TO LOVE A LONDON GHOST

To Love A London Ghost, my second Steampunk/Romance book comes out October 7th. If you want a fun Steampunk read for Samhain or Halloween this is it.

Blurb:
When Queen Victoria orders Sexton Dukenfield, premiere phantom hunter, to track down England’s missing ghost he stumbles into Ceridwen, a phantom warrior woman of an ancient Celtic tribe. Not only does he find her intriguing as a piece of the puzzle of the missing spirits, but he’s also haunted by her sultry sensuality. Though they both burn with desire, it’s difficult to quench their fiery passion since Ceridwen is so translucent. Every time Sexton touches her, his hands pass through her misty body. On a mission through the bustling narrow streets of London, to a dreary match factory, and even to the Otherworld and back, to stop a genius scientist and his phantasm debilitater machine, the ghost and the ghost hunter also seek the secret to freeing the boundaries of life and death.

Excerpt:
Taken off guard, Sexton finally managed to catch his breath. “Do you see her?”
Katie bobbed her head, then raised her thin, trembling arm and pointed at the apparition. “Ghost.”
The specter spread her feet in a warrior stance with her back straight and her chin tilted up. “Keep your box and magic beam away from me.”
Even in these strange circumstances, Sexton couldn’t help but notice the ectoplasma outline of the lush bulge of her heavy breasts. He riveted his eyes on them, then his gaze roamed to her waist, which flared into curved hips and long, supple thighs.
“These?” He held up the device he clutched by the brass handle and grabbed the one strapped over his shoulder. “No magic, just boxes. They measure energy and heat, to tell me if phantasms are near. They can’t hurt you. Though I don’t need them now. I can see you, I know you’re near.” He turned his head toward the child peering at the specter from behind him.
“She really is a ghost,” Katie said.
“Indeed, and looking right at me.” Sexton looked back at the stunning spirit. He could tell her hair had been blonde and her eyes a sky blue. He felt warm being near her, rather than cold. Looking the phantasm in the eyes, he said, “I’m not going to hurt you and I was just going to ask you to not hurt me. I can help you go back to the light.”
“I’m not going to harm you, but I’m not going to the light or anywhere else until I free the others and bring vengeance on those men for capturing me.”
“Do you mean others are there, more phantasms are in the factory?” He nodded toward the building. “Captured by men, did you say?”
“Yes, about eight ghosts.”
Sexton took a deep breath. “Well, well, you are just the phantasm I was looking for.”

Click here for more of Maeve Alpin's Victoriana with an Ancient Twist

Email me - MaeveAlpin@gmail.com - with Steampunk goodie bag in the subject line if you want a Steampunk Goodie bag - include your snail mail and I'll get it off to you

What is Steampunk?

Sometimes I get What-is-Steampunk comments on facebook. The best short answer is Victorian Sci-fi, I also like it described as Historical/Sci-fi. There is Steampunk literature but it doesn’t stop there, it includes art, gadgets, music, and clothing. It took off from the fiction genre and rose to a subculture. A very fun, interesting, productive, and creative subculture. One of the beautiful things about Steampunk is it has no limits. It’s what you want to make it.

When creating your character, decide what you want to be, you don’t have to be an aristocratic Victorian or an airship pirate at all, they‘re steampunk cooks, chimney sweeps, as well as others. Here are photos of some exceptionally creative costumes. The costumes are inexpensive as you make them yourself or put your outfit together from Goodwill, thrift store, flea market, home depot, and even dumpster diving finds.

Steampunkers utilize their creative and artistic sides in their costuming and other areas whether it’s drawing, writing, leather craft, Jewelry design, music, acting, sculpting or other arts and craft endeavors. Whether airship members create art collaboratively or individually they often exhibit it together at Steampunk, Sci-fi, or Comic Cons. Hopefully that answers the what-is-Steampunk inquiries.

And for a further investigation of Steampunk, you can read my currently available As Timeless As Stone or my coming release, To Love A London Ghost. I’m having a blogging contest, post a comment with your Email to be entered into a drawing to win a PDF e/Book of my Steampunk/Romance As Timeless As Stone. Here’s a trailer for it. Please visit me at my website

Firefly, Brown Coat Redemption

Hi Everyone - the winner of the blog contest was Marie - she won a pdf eBook of As Timeless As Stone
Thank you all for commenting.










I'm extending the blog contest through today - May 31 as a reader on facebook let me know that google was acting up and she couldn't get in to comment yesterday.
Saturday, May 28th, at Comicpalooza, I saw a screening of the film Brown Coats Redemption. This labor of love with all proceeds going to charity is written and directed by Michael C. Doughtery. From a gal’s perspective Firefly is always fitting of the coolest of cool label for many reasons one of the highest on my list is due to the strong female characters, who in all their rolls even that of a companion showed the best of the female gender and a woman’s ability to do anything a man could do and often do it better, you don’t’ see that often in Sci-Fi series or films even in 2011. Well Brown Coat Redemption not only offers strong female characters, both the captain and the pilot are women and they fill those rolls well, but also the twist to the plot is feminine based, for that reason alone I would say get the DVD.

Another reason to watch it is all proceeds go to five great charities Equality Now, Kids Need to Read, Dyslexia Foundation, The All Wooten Jr. Heritage Center, and The Marine Corps – Law Enforcement Foundation. It also gives all of us our much needed firefly fix. Now, you can tell it’s made on a shoe string budget and it’s not the highest quality acting or writing, though some of it is quite good. For those charities and the people they benefit as well as the other reasons I mentioned, I appreciate the hard work from the crew and cast of this film and I’m glad they made it.

Timeline wise it's events that occur after those in the film Serenity. The Alliance is still twisting the truth and fighting the citizens who live on the fringe of the verse, who are fighting back for them and there’s. Per youtube you can meet the cast of Browncoats Redemption,and click here for more on the film “A new ship, a new crew, a new adventure. Charity has never been this exciting!”

And also at Comicpalooza I attended a Firefly question and answer session with the funny and charming Sean Maher, also known as Simon Tam, the doctor and River’s sister . He also is part of the cast of the new series starting soon, The Playboy Club. One of the questions asked was, other than Simon, who is your favorite Firefly character. His answer was Inara Serra. http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Inara_Serra There were a few calls for him to take his shirt off but he didn’t. When asked if he takes his shirt off in his new series, The Playboy Club, he answered, “You never know. “ Needless to say, this fall, I will be watching The Playboy Club and Sean Maher’s character, a husband to one of the bunny’s. It’s an NBC series about the opening of the first Playboy club in Chicago in 1963. Looking forward to it. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
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I had to add a link to the "She Don't Like Firefly" video - it's hillarious
http://tinyurl.com/3b7od9b

If you like Sci-fi check out the trailer to my time traveling Steampunk/romance As Timeless As Stone because for my Blogging Contest Today I’m giving away an PDF eBook of As Timeless As Stone for the contest today. Just comment and I’ll draw a winner for the free eBook.

AS TIMELESS AS STONE
Though society stands in their way, can love
transcend time with the aid of robotics and ritual?

In peril for her life, the Priestess Seshat turns
herself to stone in ancient Egypt. Centuries later,
Ricard, a dashing 19th century Frenchman, repairs
a broken statue and reads its incantation
unprepared for the gorgeous flesh and blood woman
who steps forth.
Seshat is drawn to the brass robots Ricard creates
and the glamor of the Victorian age, and most of all
to Ricard himself. But the society of his day cannot
accept a woman like her. How far will Ricard go to
secure her happiness? Is their love strong enough to
transcend time itself?
Please visit my website

Lost Cities and Unexplored Lands by Maeve Alpin

The winners of my 05/16/11 Blog Contest are Pomma Wolf and Judy - they both won a pdf eBook of my Steampunk/romance AS TIMELESS AS STONE
Congratulations!

Many 19th century world explorers and their discoveries made a tremendous impact

on history. One of my favorite Egyptologist, Jean François Champollion, journeyed to Egypt, as one of the four members of the Franco-Tuscan Expedition, in 1827. Of course he is primarily known for deciphering the rosette stone and unlocking the knowledge and history of the ancients Egyptians. Jean Francois Champollion is also the first curator of the Egyptian collection at the Louvre. Another great Egyptologist of the day was the Italian strongman Giovani-Battista Belzoni, beginning in 1817, he used the hydraulic engine he invented to help excavate Egyptian tombs and temples.

Another famed archeologist of the day was the German adventurer, Heinrich Schliemann. Using a copy of Homer’s The Illiad as his guide, he excavated the ancient city of Troy in 1871, searching for Priam’s treasure. He discovered the remains of eleven cities built on top of each other and the relics he found included a cache of gold and silver, including earrings, necklaces, and even diadems that might have been worn by a queen.

Just the words - lost city- conjure up mystery and adventure and there were wonderful finds in the Regency, Victorian, and Edwardian periods. In 1812, the Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt brought international attention to the lost city of Petra, made up of incredible stone structures carved into the actual rock of Mount Hor in Jordan. Shortly after that, in 1818, General Taylor discovered the sacred pillars, palaces, temples, and monasteries of Sanchi in India, dating back to the 3rd century BC, it’s the oldest Buddhist sanctuary in existence. Then, in 1911, explorer Hiram Bingham revealed the jungle enshrouded lost City of the Incas, an amazing pre-Columbian site, Machu Picchu, built on a mountain ridge, 7,970 feet above sea level.

Regarding unexplored lands, adventurous include David Livingstone, well known for his rescue by his fellow explorer Henry Stanley during an 1865 expedition to Africa in an attempt to find the source of the Nile. Not only was the famed Norwegian polar explorer, Roald Amundsen the first person to reach the South Pole but also thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif first person to fly over the North Pole and he did so in a dirigible in 1926.
There are so many more explorers than these mentioned, you are sure to find http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifinspiration from an adventurer of the Regency, Victorian, or Edwardian age. Adopting characters of world adventures provides unique costuming options. I’ve included photos I snapped of great examples that, speaking of adventure, were taken this year at Aetherfest and the Oklahoma Steampunk Expo.

For more on Jean François Champollion and ancient world adventure, please check out my Steampunk/Romance, As Timeless As Stone and visit my website.

I am having a Blogging Contest today. Leave a comment on this post with your email so I can reach you and I'll draw a winner for an eBook of my Steampunk/Erotica/Romance As Timeless As Stone.
Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQEOp9l9ZFA

More Steamplus Tips

Carol is the Winner of my Blog Contest - she won an eBook of As Timeless As Stone



Whether your costume is a Steampunk version of a ghost, vampire, mechanic, a Victorian lady, an airship crew member or pirate , a world explorer or something all together different, you might benefit from some advice in regard to costuming issues plus sized men and women run into. I wanted to share helpful pointers I picked up from a Steamplus panel on how to or fix or avoid fashion don’ts. The first tip applies to both men and women, clothes should be fitted, garments that are too large are as bad as clothing that’s too small.

Next, regarding corsets and vest. For women’s corsets, plastic boning should be avoided as it can cause bulges, the steel boning is best. For men, the vest or waistcoat needs to be long such as one purchased from a big and tall store so the tummy will not extend bulge under the vest. Pants should be fastened at the waistline not beneath it and most men will find suspenders work best.

For both men and women, any historical or stemapunk costume should look complete, from head to toe, for example don’t wear tennis shoes with a period dress. Also, though accessories are key to a Steampunk look, don’t’ go overboard, keep to the less is more fashion philosophy.

For examples and ideas, I’ve included a few photos I snapped at the Oklahoma Steampunk Expo and Aetherfest. So have fun and enjoy your costume while you look your best like the steampunkers shown here.

Also I’m having a blogging contest, so please comment and include your email address so I can reach you if you win. The prize is a PDF eBook of my steampunk/romance As Timeless As Stone.

Please visit me at my website, or Facebook,

Steampunk Plus size Fashion

The Winner of my blog contest is Sarah - she won an eBook of As Timeless As Stone




At a spectacular steampunk festival in San Antonio last weekend, Aetherfest, I learned so much at a panel on costuming DOs and DON’Ts, specifically for plus size ladies and gentlemen, I had to share the great advice. I’m breaking it down into several post so the first is one is on steampunk fashion issues from head to neck, like a head shot.

Starting with hats, as cute as the tiny top hats are, they’re dispaportioned on a full figured woman, but there are two fabulous solutions. You can choose a full size Victorian hat instead or with your hair styled in a curly or fluffy hairdo, wear the tiny top hat the way you would a barrette. Both are a darling and becoming look for steampunk fashionistas.

Now moving from the head to the neck, we come to ties or necklaces. It is best for the larger steampunk gentlemen to avoid bow ties, with such a grandiose presence, a cravat or ascot will look best. As for plus size women, choose chunky pieces of jewelry or those extravagant in size, for the same reason, proportions. Adorn yourself with a big medallion, a cameo, or a large brooch. A full figured woman has the presence to pull off the more stunning and stupendous pieces of jewelry. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Along with these helpful hints, here are some photos I snapped at Aetherfest and the Oklahoma Steampunk Expo to offer examples of steampunk fashion DOs.

Also I’m having a blogging contest, so please comment and include your email address so I can reach you if you win. The prize is a PDF eBook of my steampunk/romance As Timeless As Stone.
Here’s the trailer for it. And please visit my website

Egyptian Steampunk

Announcing the Blog Contest Winner:
The winner is Marian Allen. Congratulations Marian. I also wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who entered.

Thank you for commenting on my Maeve Alpin blog on Egyptian Steampunk. I have good news for you, you are the winner, you won the blogging contest. Congratulations. The pdf eBook of As Timeless As Stone is attached. If you have any trouble opening it, please let me know.


There was a strong Egyptian influence in the 19th century with the translation of the Rosetta stone, all the English and European Egyptologist and their rich discoveries, the Egyptian obelisk erected alongside the Thames, and the quaint mummy unwrapping parties. Egypt even influenced Victorian clothing, furniture and furnishings. In turn, there no question aspects of the Steampunk culture have been influenced by ancient Egypt. In the entertainment field Steampunk belly dancing is on the rise. Since the top Steampunk Band, Abney Park incorporated belly dancing into its live shows, many of these dancers have been inspired to go steampunk adding googles, corsets and pantaloons to their costumes.

In the area of interior design, Nethercraft offers an incredible collection of fabulous Egyptian walls http://www.nethercraft.com/prod_tomb.html. The Egyptian- Steampunk movement has even invaded fashion with Costume Designer, Iris Bainum-Houle’s collection, clearly influenced by both the garments of ancient Egypt and Victorian England. http://tinyurl.com/26dvuxo

For glasses, tea spoons, and t-shirts sporting Egyptian Steampunk, the Anubis-Absinthe products at http://www.sighco.com/Anubis-Absinthe-glass-and-spoon-set-p-292.html fit the bill.

Egyptian Steampunk has even found its way into weddings as in this online example of a couple who included Victoriana and hand painted scarab favors into their special day. View this special wedding at http://geraniumlake.com/2011/04/egyptian-steampunk-themed-wedding/ and at http://fritzphoto.com/blog/2011/03/steampunk-wedding-photography-lana-and-brian.htmlOne thing that stands out in Steampunk fiction is fresh, settings and alternate history so the Egyptian influence fits in so well. Some examples I recommend are The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, a non-stop, breathtaking, time spanning, haunting adventure by one of the masters of Steampunk and The Osiris Ritual by George Mann a rich, riveting mystery which includes a Victorian mummy unwrapping party. As Timeless as Stone is another example of Egyptian Steampunk in fiction as its trailer illustrates at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQEOp9l9ZFA. For children the Theodosia series of books have a wonderful Egyptian Steampunk flavor by R L. LaFevers. Theodosia Throckmorton lives in the early part of the 20th century in London, her father is the head curator at the museum of Legends and Antquites and her mother is an egyptologist. Theo as her family and friends call her has an unusal gift for for detecting and riding relics of ancient spells, evil curses, and black magic. For more on this fantastic series visit. http://www.theodosiathrockmorton.com.

I am working on a Steampunk Costume with Egyptian influence and many steampunk fans have gone the Egyptologist route, for example The Steampunk Emporium has a complete outfit available for an Egyptian Expeditionist at http://www.steamporium.com/store/steam_ladies_05.php
Whether you are game for belly dancing in a corset or rather you just want to quietly read a good Egyptian Steampunk book the mix of Egyptology and Steampunk go together quite well.

I'm having a blog contest - comment and include your email so I can reach you - the winner drawn from those who comment wins a pdf ebook download of As Timeless As Stone - here's a blurb on it to give you an idea of the book if you're not familiar.
Though society stands in their way, can love transcend time with the aid of robotics and ritual?
In peril for her life, the Priestess Seshat turns herself to stone in ancient Egypt. Centuries later, Ricard, a dashing 19th century Frenchman, repairs a broken statue and reads its incantation unprepared for the gorgeous flesh and blood woman who steps forth.
Seshat is drawn to the brass robots Ricard creates and the glamor of the Victorian age, and most of all to Ricard himself. But the society of his day cannot accept a woman like her. How far will Ricard go to secure her happiness? Is their love strong enough to
transcend time itself?