The Best of Spanish Steampunk by James Womack

MW: Outside of Spain, we are very happy with the interest being generated: interviews and reviews etc. MW: It’s too early to know: I hope to hear stories of fans getting phrases tattooed on their biceps in the near future, but we’re waiting for the fun to start.ĪA: A tattoo would certainly indicate a high level of impact, not to mention commitment! What kind of attention has THE BEST OF SPANISH STEAMPUNK generated? But I think that everything that I was offered that reached a high enough level of achievement ended up being accepted.ĪA: What are some memorable fan reactions to THE BEST OF SPANISH STEAMPUNK which you’ve heard about ? MW: We tried to be very inclusive (there were times that I felt that the only limitation was the translator’s RSI…), but in order to support inclusivity I tended to prefer shorter stories, and there were a few that fell by the wayside simply for being a little overlong. MW: How many good writers there are out there how important it is to read in translation how travel broadens the mind…ĪA: Not everything can make it into any one book – what didn’t make it into the final version? I think we’ve done a lot with Spanish steampunk at the moment, but of course, as the genre carries on developing, maybe five years down the line there’ll be something more to work with.ĪA: When people read THE BEST OF SPANISH STEAMPUNK, what would you like for them to take away from the stories and the book as a whole? MW: The rewritings of Spanish contemporary history are I think the most interesting bits, speaking personally: the stories that pick up on Max Aub and Salvador Dalì, for example, or the visions and revisions of the anarchist history of the pre-Civil War period.ĪA: Are there any plans for a sequel or spinoff? A Lovecraftian house that thinks…ĪA: Without giving spoilers, what interesting things will readers find along the way? Automata are perhaps the most obvious things, but maybe they’re not really ‘things’ per se. MW: Steamships crop up a lot, and time machines. Laura Fernández is the key example, she’s a very funny very inventive writer but this was, I think, her first steampunk tale.ĪA: Are there any objects or things which play a major role in telling one story or another? Ships, devices, etc? MW: Some of the people I approached were well-known speculative fiction authors who had not yet tried their hand at steampunk.

Translation is always an issue, and very little material is translated from Spanish.

Marian Womack: As far as the international steampunk community is concerned, sadly I think that it’s most of them.

Īirship Ambassador: Who are some authors who might not be well known yet in the steampunk community? Welcome back for part two of our talk with Marian Womack, who is the editor, along with James Womack, of THE BEST OF SPANISH STEAMPUNK.

The Best of Spanish Steampunk by James Womack