Yep, it's Christmas of 2023, and steampunk is NOT (quite) dead!  So, for what it's worth, here's my Christmas 2017 picture, followed by this year's:

      Yep, it's the same little tree, with the…

      This is another little something I made as a tie-in to the Calloway, Regnad, & Associates (CR&A) universe.

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      To create this, I found some…

       When I've posted this map previously, I haven't gone into much detail describing it, but this time I will.

      The CR&A solar system is probably a bit different from yours.  There are eleven planets in this solar system, and they all have Greek names.  The innermost planet, Hephæstus, isn't much more than an extremely large rock that…

Howdy. My name is William J. Jackson, and while many of you don't know me personally, I'd like to change that. While many of you fine folk express yourselves through attire, manners, convention hosting, and a whole litany of skills, I channel my eccentricities best via writing.

The Rail Legacy is about superhuman powers developing in America in the 1870s. It's about heroes. Mutation. Race division in the US. Militarism. It's about a nation grateful for the work of heroes, only to turn…

      If one is involved with various types of investigations, and the apprehension of wanted criminals, like my character is, being able to get into (or out of) locked areas, and keeping any outlaws captured alive under control, can be useful.  So, I've collected a few items to facilitate that.  Like keys -

      These are pretty much ordinary keys…

      Ballistol (from the words 'ballistic' and 'oleum') is a multi-purpose oil, first compounded in 1904 by Dr. Helmut Klever as a response to the German Imperial Army's request for a substance that could be used to clean and lubricate a soldier's firearm, as well as protect the wooden parts, and also protect his leather gear.  It was adopted by the German army in 1905, and remained in use until 1945.  So it's not quite Victorian, but does predate World War I by ten years.  And yes, it's…

Busy writing, writing my little stories to amuse my friends.  I find myself laughing to myself as I write, is it funny or am I becoming unhinged?  Could it be both?  Working hard to maintain my status as a mad scientist.

      OK, first off, I will shamelessly point out that putting "Steampunk" as the first word of the title simply gets more attention.  Now on to the carbide lamp.

      I used to think these things had been around for ages, but it turns out that these lamps did not come into general use until the very last years of the 19th century.  (They were used primarily by miners, and cave explorers, as well…

      OK, for some reason, I was considering entering a post about how (in the United States) The European Grand Tour evolved into See America due to the onset of WWI.  The Grand Tour was something that only the wealthy could indulge in.  But the war sent thousands or "regular, everyday Americans" to Europe who would otherwise never have gone there.  This reminded me of the song "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree?)".  When I…

      I don't believe I have any talent when it comes to drawing, but I think I have managed to develop some skills with cobbling together visual images by computer manipulation.  By using this so-called skill, I've made something from the CR&A universe that I've been meaning to for a long time.  It's made using some found images, and various free fonts.  I've uploaded the image full size, so it may look better opened in a separate window.…

      For a number of reasons (see here), I've been collecting replica Confederate currency for some time.  Most of these bills include pictures of real people, mainly important individuals from general American history, or Confederate leaders of the time.  It wasn't too difficult to identify who they were, except for one of them.…

      OK, not very steampunk, but with the current conditions, this may at least be informative for some people.

      Recently, the city council where I live has made the wearing of face masks in retail establishments mandatory.  No definition of what amounts to a 'face mask' was stipulated, so I've been wearing a black bandana so I look like an old west outlaw.   Heh.   But the whole mask business seems to be a big deal, and I've done a fair amount of research into masks as…

      Yet more coincidences relating to the character of Adele Calloway, her name, and fictional family.

      I'll point out once more that the name "Adele Calloway" simply popped into my head one day, in November of 2012.

      Just now, I decided to look up the name Calloway.  It turns out to be not terribly uncommon in Texas, where Adele is from.  There are a number of place names, and business names containing Calloway, and it is also the name of an early community…

      Alright, I've decided to post a CR&A story.  This is a short one, but it's one I've wanted to type up for some time, and now that I have, I'd like to let others read it.  It's in my script format, and everything in it belongs to me!  (Sorry, but I feel I need to say that.)  Anyways -

                         P. Aloysius Regnad Presents:

                    A (rather important) CR&A Gaiden

                      "Regnad and the…

      By the standards of movies, and television, one is lead to believe that the most popular card based gambling game in the old west was poker.  This is NOT true!  It was Faro. (Or Pharo, or Pharaoh.)

      Faro is a game of chance played with our "normal" 52 card deck, in what is now called "poker" size. (In the days of the Wild West, they were just as likely to be called a Faro Deck.)  Faro requires a "layout" that looks like this:…

      OK, once one has decent replica coins and currency, one needs a way to spend it, right?  So what better way than to plunk it down on the poker, faro, blackjack, or craps table!  (At least in the Wild Steampunk West, where my CR&A character lives.)  So that means playing cards, and dice.  Cards first -

      There are pretty much two options - the Highlanders 1864 deck…

      I'm going to try and recreate this series all over again.

      I like to have "period" (like there's an actual Steampunk period, right?) items around to inspire me, and to "use" if I ever go to any kind of steampunk event.  Replica money is as good a place as any to start. (The whole issue of replica money is clouded by the fact that some people (and maybe agencies) think this is the same as counterfeiting.  I don't see this as the case, but it limits what's…

      This was originally posted under the title  "Where do (my) ideas come from?"  on the old Steampunk Empire website.  And things in square brackets [ ] are modern insertions.

-      (WARNING - This post contains what those reading [ or having read ] my CR&A stories may consider to be spoilers.  [ Or maybe not.  It's quite possible that no one reading this is familiar with my material. ]  Anyways, proceed at your own risk.)

      I considered a lengthy introduction to…

      OK, I've described coincidences 1, 3, and 4, so I may as well reiterate #2.

      AFTER thinking up the character of Adele Calloway, giving her a romantic relationship with the character based on me, and deciding on her birthday (September 23, 1882), I decided to see how "we" relate according to the so-called "Chinese Zodiac".  In simplest terms, this assigns an animal to a person according to the year of their birth, and indicates certain characteristics which a person with a…