I have a new passion. It’s called Steampunk.

To many people, the word represents the epitome of geekdom, but to these same geeks, the word denotes high adventure, mechanical butterflies and sky pirates.

Steampunk is a little-known subculture. I had never heard of it until I stumbled on a reference while researching Edith Nesbit for an essay. One of my favorite Nesbit heroes, Oswald Bastable of The Treasure Seekers, was borrowed by author Michael Moorcock in the mid seventies -- the result is an early Steampunk trilogy called “Nomad of Time.” The novels sound bizarre, but interesting, dealing with an alternate version of the 20^th century in which WWII never happened.. I’ve never been a science fiction fan – anything but “A Wrinkle in Time” bores me. Alternate universes, though, I might be able to handle.

My favorite Steampunk blog, Brass Goggles, has a very nice breakdown of the different subgenres of steampunk. Jules Verne was one of the original Steampunk authors, although his particular subgenre is classed as “Voyages Extraodinaire.” Wild/Weird West also sounds interesting – I think this one may have been adopted by some Japanese artists, giant mechanical spiders and all!

Brass Goggles has all sorts of wonderful links to art, fiction music (who knew there was such a thing as Steampunk music?) forums and Steampunk publications.

Through Brass Goggles, I found The Steampunk Home. It’s like Martha Stewart with corsets and hot air balloons. The décor is really too dark for my tastes, but the whole mad scientist meets Victorian gentleman meets otherworldly artisan thing is pretty cool. Oh! And hidden libraries with secret doors! Who wouldn’t love that?

Voyages Extraodinaires deals more with film and literature. There are some entries on books genres, and video clips galore. I’ll be exploring it more thoroughly soon.

I cannot conclude this blog without directing your attention to the slightly macabre, but very, very beautiful art of Mike Libby at Insect Lab Studio. Clockwork beetles, delicate geared grasshoppers and butterflies with gold wire antennae teem in his galleries – all of them made with real preserved insects.

On top of the amazing costumes, art and general weirdness, this discovery of mine is sparking some very interesting plot ideas … sky pirates have a certain appeal, after all.