Steampunk Saturdays with Mary Wine of A Lady Can Never Be Too Curios (Guest Post/Giveaway)

Hello lovelies and welcome to Steampunk Saturdays here at Reading Between the Wines! Every Saturday during the month of August we will be featuring some fabulous steampunk authors and books. For those who are unfamiliar with steampunk I would like to welcome historical romance author, Mary Wine. Mary is dipping her toes in the Steampunk genre with her new release, A Lady Can Never Be Too Curios, and has a wonderful post for those new to the genre!

A lot of readers ask me what ‘Steam Punk’ is. In fact, when I first started hearing the term for this gene, I was curious myself. In short, it’s Victorian Sci-fi. A historical setting and characters which has the added element of advanced technology. Not anything that you would find in today’s world, which would ruin the historical nature of the book.

The historical setting was essential to my plot. Writing a ‘Steam Punk’ means understanding your historical setting. I think the biggest challenge was making sure I didn’t introduce too many modern ideas. I wanted to have my secret society to be the opposite of Victorian society in their view on equality and that took a little doing to make sure I didn’t have my heroine sounding like a city girl from 2012.

The Victorians did enjoy their secret societies. Reaching the Masons and other orders was a great deal of fun. For my book, I decided to create a fictional order called the Illuminist. These would be my ‘Steam Punkers’. The people who devoted themselves to science while shunning illogical social niceties which got in the way of expanding understanding. I gave them the very controversial custom of allowing women into their order which is in conflict with the Victorian idea of ‘The gentle sex’. It made for a few conflicts and forced my heroine to choose because the Victorians were very clear on one point…you did not cross class lines. By joining the Illuminists, the upper crust of society was no longer willing to accept my heroine.

I do love writing historical. In the case of ‘A Lady Can never be too Curious’, it was great fun being able to place my characters in the Victorian era. I’ll admit that I adore wearing a bustle. It’s true. Here is a picture of me in my newest ‘Steam Punk’ dress. Lots of people seem to be enjoying incorporating  touches of Victorian attire into their dressing. Yes, I’ve gone all out but that’s just the insane historical costumer in me. She likes to have her way.

I hope you enjoy my little journey into Victorian Steam Punk.

Cheers!

Mary Wine

MaryWine.com

MaryWine_author on Twitter

On the outside, Janette Aston appears to be a proper young lady; however, the people of England have no idea that this poised young miss secretly studies the scientific discoveries of the mysterious Illuminist Society. Janette soon grows hungry for more secrets about this Society, and she finds herself impersonating an Illuminist to discover more information. As she is exposed to secrets and dangers she never could have imagined, she begins to wonder if she's finally gone too far. But when she runs into gorgeous Illuminist Guardian Darius Lawley, she finds that, while her life is in danger, her sense of curiosity is most certainly piqued...

~*GIVEAWAY*~

Sourcebooks is giving away one copy of A Lady Can Never Be Too Curios to one US or Canadian reader. To enter, just leave a question or comment on this post for Mary and then fill out the rafflecopter below. Additional entries are available but not required. Good luck!

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