(edited), uh, I guess it didn't work? Regardless, I'll leave the post up. It did work on the Preview. *perplexed*

 links for ref:

https://www.booktrack.com/#!/?booktrackId=8a11ca95b9e24133a3747eb816d83bcd

https://www.booktrack.com/#!/?booktrackId=ebc14978cc7c4911aaef0e7005257d1f

A Booktrack is great fun to make, layering music and sound effects to a story. MEDUSA being a historical and mythological F/F romance novel, I'm very happy to finish a Booktrack in time for the occasion of Valentine's. LINK! (edited to Fix links):

http://www.booktrack.com/read/8a11ca95b9e24133a3747eb816d83bcd

It is FREE to enjoy, and I believe Booktrack has an app for your devises. I try to make the soundtrack as cunning an auditory experience as possible---just like radio theatre :D---so please enjoy the one for ICE DEMON as well. Happy Valentine's! :)

(image by Mr Xpk)

THANKS to Kevin D Steil, our Airship Ambassador, for inviting me to take part in Steampunk Hands Around the World 2015. I'm honoured to be in the company of incredible creators sharing works, thoughts, and passions within the international spectrum. At this World Tour pit stop, allow me to wax philosophical (over your preference of tea, wine, brandy, or a pensive pipe), while I get to the heart of why I like steampunk. I like to look into the past to find ourselves–especially our missing history– within LGBTQ, people of colour, or non-western cultures. Steampunk is where we can (finally!) enhance ourselves through rediscovery and take our imaginations to a new level.

This is image from: http://xdl.drexelmed.edu/item.php?object_id=2373

A memento of the Dean's reception, held Oct 10, 1885.

Anandibai Joshee graduated from Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMC) in 1886; Kei Okami graduated from WMC in 1889; Sabat Islambooly graduated from WMC in 1890.

 ~

Peering into the past through old photographs, first-hand accounts, antique possessions, and places is detective work and the anthropological hunt; we're all digging for treasures of understanding and often we trip over distressing artefacts and events. Learning history means learning how we've hurt each other, dehumanised and taken things, bodies, dignity, and identities. And along with the unseemly there are beautiful remnants of human experiences. The past can never be fully known or understood, bad or good. But what's gleaned can answer what we hadn’t known was missing from our present, and when these pieces are locked in, it’s inspiring.

This book is: Human Zoos, the Invention of the Savage, by Gilles Boëtsch and Nanette Jacomijn Snoep.

Steampunk: Solving the Mystery of What's Missing

Regarding me: being a woman and a lesbian; being an American person of colour, absorbed into the "melting pot" culture, and a person raised Buddhist, it becomes hard to find "me" in our world. I don't belong in the "old" country of my parents, nor do I want to, therefore who am I, and how do I perceive myself? Steampunk is my present answer.

I love the trappings of our Western culture and history; the clothes, places, architecture, languages, vehicles, and people. And I see myself as a strong, learned female, ready to be an exemplary example of such a culture. Past the midpoint of my life, I'm still ready. But society's mirror doesn't point in my direction, and when it does it's often disappointing, reflecting stereotype, fantasy, or myself in innocuous background roles.

Elizabeth Watasin, at Clockwork Couture for the Comics and Literature event, 2014.

In reality, I'm wrapped in the cloth of generations of human experience and our imagination. With no mirror, I create my own and visualise the best archetype I can be. This is the metaphor of steampunk, where history becomes the base to build "what if"; where seeds of change, like those I explore in the Dark Victorian series, aren’t killed but flourish. Straight, white, privileged males wrote and interpreted all our history for the Western culture. Therefore it is hard to find the accounts of the disenfranchised, the ignored, the non-English, and those who engaged in their cultures in secret.

This book is: Women in Pants, Manly Maidens, Cowgirls, and Other Renegades, by Catherine Smith and Cynthia Greig

So what to do once we identify what's missing? Arm ourselves. We find photos of Victorian people of colour, uncover 150 year old accounts of women cross-dressing or "married" to other women, rediscover historical key points where oppression can be rewritten, and make Change happen. We restore the silenced or forgotten to the world, saying: remember this? Well here we are again, new.

Metis group, Alberta (1900-1901) L-R: Agatha Garneau, Archange Garneau, Charlotte Garneau, and Placide Poirier.

From: Glenbow Museum, http://ww2.glenbow.org

I tackle the criminalisation of being lgbtq in history, undo it, re-visualise it, and create the better world needed, with pulp fiction and penny dreadful fun. But for others the improved world can be whimsical, charming, fantastic, frightening, epic, sensual, and rollicking too. Do it in music, self-identity, cosplay, fiction, blogs, crafts, fashion, games, comic books, art, design, food, and even as a lifestyle. This is the gift of steampunk.

Creating alternate history and identities may seem frivolous in light of "real world" problems, but storytelling, art, and personas are a way–like great tales, poetry, and songs–of imparting amazing, new ideas and possibilities. It is necessary to realise our potential, and it's possible 150 years from now we may be rediscovered again. The realm of steampunk is imagination taken into forgotten crevices of our many historical selves and lighting them anew.

Celebrate, have fun, and most of all, enjoy being You.

~

AND for the occasion of Steampunk Hands Around the World 2015, it is with great pleasure that I present an excerpt of my F/F Gothic and dark romance, Medusa: A Dark Victorian Penny Dread Vol 2, on Booktrack for you! FREE, the story is layered with a soundtrack and sound effects for your listening pleasure. Enjoy, and Steam on!

http://www.booktrack.com/read/8a11ca95b9e24133a3747eb816d83bcd

All the best, ~Elizabeth

BEGINS!

Image by the gracious Mr Xpk !

Our grand pooba, Airship Ambassador sez:

"Welcome to the second year of Steampunk Hands Around the World!

Last year, we saw the breadth and depth of what our global community has to offer, and from that arose not only new friendships and connections, but also new collaborations for projects which we’ll read about this month.

This year, our month long event celebrates the theme of Steampunk: Our Playground, Our Classroom, Our Workshop, and several dozen creators will share their perspective and examples of how steampunks from around the world have fun, learn, and create."

HUZZAH (hoists tea cup). I'm late, in that the official opening of the event was this last Sunday, but I was releasing MEDUSA: A Dark Victorian Penny Dread Vol 2 at that tyme. ^v^ Since then many blogs AROUND THE WORLD have published pieces for the occasion. Here is my friend and fellow writer Suna Dasi of Steampunk India, "Ships, Clocks and Stars. A Steampunked Celebration of Longitude History".

I will also publish a blog piece called, "Steampunk: Solving the Mystery of What's Missing" on Monday (Pacific tyme), Feb 9th, AND offer chapter one of MEDUSA as a free Booktrack for all to enjoy. So watch for that release!

And you can enjoy ICE DEMON as a Booktrack in the meantime. Booktracks are books with a soundtrack and sound effects, and I like to multi-layer mine for a superb auditory experience. It's super fun and FREE to listen to, so do head over and enjoy:

http://www.booktrack.com/#!/?booktrackId=ebc14978cc7c4911aaef0e7005257d1f

Radio! It's like olde tyme radio. And MEDUSA's Booktrack is shaping up to be really fun. But back to the #SteampunkHands celebration---I hope you'll join us! :)

all the best, ~eee

Please ENJOY, free to play and read at the Booktrack link. Happy Holidays! :D

It took me about two days to lay down music and sounds for chapter one of Ice Demon: A Dark Victorian Penny Dread. I am amazed at how Booktrack helped me create this auditory experience, and with a great foley, ambiance, and music library. All for free. You can download their iPhone or Google Play apps, but can as easily read in your browsers. Then the drama unfolds and plays as you read. In my case, the sounds of harbor waters, creaking ships, ship bells, wind, cold, horse hooves and carriages, footfalls, and ominous moments. Getting my hands on voice actors would be beyond my (invisible) budget, but to be able to do this, which is just like Radio Drama, is almost a bit much! I adore foley! I'm the one who annoys everyone with my slide whistle! :D

Therefore, please enjoy, as it has the Hitchcock'ian moments where I hope to make you jump out of your seat. :) And no slide whistles (until I write an all-out comedy).

I also note, for those who want to give their books an auditory experience with Booktrack, that they've great sounds for genre fiction. They're tagged 'steam punk' (yep, that spacing), for gears and machinery, 'zombie' for erm, gross things, 'scifi' and so forth for your spaceships and space opera. There are transformations, horror bits, and magical battle sounds. It is ALL COOOL. As well as contemporary sounds. I was amazed to find enough to do Victorian period. OH! And you can add your own sounds/samples, which would only be accessible by you for your book. Therefore, please dive in, and I hope you'll let me know when you do that so we can follow each other over at Booktrack! :D