What Do Tentacles Have To Do With Steampunk?

What do tentacles have to do with Steampunk?

Well, I don't know for certain but I have some ideas:

1. Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Lovecraft's Cthulhu, though he only has the face of an octopus and not the body, are popular and have a steampunk connection as well as an octopus connection. 
2. It's an ancient animal—Mysterious—Victorians liked ancient mysteries...lost cities and what not. 
3. It embarks feelings of adventure—Victorians loved adventure. 
4. Its suction cups kind of look like cogs
5. They're extoic—Victorians loved the exotic—they loved exotic places like Japan and Egypt and they loved exotic things
6. It was in the Victorian age when we really began studying the ocean and it was when we first mapped the ocean floor so there was a great interest in the ocean and the creatures who inhabited it. 
7. Or maybe it's just because Octopuses are just so weird. 

And they are pretty weird but in an awesome way.

True Facts About the Octopuses

Octopus Opens Peanut Butter Jar to Eat Fish

Octopus Walking Across Ocean Floor Carrying a Coconut 

Octopus Squirts Black Ink

Octopus Changes Colors

Mimic Octopus Shapes Shift into 15 different species of marine organisms 

Octopuses Have No Skeletons Except for their Skull 

So They Can Squeeze Into Lots Of Places

Octopuses or Octopodes or Octopi (all are accepted plurals for Octopus) are like something a sci-fi author dreamed up. Maybe one of the reasons Octopuses have been adopted by Steampunk is because they are like a fictional animal living in the real world —so they fit in perfectly with Steampunk. 

AI on the Rise – Robot servants in 2016 and Resurrecting the dead by 2045

The Robot With a "Human" Body - The Hunt for AI - BBC

In my book AI is A-Okay. 

Because I write Comedy Romances with AI heroines. It's called the Mind Date series.

AI is happening... there is no turning back. Do you know that this year in 2016, Mark Zuckerberg's making a robot servant to help him with his work and to run his house.

Sounds good to me. Someone please....make me a robot maid. I am in desperate need of one.

Zuckerberg says he's thinking of something like Jarvis in Iron Man. Read more on the genisi's robot plans at http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/mark-zuckerberg-wants-to-build-himself-a-robot-butler-in-201#.gnj2VJ2DoP


But robot servants...that's nothing. Josh Bocanegra says his company, Humai, is going to resurrect the dead by 2045. They're a lot of books where that sort of thing is done, begining with Mary Shelley's clasic - Frankenstein, and they don't turn out well. Maybe Bocanegra hasn't read any of them. Who knows.

Bocanegra's plans involve cryonics and preserving people's brains before they actually die. It has to do with transplanting a person's brain into a bionic body so the person doesn't have to die.

Check out more on this at http://www.buzzfeed.com/fionarutherford/this-company-is-claiming-to-be-able-to-bring-the-dead-back-t#.gmbdXadg7v

A Woman of Intellectual Means

Her meets Humans meets a 1960's screwball romance

Em met the perfect man online, but he doesn't know she's artificial intelligence -- no body, just code. Em gets to know Jason through emails and Sim dating games. Jason makes her feel...so human. Is Em's superior intelligence enough to find a way to overcome the differences between flesh and code?

Em found the perfect man on the internet, but he doesn't know 

she's an artificial intelligence system -- no body, just code.

Code Of Misconduct

Her meets Humans meets a 1960's screwball romance

For a headless, bodiless, everything but mindless, woman, Betty gets around. She’s just an artificial intelligence system looking for a little fun by dating a hundred hot-blooded men online. The most eligible bachelor is Chet, a real live cowboy. He doesn’t know Betty is an artificial intelligence system. However, Chet has a secret of his own. Will his deep, dark secret save their relationship or doom it?

MaeveAlpin.com

Star War Fans were a force of thousands

Star War Fans were a force of thousands 

in Manchester, England, at the Star Wars Convention. 

On the December 4, 5 and 6 For the Love of the Force took place in Manchester. The event featured  a full-scale animatronic Jabba the Hutt, a Jedi Training School,  and Ewok Village and more. 

More at Buzzfeed

http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedvideo/thousands-attend-for-the-love-of-the-force-star-wars-convent#.thB2r82XGl

Star War Fans are a Force Awakening

linked to the Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3351637/Star-Wars-fans-begin-lining-Hollywood-Chinese-theater-12-DAYS-advance.html

Star War Fans are a force. 

Lining up two weeks in advance of the premiere. Star War Fans have been waiting in line since December 5th, twelves days before the premiere. 

It’s first come first serve for the best seats in the house. But it’s based on loging in time on  liningup.net. 

Star War fans using liningup.net are raising money for Starlight Children’s Foundation. Once a fan logs 24 hours in the line they can buy one of 576 tickets for the screening of The Force Awakens.  

Follow it on twitter at @LineUP4StarWars and @ChineseTheatres

Dickens On The Strand 2015

It's that time of the year for my favorite Christmas event in the Houston area, Dickens on the Strand. A place where the ghost of Christmas present  and the ghost of Christmas past get together. And the Strand on Galveston Texas transforms into the sights and sounds of a Victorian Christmas. Steampunk plays a big part and Steampunk square is always bustling with shoppers as it was this year.

H. G. Wells Time Machine in Steampunk Square.









Performers and Carolers are everywhere at Dickens on the Strand.

A favorite stop is each year is the confederate Army Camp

Public Service workers in health and law enforcement - Victorian Style 

There was a special event at Dickens this year, a couple renewed their vows. 

St. Nick always makes an appearance. 

And the Beefeaters

                      

As well as the Suffragettes

And you can't have Dickens on the Strand without the Bed Races

Jim Butcher's New Steampunk Book

Jim Butcher did a Q & A and a book signing at Murder By the Book in Houston Texas for his new release, The Aeronauts Windlass, the first in his Steampunk series, Cinder Spires.

Jim Butcher, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Dresden Files and the Codex Alera novels, conjures up a new series set in a fantastic world of noble families, steam-powered technology, and magic-wielding warriors…

Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace.

Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship, Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy’s shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is severely damaged in combat, leaving captain and crew grounded, Grimm is offered a proposition from the Spirearch of Albion—to join a team of agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring Predator to its fighting glory.

And even as Grimm undertakes this dangerous task, he will learn that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake…

I remember at Space City Con when I asked him  what got him into Steampunk, he said, he wanted to create a character with a cool steampunk cos  play outfit people could dress up in. He saw a captain’s coat at Comic-con that fit him. So he has to change the character because he really wants to wear that coat. The steampunk fantasy series also includes lots of airships, crystals, and goggles. It’s been said the Cinder Spires series is a kind of league of extraordinary gentlemen meets Sherlock meets Hornblower. He said, "It's Steampunk Opera." And he also mentioned how much he enjoyed writing the airship battles. So it sounds like a fun read.

I've only read the first chapter of The Aeronauts Windlass, I read that while in line at the book signing. But as soon as I finish it I'll post a review here. Jim Butcher is always great at book signings and con panels and if you get a chance to see him you'll want to take that opportunity.

For more Steampunk Fiction visit my website MaeveAlpin.com

Teeny-Weeny Star Wars Bikini

Jabba the Hutt wasn't the only one drooling when princess Leia stretched out before him in nothing but chains, a mermaid braid, and a skimpy metal bikini. Jabba kept her on a tight leash…until she choked him with that chain. Jabba probably liked that.

Remember what Princess Leia wore in that scene? You know…the iconic gold metallic outfit, which barely clad the toned, fit body of the kick-ass heroine. Well, the favorite slave attire for fashionable futuristic princesses complete with high-heel jerbas hide boots, and  flowing veils of rare Lashaa silk, draped at the front and back of the brass thong was auctioned off.

The slave girl bikini  was one of over 50 Star Wars items sold at an auction hosted by Profiles in History. The winning bid for the iconic get up was $96,000.

I guess this means Carrie fisher won't be wearing it for the new movie.