Dreaming up steampunkery

I had the coolest dream last night.

I dreamed that I was in some kind of a steampunk/regency universe–basically, everyone dressed up like the Victorian era and fought with fencing sabers.  I was contracted to go and fight the phantom of the opera, who for some reason was holed up in the JFSB (except, it wasn’t exactly the JFSB, just somewhat analogous). The phantom had a whole bunch of cronies and thugs, and I had to fight them in order to get to him.  Unfortunately, I lost, and his thugs disarmed me and took me prisoner.

Just then, my wife (future wife–I’m not married or engaged right now) came in to rescue me.  The dream panned out so that I was seeing it from her perspective (previously, it had been a sort of detached 3rd person).  She snuck up on the guy guarding the door and stabbed him in the back with a dagger.  Leaving him to die, she jumped into the JFSB where I was (you know the part underneath the big glass facade, three stories below the English department, where the spiral stairs are…except there were no spiral stairs in the dream, just some old dirty couches), and started this awesome swordfight.  She cut down a couple of guys, then attacked the guard holding me captive–and killed him by thrusting her sword through his throat.

It was pretty cool. 😛 Totally reminded me of Vin from Mistborn.  What a woman!

When I woke up from the dream, I wanted to go write some steampunk.  If/whenever I get around to writing a steampunk novel, I definitely want a strong female character who can do that kind of stuff.  Through the throat.  What a way to go!  Suffocate on your own blood while your opponent walks away, leaving you to die.  It’s bad enough getting stabbed in the stomach, but the throat–that takes style.  And improvisation.  Cool.

By Joe Vasicek

Joe Vasicek is the author of more than twenty science fiction books, including the Star Wanderers and Sons of the Starfarers series. As a young man, he studied Arabic and traveled across the Middle East and the Caucasus. He claims Utah as his home.

3 comments

  1. I’m so glad to see the word “steampunkery” officially on the internet. I’m even more glad to see that you had a steampunk dream.

    Perhaps the woman you were seeing was Marie from my story. But I don’t know that Marie would stab someone in the throat, so maybe not.

    Anyways, now that we’re done with 318, I intend to read your blog more (I got a spoiler once, so I decided to stop reading until the end of the semester).

  2. Hey thanks! And yeah, I did have your novel in mind actually. It was pretty cool. I hope you finish that thing. And thanks for checking out my blog! Hope you enjoy it.

  3. Dang, what a vivid, detailed dream! That’s awesome, OLL. I have one of those like once a year.
    My last one wasn’t nearly as cool as yours. For whatever reason, I had decided completely on a whim to go to China for study abroad, and I hadn’t told *anyone* about it. Everything seems to be going fine for a while (though I continue wondering why I went there), until one day me and the other students get held hostage by nameless terrorists in black. I was tripping. That was about it for the dream though. (Kind of anticlimactic)

    They always say to use elements from your dreams in stories, but I never have anything cool happen, the rare few times I actually do have a dream.

    But you’ve got a story right there in your dream, OLL! Pretty much. I mean, it’s got steampunk, action, and the JFSB! What more could you want.

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