*What is with those characters? Why them?
Dear Mr. Sterling,
Just to report some more retrofuturistic progress in Brazilian SteamPunk...
The press is all over the SteamPunk Council and the members are very busy trying to deal with all the interviews, events and the actual production of SteamPunk literature, informative texts, pictures, fashion designs, devices and a whole lot of other things through the ever growing "SteamPunk Artists League" we are supporting and promoting.
Apart from being under the spotlight as "the new (old) thing", our two social networks are doing very well: SteamBook.com.br is becoming more and more popular here and that initiative dedicated to publishers, authors and readers of fantastic literature - www.aolimiar.com.br - has both professional and amateur authors as registered users.
Under the SteamBook.com.br infrastructure about 60 blogs were spontaneously created by other enthusiasts of the genre.
Under aoLimiar.com.br a bunch of SteamPunk, CyberPunk, New Weird, Fantasy and SciFi Virtual Books emerged and are now available to the public without any cost. (((How handy for the public and how relatively unprofitable for those authors.)))
We are finally about to launch the SteamCast.com.br website - already in place with some great videos - a place for SteamPunk vidCasts made by each separate Brazilian "Lodge". The SteamCast website will also host the webSeries now in production by the SteamPunk Council, building a whole new mythology for SteamPunk featuring actual and fictional characters from Brazil and from around the globe.
With the release of yours and Mr. Gibson's book, "The Difference Engine", in Brazil - translated by Ludimila Hashimoto - (((Yes she exists, despite her magnificently improbable name: http://twitter.com/ludimilahashi )))) the SteamPunk Council even came up with a catchy phrase you can already find on a bunch of independent Brazilian SteamPunk blogs: "2010: The Year of the Steam". And we intend to promote the release of your book in our country using every resource at our disposal. (((Including pirate airships and brass goggles, I'd be guessing.)))
SteamPunk is taking over as a legitimate, charismatic and rich form of expression here, a fruitful dramaturgic platform addressed to all authors and movie makers, a prolific way for graphic and fashion designers, animators and artists of all fields to comunicate with a growing public that is already starting to recognize the potential of the subgenre in terms of storytelling.
We are trying to build a Brazilian SteamPunk that is not only about style, fashion and beauty, we are trying to go beyond entertainment to educate the public in a ludic way, using the fascinating aesthetic of the Belle Époque, the Victorian Age, the 19th Century, as the sugar coat of a powerful educational tool and an obviously important way to comunicate the problems of the present while talking joyfully about the fictional past of SteamPunk. (((Whatever works for you guys. Except for putting vodka into a caipirinha, which will never do.)))
It is with great joy that we report all this and that we are confident that there is much more to come in the near future.
2010: The Year of the Steam
Bruno Accioly
Conselho SteamPunk
www.steampunk.com.br
www.steambook.com.br
www.steamcast.com.br
www.steamcon.com.br
Lodges
rj.steampunk.com.br
sp.steampunk.com.br
mg.steampunk.com.br
pr.steampunk.com.br
rs.steampunk.com.br
pb.steampunk.com.br
Initiatives
www.aolimiar.com.br
www.steamgirls.com.br
www.steamboys.com.br
