This week, I am mostly doing research for my dissertation, which, as I'm sure you're bored of hearing now, is all about 'Ladies of the night' in Victorian Lichfield.  Currently, I'm ploughing through every edition of the weekly 'Lichfield Mercury' from 1877 to 1900; and it's fairly slow going, so only a brief blog update this week.

However, I thought you might appreciate this idea I've just found in the Mercury from 18th February 1892...

To get round the Sunday licensing laws at the time, it seems that those crafty Canadians had a cunning plan, when the proprietor of a 'candy-store' (sweet shop to us English folk) was arraigned for 'selling liquor on a Sunday out of whiskey corsets'.    After months of observation, the police had seen a customer hand the shop owner 5cents.  The proprietor promptly produced a rubber tube from under his waistcoat and handed it to the customer, who gave it a jolly good suck (!).  When the officer pounced, a search revealed that the shop owner wore a double layer tin corset, with sufficient space in between layers to hold over a gallon of whiskey.  'The police discovered that many a buxom candy-store woman wore similar tank-corsets and did a rushing business with rubber tubes on Sundays'.  I bet they did.

So there you have it, folks, whiskey corsets... rumours of tea corsets for steampunks are hopefully scaldingly unfounded.

Back to the newspapers.  I'll keep you posted...

That's right, there's a few things to update you on this week, so let's see how we go...

... for Sunday's gig at the Black Country Steam-o-Rama at The Griffin, 8 Stone Street, Dudley, DY1 1NS, from 5pm, Sunday 20th July - FREE ENTRY
Reasons you should attend:

• It's a nice early finish, so you'll still be able to get up for work in the morning
• Crimson Clocks will be doing some more recording for a video - and we'd like you to take part with your own recording!*
• There will be tea dueling**, hosted by me and ably abetted by Mr Steven C. Davis as biscuit wallah
• There will be opportunity to purchase books written by Mr Davis and myself, just in time to take away with you on your summer holidays.
• There will be other stalls, including Sparkles By Gem, Steampunk Relics, and Clare's Prints, with shiny things available
• There will be music from BB Blackdog as well as Crimson Clocks
• There will be a lovely steampunk burlesque performance from Steam Tease
• It's FREE Entry! That's FREE!

*Videoing - we are making a video for our song, Shadow.  When we play it, we'd like YOU to film a clip of yourself watching, and us playing, and send it to us.  Doesn't have to be high quality, or even very long.  We'll then merge them all together to make a video so that we can be watching you watching us watching you watching us....   send clips to CrimsonClocks@CrimsonClocks.com, please!  And include your name!

** tea dueling - a ferocious face-off between dashing duelists - the terror of the high teas!  Face your opponent over a malted milk biscuit.  Do you have the nerve?? Open to all...

...for Southcart Books, who, you'll remember hosted a book reading only the other week - see my blog from last week.  Southcart are the only independent bookseller for miles around, and they are looking for ways to help them stay around.  So they've set up a crowdfunder to try to fund improvements to the shop and help to keep it a community venue, with events for local people, and accessible to all.  You can read more here and there's also a facebook event here.

...in a helicopter, no less, was what I was doing last weekend!  Is there no end to my jet-set lifestyle? (yes there is).  A helicopter pleasure flight over Berkshire and surrounds enabled me to capture some in-flight pics, some of which may be appearing in a 'mystery' project later this year... watch this space.

As to the helicopter flight itself, it was a great experience, taking us towards Farnborough Airfield, close enough to London that we could see The Shard, plus over lots of very posh houses and other things.  A word to the wise, though - when the helicopter banks, hold onto your stomach.  Eep!

Right, that's it for now, back to the dissertation work we go...  stay vigilant!

Last Saturday was spent in a bookshop.  What better way to spend a Saturday?

Actually, not only were there books in this bookshop, there were authors and publishers too.  In fact, it was Southcart Books' Writers Gathering, bringing together a selection of local talent in the only independent bookshop for miles around.

A thoroughly lovely time was had by all.  It was great to hear what other writers from a whole range of genres are getting up to, and to compare various notes and tactics afterwards.  It was also great to talk about steampunk and writing with people relatively unfamiliar to the scene - although The Automata Wars are more genre straddling than strictly steampunk, there's certainly a lot of influence (though, as we discussed on the day, since The Automata Wars don't contain any reference to airships, can they possibly be steampunk??).

With any luck, Scott and Amy, Southcart's owners, will soon be holding a few copies of both volumes of The Automata Wars in stock, which will be fantastic.  And we look forward to more events of a similar type at the shop in due course.  Thanks to Scott, Amy and to A. Stuart Williams for putting it all together and hosting it so well.

(PS - if you're trying to find Southcart Books - don't give up!  Lower Hall Lane goes round a corner past a building called Market Hall and to the right... I discovered after wandering around Walsall for a while)

Of course, the event also gave me the opportunity to browse the bookshelves a little, and here's where the envy part came in.

There were books on the shelves.

Well, yes, there are books on my shelves too.  But for nearly two years now, I've been working on my Masters degree, and most of the books I've actually read during that time have been purely factual, and entirely linked to my studies.  They've been interesting.  But it's not quite the same thing.

The end is in sight now.  In September, I will finish my dissertation, and hand it in.  And then.... then... I get to attack the nice pile of books that are calling to me siren-style from my book cases.  And who knows, I may even treat myself to a new one (or several), and actually have time to read them!

In the meantime, though, I continue to plough through copies of the Lichfield Mercury from the late Victorian era, in search of ladies of the night (for the dissertation, remember).  They're almost as good as a book.  My favourite lady, aged 29, when receiving her latest sentence following her 23rd court appearance, told the magistrate she could do 21 days hard labour 'standing on her head'.  No wonder she's so popular.

So expect subsequent blogs up to September to contain musings on Victorian newspapers, crime statistics, and attitudes.  After all, we're in this together, aren't we?  Well, we are now...

Have you ever walked around your local town, looking for a bookshop?  Chances are in the UK that you might find something like a Waterstones bookshop, with multiple floors and probably a coffee shop, in a bigger town.  In smaller places, WHSmiths, discount booksellers The Works, or even your local supermarket may have bookshelves and be the closest thing there is to a bookseller around.  But gather round, boys and girls, because once upon a time, the streets were paved with independent booksellers...

Well, maybe not quite paved, but certainly they were fairly readily available.  Nowadays... not so much.  A search for my closest independent bookseller tells me that it is the other side of Birmingham, in Walsall, a place called Southcart Books (more about them in a minute).  Birmingham, England’s self-proclaimed second city, and once home to the inestimable Andromeda Books, a store containing a veritable cornucopia of science fiction and the like, has no, I repeat, no independent bookstores left.

But you don’t need them, do you?  After all, there’s two Waterstones in Birmingham, and there’s always Amazon, everyone’s first choice for –er – pretty much everything these days.  They even seller cat litter, you know (generally not for reading purposes).

I’m as guilty as anyone else of shopping at places like Amazon and Waterstones.  And to be honest, it’s actually easier to shop online than in store these days.  I have gone in to large bookstores on more than one occasion, spent an age in there, and come out empty handed.  You see, when confronted by so much choice, it’s actually very difficult to discover that hidden gem that is just the very thing you’ve been dying to read – but didn’t actually know about until the very instant your beady eyes lit upon the cover.

Of course, browsing online actually is no easier – so you tend to shop for particular titles that you know about, or have had recommended, etc.  As a result, your capacity to discover, and to actually read, the new, the unusual, the untested, and the non-mainstream, is sorely reduced.  Which is exactly where those little independent bookstores come in.

This week (28th June – 5th July) is Independent Booksellers Week - a week dedicated to those few remaining bookstores where it is still possible – and indeed enjoyable – to wander around and browse through a range of different books.  Some, perhaps, from local authors or independent publishers.  Books  that you may never have seen or heard of before, now revealed to you in all their wordy glory (missus).  Hopefully, in these places, you can find something to tickle your literary taste-buds, without being  overwhelmed by a glut of mainstream titles or swamped in more books than you can possibly choose between.

On Saturday, as part of Independent Booksellers Week, I’ll be taking part in the Writers Gathering at the aforementioned independent Southcart Books in Walsall, along with a number of other authors and publishers.  Local author A. Stuart Williams has worked with Scott and Amy, Southcart owners,  to arrange the event, and will also be one of the readers – full programme below.  Southcart books sell used, new and vintage books and comics with a leaning towards horror, sci-fi and fantasy, and are stocking the works of a range of local authors as well.  It’s a fantastic opportunity for me to check out my nearest independent bookseller – hope you can come along.  And if not why not find out where your nearest independent seller is and pay them a visit?  You may be surprised at what you can find...


12pm – 12.15pm: WELCOME AND INTROS: Scott & Amy of Southcart books and A. Stuart Williams.

12.20pm – 12.40pm: A. Stuart Williams – Author, SF/New Pulp/Steampunk.

12.45pm – 1.05pm: Alison Reed - Author, Secretary, Walsall Writers' Circle.

1.10pm – 1.30pm: LM Cooke - Author, Steampunk/Singist.

1.35pm – 1.55pm: Adrian Middleton - Author/Publisher at Fringe Works.

2pm – 2.20pm: Lucy Onions - Author.

2.25pm – 2.45pm: Theresa Derwin - Author/Publisher at KnightWatch Press.

2.50pm – 3.10pm: Rob Grimes - Author/Publisher at The Penguin's Head

3.15pm – 3.35pm: Ian Billings - Children's Author, Playwright and more