Money Making, Blogging and Steampunk

I received an e-mail about taking advantage of money making opportunities with my blog.  Who couldn’t use an extra buck every now and again, and yet when considering it I was struck with the reason of why I write this blog.  I do it for myself.  Why do I write my books?  I write the books I want to read that nobody else has written.  My blog posts are for me.  I enjoy the fact the others have decided to follow along and that the number of those who read my blog posts is rising.  Something I write about is important enough that people periodically want to read it.

So for now I will not be putting ad's or banners on my blog.  It's not that I am not a capitalist! I am!  It is just that I don't want to get to where I am writing for particular readers or leaning towards selling something on my blog.  I would rather use it as the warm-up for my brain and fingers before jumping back into the world of my imagination and make believe.  I want to focus on writing books.  Notice I said writing books, not selling books.

I know to sell more books:

1.  I need to be discovered.

2.  Build a following of readers.

3.  Write more books.

4.  Most importantly I need to write better books.

I know my first two novels which are available for sale at all your finer e-book purchasing outlets were rushed and contain numerous English and Grammatical errors and display a need of better editing on my part.  I am wholly responsible for any and all mistakes contained therein.  I also didn't know if I had any inkling of talent for writing at this time last year.  I have become convinced that I do.  Thanks to those adventurous readers who don't have a stroke when reading less than perfect writing, who actually read the stuff they are reviewing, and who approach books, as I do, with an open mind and a willingness to be taken into the authors world of imagination.  The number of four to five star reviews outnumbers the one and two star reviews.  The repeated statement that 'I have never read anything like this before' in numerous reviews has me convinced that I am on the right track.

Now someday when I am sitting at home, semi-retired, meaning I am not working for someone else anymore and sustaining myself on the wits of my declining brain and my writing, then I might commercialize my blog and start trying to make money off of it.  I pray that by the time that day gets here I am making enough money off of my books that I won't need to sell stuff on my blog.  God forbid I go that route and end up with some banner for a political candidate running on my blog.  I might be forced to stop blogging and kill myself over the dishonor of it.

With all that being said and being slightly held up in the writing phase because of my intensive study of this flawed, fickle and another adjective that begins with F that isn't socially acceptable, in our common language, I have discovered a movement that appears to be growing.  I don't know how long it has been around or when the term was coined that describes it.  I recognize it when I see it, and I love the aesthetic qualities of it that I have seen in gadgets, movies and fashion.

It is known as STEAMPUNK!  I tried briefly, playing around surfing, to define it through researching aspects of it.  Now like other such movements I am not one that is going to come up with an alternative name and persona and dress up and go to the local Steampunk ball, club, or event, but as a writer I am intrigued with the subject.

I have expressed earlier in blog posts about my vacuum airship ideas and one of my motivations for writing is to create and bring to life elements of my imagination that I could never actually build in real life.  I have been toying around with ideas where I could use my vacuum ships as a central element within a story to describe it, explain the differences between it and traditional airships and the advantages versus traditional airships.  Some of the main elements of Steampunk are goggles, corsets, gadgets, things with gears, and giant AIRSHIPS!

I have downloaded a couple of Steampunk stories to read in order to try and get an idea of what is out there and what the genre is like.  I have discovered that the genre includes detective stories, adventure, erotica, time travel, and vampire/werewolves themes.  I was searching to see if there was any cardinal rules to which if I ventured into this genre, that if I violated,  would get me expelled from entering the movement from a literary standpoint. 

Examples of Steampunk movies are "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman", "Sherlock Holmes", "HUGO", and literary works of Jules Verne and the like.  They seem to herald Jules Verne and the Victorian Era as the founding Genesis of their movement.  It is stuff we know and can recognize, I had just never put the term and the art forms associated with it together.  I truly feel this movement of art, culture, and design is going to be the vehicle for my vacuum airships.  As more of the pieces come together and gell into an idea for a novel I will share them here with you.  If you haven’t seen the elements of this movement try surfing for Steampunk.  I had heard the name and didn’t give it any notice until the name was attached to some really cool artwork!  I love it in spite of the name.

Posted in: Blogging Writing Steampunk Airships