S.L. Schmitz's Blog, page 8

Steampunk Pirates- what more can I say?

I know I have been pretty quiet lately, but I have been a tired hausfrau. Leave me alone.

I recently read a novel which motivated me enough to write a new blogpost (amazing, eh?) so may I please introduce to you a new friend and a pretty darn good author- Michel R. Vaillancourt.

Michel R. Vaillancourt is a romantic swashbuckler of a novelist. Don't believe me? Just look at his name – all Canadian French and romantic and full of dreamy syllables. He lives on an island, you know- Prince Edward Island, to be exact. How romantic is that?

The name "Michel" rolls off the tongue, causing one to sigh right between the soft –ch sound and the dominant 'l' sound, simultaneously summoning the voices of Paul McCartney and Captain Hook.  In his newest novel , Vaillancourt creates an alternate history where pirates rule the flying airwaves, beautiful murderesses fall in love with a captured aristocrat, men can be created out of nuts and bolts, and rogue mechanical Dragons can destroy entire towns no matter if they are part of the Russian or Allied alliance.

Vaillancourt introduces us to the time period of 1888, 30 years after the end of the Crimean War. The Allied and the Russian Air Navies are still antagonistic towards one another, and the airwaves above the earth are full of steam-powered naval ships, merchant ships and treasure-hungry pirate ships. The story is told from the point of view of Hans Saunder (hence the title – ), a wealthy young German whose passenger merchant airship was hijacked by one of the most feared pirate ships in all of Europe or Russia – The Bloody Rose. Sauder is given an option by the legendary Captain Blackheart; either become a pirate, or die. Saunder chooses the latter, and the rest of the story is the chronicles of his adventures with the crew of the Bloody Rose.

One of the more interesting components of this piece of work is the implied equality that exists among the men and women on board the Bloody Rose; there are women in positions of power all over the ship, handling a sword just as well (if not better) then most of the men. Arietta Atala is a tall black woman who commandeers the Propulsion room, including the all-important EMIPALE mechanism; Sauder looks to her for leadership and education as he applies his knowledge of designing airships.

The ship's Captain of the Gunnar-Marines is the beautiful and saucy Annika Nadezhda – not only is Nadezhda Sauder's equal with a weapon, she is also smart and playful. She has her eye on the shy, moralistic Sauder, but he has a difficult time letting go of his Victorian values on love and relationships. They spar both literally and figuratively, and their blossoming romance is one of the best components of this book.

Alternatively, there is an underlying theme that pirate women are wild and free, while European wives and fiancés are demure and unobtrusive. This is a true Victorian England sentiment, and it plays very well into the world-building that Vaillancourt has created. Nedezhda delights in teasing Sauder that she has no intention of falling in love with him or wanting to go "back to stodgy old England as your terminally bored wife". And yet, there is a sense of wistful irony in the Ladies of the Rose as they recall previous lives and lovers. Vaillancourt skillfully creates characters who are never quite what they seem, and do not always mean what they say.

In between all of the delightful banter between Sauder and the crew, there are many exciting battle scenes. Saunder presents himself as a pacifist, but finds out quickly that a pirate who is reluctant to fight to the death is a pirate who does not live long. He agonizes over his actions in the various battles, slowly coming to grips with the necessity of death in the life he has chosen. As his views change, he slowly comes to realize that he is enjoying his time among the crew of the Bloody Rose, and therefore he begins to question himself and his role in the world.

This is a book that held my attention – even in electronic format. Not many books by debut authors can entice me to read all the way to the end, especially if they are too slow or wander in plot. No worries here – Vaillancourt has produced a book that is at once thoughtful, scientific, steampunk, and visual. His characters are likeable, and his writing style is cohesive. This book just works. It is a full-length novel, but it has a cliffhanger ending which leaves the door open for additional escapades from Hans Sauder and his cohorts. I find myself wanting to know what happens next in the world of Hans and Annika and Arietta and Captain Braveheart.

BIOGRAPHY:

Michel R. Vaillancourt is forty-two years old, currently living in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. He is married, and has a teenage son. He works in the IT field and he has been reading and writing for most of his life. He has been involved in Steampunk for two years and a fan of adventure stories since he was twelve.

Media Contact Information

Michel R. Vaillancourt can be reached at his website http://michelrvaillancourt.com/ or by email at michel@michelrvaillancourt.com . A media press kit is available directly from his website at http://michelrvaillancourt.com/about-the-sauder-diaries/ … .

Trestle Press can be reached at thier website http://www.trestlepresspublishing.com/ or via email at Staff-trestlepress@gmail.com .

Filed under: Blog Tagged: airships, aristocrat, Blackheart, captain, Egypt, England, navy, pirate, pirates, Russia, simitar, steam engine, steampunk, Tzar

new website at slschmitz.com

Its official. I have gone ahead, made the phone call, and inactived thedeadgirl.com

It isn't really that big a deal. I was getting less than 100 unique hits a month, so its not like there were thousands of people breaking down my door to get to my content. Plus, I didn't update it. Ever. It was one of those stagnant, unmoving wildebeast websites that live in the wild and forage for themselves.

So, I went ahead and activated slschmitz.com

I decided to do this for a couple of different reasons; I decided that "the dead girl" was just a vanity name, and that it no longer met my needs. Also, when contemplating a website from a business point of view, it just made more sense to name the damn thing after my own name.

Plus- and I NEVER, EVER thought I would say these words – WordPress is easier to use than all those other fancy, expensive websites out there. Those of you that had to suffer through my summer 2011 technology nervous breakdown when I tried to learn how to use WordPress will recall all of the curse words I used as I navigated the site. Oh well, live and learn.

So slschmitz.com it shall be from now on. Trouble is, the old website is everywhere. It's on postcards, business cards, social media sites, etc. Pardon me while I shut down for renovation. I'm going to need a Swiffer around here until all this dust settles…

Filed under: Blog Tagged: Dark Continents, Let It Bleed, Mina's Daughter, slschmitz.com, technology, thedeadgirl.com, Trestle Press, website, wordpress

Back to blogging

I have decided that it is time to actually get serious about getting serious. So I am going to make a real attempt to begin blogging, and doing it on a regular basis. Oh, and updating my events and activities. And keeping my recent publications up to date, like Mina's Daughter: The Harker Chronicles which has been for sale since September but which I never put on my personal website.

Let's face it. I'm doomed.

When I try to analyze my motives, I find that my primary reasons for wanting to personalize content in a central location is really just an exercise in organizational survival skills. Guerilla housekeeping, so to speak. I simply have too much stuff going on, and it is all over the place. I mean, if you look up the word "absent-minded professor" in the dictionary, my picture will be prominently displayed.

I try to be organized, I really do. All the piles of paper lying on my dining room table are a living testament to my deep desire to be alphabetized and meticulous. But there is some kind of missing link in my brain that prevents me from reaching a level of ease and automaticity. Frankly, I have no idea where to start.

So, I am going to make a huge executive decision and delete another website that I've had up and running for the past year in order to consolidate some of my content. The other site was just not meeting my needs – too expensive, and too complicated. So I am saying a fond farewell to thedeadgirl.com – nice to know you. You were a big headache of a website. Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.

I have blogtours to schedule, requests for reviews to send out, columns to write, a blog hop to organize for January 2012, several press releases that aren't going to write themselves, a London book launch for the Phobophobia Anthology, and research to complete for those grants that I have to write.

Don't make fun of me. I can hear you snickering.

In the meantime, I'll just sit here in front of my computer screen and try and figure out how to upload this post into WordPress. Maybe it will end it in the right location on my webpage. At least its a start.

Filed under: Blog Tagged: Dark Continents, Mina Harker, S.L. Schmitz, Trestle Press

About Me

I am S.L. Schmitz. I live in North Carolina in the United States with my husband,

son, and four cats.

It is very strange to write about myself. I was a teenager in Chicago during the 1980′s, and am heavily influenced by the punk, gothic and industrial musicscene from that time  period. My musical influences include Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, the Cure, Bauhaus, Skinny Puppy, Rites of Spring, and the Swans. I can still rock that Siouxsie Sioux black eye make up, if the right

event came around!

I respect and admire so many different authors, so I couldn't possibly just list

a bunch of names. I think that would be insincere. Instead, let me just say that I can never get tired of reading Patti Smith or RayBradbury. I adore John Shirley, both the man and the myth. More recently, I have become deeply enamoured with the

Mythpunk genre, particularly the writings of TheodoraGoss and Amal El-Mohtar.

Last year, I couldn't decide if I was insulted or not when someone told me that I

was an 'enigma'. I may look quiet and unassuming, but I have the heart and soul

of an Aquarian Rebel. You know what they say – never judge a book by its cover.

Unless it is one of my books.

In that case, I hope you are able to see the images in each word which I have carefully

chosen, and that the unraveling embroidery of my story speaks volumes to you.

Don't ever forget how to fly-

S.L. Schmitz

Filed under: About Me Tagged: Chicago, Dark Continents, gothic, John Shirley, Let It Bleed, mythpunk, Patti Smith, punk, S.L. Schmitz, Souixsie Souix, Swans, The Cure, Trestle Press

Time and Technology

I am what is considered a "newbie" in publishing terms. I am working with my publisher, Alternating Reality Books (a subsidiary of Dead Tree Comics) on the final stages of getting my novel, Let It Bleed, published, and have decided to share my experiences during this upcoming year. I find the whole process exciting, exhilarating, overwhelming, and exhausting.

     There are two vital elements which have caused consistent stress in my life these past few months; the passing of time and the learning of new technologies. I have lists all over the place to help me get my thoughts organized and get myself on the right track for publication, publicity, and reviews – I want to share here all the little bits and pieces that I have managed to figure that I must complete, and the timelines in which they should be completed. I want other people – friends, other newbies, people who find this site by accident – to know that getting published is a full time job. Writing the novel was the easy part; now that that is done, getting it out into the big world of readers and reviewers is my new passion.

     In the past 6 weeks, I am proud that I have completed the book trailer, created my very first ad (to be placed in the Souvenir Book for the World Horror Convention in Austin, TX April 28-May 1, 2011), joined several author communities, sent out two stories for consideration to two separate online publications, (finally!) figured out my Intuit website, and completed the cover of Let It Bleed and the final book proof interior. OK – actually, that last part about the book cover and final proof was completely taken care of by Dan, my publisher. All I had to do was open the links and make comments, since he did all the real work. But it was still technology – and it was exhausting. It is just not easy teaching this old dog new tricks.

     Oh, and business cards. Those came out pretty cool, were fun to create, and I really get a kick out of handing them out to people.

     So while I was busy working at my real job all day, and then coming home at night and trying to figure out all of the various technologies, time was passing. Serious time. Here is one of the big problems for newbies – I barely have any idea what I am doing, and I am running out of time to do it. There is one almighty word that just sits there, causing tension headaches and anxiety; that word is REVIEWS. It loops through my brain like a zombie newsreel. Must get reviews. Must send out press releases. Must get my name out there.

     Time and technology. There is still so much to do between now and the next thirty days. I am going to take this day by day, and keep updating this blog so that we can all suffer the fate of a newbie author together.

     Deep breath. Here we go.

Filed under: Uncategorized