Please help me welcome long time friend of the Smart Girls and one very smart and talented author, Heather Massey, to the blog! We are just one stop on The Great Steampunk Romance Airship Tour.  At each stop readers will find a fun, informative post about a steampunk romance topic and have a chance to enter to win some great prizes. See The Galaxy Express for a complete list of tour stops.

Celebrating The “Q” In Steampunk Romance

by Heather Massey

Gay and lesbian steampunk romance is one way to satisfy the urge for diversity in one’s reading, especially if you like steam powered devices. Plus, authors have an opportunity to subvert the steampunk romance subgenre and challenge assumptions about sexual orientation. But it’s also fun to have rollicking action-adventure steampunk romances where the lead characters just happen to be queer!

Given that many steampunk romances are set during the Victorian age, LGBTQ stories can explore the challenges of being gay or lesbian in a repressive society against a backdrop of changing technology. Or they can go the alternate history route and create a steampunk world where one’s sexual orientation isn’t an issue.

Steampunk romance has a decent number of LGBTQ stories, many of them character-driven. The lion’s share seems to be titles featuring m/m pairings. M/m stories are fun, but I wish there were more lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender steampunk romances available—and not just erotic ones. The possibilities are endless, but will authors and publishers feel comfortable taking the risk? It’s easy for me to ask for more LGBTQ stories; quite another for the market to support them.

That said, one anthology I particularly enjoyed is Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories (JoSelle Vanderhooft, Editor). Some of the stories are romances with an HEA/HFN and readers can meet a variety of empowering heroines. In fact, I was so happy with my reading experience that I blogged about this anthology at Babbling About Books, and More! during Katiebabs’s Lesbian Fiction Appreciation Event.

I look forward to more adventures in LGBTQ steampunk romance. I’m grateful that digital publishing has made it easier for readers to find them.

Speaking of easy-to-find, here’s a list of m/m steampunk romances for you (the setting is technology-based as opposed to magic/supernatural):

• Island of Icarus – Christine Danse
• The Outlaw; The Revolutionary – Rebecca Leigh
• Far Too Human – Anitra Lynn McLeod
• A Certain Pressure in the Pipes – Clancy Nacht
• Sky Rat – Angelia Sparrow
• The Inventor’s Companion – Ariel Tachna
• Noble Metals – L.A. Witt

Giveaway time!

Leave a comment for this post and you’ll be entered for a chance to win the following ebooks:

Far Too Human – Anitra Lynn McLeod (winner’s choice PDF, ePub, or .mobi)

Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories – JoSelle Vanderhooft, Editor (winner’s choice ePub or .mobi)

And there’s more! Everyone who leaves a comment at any of the stops on The Great Steampunk Romance Airship Tour will be entered for a chance to win the Grand Prize:

$100 e-gift card (winner’s choice Amazon or B&N)

75$ e-gift certificate to Clockwork Couture

1 digital copy of IRON GUNS, BLAZING HEARTS (winner’s choice PDF, ePub, or .mobi)

Please include your email address. The deadline to enter all of the giveaways will be midnight PST on February 14. On Friday, February 15, check back here to see if you’ve won an ebook prize.

The grand prize winner will be announced on February 15 at The Galaxy Express.

About the Author

Heather Massey is a lifelong fan of science fiction romance. She searches for sci-fi romance adventures aboard her blog, The Galaxy Express. She’s also an author in the subgenre. To learn more about her published work, visit heathermassey.com.

Iron Guns, Blazing Hearts (February 2013; Lyrical Press)

The West just got a whole lot wilder.

A woman on a mission… Scientific achievement isn’t enough for Violet Whitcomb. Life working alongside her renowned scientist father is filled with intellectual challenges, but what she truly craves is love and adventure. She’s resigned to a fate of academic pursuits–until a fateful trip across the American frontier changes everything. A rogue inventor known as the Iron Scorpion kidnaps Violet’s father and she alone is left to plan his rescue.

A man with a secret… Logan McCoy knows firsthand going up against the Iron Scorpion is suicide, but he can’t let Violet waltz into the villain’s lair alone. She may be a stranger, but she’s also the most compelling woman he’s ever known.

A perilous quest… Their attraction is undeniable, but their alliance turns contentious when Violet insists on including a third partner on their mission: her father’s latest invention and the world’s most advanced automaton, Arthur. The reason for Logan’s resistance isn’t clear until Violet comes face-to-face with the Iron Scorpion’s diabolical devices, and by then, it’s far too late.