{"id":611,"date":"2011-10-22T19:15:41","date_gmt":"2011-10-22T19:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/?p=611"},"modified":"2023-07-07T22:44:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T02:44:25","slug":"airships-and-sherlock-holmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/2011\/10\/22\/airships-and-sherlock-holmes\/","title":{"rendered":"Airships and Sherlock Holmes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The master sleuth and Master of the World.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s not to love?<\/p>\n

The World Fantasy\u00a0Convention<\/a>\u00a0has just released its program schedule for 2011,\u00a0one that offers\u00a0an impressive blend of topics centering on this year\u2019s theme: Sailing the Seas of Imagination.<\/p>\n

At the con, I\u2019ll be joining a discussion about airships and reading from my latest Sherlock Holmes mystery \u201cThe Executioner.\u201d<\/p>\n

First up, I\u2019ll be joining \u00a0Jetse de Vries<\/a>, Eric Flint<\/a>, Charles Gannon<\/a>, and Cliff Winnig <\/a>for a panel titled \u201cTo Sail Above the Clouds: Airships.\u201d Here\u2019s the description:<\/p>\n

With Steampunk\u2019s popularity, airships are rising too. Sometimes they\u2019re treated just like sailing ships. (Airship pirates!). Sometimes more like trains or planes. What is unique about this form of transportation that\u2019s grabbed the attention of Steampunk? What has literature done with it and what does literature get wrong and right? (Friday 2:00 PM)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/span>Lately, I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about airships, working on a new story tentatively titled \u201cZeppelin to the Moon,\u201d which brings together Professor Challenger (The Lost World<\/em>), Mr. Bedford (First Men in the Moon<\/em>), and Count von Zeppelin (the renowned airship designer) on a mission to rescue the inventor of cavorite from the clutches of the Grand Lunar. Sound interesting?<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cTo Sail Above the Clouds\u201d will mark my second appearance on a steampunk-themed panel this year. The first\u00a0was\u00a0two months ago when I joined my good friends Paul Genesse<\/a>, Anton Strout<\/a>, Gregory Wilson<\/a>, and Maurice Broaddus <\/a>at GenCon<\/a> for a presentation titled \u201cMake it Steamy: A Look at the Steampunk Genre.\u201d<\/a> That event really packed them in, with nearly 100 people in attendance. One of the highlights was Maurice\u2019s\u00a0account of his forthcoming \u201csteampunk story with all black characters.\u201d It\u2019s title: Pimp My Airship<\/em>. Looking forward to that one!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Paul and I also got the chance to reminisce about works that introduced us to the tropes of\u00a0steampunk. His was the Ray Harryhausen 1961 film Mysterious Island<\/em> <\/a>(soon to be released in a limited-edition Blu-Ray \u00a0from Twilight Time<\/a>). Mine\u00a0was Karl Zerman\u2019s 1958 Vyn\u00e1lez zk\u00e1zy<\/em>, released in the States as The Fabulous World of Jules Verne<\/a><\/em>. I remember catching that one at a drive-in near Philadelphia. The world has never been the same.<\/p>\n

Also on the bill at this year\u2019s World Fantasy will be a Saturday night book launch and party hosted by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing<\/a>.\u00a0 This will be the big debut for Gaslight Arcanum: Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes<\/a><\/em>, the third in the critically-acclaimed series of anthologies edited by Charles Prepolec <\/a>and J. R. Campbell. I understand that Paul Kane <\/a>will also be there, reading from his entry \u201cThe Greatest Mystery\u201d \u2013 one of the anthology\u2019s standout horror stories.<\/p>\n

And of course, as always, there will be the WFC mass-autograph session on Friday night, where I\u2019ll be looking forward to meeting old friends, making new ones, and signing copies of Gaslight Arcanum<\/a><\/em>, as well as Veins<\/a><\/em>, Vipers<\/a><\/em>, Visions<\/a><\/em>, and last year\u2019s collection This Way to Egress<\/a><\/em>. (All titles will be available in the dealers room.) I also hope to have some preview material for the forthcoming Voices: Tales of Horror<\/a><\/em>, which Fantasist Enterprises <\/a>will be releasing later this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If you\u2019re one of the thousand or so people lucky enough to be attending this year\u2019s World Fantasy Convention (memberships sold out last winter, making this year\u2019s con one of the hottest tickets around), I\u2019ll look forward to seeing you there.<\/p>\n

Oh yes, and did I mention Neil Gaiman <\/a>is this year\u2019s Guest of Honor? Should be a good time.<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re attending or not, please consider leaving a comment below. I’m particularly interested in hearing about when you first encountered the wonders of steampunk.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was Mysterious Island<\/em> or The Fabulous World of Jules Verne<\/em>, or maybe it was with more recent works, ones actually published under the steampunk banner. Either way, feel free to chime in.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The master sleuth and Master of the World. What\u2019s not to love? The World Fantasy\u00a0Convention\u00a0has just released its program schedule for 2011,\u00a0one that offers\u00a0an impressive blend of topics centering on this year\u2019s theme: Sailing the Seas of Imagination. At the con, I\u2019ll be joining a discussion about airships and reading from my latest Sherlock Holmes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-cat-21st-centuryscop","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[158,162,133,156,125,157,147,155,28,168,31,163,169,154,152,164,166,97,161,112,165,160,101,159,167,153,132,29,30,145,146],"class_list":["post-611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21st-centuryscop","tag-airships","tag-anton-strout","tag-ash-tree-press","tag-charles-gannon","tag-charles-prepolec","tag-cliff-winnig","tag-edge-science-fiction-and-fantasy-publishing","tag-eric-flint","tag-fantasist-enterprises","tag-gaslight-arcanum-uncanny-tales-of-sherlock-holmes","tag-gencon","tag-gregory-wilson","tag-j-r-campbell","tag-jetse-de-vries","tag-master-of-the-world","tag-maurice-broaddus","tag-mysterious-island","tag-neil-gaiman","tag-paul-genesse","tag-paul-kane","tag-pimp-my-airship","tag-professor-challenger","tag-sherlock-holmes","tag-steampunk","tag-the-fabulous-world-of-jules-verne","tag-the-world-fantasy-convention","tag-this-way-to-egress","tag-veins","tag-veins-cycle","tag-visions-short-fantasy-sf","tag-voices-tales-of-terror"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t