Steamypunk, Lunar Shorts, and NPH Goes Bollywood

And how are these three things related, you ask?

Well, they aren’t. They’re just what’s occupying my brain today.

That, and preparing for my youngest daughter’s birthday party while chastising my teenage daughter for burning through all her lunch money by buying expensive drinks at the snack bar every day…

But I digress…

Steamypunk? That’s Steampunk with an emphasis on the steam. Not the kind that powers implausible inventions…the kind that results from a romantic connection that progresses beyond sonnets and chaste kisses in the moonlight. My NaNoWriMo story is Night on Bald Mountain, which is the fifth (or maybe the first? It could be the first. No…I think it’s the fifth…) book in my Victoria Pontifex series which is not yet published. I want all five books to be well integrated and edited together before I take the next step. Do you like my mock-up cover? Umm… well, that’s why I don’t do my own REAL covers. It’s good enough to get a feel for the book. The background is Storm in the Rocky Mountains, an 1866 landscape oil painting by German-American painter Albert Bierstadt. The woman is Amelia Earhart, who has absolutely nothing to do with the story, but she reminded me of my heroine. I’m 10,000 words in and right on track with my daily writing goal.

Lunar shorts? Again, I have fun with graphics but I leave the finished product to the professionals. I made up this fun little icon when I started writing the stories a couple of years ago. When they were picked up by Distinguished Press earlier this year, the design team came up with the much nicer artwork you see above.

“Lunar Shorts” is play on words for the short stories about life on Earth’s moon in the near future. The Cities of Luna launched today, so of course I’m spending a great deal of my time doing promotion for both the single release, Moon Dragons, and the Collection.

Thus, I am very busy today. (I just informed my teenager that she is banned from using her lunch account for a week. She can pack PBJs from home. So there.)

So, what has occupied my time for the past hour? (Other than writing this blog post.)

Searching Youtube for videos with Neil Patrick Harris and the Muppets.

I found many teasers. I have not been able to determine whether he has a cameo in one of the movies—he’s not credited as such—although he did do an episode of Sesame Street some years ago.

The closest I’ve found so far is