As mentioned previously, I am a member of writing.com. On a weekly basis, I receive a bunch of email newsletters giving me writing pointers and links to helpful groups of people who can give further help. I am still clearing out my WDC email from when I was unable to read them on a regular basis while working and being pregnant and then having a young baby (and housework and animals, etc… sometimes writing research gets pushed down the bottom of the pile, sadly). An email from last year showcased a group dedicated to the genre Steam Punk.

Well, I read the list of themes common to Steam Punk projects, and it got me thinking: I LOVE the Wild West/Victorian fashions… and I am a total addict of Wild West shows (Young Riders, Deadwood, Brisco County – the last of which is Steam Punk in itself!). Weapons of the War started out being aimed at that kind of era, but I altered it to fit a slightly more traditional Fantasy umbrella. Plus, I sort of preferred knife/sword fights to gunfights for a more personal touch. But, my heart is still with the rough men and beautiful women of the Deadwood-styles. And after reading that list, I thought to myself, with a few tweaks, my story could be Steam Punk (Jonas already has tattoos, Braph already has body-modifications)… and how exciting to get on board with a relatively new genre. The main difference will be in the fight scenes, as I think I will have to change them to gunfights – which is fine, because I wanted a gun used at the end of the story, anyway.

Anyway, I have been itching to draw for a little while. So, for your pleasure, or otherwise, here is a new version of Jonas…

A New Jonas

This is a pencil sketch, photographed… I am still dreaming of getting myself a tablet of some kind…

Anyway, part of my editing and re-writing will involve pulling my story further into the Steam Punk genre! Watch this space for a bit of fun.

Yep, I really have hit a bit of a brick wall at the moment. Part of it is that there is a lot of other stuff going on, including this short-story I am working on. Part of it is that there is a particular scene that I wrote in Chapter 11 that just doesn’t fit with my originally-planned back-story (events that occurred prior to those in this story), and that bothers me, big time. It bothers me because it affects my original vision of Jonas. But, do you know what the wonderful things is about this still being a work-in-progress, and a work of fiction? It’s that I can nut out a solution with a little deep thought. And I have done just this tonight.

I think I have a solution that will work without having to make major re-writes at this stage. See, that is the one problem with making the story available to be read already – if I need to make major changes, it affects my readers. Continue Reading…