Laurel Anne Hill

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“Shanghai Steam” (Steampunk-Wuxia Anthology) Blog Tour Links

Steampunk-Wuxia Anthology

 

Hi all,

Over the next week or so, I’ll be posting links to blogs about the new “Shanghai Steam” anthology.  Return to this post of mine for updates, please.

Post for November 1, 2012:
Countries…Culture…the Wicking Effect by Raye Dean
http://ageofsteam.wordpress.com/


Post for October 27, 2012:
James Ng is the talented artist who created the cover for the “Shanghai Steam” anthology. http://www.thegildedmonocle.com/2012/10/27/steampunk-artist-james-ng/


Posts for October 25, 2012:

Flying Fists and Frying Pans – The Martial Art of Writing
Sean Taylor’s blog hosted a Shanghai Steam post about crafting fight and action scenes: http://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/2012/10/flying-fists-and-frying-pans-martial.html

Speaking About Humanity… 
Laurel Anne Hill posted a blog about “Moon-Flame Woman,”  Shanghai Steam and the Chinese workers who helped construct the U.S. Transcontinental Railway in the 1860’s:
 
Post for September 25, 2012:
Book Trailer for Shanghai Steam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liLb31mHpRs
 
Warm wishes,
Laurel Anne Hill
(Author of the award-winning novel, “Heroes Arise”)
 

 

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Speaking about Humanity… A Reflection by Laurel Anne Hill, Author of “Moon-Flame Woman” (in the Shanghai Steam Anthology)

Steampunk-Wuxia Anthology

“Names are humanity,” posted Rich Maggiani on his blog in 2009.  “Names create a connection that moves beyond the mundane, the everyday transactions of life.”

I agree.  Few of us would prefer being addressed as “Mr. 2271” or “Ms. H7m4Y.”  Our traditional surnames and given names express our identities in a manner various identification numbers and electronic passwords simply can’t.

In “Moon-Flame Woman” (my short story included in the Shanghai Steam Anthology), my main character is Cho Ting-Lam.  Cho is her family surname.  Ting means graceful.  Lam, a variant of Lin in some dialects, means beautiful jade.  Yet Cho Ting-Lam hears her own lovely name spoken only within her mind.  First of all, she’s disguised as a man.  Furthermore, to the Central Pacific Railway–her employer–she has no name at all.

History tells us that the Central Pacific hired as many as 23,000 Chinese workers between 1864 and 1869, as that company built the western section of the U.S. Transcontinental Railway.  The Central Pacific couldn’t–or wouldn’t–cope with documenting so many Chinese names.  The limited number of phonetic versions they did record belonged to Chinese labor contractors (headmen).  Cho Ting-Lam’s “employee name” probably would have been a shared number: the number of her work gang.  

Please note that I didn’t incorporate most of the above details into “Moon-Flame Woman.”  Such information wouldn’t have moved Ting-Lam’s story forward.  Survival and restoration of personal dignity (unrelated to her name) concern Ting-Lam far more than what barbarians choose to call her.  She’s trying her best to unleash the true power of her moon-flame gun.  Still, the prejudice of American railroad men in the nineteenth century belittled the humanity and individual worth of their Chinese employees, and on more than one level.  Those interested in the topic should read William F. Chew’s book:  Nameless Builders of the Transcontinental.

Speaking of identification, the Central Pacific did not record the deaths of the approximately 1,300 Chinese laborers who perished on the job during the California-to-Utah construction process.  The loss of those lives was documented primarily through an 1870 newspaper article.  A train had carried 20,000 pounds of bones–the unidentified remains of about 1,200 workers–to be returned to China.  In the nineteenth century, railroad construction was a risky business.

Ting-Lam, in “Moon-Flame Woman,” finds the touch of a male coworker embarrassing, even when that man pulls her to safety before an explosion.  I suspect the prospect of having her bones jumbled together with those of 1,199 men would not have pleased her.  I can even envision her spirit warming from shame.  More than names comprise humanity.

Warm wishes,

Laurel Anne Hill
Author of the award-winning novel, Heroes Arise
http://www.laurelannehill.com

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Steampunk Panel at World Fantasy Con 2012: Laurel Anne Hill to Moderate

A Unique Steampunk-Wuxia Mashup!

Great news!  I’ll be moderating the steampunk panel at the upcoming World Fantasy Convention in Toronto.  This is an honor and I thank the WFC 2012 Programming Committee for including me.  The panel description is as follows:

Friday, Nov. 2, 5:00 p.m. STEAMPUNK  (York B&C)

The panel will examine the roots of steampunk, discuss its place

in the genre, trace what makes the genre so appealing to so many

readers and writers, and look at where it might be headed.

Laurel Anne Hill (M), James Blaylock, C. E. Gannon, Liz Gorinsky,

Adrienne Kress, Alan Smale.

 

For more information about the World Fantasy Con 2012, go to:  http://www.wfc2012.org/

 

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Pardon my “French” (Laurel Anne Hill Reflects Upon Hispanic Heritage Month)

This was Hispanic Heritage Month?  Already?  Well, that’s what the TV news guy claimed.  I sipped my claret.  The guy kept on talking.  Oh, yeah.  September 15 to October 15.  Man, but this past year had sailed by fast.  My brain grew too old to keep up with my calendar.

I’d done nothing to celebrate Hispanic Heritage month.  I could almost hear my Mexican ancestors grumble about my negligence.  Hey, I’d written stories about ancestral Hispanic ghosts.  Didn’t that count?  Still, no sense in upsetting my deceased family members.  I’d add a south-of-the-border touch to tonight’s dinner.

I removed the jar of Pace Chunky Salsa and a brick of pepper jack cheese from my refrigerator.  That tasty combination ought to spice up the kokanee salmon I’d poached in lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and water.  Probably not authentic Hispanic cuisine.  Quick didn’t equate to correct.

I skinned and boned the fish, the size of a trout.  Kokanee were landlocked fresh-water sockeye salmon.  My living family—me included—had caught Kokanee at Odell Lake in Oregon every summer for over twenty years.  Three-quarters of a fish tonight for my husband, David.  One quarter for me.  I nuked fresh corn in the microwave and pulled the leftover haricot vert (long thin green beans of the French variety) out of my refrigerator.  I covered the fish with a layer of spicy salsa and sliced pepper jack.  Looked delicious.

Then I remembered.  My father’s paternal grandmother and great-grandmother had protested the French invasion of Mexico in the 1800’s.  Those two women had helped raise money and recruit Mexican soldiers to defend their homeland.  Dared I place French green beans on the same plate as my salmon ala salsa?  And what about the French bread and cheese from Normandy, already on my dinner table?  And the bottle of red Rhone wine?  I groaned.

Okay, I would be more dutiful during the coming week.  Maybe even cook chili verde from scratch.  A nagging inner voice reminded me I hadn’t prepared my own homemade tortillas and tamales for thirty-five years.  And I still hadn’t gotten around to learning how to make those fancy sugar skulls for Day of the Dead.

But wait, I was more than Mexican.  I was English, Scotch-Irish and Swedish, too.  And according to my autosomal DNA test report, some of my ancestors had been black and others Jewish.  None of those deceased relatives complained about me not preparing overboiled beef, haggis, pickled herring, soul food and potato pancakes.  At least, not yet.

“This is Hispanic Heritage month,” the grumbling voice in my head said.  “That’s where your focus should be.”

I served David dinner, even as the ghostly voice receded into the background.

“This fish is delicious,” David said.  “And the corn is so sweet.”

My brain may be too old to keep up with the calendar but my hands could still put together a great meal.  The ancestors would just have to forgive my non-traditional combinations. 

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Steampunk, Wuxia and the Immigrant Experience (by Laurel Anne Hill)

Chinese Railroad Workers in the Sierra Nevada Mountains (1860's)

I stare at the crimson printing on my computer screen.  Crisp black lines frame electronic words of caution.  What is this, anyway?  The 1877 U.S. Senatorial report on Chinese immigration I Googled?  Or the “boxed warning” for a toxic drug?

The red letters form an introductory disclaimer of sorts, an alert regarding nineteenth-century political incorrectness.  The Senatorial report’s contents will reflect the attitudes of yesteryear’s Americans.  In other words, readers with sensitive ears, beware.  Still, I need to study sections of this 1,281-page document to blog about railroad workers from China.  My finger tabs through the report’s opening pages.

“There is a vast hive from which Chinese immigrants may swarm…,” the report indicates.  “They are cruel and indifferent to their sick…inferior in mental and moral qualities…” 

Anger warms my face.  The historical report I prepare to read in depth is a verbal cesspool of toxic prejudice.  Worse than I expected.  Even the testimony of Charles Crocker–-the infamous railroad executive who respected the tremendous contribution of Chinese laborers in building the U.S. Transcontinental Railway–oozes stereotypes.  I just began this morning’s immigrant-experience research project and already my blood pressure soars.

Now please don’t consider me naïve.  Years ago, I learned about the anti-Chinese legislation passed in nineteenth-century America: The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (to keep “them” out) and various anti-miscegenation laws (to prevent interracial marriages).  U.S. immigration policy muddle-ups are not confined to the twenty-first century.  That’s one of several reasons why I wrote my new short story, “Moon-Flame Woman.”  I hope “Moon-Flame Woman” will help readers picture all immigrants as distinct individuals with gifts, fears, hopes and dreams.

The setting for “Moon-Flame Woman” is a North American railroad construction camp in 1866.  In my story, Cho Ting-Lam has lost self-respect.  She, a slave, has neither a husband nor sons.  Disguised as a man, Cho Ting-Lam uses explosives, crystal technology and Qi to bore railroad tunnels through the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Then a prejudiced railroad superintendent endangers her and her people.

“Moon Flame Woman,” is scheduled for publication in the upcoming Shanghai Steam Anthology (Absolute XPress, November 2012).  Shanghai Steam is a unique mashup of steampunk (advanced technology through steam-age mechanical devices) and the Chinese literary genre known as Wuxia (loosely translated as martial hero). 

I invite you to visit the worlds within Shanghai Steam.  From ancient China to a future Mars, from the British Empire to the Old West, nineteen authors will show you worlds with alcohol-fueled dragons, philosophical automatons, and Qi-powered machines both wondrous and strange in tales of vengeance, paper lantern revolutions and flying monks.  I also wish to thank Teresa LeYung-Ryan for her pre-submission review of my “Moon-Flame Woman” manuscript.  Teresa provided valuable advice which strengthened my story.

Below, I list the Shanghai Steam table of contents.  For more information about the anthology and its authors, visit the Shanghai Steam Facebook page.

 

Warm wishes,

Laurel Anne Hill
Author of Heroes Arise, an award-winning novel about breaking the cycle of vengeance.
http://www.laurelannehill.com

 

SHANGHAI STEAM ANTHOLOGY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shanghai Steam Anthology

Table of Contents

 

The Fivefold Proverbs of Zhen Xiaquan

Tim Ford

 

Qin Yun’s Mechanical Dragon and the Cricket Spies

Amanda Clark

 

Moon-Flame Woman

Laurel Anne Hill

 

Love and Rockets at the Siege of Peking

K. H. Vaughan

 

The Master and the Guest

Crystal Koo

 

Ming Jie and the Coffee Maker of Doom

Brent Nichols

 

A Hero Faces the Celestial Empire; A Death by Fire is Avenged by Water

Julia A. Rosenthal

 

Riding the Wind

William H. Keith

 

Mistress of the Pearl Dragon

Shen Braun

 

Song of My Heart

Jennifer Rahn

 

Last Flight of the Lóng Qíshì

Emily Mah

 

Protection from Assassins

Frances Pauli

 

Seeds of the Lotus
Camille Alexa

 

The Ability of Lightness

Tim Reynolds

 

Fire in the Sky

Ray Dean

 

The Legend of Wong Heng Li

Frank Larnerd

 

Flying Devils

Derwin Mak

 

Legend of the Secret Masterpiece

Nick Tramdack

 

Jing Ke Before the Principle of Order

Minsoo Kang

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String Theory for Dummies Information Sheet (from WorldCon 2012)

"I can do anything with a big ball of string" (Credit Marion Holland, 1958)

 

Strings:  Vibrating strands of “energy,” at the heart of matter, photons and gravity.  The different frequencies of strings produce the different subatomic particles.  A fundamental string is called an f-string.  String theory is not yet testable or observable.

Branes:  “Membranes” or other places where strings attach.  For example,

D0 Brane:  A point particle.  An f-string can end there.

D1 Brane:  Like a string, but with more mass per unit length.  Also called a D-string.  An f-string can end there.

D2 Brane:  A brane with two dimensions.

D3 Brane:  A brane with three dimensions.  An f-string or D-string can end there.

Open Strings:  Have one or both ends tied to a brane.

Closed Strings:  Ends are attached to each other. 

Gravitons:   Hypothetical elementary particles/closed strings with zero mass.

M-Theory:  String theory with eleven-dimensional supergravity.  (Alternate theories stipulate 10 or 26 dimensions.)  M-Theory allows a string to stretch into a brane.  Eliminates tachyons. 

Relativistic String:  The string of String Theory.

String Worldsheet:  A “topographical map” of how a string is supposed to move in spacetime.

Supergravity:   A theory that combines the principles of supersymmetry and general relativity.

Supersymmetry:   A fermion must exist for every boson and a boson for every fermion. 

Tachyon:   A relativistic string with a negative mass squared (an imaginary number).

 

Particle Physics I-A

Quarks:   Elementary particles in the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and fundamental constituents of matter.  Quarks have quirks: electric charge, color charge (which has nothing to do with color), mass, spin and flavor (which has nothing to do with taste).

Hadron:  A composite particle made of quarks held together by the strong nuclear force.  Hadrons are baryons (made of 3 quarks) or mesons (made of a quark, antiquark and gluon field).  All free hadrons except the proton and anti-proton are unstable.

Boson: A particle with an integer spin.  Bosons can be fundamental particles such as photons, the Higgs Boson, gluons and the hypothetical (massless) graviton.  Bosons can be composite particles such as the meson.  Bosons are often force carrier particles.  More than one boson can occupy the same quantum state at any given time. 

Fermion:  A particle with a half-integer spin.  Fermions can be elementary particles such as an electron.  Fermions can be composite particles such as protons, neutrons or the helium-3 atom.  Fermions are usually associated with matter.  A particle containing an odd number of fermions is itself a fermion: it will have half-integer spin.  Only one fermion can occupy a particular quantum state at any given time.  If more than one fermion occupies the same physical space, at least one property of each fermion, such as its spin, must be different.

Force Carriers:

            Photons:  The force carriers of the electromagnetic field.

            W & Z bosons:  The force carriers which mediate the weak nuclear force.

            Gluons:  The fundamental force carriers underlying the strong nuclear force.

            Higgs bosons:  Force carriers that give other particles mass.

Duality:  Remember the old Sesame Street song: “One of these things is not like the other?”  With a duality, “One of these things is not like the other but can be.”

General Relativity:  Describes the curvature of spacetime and distribution of matter throughout spacetime.  Matter warps space.  Warps and curves in the fabric of space create gravity.

Special Relativity:  (E = MC²)  A special case of general relativity that does not include gravity.

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle:  The more precisely the position of some particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be known, and vice versa.

Singularities:  Spacetime boundaries, such as paths of light and falling particles coming to an abrupt end.

Standard Model of Particle Physics:  Incorporates electromagnetic, weak and strong nuclear interactions, but not gravity.

 

Thank you to all who attended the “String Theory for Dummies” panel on 9/3/12.  In addition, thank you Marion Holland for creating “A Big Ball of String,” published in 1958.  I have read the book to children and grandchildren and recently found and purchased a copy at a “book rescue” site online.  May your beautiful story last forever.

Warm wishes,

Laurel Anne Hill
Author of “Heroes Arise”  (http://www.laurelannehill.com)