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Saturday, June 30, 2012

Star Train -research phase

Trains have fascinated me for a long time. Steam powered trains, in particular, with their style and raw power. The trains of the 1800s opened up the western states to settlers, entrepreneurs, and fortune hunters. Without trains the United States of America would have continued to rely on rivers, canals, and lakes to transport people and goods over great distances.

Steampunk is a genre of fiction defined in this way: A subgenre of science fiction and fantasy featuring advanced machines and other technology based on steam power of the 19th century and taking place in a recognizable historical period or a fantasy world.

I have always loved science fiction and at last I have an idea for a book series that works and I am totally consumed by! 

Star Train is going to take you on a wild ride! It is future earth in Kansas, USA. After the heartbreaking loss of his space yacht and its pilot, Dallas Applewood starts a summer project with his grandchildren to restore an 1800s steam train engine to its former glory. But the project expands as they transform the train into a space-worthy vessel capable of ferrying tourists from planet to planet. Someone else wants the project to succeed, too, but not for honest purposes!  

I am over 20,000-words into writing this novel; almost a quarter of the way finished. I am in the research phase, reading a book on steam locomotive history and doing various other research. The pictures included in this post I selected to give you an idea of the style of train that I am going to make fly through space. The picture at the top of this post is almost exactly how I picture it... albeit with technological advances attached to it! Expect the first book to be written by end of this summer.
 


1 comment:

Nathan R. Petrie said...

I haven't read a lot of steampunk so this will be exciting for me. The idea sounds fresh and interesting. Keep us posted!