the dark (eclipse equals new moon or no moon at night) is not fun.

Thankfully those in line with me were taking the turn at a decent speed. There was some small rocks on the road but not enough to make driving bad.

Day break on the mountain side. The drive is good. It’s clean clear weather and no smoke. Things are looking up.

We start passing people pulled off or camping along side the road waiting for the eclipse.

We get to Long Creek and the place we are going to is well marked.

So we parked in a freshly mowed field. The grain or whatever is still a couple of inches high and made a crunching sound as you walked on it.

The first thing I did was run to the bathroom. I had a soda on the way for the caffeine. Unfortunately the bathroom was plugged up. As I was coming back the people that were running the place were unloading Porta-potties. An instant line formed.

Unloaded the equipment. We had packed the car with telescopes and camping equipment before leaving for the trip. If we had to, we could have camped instead of getting hotel rooms. We had enough stuff for four people.

Right after we got to the parking place the traffic on 395 died down. Seems like everyone had the same time table as I had.

As I unpacked I found that I was missing one piece for the telescope. Luckily my friend had a spare and I was in business.

With the sun filter on the scope I got a look at the sun. There were sunspots. I had something to focus on.

We ended up parked between a welder from Washington state and some people that worked for Microsoft on the other side. Nice people. The Welder had a sextant from his father. Classy looking instrument.

Got the cameras set up. Took pictures, then in the middle of totality I stopped and looked at the totality with my eyes.

Totality lasted less than two minutes, but it was worth it.

Stay Strong, Write On       Professor Hyram Voltage

One Chapter to go

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Sunday I turned in chapter 18 of book three to the critique group. Three ships battle it out with torpedoes, cannons, and small arms fire. While the heroine is trapped on a barge in the middle of the fighting with the enemy spy.

I kept three fights going at once while the heroine tries to save her lovers who is hanging below the barge in a bathysphere. It’s not easy keeping three story lines (that are happening at the same time) going and not confuse the reader.

Now all I have to do is write the Falling Action, The Resolution, and The Denouement and wrap up a bunch of lose ends. On paper that sounds like more work and writing than what I did for the second act of the book.

Of course as I wrote chapter 18 my outline went to pieces. I have to redo the outline of chapter 19, big time.

Word count is good, but way low. I have to go through several edits and a rewrite which will add words. Then it’s off to the Beta Readers. After the clean up using the Beta Readers comments I turn it in to the editor.

That brings up a big problem. I’m still working on the editing of the second book. Writing new stuff is more fun than editing. How many time do I have to read the same thing again? Is the edit making it better?

The big problem is I will now go for weeks without new material to submit to the critique group. I could give them edited material but they will get as tired of reading the same (but improved) stuff over and over.

The biggest problem is editing and rewriting take three times as long as writing the book in the first place.

Stay Strong, Write On (you heard it here first)   Professor Hyram Voltage.

The Race to Totality, a Day of Rest

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August 20th. After the complimentary breakfast at the hotel in Dayton, WA. we headed for Walla Walla, WA where I had reservations. We took highway 12 and found it was not well marked. Drove by Walla Walla and both me and my friend missed the off ramp to Walla Walla. There are not many gasoline stations along the raods of Washington. Almost ran out of gas. The exhaustion is catching up with me. This is the second time in two days.

We found the hotel in Walla Walla easily. I asked at the desk and found one of the cheapest gasoline stations was just a block or two away.

Did a little sight seeing. Lot of people on foot in down town Walla Walla.

My friend suggested we scout out the route out of town site we got turned around the night before trying to get through Walla Walla.

Lunch at a Panda Express and then back to the hotel to lay back and rest up. Four o’clock in the morning was coming soon. Some of the others in the hotel were leaving at midnight.

Again I was too tired to write. The big concern was the city of Pendleton, OR. We got lost in that city before. The 11 highway does not connect to the 395 highway. You have to go on city streets and that’s where I took a wrong turn before.

This trips has been wrong turns, almost running out of gas and exhaustion. They are related. That’s why I don’t write when I’m very tired. It’s too hard and I make too many mistakes.

Be strong, write on.    Professor Hyram Voltage

The Race to Totality, Day 2

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You think after driving over 13 hours the day before we would take it a little easy toady. Wrong.

Looking at my carefully made plans my friend said we should visit Crater lake. That only involved driving a quarter of the way across Oregon. All two lane roads through the mountains. I should have realized I was exhausted when we almost ran out of gas. Eight hours of sleep does not make up for driving over half a day or for the three weeks of late night work getting the telescopes working, figuring out why the new digital camera does not work like the film camera on the scope. Building a sun aiming sigh for the scope, etc.

Found out that at Indian casinos (Casinos on American Indian’s reservations) you get to pump the gas, they don’t come out and do it for you. There’s a law in Oregon that the station personnel has to pump the gas, you can’t pump your own gas. They do not require the station attendances to wear plastic gloves to protect their hands from the gasoline or to wear face mask to protect them from the gasoline fumes. Having to pump your own gas upset the guy in front of me. He expected them to come out and pump the gas. He should have read the sign pointing to the pumps saying you pump your gas this lane and the other lane was for someone to come out and pump the gas. Of course it cost more to have the station people pump the gas.

Refueled and re-orientated we headed on to Crater Lake. They were holding a bicycle race/rally at Crater Lake. Narrow two lane road, with blind curves, double yellow lines in the middle of the road, and bicyclists all over the place. Then a SUV with California plates goes zooming by me at at least 50 miles an hour on a 25 mile an hour curve across a double yellow. No wonder Oregon residents don’t like Californians. There were cars from Washington state doing the same thing.

Crater Lake was nice, there was patches of snow still on the ground. It’s August and the patches were in places in the open where the sun could shine on it, not under trees. The lake is high and I got short of breath walking up a path from a look out point.

I asked a forest ranger how much snow they get. She said 43 to 44. I said 44 inches is a lot. She said; no, 44 feet. We couldn’t even see the three story building over there last winter.

From Crater lake we drove back across the state through Bend, OR and several other places to Fox, OR. It’s a small town of maybe a couple of dozen people. They had lots of yellow tape to keep people from parking in front of drive ways and houses. After scouting the area we drove on to Long Creek, OR. A nice little town of 220 people. The town had lots of things for the people coming to watch the eclipse. All the money the town made from the eclipse was going to the local school. We stopped and visited a friend who was camping the school yard (the camp ground was set up by the town).

Found out that there was a parking lot in a field that the town had set up just for those that were coming in the day of the eclipse. Another change of plans.

From Long Creek we drove on to Dayton, Washington. I had reservations in Dayton. It was a long drive. Much of it on roads I had never driven on before and in the dark. During the trip I almost hit four deer. If you see a deer on the road or near the road then there is another one you don’t see. It’s either a doe and its fawn or a buck and his doe. The second one will run out in front of you to catch up with the one that just ran out of your way. Always look out for the other one. We got into Dayton around 9:00 that night.

Dayton is a small place with no fast food places. Even the bar closes the grill at 9:00. We ended up goes to a convenience store/pin ball pallor. The guy there made us a couple of hamburgers.

The hotel was packed. They had two wedding parties there. It was also nosy with all the drunks.

Stay strong, write on.          Professor Hyram Voltage.

Writing on the road and all the time

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There are plenty of writers that brag that they write every day. Think Ray Bradbury (if you have never heard of him look him up and read him, he even wrote poetry). That may be possible if you’re like the old magazine publisher Wayne Green. He had his wife drive him to work while he sat at a bench in the back on their van and typed (on an old typewriter). This may be the office of the future with self driving cars. Work while the car drives. Sort of like the Lincoln Lawyer.

If you have a life and other interest than writing there are going to be days when you don’t write. Days like when you drive for over 13 hours and barely have the strength to make it to a restaurant before they close to get something to eat. It’s a small town and fast food places are not common in Oregon. After eating I had just enough strengthen to unload some of the more expensive telescope and camera equipment before falling into bed.

I did not get 1000 words done that day, or the next. Not even 100 words got written. I drove across two states the next day. Do I feel bad about not getting any writing done. No. Even dead tired I enjoyed the driving. Oregon does have a lot of two lane roads and I must have driven on half of them.

I know obsessive and compulsive and that can lead to writers block. You also have to be flexible. If your writing all the time, when are you going to find the new experiences that you can later put into your stories? Without experiences, that you have lived, your stories are going to be flat.

Go out and explore, experience, live, then write.

Stay strong, write on.             Professor Hyram Voltage.