CommuniTea Steampunk Weekend.

Three days of steampunk fun and community, and I’m exhausted!

I caught up with some old friends, and made new ones. The event was run via Zoom and Discord. I’m not great with tech, so I loved this combo. I just had to click on the posted Zoom links, and it was easy to find the Discord forums for each topic. There were two video/audio panels, which were easy to use as well.

Each day had a different teacup and assortment of pins

Day 1:

After my laptop crashed, I decamped to Dearheart’s laptop for the weekend, with lots of tea, for:

• Libations with the Literati – social hour centring on writers and publishing.


• Bottling Lightning – with amazing steampunk artists: James Ng, Joe Phillips, Talia Lopez, and Maya Preisler


• David Lee Summers (a astronomer in real life) chatted about Mars and our history.


• Cog Match game – (fill in the blanks) I got to play and even managed some matches!


• Intoxicating Historicals. Kat Martin regaled us with historical tales (as a result, I’ve bought several more research books on 19thC health)

 

Day 2:

So many panels I have to wait to watch in youTube replay…

• more music


• compliment duelling


• Victorian dating during the pandemic in the wee hours (US time).


• And Discord video chats into the wee hours…

I was honoured to be asked by Madame Askew to be a guest for ‘Pressing the Ink: Self and Indie Pub Adventures’. I was joined by Catherine Lundoff, Joyce Chng, Danielle Ackley-McPahil (who co wrote Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn), Robert Dahlen (Tales Of Peavley Manor), and Nicole Givens Kurtz.

  

Day 3:

• Sadly, I missed the Time Travel Baking, with Gail Carriger as a guest (3.30 am ACST), but caught up with Ms Carriger for The Valve Gag: A Discussion in Steampunk Comedy.


• The day finished up with Discord live sketches by Audra Balion, and a chat about Arduinos (electronics), and other tech add-ons for costume. (I’ll have to wrap my head around it all.)

I’ve had a ball, immersing in steampunk, costumes, writing, art, cooking, history, and more, in a safe, inclusive environment, with amazing, accepting people. I’m going into hibernation for a few days to recover.

 

Pros/Cons:

Cons:

Due to timezone differences, I couldn’t attend panels between 1.30am and 8.30am Adelaide time.

The Discord video panels couldn’t be recorded.

Pros:

Fortunately the Zoom panels were recorded (and the indie panel I was on, was changed to Zoom and got recorded!)

You will be able to (eventually) see some of the fun on Madame’s youTube channel.

Patrons received a sneak peek of this post on 12th April.

CommuniTea Steampunk Weekend.