Cloud Wars: What is steampunk?
Steampunk is a storytelling genre that features a mix of craftmanship and technology based on Victorian times – but more fun.
Steampunk Earth Day is on 30 October 2010 – it’s a lot like Earth Hour, but with more options (and better outfits). It’s G-rated, and fully international, since you play along (literally) at home. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=150654784970718
It often features technology that doesn’t exist or isn’t used today, especially steam powered tech. That technology is often on a huge scale (eg Philip Reeve’s “Mortal Engines” series – definitely not G or PG rated, fyi). It also often features Victorianesque class structure (Richard Harland’s “Worldshaker” is an excellent – and funny – example) because it’s inspired by the industrialisation era of Britain (though steampunk is, clearly, a lot more fun that its historical equivalent). Oh, and there are lots of Mad Scientists (as in the “Girl Genius” online comic series) and GREAT outfits (as in Philip Reeve’s “Larklight” series, my favourite kids’ series ever). Side note: Philip Reeve and the Foglios (makers of “Girl Genius”) both say they’re not steampunk – they’re “Victorian inspired” or “gaslamp fantasy”.
Steampunk movies use a palette of black, grey and coppery tones (as in “Sherlock Holmes”).
The current twittertale, “Cloud Wars”, is steampunk only in the sense that an old technology (one-person planes) are used, and that the science (cloud seeding) is vital to the plot. I promise to get better at steampunk with time (although twitter doesn’t lend itself to rich world-building).
Here’s some pretty pictures (and their websites, which I haven’t read so are not rated here):
www.wordsoup.com/blog/2007/04/
hydralisk.wordpress.com/…/steampunk/
http://www.myfreewallpapers.net/fantasy/pages/steampunk-landscape.shtml
Cloud Wars: Storm Troopers
Today’s post is a little early, because I’m using a friend’s internet. On the theme of mad science, here is a quirky site:
http://wildammo.com/2009/08/09/what-stormtroopers-do-on-their-day-off/
Cloud Wars: Story so far
I normally do this on Fridays (and at the end of each tale), but here it is anyways:
Wed 10 Feb
“Mum! I gotta go make rain now.”
“Why can’t you get a real job?”
“MUM!” I switched off the comm and shot my payload into a full-looking cloud.
*
Since I’d cunningly forgotten to shut my lid, the rain I made fell right in. When the sparks started I cursed myself and pressed ‘eject’.
*
I floated down as neatly as you please, but the Eastern plane had already landed. They wrapped my own chute around my neck and I was gone.
Th 11 Feb
I woke in an Eastern jail – all concrete chic with a side order of migraine. Eastern cloud seeders made bets on me outside the barred door.
*
The good thing about being a nineteen-year old girl is that people think I’m weak. On their odds, I wouldn’t wake up. So I didn’t move. Yet.
Fri 12 Feb
When a doctor came to take my pulse I grabbed both his arms and twisted. He yelped but he quickly learned not to move – a perfect shield.
*
“We’re BFFs now,” I told him, “because today we live or die together.”
“Do I get to choose?”
“You sure do. . . is that a sandwich?”
*
I escaped into a land as dry as my mouth, and searched the dying fields for water without success. If only I hadn’t done my job so well.
Sat 13 Feb
A woman woke me, and I followed her into her home. She gave me water to drink. Then I saw the picture of her dead son – a cloud seeder.
*
She saw me looking, and nodded. “I helped you for his sake. You’re a seeder too.”
“And possibly his killer. Have you poisoned me?”
*
She laughed sadly. “I no longer care for East or West. Only sons or daughters. When you’ve eaten, take his plane. It’s no use to me.”
Cloud Wars: Twitter controversy # 2
It’s been pointed out to me (usually with sniggering) how unbelievably Freudian my first day of “Cloud Wars” turned out to be. All I can say is. . . I had absolutely no idea.
It’s interesting, though – pirates kill a bunch of people, no problem. A woman starves her husband to death – what a laugh! But mocking emos, or mentioning a “ripe” cloud. . . suddenly I have issues.
One of the most enjoyable parts of writing these twitter stories is having enough of an audience that one or two readers are bound to eventually mention what everyone is thinking.
Tune in next week for the torture of puppies!*
*JOKE, darn it!
Cloud Wars: Scifi that isn’t fi
Cloud seeding (ie making clouds suddenly drop rain or snow) is real. I’ve seen the results (this year, in Beijing – the heaviest snowfall in sixty years). Clouds can be seeded by cannons (which can be loaded on the back of trucks, or shot from the ground – and yes, people living nearby hear them – and immediately rush inside) or small planes.
No, there aren’t dogfights and abductions between sparring plane companies – not yet.
Cloud seeding is used in Australia, America, and China, but has been most wholeheartedly embraced in China – where it causes friction between provinces (“You stole my rain!” “You stole MINE!” etc)
It is very efficient (mindbogglingly so), but like all godlike powers, it has a down side. We don’t yet know the long-term effects of messing with the natural patterns of rain.
It’s also obvious (already) that rain generally comes from one direction. If people close to the source of the rain are using up every cloud that passes, what happens to everyone else?
Felicity Banks 
