What’s a 50 in 50 list?

A list of things I want to do or achieve by the time I hit the youthful age of 50! I have tried to divide mine by type of thing. Let’s just say I’ll be busy for awhile!

Maureen’s List:

Writing:

1. Finish a full length novel manuscript
2. Do a script-writing course at NIDA
3. Submit a script to the BBC Writers Room
4. Get a drama commissioned by the ABC or BBC
5. Write a Doctor Who audio for Big Finish
6. Write an episode of TV Doctor Who
7. Publish novels through a mainstream publisher
8. Do a Writers Residency overseas
9. Do a Writers Residency in Australia
10. Collaborate on a writing project with another author
11. Sell 10 000 books
12. Record my overseas cousins life stories and make it into novels

Careers:

13. Run my own kick-ass NGO
14. Work for Community Catalyst UK
15. Work inside Westminster
16. Make my own inclusive tour company all about pop culture themes
17. Create my own cafe and secondhand bookstore micro business

Cons/Festivals:

18. Go to the Agatha Christie Festival in the UK
19. Go to the UK CrimeFest
20. Go to World Fantasy Con at least once
21. Go to San Diego Comic Con

Travel:

22. Go to Broadway and see a musical
23. Design and do own self-tour of Cornwall/Wales around ‘the historical’ Merlin and King Arthur
24. See the Aurora Borealis ie Northern Lights
25. Make like Kiera Knightley on a cruise in the Carribean ie a pirate’s life for me!
26. Go to Cambodia/Laos/Vietnam
27. Walk Macchu Pichu
28. See The Sphinx and the Pyramids and do a Nile cruise
29. See Paris and the French countryside
30. Ride the Orient Express and read Murder on the Orient Express as I do it
31. Go to PEI and do the whole Anne of Green Gables thing
32. Bike ride across Europe

In My Community:
33. Learn to sing
34. Be in an amateur play
35. Take German lessons at Community College
36. Learn to dance ‘the Tango Maureen’

Celebrities:

37. Meet Helena Bonham Carter and tell her that she’s awesome
38. “I’ll be there, I’ll be seen/having tea with the Queen/I’ll forget everything/That I’ve ever, ever been” but only the once
39. Meet The Eleventh Doctor
40. Have a conversation with Phillip Pullman
41. Work on a project with Neil Gaiman or Amanda Palmer OR BOTH
42. Have an actor read my poetry onto audio beautifully

Miscellaneous:

43. Fall passionately in love
44. Have a library in my house with the words ‘The World is Quiet Here’ on the door frame
45. Have a classic Disney DVD library
46. Have a TV drama library
47. Dye my hair a crazy colour/s
48. Take part in a mass historical re-enactment
49. Join the circus
50. Re-live ‘If Life Were a Musical’ with a flash mob!

1. The Time Machine by H G Wells

Though this story is not steampunk per se, it was books such as this, 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Journey to the Centre of the Earth which influenced the scope of the genre. If you wanted to try another precursor type, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde is very famous.

2. The Mortal Engines quartet by Philip Reeve

A post apocalyptic story which involves airships aplenty.

3. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

A time travel fantasy novel involving dangerous Ancient Egyptian magic! There’s something for everyone in this book. Incidentally, Tim Powers wrote On Stranger Tides, which Disney optioned to use for ideas in the fourth Pirates of the Carribean film.

4. Northern Lights (Book 1 of His Dark Materials) by Philip Pullman

Pullman’s alternative Oxford was plenty steampunk in this first book which sees Lyra off to find out the mystery of Dust.

5. Soulless by Gail Carriger

I have reviewed this novel previously on InkAshlings. A comedy of manners crossed with the paranormal crossed with romance crossed with steam punk might seem a bit much. Surprisingly, it works and is a heck of a lot of fun!

6. Perdido Street Station by China Mielville

This book has won a lot of literary awards for its writing style and originality. A parallel fantasy universe with steampunk technology, Mielville depicts an industrial police state tackling Victorian values along the way.

7. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

A young adult novel which explores an altenate World War One using the steampunk genre.

8. Worldshaker/Liberater by Richard Harland

Another young adult author from Australia, Harland explores an alternate Imperial era marked by different choices made during the Napoleonic Wars. Harland explores leftover British values of class, gender and status in these two juggernaut steampunk novels.

8. The Extraudinaires by Micheal Pryor

Yet another YA Australian author, Pryor loves the steampunk genre and writes about it often at his website. This particular series sees old school magic, adventure and steampunk settings combined to generate a whole lot of exciting reading.

9. Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Steampunk combined with zombies in New York. Exciting stuff!

10. Infernal Devices by K. W. Jeter

A steampunkian Victorian fantasy which has recently been reprinted by Angry Robots Books. This older book features clockwork creations which were to become a mainstay of the genre.

Do you read steampunk? What are your favourites?