Tuesday 11 February 2014

Call for Southeast Asian Steampunk Stories

This call for South East Asian steampunk stories looks great.  I'm definitely going to try to write something for it.

I seem to be encountering steampunk all the time this month. I have more steampunk news to tell you in a day or two. (hmmmmm, secretive).



Submission Guidelines 

THE SEA IS OURS is an anthology of Southeast Asian steampunk. We are looking for steampunk stories that are set in Southeast Asia (SEA), or secondary worlds that evoke Southeast Asia, with Southeast Asian protagonists, in any of the countries that make up the region: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. We are seeking historically and technologically-innovative stories.

Steampunk, for the purposes of this anthology, is defined as an aesthetic that combines technofantasy, anachronism, retro-futurism, an alternate history/world, and the evocation of an incipient industrial revolution. How does the steampunk aesthetic look, feel, sound, smell, or taste like in these regions? What kind of technologies would grow in resource-rich SEAsia? What do our historical figures, our Parameswaras, Trung sisters, Lapu-Lapus, do in such a world?

Submissions are encouraged to explore various levels and kinds of technologies, not just steam technology. Locals myths can also find their way into these stories; what does the mix of technology and fantasy look like in such worlds? We welcome exploration of all kinds of stories: from the extraordinary to the everyday. What changes does accelerated technology create for the local landscape and societies? If historical events are given a steampunk twist, how do their outcomes change, or stay the same? 

6 comments:

  1. I won't even try that one. But good luck!

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  2. Sounds very nice but I feel a bit uninformed about those regions to contribute. So maybe I should read the antho when it comes out...

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    1. Fair enough. I'll have to do a fair amount of research myself. But I've already got the smallest seed of an idea about Rhododendrons.

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  3. Clockwork elephants? I'm in -- if I can finish three other projects I have in the forging fires first.

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