Monday, September 28, 2015

Free stuff!

For the month of the campaign, contributors Timothy Dimacali and Paolo Chikiamco are making some previous work available for free!

In "Skygypsies," Timothy teams up with John Raymond Bumanglag to give us a look into a possible future for the Badjau people, who are also known as 'seagypsies.' (The Malay-speaking world may recognize that name, though we spell it "Bajau.")

"High Society" is Paolo's collaboration with artist Hannah Buena, a story set in the Animata universe that Paolo's story in The SEA is Ours is part of. Anti-colonial pushback from the spirits of the land!

Enjoy!

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Starred Review!

This just in: The SEA Is Ours received a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly!

A couple of lines from the review:
The tropes and trappings of steampunk alternate history bind together this exciting anthology of stories set in and inspired by the broadly defined region of Southeast Asia (SEA). ... Even the slighter stories have the craft, perspective, and components that merit savoring, and the finest would be worth considering for any year’s best anthology.
Congratulations to our writers! Our IndieGoGo continues apace!

50% Funded!

As of the third day, our IndieGoGo is now 51% funded!

A special thanks goes to Anna Gustafsson Chen, whose donation pushed us over the 50%  mark!

Joyce and Jaymee recorded more videos as goofy update bonuses for little milestones, so when we got to 40%, we uploaded one for viewing pleasure! Here we are talking about Singapore's supertrees and crystal domes.


Thursday, September 24, 2015

New Special Guest Reward!

Our fundraiser continues apace! Today we hit 38% funded. The Dean Alfar Short Story and Eve Shi Novel rewards are still up for grabs.

Also, romance novelist Jeannie Lin is joining our roster of Special Guests! For $150, you get all the perks plus your name incorporated into her next steampunk short story!

Jeannie's latest work includes The Gunpowder Chronicles series of steampunk romance novels set around the Opium Wars. Many of her novels are set in Tang Dynasty China.

Keep an eye out for Jeannie's Special Guest Reward!

Asian American Press mention!

We're up on Asian American Press! Friend Bryan once interviewed editrixes Jaymee and Joyce, and the IGG campaign gets a mention in the main news section under Books!

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Official Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: sea.steampunk@gmail.com

Maryland—Small publisher Rosarium Publishing will release The SEA Is Ours: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia this fall.
            Edited by Singaporean novelist Joyce Chng and Malaysian writer and critic Jaymee Goh, this anthology redefines steampunk from a Southeast Asian perspective. Usually described as Victorian science fiction, steampunk has quickly gained critical mass from its disparate beginnings as a niche aesthetic into a world-wide subcultural movement. Multicultural steampunk has always been part of its development, exemplified by works such as James Ng’s Imperial Steamworks art pieces, Elizabeth LaPensée’s short film “The Path Without End,” and anthologies like STEAMFUNK! and Steampunk World. The SEA Is Ours is the first collection to curate steampunk stories from across Southeast Asia and its diaspora.
            Both editors have long been involved in speculative fiction. Joyce Chng is the author of several urban fantasy and Young Adult novels written from a Singaporean perspective. Jaymee Goh, currently a PhD Candidate at the University of California, Riverside, has published short fiction and poetry, including a series of short stories set in a re-imagined Malaysia uncolonized by the West. Both are also consistent critics of the genre’s Eurocentrism. “We felt unsatisfied by representations of Southeast Asia in most of speculative fiction,” Goh says in an interview with Asian American Press, “and felt very strongly that steampunk would be a really great way of talking about the myriad histories in the region.”
            The SEA Is Ours will feature writers from Southeast Asia and beyond, with steampunk stories set in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. A blend of previously published writers and upcoming names, it is Southeast Asian not only in name but in essence, with 11 of its 12 writers being Southeast Asian or of Southeast Asian descent. Each story will have an accompanying illustration challenging common steampunk-associated visuals.
            Rosarium Publishing made a splash in speculative fiction with its 2013 anthology Mothership: Tales of Afrofuturism and Beyond. Since then it has published several ongoing comic titles such as Kid Code by graphic arts professor John Jennings, DayBlack by tattoo artist Keef Cross, and The Little Red Fish by designer Bizhan Khodabandeh. Its oeuvre includes young adult comic Malice in Ovenland by Micheline Hess, adult graphic memoir Jennifer’s Journal by Jennifer Cruté, and satirical novel Koontown Killing Kaper by founder Bill Campbell. Its most recent anthology release was Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany, which received high critical praise.

            The SEA Is Ours is set for a November 1, 2015 release. Its fundraising campaign runs September 23 to October 22, 2015. More information is available at http://igg.me/at/TheSEAisOurs. Further information and updates can be found at its blog (http://sea-steampunk.blogspot.com/) and Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/SoutheastAsianSteampunk). The editors can be reached for further comment through email (sea.steampunk@gmail.com) or through Twitter at @jolantru (Joyce Chng) and @jhameia (Jaymee Goh).

IndieGoGo Campaign has Launched!

We have just launched our IndieGoGo campaign! We are aiming for $8,000 (and have optimistically added stretch goals!) and our perks include a Singaporean speculative microfiction anthology edited by editrix Joyce and fellow Singaporean writer J.Y. Yang, and a steampunk Shakespeare anthology edited by editrix Jaymee and steampunk publisher Matthew Delman of the now defunct Doc Fantastique Books!

Hope you like the perks! 

Monday, September 21, 2015

Fundraiser Special Guests!

We are excited to announce that for the IndieGoGo campaign, we will have Special Guest Rewards!

You will have a chance to be written into a short story by Dean Francis Alfar, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, or Cecilia Tan!

Or become poem-stuff (that gets eaten by an eldritch horror) in a poem by Bryan Thao Worra!

Or transform into a character in one of Eve Shi's Indonesian pop novels!

Or get short story critiques by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz or Nin Harris!

Check back! Check back often! They will go up slowly over the course of the month. We start with Dean and Bryan in conjunction with Strange Horizon's fund drive

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Review from Germany!

Early reviews of The SEA Is Ours ARCs keep coming in! This one is from Marcus Gilman from Germany! It's quite exciting to see our stuff in other non-British and non-North American hands. A little of what he had to say about our little anthology:
The SEA is Ours: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia is beautiful, exciting, and it makes your inner Steampunk landscape more complete. It also reminds you that there are cultures in this part of the world Europeans and North Americans usually know so little about, that are older than our own, that have their own histories, stories and ways to deal with the world.
Check it out, and also check out the whole site, Traveler's Steampunk Blog!