Strange Beginnings

Back in June of 2010, David Cranmer, editor of BTaP, asked me if I'd be interested in working on a long term project with him. His idea was for a steampunk serial story about "Calliope Andrews: Steampunk Princess". I was to write the first installment. He outlined his idea for freezing this princess and bringing her back to life in the future. He wanted to open the story with a steam powered motorcycle and have a steam powered flying machine of some sort waiting in the wings. He also supplied me with a cast of characters. The rest of the story was mine. And of course, the first thing I did was dump the freezing bit. Why? Because I'd watched a piece on cryogenics on the History channel that pretty much freaked me out, but also made me realize that making the story line realistic was pretty iffy. Besides, didn't Mel Gibson do this movie? :)

After turning in my installment, David asked me who I thought should take over the story and suggested Charles Gramlich because, hey, he writes this kind of story. David agreed that Charles would be great, but he had a different idea. Why didn't I write the entire story? Do you ever have moments in your life when you wish the person you were emailing was standing next to you so you could physically kick them in the nether regions? Yeah, that was my moment, then I said I'd give it a shot.

And so I began writing until even the very first installment had changed into something very different from what David or I had imagined for the story. But, it did still start with a steam motorcycle with a steam airplane in the wings. Why am I telling you all this? Because the final installment of Calliope's adventures, "Into the Green Beyond" is now up at BTaP. You can read it here http://beattoapulp.com/pulp.htm Unfortunately for those of you who haven't read the prior installments, something called Cold Fusion isn't working with BTaP's server so the rest of the story is not available at the moment.

And if you're not tired of me yet, my five picks for Chris Rhatigan's "Five You Can't Miss" series is up. http://death-by-killing.blogspot.com