The Journey
“The Journey of Inspector Roux” was the result of a single idea: in the steampunk world, what sort of medical advancements would be available?
I was in the middle of editing my science fiction novel the day my daughter invited me to join her in writing a short story for this Steampunk anthology. Medical advancements in the sci-fi universe are expected, even taken for granted, but what about in the alternate reality of steampunk?
Steampunk is full of extraordinary inventions, on a grand scale. I could easily imagine that accidents in a steam-driven society would have the potential to be frequent as well as catastrophic. Medical technology would need to step up in order to meet the needs of those injured in such incidents.
My character, Inspector Roux, is dealing with the aftermath of a fiery accident. (Not a spoiler, you’ll know that from page 1). His personal preference is to not be noticed; however, therefore his choice of medical aide is generally not as exciting as what could be available to a less humble man. The opportunity to look around him and speculate on the endless possibilities of medical advancement in a steampunk society is what makes me think I might be willing to revisit his story-world in the future.
I found the characters of Inspector Roux, and his side-kick Junior Inspector Noel easy to write. We are all surrounded by people dealing with various medical issues and sometimes chronic pain. Some of my best friends suffer daily and constantly look for new answers. I can only empathize with them as far as my own limited experience allows, but I often wish that the medical advancements found in fiction, whether past or future, could soon become a reality to give them relief. Until then, I would hope that more of us would be like Noel: optimistic and ever eager to be of service.
“The Journey of Inspector Roux” is a first for me. Though I have written for many, many years, I have never published. I have to express my appreciation to my daughter, Shauntel, for believing I had the skills necessary to write a likable short story. Without her invitation, I would still be writing only for myself.
I am thankful to the staff of Xchyler Publishing. Being asked to edit my own story according to the desires of someone else’s vision is probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. Inspector Roux gave the opportunity to learn the process of publishing on a small enough scale that I didn’t run away from it, (even though I wanted to at times) but pressed forward.
A note about my writing process—since that’s the sort of thing people want to know—is that I am the proverbial “pantzer”. I don’t write my first drafts with a plan in mind. Sometimes an idea comes as a scene that might be a beginning, a middle, or an end that I write to get to. Sometimes it’s just a thought: “what would medical advancement in a steampunk society look like?” and there I go.
My initial research for Inspector Roux was French names (Why France? You ask. I don’t know, just felt like it) and I knew he needed to travel around the world. I picked a place in Africa with French influence in my chosen time-period, wrote that scene and then with child-like “Where are we going next?” searched for a location in Asia, etc.
One of my favorite things about being a “pantzer” is the fact that I have written in multiple genres, just to see if I could. Contemporary romance (or paranormal or whatever) is more difficult to write for me because I have to put my characters in the real world and I always worry that people will call me out for details like “you’ve got the wrong store on the corner in my home town”, because I’ve heard my other writer friends mention that sort of thing.
I find that fantasy is my favorite genre to write because I have the most control over my specific universe. Writing science fiction is so much fun, but of course you still have to make sure your science is correct (or at least sounds like it’s plausible even if it’s totally made up), alhough science fiction based not-at-all on an Earth-centric universe might be more like fantasy (hmm, giving myself ideas here).
Steampunk was actually difficult for me in regards to historical accuracy. It required more research than I’ve ever had to do and yet it was the shortest story I’ve ever written.
Still, I have to admit I wrote Inspector Roux in about five hours. Sometimes my muse works just works for me, (especially when I wait until the second-to-last-day of an anthology contest to start writing). I enjoy the muse experience when it happens, (you might rather say you’re “in-the-zone”) but it is surprisingly rare. The majority of my writing I work for, line by line.
I write everything by hand. It’s an oddity in this era of bigger-and-better technology, I realize, but I feel a better connection to words as they come off the tip of a pen. I have a tendency while typing to lose my sense of “show don’t tell” and I end up re-writing scenes by hand to make up for it. When I type a hand-written story into the computer I have the chance to rearrange and fix things as needed, which results in an automatic second draft and less overall editing.
One last thing is something you’ll notice right away, and that is that I prefer a character-driven story. I especially enjoy dialog, both internal and external. I do not describe events and setting with much detail unless the character has a reason to describe them. I like to let the reader fill in those blanks themselves and enjoy my stories for the characters in them. I’m not sure how that’s going to work for avid steampunk readers. I hope it does.
I hope people will enjoy “The Journey of Inspector Roux.” I am proud of the story. I will look back at it always as a great first step.
C R Simper is an Arizona native who has never lived anywhere else. She graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Purchasing and Logistics Management. She married another Arizona native in 1991 and is now the stay-at-home mom of three daughters and one son. She has found that writing is a great way to maintain a sense of order in her life.
“The Journey of Inspector Roux” in Terra Mechanica: A Steampunk Anthology is Simper’s first published work.