The BEA panel happened a while back, but a detailed summary of it just went online over at BSC Review. It's well worth reading, for anyone who enjoys alternate history — but it's required reading for writers, in particular, becuase the authors talk a lot about their writing process, how they deal with moments when they freeze up, and especially how they do research.

The authors in question are: Scott Westerfeld, author of the Pretties/Uglies series, who is now creating an alternate history where Charles Darwin invented bio-engineering and World War I is fought using fantastical hybrid creatures; Holly Black, whose White Cat involves a version of Prohibition where magic is outlawed; and Cassandra Clare, whose alternate Victorian era includes demon-powered automatons.

So why are people, especially young readers, so fascinated with alternate history? Westerfeld theorized that it's because people enjoy recognizing a familiar world, with one jarring difference. But you have to be subtle about revealing this alternate universe to your readers, Black points out: To the characters themselves, this altered reality won't seem strange at all, but simply the fabric of their everyday lives. [BSC Review]

Link and Grant's STEAMPUNK!: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories comes out in the fall of 2011 from Candlewick Press, one of the the fastest-growing children's publishers. Contributors, so far, include Link herself, plus China Mieville, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, M.T. Anderson, Elizabeth Knox, Dylan Horrocks, Delia Sherman, and Ysabeau Wilce. Horrocks is best known as a comics writer, for his work on titles like Hicksville and Books Of Magic, but he's writing a short story for this book. Also, Grant says Wilce's Flora Segunda series is "un-put-downable."

So why a young-adult steampunk book? Grant explains:

We wanted to do this book because we realized that steampunk had completely overtaken the young adult field (Cassandra Clare, Scott Westerfeld, Jenny Davidson, Kenneth Oppel, etc., etc.) so maybe we could corral them into the same place and put together a fabulous book. (We may not be able to corral quite all of them!) Kelly really got me back into reading YA fiction a while ago and I'm a big fan and as we watched Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci put together their Geektastic anthology it just looked like so much fun that we wanted to try it. Especially the way they (in Geektastic) and Deborah Noyes (in Creepshow — she's also our editor!), brought in comics. Basically if we could get Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill to write us a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen story, we'd be over the moon.

We've edited LCRW together since 1996 and did 5 years as the fantasy editors of The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, so we know we can work together on it OK.

And why are we so fascinated with steampunk in the first place? Is it just nostalgia, or something else? Says Grant:

I have no idea why steampunk has the zeitgeist by the jabot but I love that it [does]. I love the modded-present day stuff and the hearkening back to the chunky, shiny designs of 100+ years ago. I think part of it has to be the pride of work well done. In steampunk you know that Captain Nemo's submarine isn't going to have a faulty starter: it will be a handmade, beautifully tooled piece of equipment. Maybe in our shoddy-mass-marketed-world of ever-lower-prices leading to ever-lower-quality there's an attraction to handmade materials? So, maybe it is just about the crazy machines? Or, maybe it's about secret histories? Science fiction is so prevalent in pop culture that maybe alternate history is a breath of fresh air? Who knows? Sure is fun, though.

Amazing Steampunk art by the mega-talented Suzanne Forbes.

One of the most interesting panels at this year's Readercon was an exploration of the steampunk design movement, as it emerged into the mainstream with May's New York Times Style article. Writer/puppeteer Mary Robinette Kowal, YA fantasy novelist Holly Black, Tor editor Liz Gorinsky, and speculative fiction writer Sarah Micklem gathered to show off their steampunk creations, discuss steampunk's literary origins, share their favorite steampunk websites ... and, of course, to design a Gibson chair for the fannish masses.

As with every genre, there are purists of steampunk — those who insist that if it ain't steam and it ain't punk, it doesn't count (Catherynne Valente is, famously, one of them). Since this style reached the mainstream, however, it became something much broader. At its heart, Kowal and Gorinsky noted, steampunk represents a literary fascination with the past, a desire to bring beauty and care into a seemingly rushed and impersonal modern life. Black called it "decorating like your subgenre," being brave enough to fashion your home and possessions like the fiction of your dreams. It's about individualism and originality: By the time mass-produced, identical steampunk shirts hit Hot Topic, much of the movement's essence will be lost.

In the panelists' view, steampunk also denotes a nostalgia for the days of simple inventions. In the Victorian era, it was possible to look at a typewriter or a sewing machine and divine its purpose from its appearance. No one who still wears a cummerbund could figure out the function of an iPod that way. The exposed gears and bolts of a steampunk machine gives us the illusion that we know how it works, and that we could build one ourselves given the time. Steampunk is the old-fashioned gadgetry to the modern world's newfangled technology.

With that in mind, the panel shared their favorites of the steampunk design movement. They hailed creator Jake von Slatt of the Steampunk Workshop — rightly so, for his steampunk Stratocaster is not to be missed. Also mentioned were the blogs Steampunk Home (I want that rococo outlet multiplier) and Brass Goggles. Though it's not really steampunk design, Black couldn't resist a shout-out to Gothic Martha Stewart either; really, who could?

No steampunk panel would be complete without the revelation of secret art projects by its members. Holly Black was the first to admit to using steampunk design in the renovation of her house, and Mary Robinette Kowal achieved BoingBoing fame a few years ago for her steampunk laptop, but this was the first time anyone had seen Sarah Micklem's objet d'art. It was handmade ... from a piece of leather and two human finger bones. She wouldn't reveal their origin. She did, however, take part in the design of a "Gibson chair," named both for iconic art character the Gibson girl and cyberpunk author William Gibson.

Here are the decided-upon elements of a Gibson chair:

• made out of leather, brass, wood
• steam-powered (possibly featuring an attached "steam jet pack"?)
• steam-heated (or steam-cooled, in the summer)
• very comfortable (mahogany and velvet pads, like an unusually indulgent dentist's chair)
• featuring gears and clockwork
• revolves 360 degrees
• has attached flutter-valve for gentle vibration
• has attached "brain in a jar" for mad scientist purposes
• has attached vampire ray gun for cross-genre purposes

Go forth and create, io9ers! I can bet you someone from that panel will pay you big bucks for such a stylish seat.

Image by Sam Van Olffen.