 Mystery: October 01, 2014 Issue [#6582] |
  Mystery
This week: Mysteries driven by clockworks and steam Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Life is a Mystery -
Living is the journey of wonderment
discovering the clues
All that I see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
E.A. Poe
Welcome to this week's edition of the Mystery Newsletter. A mystery by nature is a question in search of an answer - a puzzle! And when we uncover the answer to the question, effectively solving the puzzle moments before the writer gives us the solution, follow clues tactile and cerebral, the momentary satisfaction is sublime! And we can have fun along the way.
If there were no mystery left to explore
life would get rather dull, wouldn't it?
Sidney Buchman
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Greetings, fellow sleuths and puzzlers of stories and poems of people and places and objects mysterious 
Consider the following, we know that a 'good' mystery will have several suspects of which one of the least obvious commits the crime. It will have several red herrings tucked in with the bait (clues) to trick the reader into believing a false theory, but it can't be too fishy, lest the puzzle get lost and become unsolvable. A good mystery allows the reader to uncover and discard clues, finding the real ones to follow to their resolution. A good mystery also has both types of evidence, physical and verbal, that the reader and the detective need to integrate in order to obtain the solution.
A 'good' steampunk story is, very often, I believe a well 'crafted'  mystery. Long set as a form of science fiction or fantasy, steampunk is defining itself (over the past few decades} from classic steampunk mysteries of the past (Jules Verne's, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes) to mysteries penned today by authors, like Michael Coorlim in his Bartleby and James detective stories (where the pair make reference to knowing 'Holmes' as an older gent, retired), which are set in Edwardian England. Each of these above are puzzled by - and solved by - means of devices mechanical, steam powered and some cool clockworks.
These stories are classic mysteries, I believe, postulating a theory, then searching for clues both by use of common sense, and by creative engineering (yes, we see the clockworks, the steam-powered vehicles, mechanical devices imagined and used both to set the mystery and to solve it  . Both the readers of mysteries and of steampunk stories are natural detectives, eager to find and solve clues in an attempt to solve the puzzle created by the authors.
We can see the parallels in crafting a mystery (puzzle), whether it be cozy, noir, procedural, and a steampunk story or poem. The two combined create a unique puzzle where the reader and protagonist face obstacles to solving clues that lead to a resolution that is unexpected yet believable and satisfying to the reader and sleuth.
Both mysteries and steampunk 'works' are puzzles, with rational and believable solutions for the reader (and sleuth) to uncover by following the clues planted (built) for them by the authors.
I'm intrigued by this blend of mystery and steampunk. I think it's a creative and fun build . We often speak of crafting mysteries; well, we can physically craft a mystery of both clues and solutions that are built of steam, and cogs and clockworks both of the past, and an alternate present, or future past. So let's get our sleuthing tools working 
Write On 
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Check out some mysteries woven and solved with the aid of steam and airships, mechanical marvels and clockworks of the past, present and present past Let the craftsmen/women of these mysteries know you've solved the puzzles by way of a review, perchance Then, grab your own writer's tools and craft a steampunk mystery in verse or prose 
| | | Arrival (ASR)
Steampunk flash fiction
Prompt: 500 words or less steampunk
#2008947 by ~MM~  |
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Thank you for this respite in your virtual home. As a guest host, I don't have a formal Ask and Answer, but invite you to share your mysteries of mechanical designs and quandaries with our Community.
Until we next meet, may your clues flow like 'clockwork'
Write On
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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