Tag: research

Hi, all:

I bring you a book by an author whose books I have featured many times here, and whose blog I follow. Here she brings us a book full of information and wonder. It just goes to prove that reality can be more incredible than fiction.

Real Steampunkery Tech: True Contraptions of the Steam and Diesel Eras (Author Tool Chest) by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene

This book is a compilation of interesting inventions and other significant things the author found in the course of researching her various stories that were set in the Steam, Victorian, Edwardian, or Diesel Eras. It is collected from multiple sources including antique photos, historic newspaper and magazine articles, as well as patent applications and images. However, rights to those photos weren’t available, so they aren’t included. It is not a scholarly work, but for historians and students, it serves as a springboard for further research
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This book highlights the contraptions that the author found significant in their uniqueness, or things we take for granted, or are fascinating in some other way. Some of these you may have seen, while others will seem strange, unexpected, or even grotesque.
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There is also a special bonus section with mini-bios about Forgotten Women Inventors.

About the author:

Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene is certain that the pen is in your hand. After a life shaped by the tragedy of losing a sibling to Mµnchaµsen §yndr◊me by Pr◊xy, along with the abµ§e she herself survived, Teagan took that metaphorical pen into her hand. She wrote her way to a new chapter of life with a successful career authoring and editing technical documentation. With another revision that pen took her to the next chapter, working alongside highly placed Federal executives to compose their communications. However, Teagan wasn’t finished. The pen was still in her hand. In her latest chapter she is an acclaimed multi-genre author, living in a high desert town in the Southwest of the USA. Rescue cats, the §coobies — Velma and Daphne, offer unsolicited advice on all stories, as well as the book covers Teagan designs.

This author’s stories range from paranormal to high fantasy and urban fantasy, to various steampunk (and other types of punk), to mysteries with historic settings. In addition to fiction, she has created the Author Tool Chest series of non-fiction works as resources for writers and anyone who loves language. In free time she enjoys conversations with friends, singing karaoke, and playing her piano.

See her book trailer videos at Youtube.

My review:

I have read many books by the author, fiction, and non-fiction, and I have followed her blog, where she shares her stories (some of her famous serials), news, and posts full of imagination and information. She writes in many different genres, always with an emphasis on fancy and whimsy; and she likes to mix genres. Her stories range from high fantasy to historical fiction, and she has always shown an eye for detail and a research interest, not only in inventions and historical events, but also in the clothing, the language, and the social mores of the era in question.

I have recently enjoyed one of her steampunk serials, and I am not the only reader fascinated by some of the real inventions and characters featured in some of the books. Therefore, I was very happy to see that she had added to her Author Tool Chest collection, this time with a book about the steam and diesel eras.

Readers who aren’t authors shouldn’t be put off by the title. Yes, the book is a great resource for people thinking of writing about those periods, but anybody interested in reading about these eras and curious about the inventions and the inventors of the time will enjoy this book and be amazed at the kind of things our ancestors would come up with. Of course, some might still be in use (with some changes), but others sound incredible and far-fetched. Who would have thought?

This small volume is written in the format of a dictionary, which facilitates finding specific information about inventors or ‘contraptions’. There is also a final section dedicated to women inventors, and I found that portion of the book particularly enlightening and fascinating, as there are so many women I had heard nothing about before reading this book and some whose contributions have been ignored, disputed or simply claimed by others until very recently. The most worrisome aspect of this is that as you read about them, you have the feeling that we are only scratching the surface, and there must be many more who haven’t been discovered yet. The author includes a longer biography of Hedy Lamarr, focused not on her acting but on her inventions and the lack of recognition she and her partner (George Antheil) got. If she had difficulty getting acknowledged, imagine what it must have been like for somebody totally unknown (although, it is true that beautiful women can get sidetracked because nobody expects them to be intelligent, as if both things couldn’t coexist in the same person).

The book includes some images, mostly of the inventors, but not many of the contraptions (one suspects that is probably due to copyright issues).

As the author explains in her note, she has not tried to include all possible information but to provide a taster and encourage readers to research the characters and the inventions they want to know more about. This text is a great way to get started and a book that will fire up readers’ imaginations and make them want to know more about those eras that have become so popular recently.

Another great book from Teagan Riordáin Geneviene, entertaining, informative, and a good resource for authors, researchers, and curious readers alike.

Thanks to the author for her book and all her hard work, thanks to all of you for following, visiting, reading, liking, sharing, and clicking, and remember to keep smiling and reading this year 2025!