rgz

readergirlz is a literacy and social media project for teens, awarded the National Book Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize. The rgz blog serves as a depot for news and YA reviews from industry professionals and teens. As volunteers return full force to their own YA writing, the organization continues to hold one initiative a year to impact teen literacy. All are welcome to "like" us on Facebook!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Cherie Priest Loves Steampunk

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n63/n317319.jpg

Last month, the postergirlz recommended Cherie Priest's novel Boneshaker alongside our feature pick for March, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. I recently interviewed Cherie for my blog, Bildungsroman, and wanted to share a piece of our conversation here:

Little Willow: How were you introduced to steampunk?

Cherie Priest: I've always really loved the Victorian aesthetic, particularly the fun tech aspects of it -- so as steampunk has come into its own I went right along with it. Though it's been around for a long time (in movies, TV shows, video games, books, and more) it feels like the last five or ten years have really seen it gain serious pop culture traction.

I guess one of my earliest "awareness" moments was probably the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at Disney World, which has since been revamped to a "Finding Nemo" themed ride -- much to my personal horror. The 20K LUTS had the whole nine steampunk yards going for it -- the look, the sound, the tech, the villains, the heroes ... all of it. The first time I ever went on that ride I was a kid (early to mid 1980s), and I remember thinking that one day I wanted a house decorated just like the Nautilus.

Click here to read the entire interview!

3 comments:

Lorie Ann Grover said...

This is such a cool interview. Way to go, Cherie!

Diana Vick said...

Cherie, you MUST go to Tokyo Disney Seas and see Mysterious Island. It's an entire area themed to 20,000 Leagues decor. Absolutely amazing!

~Diana
www.steamcon.org

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.