Gaslight Gathering 2018 report

Just got back from the weekend Gaslight Gathering convention. A nice little convention in San Diego, CA. The drive form Fiasco Manor was not bad this year. No, major stoppage at San Clemente, and the air current were very favorable, I had a tail wind the whole way...

Windows Killed My Acer Computer

It doesn’t matter what computer you write on as long as you write, but my Acer tower computer and I have been thorough a lot. It has i3 core cpu and was running windows 7 when I got it. I manage to get it upgraded to Windows 8, then Windows 10. The latest major...

The Steampunk Idea Treasure Map

To find an idea for a book you need a map. When I was a kid (I was never a little kid) I went out into the desert to find treasure. There were lots of stories of lost gold mines and the treasure of De Anaza and I was going to find some. One minor rescue later I was...

Character Arc in Steampunk

Does your character need a character arc? Think about it. Did Sherlock Holmes change after each investigation? No, he was and always will be Sherlock Holmes. Did Bilbo Baggins change at the end of the Hobbit? No, when he got home he wanted to be a hobbit. He did not...

Writing a Steampunk Book in the Dark

It’s Thursday. The wind is off the ocean and blows into the garage where I am working. A cold, bitter wind. I had a deadline due on Friday for a electronic project. I was pushing it. I had been pushing it for days and things kept coming up to delay the project....

Steampunk Writing and Thumb Drive Blues

It happened again. A friend had a thumb drive die. Of course it contained the only copy of a file that he needed. Thumb drives are good, useful, even necessary, but they will fail just like hard drives. Always back up your files on two or more thumb drives. And keep...