Once again, I am participating in the monthly blog-chain over at the AbsoluteWrite Water Cooler, which is once again hosted by the lovely and talented and blue-haired Ahiela(and to me, blue hair only makes her hotter[I should also note that discussion of hair color this month is perfectly acceptable-hotness, is between her and I]).

Our topic this month is Color, in the context of our writings.

This one was both easy, and difficult for me. I write Steampunk, and if any of you read this fine genre, then like me the first color you think of is Brown.

It was once said, that ‘Brown is what happens when a goth discovers steampunk’. This was inaccurately attributed to Cherie Priest(who also has hot blue hair). Priest is quite a character herself. She lives in Seattle(like Aheila lives too far away for me to stalk), but travels quite a bit to various conventions to both promote her books and to revel in steampunk culture. She has been called the Voodoo Queen of Steampunk. And as much as brown is the official color of steampunk when you think of Cherie Priest, you think of Blue and Green, two colors she loves to dress in, and the colors she most often colors her hair.

Back to Brown. Shades of brown from dirty leather to brick to the red-brown of dried blood. Steampunk revels in brown. It revels in it, celebrates it. Brown is definitely the color of my writing. Even a piece of art I commissioned for my story Toy Maker’s Apprentice is brown. You can see it by clicking on the link to your right. Go ahead, it wont hurt. It’s a nice piece of art by Clockworks artist Shawn Gaston, and I have a link to his comic below.

Then I was thinking about my novel and various stories, most of which are set in the same fictional universe, a dystopian, dark fantasy. Brown and grey. I thought about colors both as descriptions and as an emotional state. There is little green and blue in my world(though Ethan, my MC has blue skin), there is little color at all. The sky is dingy and grey, and like most steampunk settings, everything is covered in a thin layer of ash. Even when I describe people’s clothing, it’s usually shades of brown or grey. And then I once again thought of Ethan, and his blue skin.

Ethan is one of the few bright splashes of color in my universe, both literally and figuratively. Part of steampunk, is the dystopian setting. The people are worn down and tired, and have little spark. But not Ethan. Even in this dreary, soot-covered world, he writes his poems and lives in the moment, one little bright spark surrounded by brown, like a brightly colored minnow darting about a muddy pond.

The only other significant piece of color in my book, is Seji’s flower, which represents her path to personal growth away from the Savant’s control and towards Ethan’s love.

It was an interesting mental exercise to think of these things, and to realize how little color I use in my writing, and how I can(and unconsciously did) use it for contrast.

Please take a moment to visit the blogs of our other participants, and leave a coment.

Aheïla: http://thewriteaholicblog.wordpress.com and direct link to her post
Ralph_Pines: http://ralfast.wordpress.com/ and direct link to her post
AuburnAssassin: http://clairegillian.wordpress.com/ and direct link to her post
semmie: http://semmie.wordpress.com/ and direct link to her post
Anarchicq: http://anarchicq.com/ and direct link to her post
PASeasholtz: http://www.paseasholtz.com/
LadyMage: http://www.katherinegilraine.com/
orion_mk3: http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com/
DavidZahir: http://zahirblue.blogspot.com/
aimeelaine: http://www.aimeelaine.com/writing/blog
Alpha_Echo: http://writersramblings81.blogspot.com/
FreshHell: http://freshhell.wordpress.com/
sbclark: http://sonyaclark.blogspot.com/