Chat thread

[John]

I maintain a "Weird West" board over on Pinterest to give me ideas and inspiration for my "Ghost Marshal" series. Check it out: http://www.pinterest.com/hamilton3080...

[Gwyn]

John wrote: "Liz, do you have a website where we can see your rodeo photography?"

Sure do! And I apologize for not replying to your message. I started to then my phone ate the response and I totally forgot what I was doing lol I shot professionally with the local semi-pro circuits for a while (NPRA and Pro-West) and then with the junior rodeo for a while, but it was costing me more to shoot than I was making so havent done much rodeo lately.

Slightly ironicly my DA account has a fairly good collection of some of my older favorites http://sorrelstang.deviantart.com

My smugmug galleries have everything else http://lizstabbertphoto.smugmug.com/

[Quentin]

Great pictures Liz, I especially love the action shots!

[Ashe]

Between the two of you, Liz, you and John have some wicked pictures.

[John]

Awesome stuff, Liz. I love both your rodeo work and your portraiture. You know your way around the camera.

[[deleted user]]

Ashe wrote: "Check this thread https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... Otherwise, try searching "steampunk robot" on dA. You're bound to find something."

Hey thanks guys! The recommendations were a big help; got some cool ideas. Now I just need to get them to an illustrator and cover artist. I'll let everyone know when the stories are available online.

[Ashe]

Good covers are important. Good luck, dude.

[Ashe]

Uh oh, SA made me a mod. Y'all done goofed. I'm mad with power!

[John]

All hail Ashe!

[Ashe]

All will love me and despair.

[John]

Just remember Shelley's cautionary tale, Ashe:

'My name is Asheymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

[Quentin]

Jeez John one of King Ashe's first decrees was no fancy poetry in the threads, don't bring his wrath down upon us all! lol

[John]

I was hoping to skedaddle to robber's roost before he found out.

[Quentin]

You skedaddler you!

[Justin]

When did you become a mod? lol. I think we are safe though cause you seem like a cool guy, we are in good hands, rejoice everyone!

[Ashe]

Yes, rejoice at my mercy.

SA made me a mod last night/this morning after our twitter conversation pointed him back here. I'm just glad to help. I think Weird Westerns could get their own boom like Steampunk did if can just spread it.

[Justin]

I like that philosophy and I too believe it can if we get the good word out.

[Ashe]

Also, mercifully, if WW gets its boom, there won't be shitty costumes/concepts where someone just throws sepia toned clothes together and slaps gears and goggles on it and calls it Steampunk. The worst you can do for a weird western costume or concept is play off traditional western tropes.

[John]

+1

[Ashe]

Westernpunk is apparently a thing and the Weird gets lumped in it but I just really like "Weird West" better. It says more to me. That capital W Weird just opens up a lot of avenues and concepts.

[[deleted user]]

I'll always blame Deadlands for introducing me to Steampunk and Weird Westerns at the same time, so to me the two are often linked (whether Steampunk fans like it or not!), but WW really is its own thing. I'd like to see things take off as well.

[Ashe]

Once upon a time, the link worked. Then Steampunk got mired up in Neo-Victorianism so that it almost completely became a landscape of post, English adventurers in airships. Which is a great big fuckin irony on something that claims punk sensibilities. For something that more or less came out of the aesthetics of Wells and Verne and Cyberpunk, it sure does lack that crucial piece of the nature of Punk most of the time. Not to mention, Victorian era England was basically the height of the Empire, so Victorian English settings and aesthetics taking over something so thoroughly is rather telling.

Oops, steampunk rant.

[[deleted user]]

To whit, I always have this particular Wikipedia page bookmarked if I'm looking for both new ideas as well as a refresher of what it's supposed to be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpun...

[Ashe]

I check that occasionally and at this point, it makes me feel like a crotchety old man. Some of the derivatives are just so pointless though. Like Decopunk is listed as a subset of Dieselpunk but Art Deco is a pretty heavy staple of the majority of Diselpunk and even Atompunk. Nanopunk seems like it could just stay under Biopunk considering the two apparently cross over so much. Stonepunk seems wholly unnecessary. Elfpunk seems like an "edgier" name for Urban Fantasy.

I dunno. I'm probably just being cranky. It seems like most -punk derivatives just want to have the punk on their name and that's it.

[Quentin]

After reading all of that for some reason I can only think of WTFpunk o.o

[Ashe]

Genres have to grow but sometimes, all the whateverpunk seems excessive and unnecessary. But I also can't figure out if that's me being a codger or having a legitimate gripe.

[[deleted user]]

Oh I don't agree with it all either; sometimes it feels more like fans wanting to feel special or further segregate themselves within a sub-genre; not always a good thing. But it does give a quick but solid look into the certain ideas that can be made useful when modified for the WW genre, or at least I believe so. Much like fantasy and sci-fi.
And yeah, could be old codgery (I often feel the same as I get further into my 30s) but that doesn't mean you don't have a legitimate gripe. It may be just what you like or don't like, what you best feel represents your ideas you are trying to convey and what doesn't (in this case, Steampunk) - I think that certain aspects of it can serve WW well, but hardly all of it, and certainly not the worship of Victorian/Edwardian Britain; maybe Clockpunk and Deiselpunk too (think of Last Man Standing, a 1920s update of A Fistful of Dollars, perfect Deiselpunk WW fodder).
But this is just me. Everyone is different.

[Ashe]

I try to keep an open mind.

I actually really adore dieselpunk and atompunk. I think I'm just bein harsh though. Someone created the phrase "cryptidcore" on tumblr, and it's basically like X-Files and Monster Quest as an aesthetic. I am all about that. And hey, I'm writing a straight up fantasy western with races and demons so i've wondered out of the camp to some degree.

[Ashe]

Things got super quiet. We all still alive? Did my old man ranting scare everyone away?

[Quentin]

We are still here o great and fearless leader, it has been quiet lately though, hows the book coming along?

[Ashe]

It's comin. I made a post on facebook and tumblr about some world building involving the money. Will start writing for the night soon. Also, SA's the leader, I'm just a dirty, power hungry general.

[[deleted user]]

Yeah, sorry. Busy with edits on my second novel as well as tracking down cover artists I like. And didn't have my computer for several days.

[Ashe]

Ha, no worries. Book comes first. Hope it's all goin well.

[Justin]

I'm in the process of getting some promotion and marketing done for my books, tryna get back into the swing of things in that department. However I have checked back into the group and will be made aware of any good stuff you guys decide to talk about or cook up.

[[deleted user]]

Ashe wrote: "Ha, no worries. Book comes first. Hope it's all goin well."

It is. I have to thank you again for the lead to DA. I found a great pic of a Steampunk-style robot that just about fits the vision of the character I have in my mind. I'm deciding on two illustrators for the covers for those short stories. The book is a while longer yet; I hope to have it out maybe come January. My editor made a more good and necessary suggestions this time around, and I'm working hard. Also busy reading up on more marketing stuff.

[Ashe]

Sounds good, man. Here's hopin it all goes smoothly.

[Justin]

Just added a link to this group on my Website. I list all the groups I'm a part of on Goodreads on my site. It's not much and I know not if people click on them but it's there nonetheless.

[Ashe]

I really need to set up a site already. Mostly just haven't had the energy to sit down and try and think up a basic framework and design scheme. Though I guess it can wait til the book's about to be out.

I will definitely have to set up a links page for Goodreads stuff too.

[John]

Guys, I highly recommend Simon Whistler's "Rocking Self Publishing" site for its step-by-step guide to setting up an author website. The tutorial is free, as are Simon's terrific audio interviews with indie authors. Check it out here:

http://rockingselfpublishing.com

I based my website off his template. It's highly customizable.

http://johnchamilton.com

It's best to have your site up and running well before you hit that publish button.

[Ashe]

Mine'll end up auto-posting to fb, tumblr, and twitter and be a central hub for me more than an actual site. Still important but yeah, I'll get it done at some point. My girlfriend likes coding so maybe once she's graduated in December and we've moved, and she's recovered from school, she'll feel up to helping me.

[Justin]

John,
I'll definitely check that out later. I'm always looking how to make my site more effective so maybe getting some tips and tutorials will help.

Ashe- No worries, I'm sure it'll come together at some point. Just remember you don't have to pile stuff on a site right away, gradually create it.

[Ashe]

Yeah, it's just a matter of setting it up when I've been workin on other book stuff. Need to work on the maps some more.

[[deleted user]]

I keep telling myself I should set up my own author website, but I don't know what I'd actually do with it or post on it other than book releases.

[Ashe]

I think at this point, realistically, websites for creators are just blogs and social media feeds. You post about your work, upcoming releases, upcoming deals, and anything you feel is worth sharing with your audience and set it to RSS to your facebook, twitter, and possibly tumblr if you have one. Then you've got your hub and you can do other things on each platform. I post the same important stuff on all three of my social sites and then each one has a different bit of content to boot. Except facebook sometimes. Tumblr and Twitter get more "extra" stuff.

[Gwyn]

Do you guys (authors) have Facebook pages set up? I mean fan/business pages, not personal profiles. There have been several times I've wanted to follow an authors page so I could get updates on their work, but they only had personal profiles and it feels super stalkery to randomly friend request them :-/

[Gwyn]

Do you guys (authors) have Facebook pages set up? I mean fan/business pages, not personal profiles. There have been several times I've wanted to follow an authors page so I could get updates on their work, but they only had personal profiles and it feels super stalkery to randomly friend request them :-/

[Quentin]

I have one but I never figured out if it was a fan page or a personal profile (I'm kinda behind the times on facebook lol)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quenti...

[John]

I have one. It's a little more informal than my official website.

https://www.facebook.com/johnchamilto...

[Ashe]

I set one up for that whole stalkery thing. I'm happy to iinteract with folks but i'd prefer to keep personal stuff personal. Here it is.

[[deleted user]]

This my official FB page as an author: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Philip...
I'm more than happy to chat with fans there, but my personal FB is separate and only for those I'm close to.