When to use one; when to eschew one; questions that have plagued writers and English students since the invention of punctuation. I direct you to a website, provided courtesy of steampunk writer Cherie Priest, that answers all your questions and some you didn’t even know you had.
Now I digress. What, you ask, is steampunk? Steampunk is a speculative fiction sub-genre that advances Victorian-era technology in a straight line and is often/usually set in the Victorian era. (Remember that Queen Victoria ruled for a long time.) Imagine steam-powered machine guns, automobiles, etc. In the graphics novel category, an example would be League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The Difference Engine would be an example of an early steampunk novel. There are schools of thought about whether west-coast steampunk is more “frontier” and east-coast is more urbanized/”Victorian,” and I don’t know about southern and southwestern steampunk. Mostly, it’s fun, and it’s a prose style that allows the writer to indulge in many a semi-colon.
This was the most interesting bit I’ve read on the web in some time. I wonder what Cormac McCarthy would say; he who transcends punctuation.
I’m sure I messed that up.
You didn’t mess it up at all, and welcome! I see you took Terry’s not-so-subtle hint. I just popped over to your blog. I liked what I saw. I hope I have some more time this weekend to read around on it.
Not much of interest on my blog; I can assure of that. (This semi-colon stuff is fun!) I wrote it.
You have mastered the semi-colon; I stand in awe of your expertise. I liked your blog. I hope to learn a lot about rum (particularly how to appreciate it more). I wanted to ask you what you thought of a book you referenced called _Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks_, because I may want to get it for my friend Daniel who is a fantasy freak and a gaming geek.
I haven’t thought to write on the appreciation of rum. Perhaps I put the cart before the horse. That book as really funny. I can’t claim to be a freak or geek, but I feel if I knew that crowd growing up I’d have fit in. If your friend can laugh at himself, I’m pretty sure he’ll like it.