NEW ANNOUNCEMENT!
I’m excited to mention that I’ve been asked to speak at Dragon*Con this year! Please see below for details for more info about the panels I’ll be at.
SATURDAY
“Steam Queens & Clockwork Hookers: Women in Steampunk”
Hosted by Emilie Bush
1 PM
Alternative History Track Room, Westin Hotel
SUNDAY
“Gender & Race Inequalities in Alternate History”
Hosted by Austin Sirkin
7 PM
Alternative History Track Room, Westin Hotel
More info at http://chronotrack.org
***
First, the epic convention in the world of geekery is coming in less than three weeks: DRAGON*CON. I’ll be there with with the crew of The Wandering Legion down in Atlanta. I’ve never been before, but it looks like it’ll be bursting to the brim with shenanigans. And people will attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the most steampunks in a photoshoot. Will you be there?
In other news, over the past few months I’ve been working of an 7-part series for Matt Delman’s blog Free the Princess: Steampunks Around the World, Unite: Multiculturalism in Steampunk.
After the series ends, the final essay will be posted in its entirety for Doc Fantastique’s Show of Wonders and Steampunk Magazine. So, either read along the next couple of weeks or altogether afterward and, as always, you can drop me a line to share your ponderings with me.
ETA: Here is a current listing of the Steampunks Around the World, Unite series, updated as it’s posted on Free the Princess:
Part 1 Multiculturalism: One compass, many directions
Part 2 The Learning Factory: the Development of Mass Education in the Victorian Era
Part 3 Stirring up the Melting Pot: From Assimilation to Multiculturalism
Part 4 Steampunk Subculture & Modern Education: Teaching Yesterday’s History Today
Part 5 Cracks in the Blackboard–Where the Universal is Personal
Part 6 Intersection of Steampunk & the Non-West: Endorsing the Hegemony or Rebelling with a Cause?
Conclusion: Why Multiculturalism is Steampunk
Read in its entirety at Doc Fantastique’s Show of Wonders.
Beyond Victoriana 
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Legion Approved!
It will be fantastic to have you aboard the Thomas Tew for the trek down to the land of peaches!
~Lucretia Dearfour
Chef of the Wandering Legion
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I really enjoyed your session and wished that you were also at the Race and Star Wars session on Monday too. Star Wars totally racefails. One of the people in the session excused the lack of people of color in Star Wars because authors write what they know. So they know aliens but not people of color?
Afterwards, I talked with 2 people who referenced your workshop as the better way to address race in fiction.
Hi Red,
Thanks so much for coming out to the panel! This year was my first Dragon*Con and sadly I spent all Monday in a car driving back north. I’d love the ability to speak at more panels, though, and hope to at next year’s con.
And about Star Wars: Mike Perschon, the Steampunk Scholar has a paper in the works analyzing Steam Wars where he talks about the Orientalism it exhibits (and is further emphasized in steampunk interpretations). I can’t wait to read it, and you might be interested in that too when it comes out.
I also forgot to rec the one resource that I always do when talking about writing race in fiction: Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward’s Writing the Other. I’ll be sure to add that in my Dragon*Con recap post.