Spanish-language Links of Interest: Antologia Retrofuturisme and Aristofagia

So, two awesome things! Araceli Rodriguez of the Mexican steampunk magazine Mercenarios de DIOS pinged me to have me expect the upcoming anthology Planes B: Antologia Retrofuturisme! With an all-woman design crew, Mercenarios de DIOS has produced an anthology featuring Latin@ writers, with special guest Jeff Vandermeer (his story "Fixing Hanover" has been translated for this anthology).

If you're a Spanish-language reader, you can pop on over to Ricardo Montesinos' blog to read the first chapter of his story "El Hombre Que Invento Libertalia"!

Secondly, on Steampunk Chile's Twitter feed was this link to Artefactum Vapore's song Aristofagia on SoundCloud, complete with lyrics for you to sing along. Further clicking leads to their previous track Victoria. 

Link of Interest: Cosplaying James Ng's Imperial Sheriff

Over at Beyond Victoriana, the Steampunk Panda decided to make his debut into cosplay with an ambitious project: James Ng's Imperial Sheriff: 

I don't know why anyone would want to start off in steampunk with this much work, but if you got the ovaries for it, go for it, you know? Did he succeed? Well, pop on over to read his essay and check out the pictures, and judge for yourself! It is good to see more Asian dudes in steampunk actually being Asian.

The Steampunk Postcolonialist Goes Back To School

And it's for the long-haul, folks. If you haven't heard me bitching about moving on Twitter, whinging about the desert heat, and other assorted complaints, the news is this:

In about a week I'll begin my PhD at the University of California, Riverside, in the Comparative Literature department. As a bit of shameless self-promotion, ya'll should pick up Steampunk III: Revolution, edited by Ann Vandermeer, for my essay which will probably act as my prospectus for my dissertation. My name is already on the list of current graduate students, and I'm going to begin the courtship dance search for committee members soon enough,

I'm... not sure what this will mean for this blog. There's been a long silence (which admittedly is not exactly abnormal) because I've been so stressed about moving I've basically been taking Fukitol pills towards a lot of stuff. Which kinda sucks for this blog because there have been a ton of things I owe it: a con report on Steampunk World's Fair, a post on Hugo (which I watched while I sat in Emirates' Business Class, and the only real takeaway I have from the experience is how much I want to eat the rich), a rant on passive racism that's been percolating, interviews with some cool people I met while I was home in Malaysia, and more steampunk POC interviews (yes this is an admission that there may not be another steampunk POC interview next month, sorry). 

I hope to be able to share with you thoughts on things I study and learn and begin to articulate for the next two years as I muddle through coursework, the quarter system, and having to write papers every three months (WHAT THE HELL).

Unfortunately, this means I'm out of the con circuit for a while, especially for the East Coast cons. I'm shooting for SteamCon this year (more to hang out with my cousin, host parties, and watch Nate Johnstone than anything else) and next year, Salt City Steam Fest and PDX GearCon, but other than that, I don't foresee myself finding the time, especially for all the spring conventions (because the quarter system is ridiculous). 

Nonetheless, I encourage emails! Even if I don't respond to you immediately, I'd still like to hear from you and have conversations, especially on the art production and business side of our communities.