Greetings!
Welcome to The Known World, where I post about the characters, places, and things pertaining to the world setting of the same name, which will eventually be featured in a future book to be titled The Other Side of the Sun.
TL;DR: A note to the Reader about an upcoming article regarding Cloudships.
Reading Time: ~ 4 Minutes
Cloudships: They’re Still A Thing… No Really
Hello to all!
It’s been a busy couple of weeks since the Missus and I returned from our visit to New Orleans. I’ll not bore you with any of the deets. Instead, I am writing to tell you that I am working on that article about Cloudships, as promised in my previous Dispatch.
I am retaining most aspects of the original article that I published back on March 2, 2023. This will include things like the brief history of Cloudships, how they are powered, and some info about the two cloudships I expect to use in my stories, namely the NŜ Wayfarer and NŜ Opportunity.
One thing that will be changing, however, will be their appearance. Here’s why.
When I wrote the original 2023 article, I had thought of Cloudships as basically little more than blimps with a sailing ship slapped underneath them - see the pic above as an illustration of that original effort. That concept seemed to work fine for me back then, but now I want it to be better.
So I’m not totally reinventing that concept, but I am reimagining their design. For one thing, I expect my new Cloudships to be more compact in size than the flying castle-like vessel illustrated above. They will probably range in size from something as small as a ketch or sloop to a three-masted ship like a carrack or barque.
Secondly, I want to add in a few clockpunk1 like things such as propellers and gears, and perhaps feature a sleek looking lateen sail like those used on traditional Arabian dhows, to serve as a rudder.
I’ve also decided to draw the concept art myself, rather than trying to rely on silly renderings. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a master illustrator by any means, but I think I can get this done, as I did recently when I drew this vintage 1926 Ford airplane from scratch.
Doing these things will require more time and thought, so I’ve decided to take more time and thought to do them.
I hope you won’t mind if I take this road less traveled. I can’t say exactly when the next Dispatch will be published, but I hope you, the Esteemed Reader, will find the resulting article and attending illustrations to be pleasing and worth the wait.
As the saying goes, good things take time…
Thanks for reading!
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Until next time, safe journeys to you and yours!
— B.E. Turpin
Clockpunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction that explores a retro-futuristic world where the intricate beauty and ingenuity of gears and clockwork are advanced to power a technologically sophisticated society, drawing inspiration from the Renaissance and Baroque eras. The technical drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and the works of Isaac Newton are a common inspiration for clockpunk.