Okay, my apologies for my half-assed title… but I’ve been
meaning to have my friend Alison over to visit for ages… for one, then another
book release.
See, Alison is one of my Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
friends, but we all know… in all places we make friends that we enjoy and say
hi to, and then we make friends we sort of gel with… friends we cross pollinate
with in other domains… blogging, facebook… and Alison is one such friend.
And Alison does something special with her books… something
I would like to see more of, because as much as literature grows our minds to
new worlds, I think it doesn’t always grow our minds to the diversity of the
world we are actually IN… And to the extent we can get young people thinking
about diversity and embracing it, I think we make for a more promising future.
But I will let Alison talk to you about that…
WRITING MULTICULTURAL
STEAMPUNK FOR A YA AUDIENCE
If you watch a group of children play together,
they are what they are. They don’t care what other kids look like, as long as they are all engaged in the game.
When writing for a YA audience, keeping them engaged is the key.
Steampunk is a great genre for YA readers. By its very
nature it is filled with adventure, fantastic inventions, and strange
mysteries. The YA audience loves this sort of story: witness the popularity of
the Foglios’ Girl Genius series (link - http://airshipstore.com/ggnovel01.aspx)
If those stories, however, were all limited to a
Eurocentric view and characters, or to cowboys (and girls) and explorers who all
speak English and look the same, then the genre would, perhaps, eventually lose
steam.
Steampunk authors are doing the same thing, and I
feel it can easily carry over into the YA market. For example, if a group of teen-aged
aeronauts were building an airship in Tibet, what an interesting premise that
would make. The sky pilots could be struggling against overwhelming odds and
have to escape a clockwork threat by using local materials and ingenuity. Along
the way they could encounter strange, fascinating forms of prayer wheels and Tibetan
temples.
In order to do that successfully, the author would
have to begin with a great deal of research. What are the local materials in
Tibet? What would that group of young sky pilots do during the day? What would
they wear, where would they sleep, and what would they have for breakfast? The
steam author can riff off the research and history, of course, but she must
have a firm ground from which to launch the airship.
When I wrote my steampunk trilogy, it began in
England and moved to an island. I based that mythical country, Lampala, on the
real island of Madeira, which for centuries was a Portuguese colony. I used
many of Madeiran realities in creating my steam country: Madeira had thick
forests, which were used for export, and the population ate tapioca in lieu of
wheat, which had not yet been cultivated there.
The colonial part didn’t fit my story, though. I
rewrote Madeiran history and gave the local population ownership of their own
industry, thus creating a wealthy, ethnic class. It just seemed the time to
showcase PoC as an economically thriving group, whose members had large houses,
beautiful clothes (made from local materials, of course) as well as living in
an island filled with mysteries. I mention this as an example of how an author
can start from reality and more to a steamier place from that background
research. Now that I have finished the first three books of the series, I feel
that there are many other, more fascinating worlds to be created.
One example of that is Jaymee Goh’s story, Between
Islands (link to http://expandedhorizons.net/magazine/?page_id=1464) The story discusses an Asian response to The
East India Trading Company, centering in the island of Pinang. It’s a
fascinating subject, and one that is extremely well handled by Goh.
And this is the important element without which
the multicultural steampunk story must have in order to survive.
 |
| Tart note: This is my favorite |
A writer cannot simply jam a bunch of research
into a story and toss in some ethnic characters, just as the addition of
airships to a lackluster plot will not create a steampunk work. The writing
itself must be well done. The characters must breathe and live, and interact
with society. And yes, this is even true in YA fiction. The YA audience is
quick to pick out dull characters and discard them. On the other hand, they
will overwhelmingly appreciate a creation who lives and breathes and has real
problems.
This can be very interesting in a multicultural
work. In Joyce Chng’s Moon Maiden’s Mirror (link www.semaphoremagazine.com/Semaphore%20Magazine%20-%20September%202009.pdf) the main character, Foo H-si, is living in Paris and renamed
Henri. The story is a fascinating look at a clash of cultures within a
steampunk framework. Chng shows the boy’s reaction to European dress and
customs, and does so beautifully.
In my trilogy, a lot of my main characters
are PoC. They, like Foo H-si, also had to confront existing societal mindsets
and prejudices. While writing, I hesitated over that a great deal. It took a
delicate touch to delineate that confrontation while being neither insulting
nor colonial.
A way to avoid that pitfall is to make the
character a real person. The character of color must have real adventures, real
problems, and real triumphs. It is difficult to sustain throughout a longer
work, but the reward is falling in love with that character (or group of
characters) and caring deeply about what happens to her.
When you begin
your research, don’t miss reading back issues of http://thesteamerstrunk.blogspot.com/ Of course, you will need to do
traditional research too, and Wikipedia and an old-fashioned library are great
places to start. That journey towards creating a story that will be lively and multi-layered,
filled with promise for the discriminating YA market, is difficult and
mysterious. No map exists for that journey, but gorgeous treasure does lie at
the end.
Bio: Alison
DeLuca is the author of several steampunk and urban fantasy books. She was born in Arizona and has also
lived in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Mexico, Ireland, and Spain.
Currently s
he wrestles words and
laundry in New Jersey. Alison's Blog is here:
Fresh Pot of Tea
