Breaking news of the steampunk kind! Or should that be—Extra, extra! Read all about it? Either way, Black Beacon Books is jolly well thrilled to announce that Karen Bayly (you'll remember her from Murder and Machinery and Tales from the Ruins) has signed with us for a double-release. In February 2024, we’ll be publishing both Fortitude, her fantastic steampunk adventure which was originally published by Mary Celeste Press, and Courage, the splendiferous sequel, going to print for the first time. To celebrate, we’re playing not one, but two, games of tennis. Yes, you heard us! Our editor-in-chief, Cameron Trost, will ask Karen a question, and after answering it, she’ll hit one right back at us. Ready for the first match? Let’s play!
K: *I’m fascinated by the ‘what if ?’ premise the genre proposes. What if steam and analogue could deliver everything petrol and digital could as well or better? What if we never went down the petrol / digital path? What alternate steampunk worlds can I create? Although it is usually thought of as belonging to the Victorian era, steampunk set in Edwardian and other eras has allowed a move from restrictive Victorian ideals to more exciting interpretations.
K: Why do you publish steampunk?
C: For those unfamiliar with the Black Beacon Books range, we have published or are in the process of publishing books in the genres of mystery, suspense, adventure, horror, ghost stories, post-apocalyptic, and steampunk. To that, you could even add a touch of sci-fi and historical fiction. Quite a broad range perhaps, but in a way, the three overriding genres of mystery, suspense, and horror cover the others. Steampunk isn’t so much a genre as a setting. It provides a canvas for tales of all different kinds, with eccentric characters, spectacular styles, and mindboggling technology. Having grown up reading Victorian classics like the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells, the prospect of contemporary fiction taking the rich cultural and technological features of this period and applying them to an endless world of possibility based on the idea that the twentieth century took a different route is so compelling. This is what makes steampunk so fascinating... so tantalising.
C: What Victorian characteristics do you find in yourself?
K: I’m interested in science and technology and fascinated by death (although memento mori photography is a step too far). The era also spawned several ground-breaking women, for example, the female private detectives Kate Warne (a Pinkerton!) and Kate West. Emmeline Pankhurst started her suffragette crusade in the late Victorian era. In Australia, Viva Goldstein pioneered the women’s suffrage movement. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Constance Stone became the first women to practice medicine in the UK and Australia, respectively. These women were rebellious in positive ways. I’ve been called rebellious, and I’d like to think I’ve done so in a positive way.
K: Which Victorian author would you publish?
C: I like to think my role as editor at Black Beacon Books is to bring talent that may otherwise have been overlooked to as broad a readership as possible. So, if I’d been alive in the Victorian era and not condemned to working in a factory or coal mine, I would have loved to publish the work of unknown writers. I sometimes wonder if there are wonderful manuscripts out there from the period that the world never got to discover. But to answer your question with a name everybody knows—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Imagine that—Black Beacon Books presents The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes!
C: What is it about airships that fascinates you?
K: Their elegance and grace. Except when they exploded. But that is where steampunk comes to the rescue. No exploding airships, thank you very much.
K: If you owned an airship, what would you name it?
C: Living in Brittany, and in a steampunk world in which Breton had remained the dominant language over French, I’d have to choose a dark but graceful name evoking both the air and the sea. Give me a minute... okay, I’d go with Morvran Du... Black Cormorant.
K: I love that name SO much!
C: Tell the readers out there who have never read steampunk why they should.
K: It’s a fun genre ranging from humorous to dystopian and everything in between. Nothing is sacred. Anything goes as long as you have the basic elements of steam, contraptions, a retro feel in fashion and style, and a sense of nostalgia (even if that nostalgia is for something that never existed).
K: What about steampunk attracts Black Beacon Books?
C: As mentioned above, steampunk goes hand in glove with our main genres of mystery, suspense, horror, and post-apocalyptic. There are different ways to consider fiction genres and how they overlap. In a way, mystery is really a genre in the strongest sense of the word, with clear plot elements, character stereotypes, and a handful of hard and fast rules. There has to be a puzzle to be solved, a leading character—typically a detective—we can rely on to eventually provide (confirm) the solution, and there needs to be at least one culprit. The other genres we published are more atmospheres or settings. Both suspense and horror are really about the atmosphere, with a great deal of plot diversity and an almost endless array of settings available to the author, from a mediaeval village to a space station in another galaxy, even if they’re both (particularly suspense) more commonly associated with familiar settings—urban, suburban, or rural. Where then does steampunk fit in? Well, almost anywhere, really. Like post-apocalyptic, steampunk requires neither specific plot elements nor a specific feel. Both are based almost entirely on setting and they are both particularly speculative in nature. While both steampunk and post-apocalyptic fiction are generally considered subgenres of science-fiction, they can in fact overlap with just about any genre. Can you imagine a steampunk story without a heavy dose of suspense? Not really. Are there elements of horror in steampunk? Almost invariably. What about mystery? Not, perhaps, in the strictest sense, but there’s usually a puzzle or two in a steampunk story. In your novels, Karen, we definitely have bucketloads of mystery, suspense, and horror. This is what attracts us to steampunk. There’s so much freedom in terms of worldbuilding and the author can explore storylines that wouldn’t be plausible in the world we know today.
C: What is the most difficult part of your writing process?
K: Time. I juggle a couple of jobs requiring a lot of problem-solving and technical details and find that my brain is fried by the end of the day. But in the morning, my time is limited. I’ve learned to write in short bursts.
K: What is your process for picking stories for an anthology?
C: This is top-secret stuff, Karen—how dare you ask! ;) Okay, I’ll bite. It’s pretty simple at first; I put out a call, read the stories as they come in, and put each story into a folder named “under consideration”. Stories that don’t follow the guidelines (far too many) or simply won’t make the cut are either immediately rejected or end up going into a folder named “to be rejected”. Once submissions have closed, I’ll do a double-check—in theory, a story sent to the rejected folder can do a Lazarus, but it’s highly unusual. I’ll typically have thirty or so stories that make the initial short list. I’ll then go through all the stories under consideration and send the ones I intend to accept into a file named “to be accepted”. This is where what is generally the toughest part of the process begins (as you know, Karen) because there are some great stories that don’t quite fit the way the anthology is starting to shape up. These stories will have to be rejected. In the rejection email to these authors, I say the story made the final short list and that the decision not to accept the story was a tough one. While submissions are open to all writers, we want these ones especially to submit again in the future. These are serious writers who have talent, have followed the guidelines, and have thoroughly edited their work as best they can. These are writers who have a strong chance of making it next time around. These writers often work at developing and maintaining a strong social media presence as well, and while I aim to choose a story solely on its merit, when it comes down to choosing between two equally strong submissions, I’ll often look at the author’s social media presence. Publishing is a partnership and we need authors we can work with before and long after an anthology is published. We want people to read our books, and we want authors who want that too, and will work with us to that end.
C: What, to you, are the most important elements of good writing?
K: A solid grasp of grammar and spelling, an understanding of story structure and character arcs, thoughtful world-building, and a desire to weave a spell that draws a reader into the story.
K: And what, to Black Beacon Books, are the most important elements of good writing?
C: What you said, Karen. Good writing entertains and engages the reader, and it respects the reader. We want to publish great stories, and great stories require great writing. You can’t have one without the other. A ripping tale that’s poorly written is of no interest to the reader, just as perfect grammar and spelling without a story that holds the reader’s interest is of no interest. We want the whole package. I would add to that, a touch of originality. We want a surprise or two for our readers, whether it be a clever twist at the end or a new take on an old trope. Rearranging words isn’t enough. We need to know that a particular story belongs to a particular author. We want to know, for example, that this is Karen Bayly’s story even without seeing her name printed on the cover—although we’ll do that too, of course!
C: How do you develop your plot and characters?
K: I usually follow a standard three-act, nine-point structure, which I put into Scrivener. I’ve tried other formats like the Hero’s Journey and various plotting software, but these tend to tie me in knots. I create character sheets for my characters but keep these basic as I find they change as I write. I also plot an arc for characters. Who are they when they start? Who will they be when this is finished?
K: What types of plots and characters intrigue Black Beacon Books?
C: Like I said, we love originality. Admittedly, that’s easier said than done. In terms of the standard plot types, we love a combination of the ‘overcoming the monster’, ‘quest’, and ‘voyage and return’. These are extremely general plot types that can be shaken up and even turned on their heads. Take the first one, for example. Plenty of great horror novels—the scariest ones—have the monster win at the end, and a really engaging mystery can have the reader sympathising with the culprit when the motive is revealed. As for characters, we want them to be believable, which means that they can be stereotypes, but they still need a quirk or two. The hero needs to have a flaw or two—or at least an annoying habit—and we need a glimpse at the antagonist’s backstory—we need to understand what motivates the character.
C: How did you come up with the title for your books?
K: Both titles tell the theme that links the characters. In “Fortitude”, every character demonstrates their brand of fortitude. In “Courage”, every character faces challenges which lead to change and, you guessed it, reveals their brand of courage.
K: What’s your all-time favourite book title?
C: That’s a really good question. For the sake of fairness, I’ll limit myself to the title of a book I’ve actually read. I recently read and absolutely loved “Shutter Island” by Dennis Lehane, and while it’s a simple title, I think it evokes the suspenseful setting perfectly. That, however, is not my answer. Let’s see... Here’s the short list: Le Fanu’s “In a Glass Darkly”, James Henry’s “The Turn of the Screw”, Richard Matheson’s “A Stir of Echoes”—though I thought the film was far better than the book, “The Wasp Factory” by Iain Banks, “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess, “The Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, “Piranha to Scurfy and Other Stories” by Ruth Rendell (her titles are as amazing as her books—“The Crocodile Bird”, “Master of the Moor”, “To Fear a Painted Devil”), “Switch Bitch” by Roald Dahl—so snappy, “When the World Screamed” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “They Do It With Mirrors” by Agatha Christie, “The House on the Borderland” by William Hope Hodgson, “Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village” by Maureen Johnson, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway. It’s so hard to choose just one—do I really have to?—I think “A Clockwork Orange” might take the cake. It’s so ambiguous and incongruous at first, but once you read the book, you come to understand how the clockwork orange is in fact so symbolic of the book’s central theme.
Who won, Karen? Looks like 6-6! Let's take a break and then come back for the tiebreak...
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