A Pilot Launches!

Ready for some more steampunk Regency adventure? Tomorrow, July 27, sees the launch of The Prince’s Pilot, the second book in the Regent’s Devices trilogy, and I can’t wait for you to see what Loveday Penhale and Celeste Blanchard are up to now!

Napoleon’s invasion of England is hidden in the clouds…

It is 1819, and Cornwall is agog at the daring of the two young lady aeronauts who, earlier in the summer, flew nearly to France and back in their homemade air ship. Much more is riding on Loveday Penhale and Celeste Blanchard’s new and improved vessel—they plan to win the Tinkering Prince’s prize, offered to anyone who can help England win the war against Napoleon.

To their dismay, they must take two local gentlemen aloft to report on the ship’s capabilities. While Captain Trevelyan and Emory Thorndyke are welcome in drawing room and ballroom, their presence on the air ship proves disastrous. Wildly off course, Loveday barely manages to bring the vessel down safely—in France! Now it is up to the gentlemen to keep the newly designed ship hidden while Loveday and Celeste secure supplies for its repair from Celeste’s former home, l’Ecole des Aéronautes in far-off Paris.

But much has changed since Celeste left the capital, and enemies lurk in its very walls. With her famous aeronaut mother dead in suspicious circumstances, and the flight school closed, there is only one thing to do—make up a story about her absence and approach Napoleon himself. He promptly makes Celeste his Chief Air Minister, and commands her to plan the invasion of England by air. Can she and Loveday stay alive in this nest of vipers long enough to help their stranded friends? Before they are unmasked as spies—and before their beautiful air ship is captured and used to attack England?

“Steampunk, historical fiction, and the wits of two amazing authors blend seamlessly to give readers an adventure that will long linger in their minds. I can hardly wait to find out what happens in the next episode.” Huntress Reviews

You can find the book in ebook and print at fine online retailers like

Amazon (affiliate link) 

Apple Books 

Kobo 

Barnes and Noble 

Google Play 

And look for the thrilling conclusion in The Lady’s Triumph, coming in September!

Guest Post: Ballooning and the Lunardi Craze, by Shelley Adina

Nineteen Teen is delighted to welcome back Shelley Adina, author extraordinaire and Regina's co-author on the Regent's Devices series, for a discussion of ... balloon fashion. Yes, really!

Balloon flight at once intrigues and terrifies me. I’ve been up in a Zeppelin airship, but that was much more exciting than frightening. The technology probably gave me a false sense of security, with its cockpit, two pilots, and propellers galore. Going up in a balloon with only a fire to heat the air and a wicker basket between me and death makes me want to adhere most positively to the ground!

Balloon flight was not invented during the Regency, but in France by the Montgolfier brothers. They had been experimenting with ascents for some time, but achieved the first free-floating manned flight in 1783. As little as a year later, a positive craze for hot-air ballooning had spread to England, where in London “the daredevil aeronaut,” Vincenzo Lunardi, went aloft with a dog, a cat, and a pigeon in a cage. (It is not clear what purpose these companions were to serve.)

As often happens, novelty and massive, fascinated crowds combined to inspire a fashion craze. Balloons might become part of one’s gown, one image showing them on the sides like external panniers, in place of the usual drawn-up outer gown. The caption in French reads, “The coquettish physicist.” And the hats! In the coquettish physicist’s hair is fixed a base that looks like a fairground, the balloon floating up out of it.  

These mad embellishments were not restricted to women—-men wore clothes with decorative homages to the new fad. One drawing of a man wearing rigging similar to that on the top of a balloon says in French, “The man of balloons, or, the folly of the day,”  A creative woman might embroider her gown’s fabric with balloons, or paint its cotton panels.

Like many fads, something that was meant to be highly visible but not very comfortable didn’t last long. The hat lasted the longest, but not the kind with actual balloons ascending from it. The Lunardi bonnet is seen in a painting dated 1782. This style lasted well into the Regency, and is fetchingly worn by Kate Winslet as Marianne Dashwood and Gemma Jones as Mrs Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (1995). Want your own Lunardi bonnet? A very nice version is available on Etsy!

Resources:

https://www.janeausten.co.uk/british-ballooning/

http://ultimatehistoryproject.com/flying-fashion.html

https://nineteenteen.blogspot.com/search?q=balloon

An Aeronaut Launches!

It’s no secret I love steampunk, that juxtaposition of history and science with a touch of wonder and whimsy. So I am beyond-the-moon excited to be writing a trilogy of Regency-set steampunk novels with master-in-the-field Shelley Adina. We affectionately call them “Prinnypunk” after the Prince Regent. 😊 The first is now out!

Napoleon is determined to conquer the world with his steam-powered weapons. Nothing in England can stop him … except two young lady inventors.

In 1819, France is surrounded by armies. With Russia in the north, the Karlsruhe Confederacy in the east, and a pirate kingdom in the south, Napoleon cannot break out, nor can the English Navy seem to break in. Europe teeters on the edge of a sword. Whichever side rules the air will win.

Celeste Blanchard, daughter of the Emperor’s disgraced Air Minister, is running out of time to develop an air ship that can carry his armies to England and restore her mother to glory. But on a daring and desperate test flight, she is blown off course … and washes up, half drowned, on the shores of Cornwall, in the heart of enemy territory.

Loveday Penhale, cosseted daughter of gentry, has her own inventions to build, even as pressure mounts to behave like a proper young lady and seek a husband instead of a design for a high-pressure steam engine. But when Arthur Trevelyan, heir to the neighboring estate, Gwynn Place, asks for her help in rescuing an unconscious young woman on the beach, Loveday discovers an aeronaut and an inventor as skilled as she is. Between them, a friendship blossoms, and Loveday wonders if they might even pull off the impossible and invent an air ship that will catch the eye of the Tinkering Prince Regent, who has offered a prize to anyone who can help England break the impasse. Celeste’s loyalties are torn in two. If she is caught working secretly for France, she will lose her friend, the love of an honorable man—and her life. But if Napoleon learns she has betrayed him, she will be executed on sight. 

Can friendship prevail in the face of war? Or is there a third solution—one where everything hinges on the bravery and daring of a Cornish debutante and the Emperor’s aeronaut?

Booklist called it “a witty and whimsical flight of fancy,” and Among the Reads said “I was mesmerized from the first page by these plucky, brilliant ladies.”

Get your copy in ebook or print at fine online retailers:

Amazon (affiliate link) 

Apple Books 

Kobo 

Barnes and Noble 

Google Play 

Feet on the Ground, Head in the Clouds by Guest Blogger Charlotte Henry

People often ask me how I do my research—in a library? Google? Or do I travel to the places I write about?

The answer is, as you might imagine, all of the above. Since I’ve just launched my debut novel (a classic Regency titled The Rogue to Ruin, book one in the Rogues of St. Just trilogy), the research curve has been fairly steep. But you know what? I discovered that I’ve been preparing to write these books for twenty years.

When I decided to write my first Regency, I did an inventory of research books on hand. I found I had at least a dozen, from biographies of Jane Austen and Queen Charlotte to books of cant and custom to small books published in tiny towns in Cornwall about local dialect and folk tales. (If you ever need a Cornish name for your house, talk to me. I’ve got the book.)

With the groundwork laid in books and maps, it was time to put my feet on the ground. When I know I’m going to be rooted in a location over several books, it’s worth it to me to go there so that I can describe the scenery, the plants, the sea, and the houses in ways that make them feel immediate and real to the reader. When I wrote Amish women’s fiction, this was particularly important, because those readers want to sink deeply into that world, and they expect true, not fictional, facts and details. And as everyone knows, there is no stickler more serious about period detail than the Regency reader. I knew what I was in for, and a trip to England was worth it to make sure I got the details right.

One of the most beautiful stretches of coast in the world is the Roseland Heritage Coast in Cornwall, where I already knew my fictional parish of St. Just would be located. The first and most important location was my heroine’s home. I found the house (thank you, National Trust): Trelissick, which is famous for its gardens. It transformed itself in my mind into Morvoren Manor, home of  the Penrose family (morvoren is Cornish for mermaid), who obtained their wealth from mining china clay. (See below, and note the pine cones on the chairs to prevent visitors from sitting on the antique furniture.)

Who knew that Cornwall was famous for its china clay, the fine white clay from which porcelain is made? Not-so-coincidentally, the best known of the china clay pits isn’t far from the Manor. I merely gave it a new name and a new owner, and made it so productive that my three sisters will bring forty thousand pounds apiece to their marriages.

My hero in book one, Sir Perran Geoffrey, is a destitute baronet desperate to repair the family pile and give his grandmother and sister a decent place to live. He cannot ply a trade, and he hesitates to marry for money, so what is the third option?

You are quite right. Smuggling.

As it turns out, smuggling was the third most productive industry in Cornwall during the Regency, along with fishing and tin mining. (See a fascinating treatise by Chatterton called King’s Cutters and Smugglers, 1700-1855 for more.) It was so respectable that even the local clergyman might keep his coach house door unlocked in order that the gentlemen of the free trade might leave barrels of French brandy there safely until the coast was clear. A gentleman like Sir Perran might agree that his shore and cove could be used to “sow a crop.” The boat would come over from France with the barrels of brandy, and should it be pursued by the preventive men (brave and persistent souls who eventually became the Coast Guard), the barrels would be roped together in a long line and pushed over the side, to sink to the bottom. The next night, my hero might see fishing boats in his cove, “creeping,” or trawling the bottom with gaff hooks to bring up the “crop.”

Sometimes wonderful details like these are difficult to find anywhere but in the location I’m researching. The only difficulty is to make myself concentrate on facts and notes, when my head is in the clouds turning them into scenes and pages!

Under two other pen names (Shelley Adina and Adina Senft), Charlotte Henry is the author of 24 novels published by Harlequin, Warner, and Hachette, and a dozen more published by Moonshell Books, Inc., her own independent press. As Charlotte, she writes the Rogues of St. Just series of Regency romances. She holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction, and is currently at work on a PhD in Creative Writing at Lancaster University in the UK. She won the Romance Writers of America RITA Award® for Best Inspirational Novel in 2005, and was a finalist in 2006. When she’s not writing, you can find Charlotte sewing historical dresses, traveling for research, reading, or enjoying the garden with her flock of rescued chickens. Look for more information about her and the Rogues of St. Just at her website.

Welcome "Debut" Author Charlotte Henry and the Rogues of St. Just!

Marissa and I always love finding new stories set in our beloved Regency period. That's only one of the reasons we are thrilled to share this interview with Shelley Adina, writing as Charlotte Henry, whose first Regency romance came out March 20. Please welcome Charlotte, and be sure to come back Friday for more on her new series!

19Teen: Though you are making your debut in the Regency period, you are, shall we say, connected to another author renowned for writing thrilling steampunk adventures. What drew you to the Regency period?

Charlotte: Yes, we are very intimately connected! While I’m writing the Magnificent Devices series, I’m very much aware of the language—Victorian, more precise, with slightly different meanings to words and different sentence structure than today’s use. So as far as the writing went, it was more of a sidestep into the Regency than a leap, because I can use those same skills.

I made some odd discoveries in my own writing space ... research text after text came to hand. Notes from a Beau Monde conference in the nineties. A photocopied compendium of Regency terms and cant that I’d bought nearly 30 years ago. All were squirreled away, just waiting for me. I literally only had to buy one reference book on the Cornish china clay industry in order to begin work on the Rogues of St. Just series. I had everything else on my shelves, just waiting for me.

19Teen: The Rogue to Ruin is the first in a series, and your heroes are all rogues. We heart rogues at Nineteenteen. Why do you think they have such an appeal?

Charlotte: Ah, the bad boy redeemed by love! We romance readers love them. Part of their appeal, I think, is that secretly these heroes are turning to the dark side because there is an emptiness inside them that only the heroine can fill. And I have to admit that I love the courtship story because something entirely new is created from the bond of two separate individuals. This bond is the hero’s reward ... and the reader’s!

19Teen: Tell us something about The Rogue to Ruin.

Charlotte: He is a penniless baronet. She is the wealthy great-granddaughter of a tradesman. Can these childhood friends find their way back to each other when scandal strikes them both?

Sir Perran Geoffrey needs a wealthy bride to repair his family estate and to bring his sister out in Society. But what woman with money and standing will accept him as a husband—practically penniless, his title under a cloud thanks to his ne’er-do-well father, and an estate far away in Cornwall?

Alwyn Penrose and her two sisters are in London for their first Season. Imagine their surprise when they meet the heirs of the neighboring estates—gentlemen whom they are barely allowed to acknowledge. For to be seen with the Rogues of St. Just means the death of one’s reputation. Except that Alwyn is seen. More than once. And the gossip spreads all the way to the sacred portals of Almack’s, which close in her face and end her hopes for a good marriage forever.

The ruin of her Season is Perran Geoffrey’s fault. And when they are both forced to return to Cornwall, only one thing is clear: One good ruination deserves another.

19Teen: This story is a classic Regency romance, yet your heroine Alwyn has another goal besides marriage. What’s so important to this Regency miss?

Charlotte: Alwyn’s family owns a china clay pit and pottery on the south coast of Cornwall, where clay mining was a huge industry during the Regency period. All the Penrose sisters are artistic, and Alwyn’s particular talent is for painting. She wants to create the designs glazed on the porcelain dinner sets that the pottery makes, but because she’s a woman, she can’t. It would be seen as “dabbling in trade” and she’d shame her family. So she fills her sketchbooks with china patterns and designs ... which may or may not come in useful in future books ...

19Teen: What was your best research moment writing this book, when you gasped in delight and knew you had to put that in the book?

Charlotte: China clay! I needed something that would have made the family rich in prior generations. When I read that Cornwall is one of the few places in the world where this fine white clay can be dug out of the ground, I knew I had my family income source. And Alwyn’s desire to paint fit right into that. It wasn’t much of a leap, then, for her sister Karensa to become a sculptor.

19Teen: What bit of research surprised you the most, even if it didn’t make it into the book?

Charlotte: It was quite a surprise to discover in the books I’d bought in Cornwall in the 90s (see? even then I was buying Regency research books and I wasn’t even published yet) that the smuggling industry was seen by everyone as a perfectly legitimate and practical way to make a living. Even the clergy would leave the vestry door open. Barrels of brandy would come and go discreetly in the dead of night, with an offering left in the plate as a thank-you. So I did use this surprising bit of research. In that place at that time, when Sir Perran is desperate for money, the solution he seeks would be viewed as unusual by no one. Except possibly the preventive men, whose business it was to prevent the success of the gentlemen of the free trade.

19Teen: If you were to make your debut in Regency London, what would you look forward to?

Charlotte: Visiting all the best warehouses and having all kinds of lovely dresses made up! As it stands, I must make them myself. I just got a pattern for a set of short stays. Once those are complete, I have some royal blue silk and some antique black lace given to me by literary agent Wendy Lawton that I’m going to make up into a ball gown for the RWA National Conference in 2020. I even have a tiara.

19Teen: What would you dread?

Charlotte: The way people talk. It seems to me that gossip is a potent weapon even today. It becomes a strong theme in The Rogue to Ruin.

Popcorn Round:

What would you rather wear to your first ball--silk satin or dampened muslin? ;)

Oh my. Silk satin. I should not dare to sport dampened muslin!

You're going riding in Rotten Row at five! Will you wear a plain black wool riding habit or a peacock blue one with frog fasteners and epaulettes?

Peacock blue, definitely. I look terrible in black. Goodness. How pretty the fastenings and epaulets are. I may have to write this ensemble into the next story!

What's your favorite London destination--Almack's or Astley's Amphitheatre?

I adore dancing. If the Lady Patronesses approved of me, I could happily dance all night in society’s seventh heaven!

What is your next borrow from Hatchard's lending library--Sermons to Young Women by Mr. Fordyce, or The Monk by that fascinating Mr. Lewis?

::whispers:: . Isn’t it scandalous? But I declare I cannot put it down!

Three different gentlemen are clamoring for your hand in the next waltz! Whom do you choose? Mr. Farthing, an accredited fortune-hunter but divine dancer, the Marquess of Overstuff, with a pedigree a yard long but no conversation, or your dear, sweet seventeen-year-old cousin Waldo with spots who is attending his very first grown-up ball and is terrified of asking anyone else to dance?

Darling Waldo just needs a little encouragement. He has the steps down cold—fortunately, his dancing master was thorough—and a little style goes a long way in a country dance. After two dances, I will accept a waltz from Mr. Farthing, who can make any woman look like an angel in flight.

You're perishing of thirst after that waltz--would you rather ratafia or lemonade?

Ratafia would not help thirst in the least ... I will choose lemonade.

19Teen: How can readers learn more about you and your books?

Charlotte: I am at home to readers at www.charlotte-henry.com, where there are photographs of Trelissick, the manor house I used as my model for Morvoren Manor. Morvoren is the Cornish word for mermaid. There are a number of legends of mermaids along that coast ... one of the most enchanting places I’ve ever been. I hope readers will join me in my fictional parish of St. Just—they would be most welcome!

A Lady of Many Devices: Award-Winning Author Shelley Adina

Nineteen Teen is delighted to welcome Shelley Adina, with whom Regina admits to having an author crush. Shelley writes wonderfully detailed books full of characters you can root for. We sat down with her to learn more about what she's been up to, and where she's going next with her intriguing Magnificent Devices series.

Nineteen Teen: You have written about life and love in Amish communities, a posh teen boarding school, and an oceanside community in the Pacific Northwest, but perhaps your most popular series is set in an alternative 1889 London, where Victoria is Queen, Charles Darwin's son is Prime Minister, and steam is the power that rules the world. What drew you to 19th century England and steampunk stories?

Shelley: I’ve been a fan of steampunk since the 1960s, when we’d watch Wild, Wild West and then act out our own episodes. I always had to be James West because I was the oldest, but secretly, I wanted to be Artemus Gordon, inventing all the cool weapons and gizmos, and knowing where all the secret cupboards were on the train. I was a bookish child, reading English authors like Elizabeth Goudge (The Little White Horse, Linnets and Valerians, The Dean’s Watch) and R.F. Delderfield, and Canadian authors like L.M. Montgomery. Maybe it was the libraries I consorted with, but then, there was almost no contemporary fiction for what we now call middle-grade and YA readers. There was a lot of fiction written and set in the 1800s and early 1900s for that age group, however. I think my tastes were set early … until I discovered Nancy Drew and my love of cozy mysteries.

19 Teen: Your heroine, Lady Claire Trevelyan, starts out in the aristocracy but yearns for something more. What do you like best about Claire? What sometimes challenges you?

Shelley: What I like best about Claire is her inability to stay down for long. She’s had her share of setbacks, but as she advises the Mopsies, “Look around you, catalogue your resources, and then apply your intellect.” That bit of advice has saved her (and me) many a time. The thing that challenges me about her is that she’s so loyal to her friends and the people she loves that it never occurs to her that she shouldn’t dash off and attempt to help when they get into trouble. This turns out to be quite a conflict in books 7 and 8, when Andrew Malvern, whom she honestly loves, has a fairly reasonable expectation that when they marry, she might settle down. I don’t think settling down has ever occurred to her, and a little maturing has to take place before she realizes that sometimes you have to give other people the chance to be the hero.

19 Teen: Your understanding of both the times and the technology really shine in your books. How did you get so wise on steam and did you uncover anything really surprising in your research?

Shelley: ::whispers:: You know a lot of that isn’t real, right?

Seriously, I’m fortunate in that a man who builds steam-powered engines lives not three miles from me. If I need to know the rate of burning coal for a steam train on a three-percent grade over 80 miles, he’ll run the calculations and tell me. (“If a train left London at 4:00 p.m. at sixty miles per hour …” Who knew word problems would ever be useful?)

As for surprises, one day, I was sitting at breakfast in a lovely B&B a thousand miles from home (www.abbeymoore.com), and at the next table sat a submarine captain and his mariner wife. It so happened that I needed to know how an undersea dirigible would operate, so I asked them if they would mind applying their imaginations to it. We had a very entertaining talk over the frittata about everything from oxygen levels to how one might escape out of a torpedo tube, much to Ian the innkeeper’s delight.

19 Teen: If you had been born in your alternative England, would you be a Blood (aristocrat, born to wealth) or a Wit (those who live by their intellect) and would you be satisfied with that?

Shelley: I’m definitely a Wit. I would have been a writer then, too, and hold lovely salons so that my writer friends and I could talk about the subject we love best over tea cakes and wine. Oh, wait. We do that now!

19 Teen: You have a new book out this month, squee! Tell us something about it.

Shelley: I’m so glad you brought that up. Here’s the story summary:

Her father started a war. She intends to stop it.

Her father may have sacrificed his own life to save hers, but heiress Gloria Meriwether-Astor is finding it difficult to forgive him. After all, how many young ladies of her acquaintance will inherit wealth, beauty, and a legacy of arms dealing? Now the Royal Kingdom of Spain and the Californias is about to declare war on the Texican Territory and Gloria simply will not allow it.

In company with Alice Chalmers and the crew of Swan, along with a lost young Evan Douglas seeking reparation for his own sins, she takes to the air. Her intention—to stop the train carrying the final shipment of monstrous mechanicals into the Wild West. But they should have known that making a deal with air pirate Ned Mose in exchange for his help could never end well.

What is a lady of principle to do? For the lives of thousands may depend on her ability to stop the war … even if it means losing everything and everyone she has come to love …

“It’s another element I love about these books; from Claire to Gloria to Alice to Lizzie and Maggie to Lady Dunsmuir, the women in this series generally like and respect each other. Other women are not required to be lesser—weaker, more cowardly, less intelligent—in order for Claire to be awesome. She is not an exceptional woman, she is an awesome woman among awesome women.” —Fangs for the Fantasy: The latest in urban fantasy from a social justice perspective

19 Teen: Sounds fabulous! Where is the Magnificent Devices series going next?

Shelley: Well, Gloria’s journey from former finishing-school mean girl to woman of principle and strength is just beginning. In the course of her attempt to stop the war (which will comprise Books 10–12), she will stretch the limits of her capabilities and beyond, will learn who she really is, and will become a force to be reckoned with in her own right. (It is no coincidence that the aforementioned posh boarding school in San Francisco is the Gloria Stanford Fremont Preparatory Academy, hm?) She will stop asking herself, “What would Claire do?” and begin to ask herself, “Is this the right thing for me to do—and how will it affect the people I care about?” She, too, has grown up in a world of privilege, and like Claire, must have it all stripped away so she can see what she can make of herself on her own.

19 Teen: Pop quiz round:

Fruit trifle or chocolate truffles? Fruit trifle, no question. Be liberal with the brandy.

Chamomile or Earl Grey? It depends on whether the stomach is unsettled. If so, the former. If not, the latter.

Napoleon or Wellington? Heavens. What a question for this citizen of the Commonwealth. Wellington, of course.

Empire waist or bustle dress? You tricky minxes. You’ve heard about my Regency prequels, haven’t you, dubbed “Prinnypunk”? The steam engine was invented during the Regency, as you know, with the help of Claire’s great-grandmother, Loveday Trevelyan. I have the clothes all ready to go. I just have to figure out how to make the goggles stay on a bonnet. And write the books.

Cats, dogs, or chickens? Chickens! In fact, I just wrote three of them into Gloria’s book. I didn’t mean to, I swear—I just opened a door and there they were, roosting on the bedframe in a deserted house! When they followed the characters out, I was helpless in the matter.

19 Teen: Where can our readers learn more about Shelley Adina?

Shelley: I’d be delighted if you’d visit http://www.shelleyadina.com. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter, too, and get a free short story set in the Magnificent Devices world!

Thank you, ladies—it has been such a pleasure talking with you. Now … you were saying about trifle and tea …?

19 Teen: Right this way, my dear. And, if I might inquire about borrowing your goggles . . .

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RITA Award® winning author and Christy finalist Shelley Adina wrote her first novel when she was 13. It was rejected by the literary publisher to whom she sent it, but he did say she knew how to tell a story. That was enough to keep her going through the rest of her adolescence, a career, a move to another country, a B.A. in Literature, an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction, and countless manuscript pages.

Shelley is a world traveler who loves to imagine what might have been. Between books, Shelley loves playing the piano and Celtic harp, making period costumes, and spoiling her flock of rescued chickens.

Fashion with a Steampunk Twist: Guest Author Shelley Adina

Please give a warm Nineteen Teen welcome to Shelley Adina, bestselling author of the Magnificent Devices series.

It has been said in withering tones that steampunk is what happens when Goths discover brown. But I can assure you that isn’t true! Fashions in steampunk novels can be as varied as the women who wear them—from peacock feathers to dusty cotton. The guiding principle, though, is the maker philosophy; in other words, one creates one’s outfits to suit one’s activities and personality.

In the opening chapters of Lady of Devices, it’s no coincidence that my heroine Lady Claire is dressed in a seersucker school uniform (indicating she is given no choice in her dress) and completely forgets her appointment with the dressmaker (a response to being given no choice at home, either). It’s a sign of things to come, when she joins forces with a street gang who make their living as rag-pickers, and learns firsthand about making an outfit out of nothing. But every heroine has to start somewhere, because the girl who forgets her fitting with the modiste who outfits the royal princesses has a mother described like this:

“Lady St. Ives sat upon the forest-green brocade couch, its width sufficient to accommodate the bustles and petticoats of the fashionable, in the forefront of which she maintained a dashing lead. Her navy-and-white striped silk skirts were overlaid by a polonaise of navy damask trimmed in gold ruching, and gold rosettes drew the eye to a square neckline and the statuesque figure that was the envy of many a dumpier matron. The fact that Claire had inherited her father’s height but not her mother’s figure, her father’s unruly auburn mane and not her mother’s blonde curls, was a continuing source of despair.” —Lady of Devices

Elaborate gowns have no place in the world of mad scientists, stolen airships, and explosions that Claire must learn to live in. As the books go on, she develops her own taste, which runs to practical navy skirts and pretty blouses (known as “waists” in those days) with sleeves that can be rolled up so as not to get in the chemicals.

But her favorite outfit is her “raiding rig,” which she has put together to suit herself and her own needs as the leader of the cleverest gang in the London underworld:

She had dressed carefully in raiding rig for the occasion, in a practical black skirt that could be rucked up by means of internal tapes should she have to run or climb. She had dispensed with a hat for the evening, choosing instead to simply leave her driving goggles sitting in front of her piled hair, a gauzy scarf wound over it and around her neck. A leather corselet contained a number of hooks and clasps for equipment, and instead of her trusty rucksack, she wore a leather harness with a spine holster specially made to the contours of the lightning rifle she had taken from Lightning Luke Jackson three weeks ago. She was pleased to see that her lacy blouse remained pristine white.

“Great Caesar’s ghost,” Lord James said, gaping at her. “What in heaven’s name have you got on?”

“A costume,” she said, twirling like a ballerina. The fact that her rig was both practical and sensational delighted her. “Do you like it?”

“You look like an air pirate. Let those skirts down at once. Do you want His Royal Highness to see your knees?” —Her Own Devices

In the fictional steampunk world, a woman can wear couture if it suits her, or put together her own practical outfit. And in the real steampunk world outside books, a woman can do the same. Some like to comb secondhand shops and up-cycle pieces to assemble something new and old at the same time. Some buy ready-made outfits from online stores. And some find pride in their own craftsmanship, designing and sewing Victorian or neo-Victorian costumes that reflect their personalities and the characters they play at events and conventions.

I do a mix—I’ll pair a bustle and skirt I made with an formal dirndl bodice in black silk that I found in a mountain town in Austria (see picture). Or I’ll wear a store-bought Edwardian striped skirt with a middy blouse and bolero jacket I made. With both I’ll wear my Timberland buckled boots, which have the advantage of being comfortable, practical, and stylish. One must, after all, be able to dance as well as shoot in any ensemble one wears!

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RITA Award® winning author and Christy finalist Shelley Adina wrote her first novel when she was 13. It was rejected by the literary publisher to whom she sent it, but he did say she knew how to tell a story. That was enough to keep her going through the rest of her adolescence, a career, a move to another country, a B.S. in Literature, an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction, and countless manuscript pages.

Shelley is a world traveler who loves to imagine what might have been. Between books, Shelley loves playing the piano and Celtic harp, making period costumes, and spoiling her flock of rescued chickens.

For the Love of Steampunk

It’s no secret that Marissa and I are in love with the nineteenth century. Most of our works have been set in that era, and we’ve been gleefully blogging about our obsession with various facets of the history since September 2007. What you’ve probably guessed from some of our posts is that we also have a fascination with science. So what better than a genre that mixes both!

Steampunk is speculative fiction that sets fantastic inventions against a (generally) nineteenth century backdrop. Think Jules Vernes or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Steamships ply the waters and sail the skies; steam engines propel amazing machines across a landscape populated by gentlemen in Bowler hats and ladies in bustle dresses. If that’s not enough to set you drooling, consider the incredible world-building that goes into creating what is essentially an alternative universe.

Now, some of the steampunk out there is rather dark, and I’m not, so I tend to gravitate to the more adventurous and romantic stories. Some of my favorites are Kenneth Oppel’s Matt Cruse trilogy (Airborn, Skybreaker, and Starclimber) and Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan series (Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath). And I have high hopes for The Aeronaut’s Windlass, by Jim Butcher, which is on my to-be-read list.

And then there’s the Magnificent Devices series by Shelley Adina. High society meets creative invention. Young ladies find ways to move from queen of the ballroom to the captain of a dirigible. Be still my heart!

Sound like something you might be interested in too? Well, you’re in luck. Shelley will be our featured author next week on Nineteen Teen! On Tuesday, she takes you into the world of steampunk fashion. And on Friday, we will get her to spill all her secrets, including where the series going next.

Strap on up your aviators and lace up your corsets. Next week, Nineteen Teen goes steampunk!