Valves & Vixens Inspiration & a giveaway!

Well as most readers of this blog will know whenever a new book is published that I'm a part of I try and run a series of inspiration posts by the authors for the story behind the story. I don't know about anyone else but I love getting to know why the story was written the way it was. It's also a great way of getting to know the author behind the work too.

So today is the first of the Valves & Vixens inspiration posts. Today I have the great joy of welcoming Crysta K Coburn to my blog. Her story is the second in the anthology and in terms of heat levels the sweetest. Now I love steampunk but I adore it when stories aren't set in the 'traditional' places. The Waiting Future is just one of these stories but I will let Crysta talk about it herself in far better words than I could ever do!

The Waiting Future

By Crysta K Coburn

Blurb: Meiji era Japan (late 1868 to mid-1912 by Western reckoning) was a time of rapid modernisation that many people resisted. The future had arrived, however, and waited for any brave enough to seek it

I can't say where it started, but I have been in love with Japan for most of my life. (I earned a bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japan, minored in Japanese, and spent the summer of 2003 in a Japanese study abroad program in Shiga Prefecture.) It's a country with a long, twisting history of pride, battle, triumph, defeat, always trying to stay ahead and on top of the game while simultaneously pursuing paths of peace, beauty, and elevating nearly every aspect of life to a form of art. Japan is dazzling!

The joy I find in steampunk has come to me much more recently. I've always loved fantasy and history both, and steampunk is a beautifully creative marriage of the two. What has sort of annoyed me about it, though, is that so much steampunk revolves around the same era and location in history: Victorian England. (One could even narrow it further to the city of London.) But the world is vast with thousands of cultures and ages of history, and the end of the 1800s in Japan, the Meiji era, is practically real-life, historical steampunk. Men in kimono with guns and top hats; women in dresses and corsets that they don't totally understand and are wearing improperly (Russia is also guilty of this). Why was no one touching this?

I am not a seamstress, though I have made a few costumes in my time. My art is writing, so naturally, writing is how I chose to contribute to the genre of steampunk which I enjoy so much. When I sat down to pen my own steampunk story, I didn't really know anything about Victorian England or London, then or now. Aside from a surprisingly lovely four hour layover in Heathrow, I've never been to England. So I went with what I do know, and that is Japan.

Having an unusual setting isn't enough to carry a story, though. I wanted unique characters. I chose for my heroine to have albinism for a few different reasons. First, you don't see many main characters with albinism, and I think that should change. Second, pale skin is prized in Japan, sometimes to the point of illness due to vitamin deficiency. Third, this is a time when Japan was essentially emulating Western Europe, specifically England. A person with white hair and blue eyes is going to be extra alluring to someone who is already enamored with Western people and culture. Albinism doesn't define Yuki, and it isn't the sole reason Fukui is attracted to her, but there is definitely an influence there on both of them, and I think it's an interesting element to throw into the mix.

I really enjoyed the time I spent immersed in old world Japan, and I hope to revisit it soon.

Crysta's Links: 

Website: http://lifefroma2.blogspot.com/p/bio.html

Twitter: @ckcoburn

A big thank you to Crysta for letting me behind the scenes of her writing and if you haven't read The Waiting Future yet dive straight in!

You can buy Valves & Vixens here:

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LAD2QKS

Amazon USA: http://amzn.com/B00LAD2QKS

All Romance Ebooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-valvesvixens-1556820-362.html

Now onto that giveaway news!

I was greatly honoured that Professor Elemental agreed to write the forward for this anthology. For those of you who don't know of him I suggest you head here and turn up the volume on your computer (in my opinion his best track is still Fighting Trousers, but the newest single All in Together is just amazing): http://www.professorelemental.com/

As a celebration of this fusing we have decided to run a giveaway!

If you buy Valves & Vixens (thank you thank you thank you!) email me the reciept and I will put you into a draw to win a Professor Elemental CD (or if you would prefer it all on mp3 that, or a t-shirt).

If you buy something to do with Professor Elemental (from here: http://www.professorelemental.com/emporium) even if it's just one song email me proof of it and I will put you into a draw to win a print copy of Valves & Vixens. 

And! If you are wonderful and buy something from both of us send me both reciepts and I will put you into the draw twice to win something of your choice from one of us (ie. a back copy of a book, a cd etc..) 

Email the entries to: valvesandvixens 'at' gmail 'dot' com

This giveaway will be continuing until the end of August so you can always get multiple entries in!