Originally published on July 19, 2016 on WordPress. Copyright 2021 Lady in the Blue Box Publishing, written by me, Rachel Beth Ahrens, All Rights Reserved.
Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that one of my faithful Twitter followers is the lovely New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger, the woman who wrote the Parasol Protectorate series starting with Soulless. And though we have never met face to face, I’ve decided to write this quaint little letter to send it by… dirigible…
I started writing this while attending Shore Leave 38.
Dear Lady Carriger,
I’m currently reading Blameless, third book in the perils of Lady Alexia Maccon/ Tarabotti, and I feel like I should ask you something…
How can a person be soulless and still show emotion?
For the length of two books, I kept asking myself this question. I don’t think I’ve seen Alexia cry or laugh for that matter, but she does seem to show emotion around her Scottish werewolf husband Conall and her friend the leader of the vampires in London. Lord Akeldama is weird though, because he keeps calling Alexia funny pet names, almost as if he’s a little bit of a pouf.
And I know this is a spoiler, but how can a centuries-old werewolf get a woman with no soul pregnant? What’s going to happen to the baby when it’s born, especially since preternaturals tend to die before their children are old enough to walk? (This same thing happened to Alexia’s Italian father, if you remember from the first book.)
But getting back to you, I think you are a very witty author. Every time I read a page of your books, I tend to come across a word I haven’t heard before, which I intend to look up in my handy dictionary. That came out wrong. It also shows that most of the books I’ve read already have been young adult fiction and a couple of Neil Gaiman novels, specifically Ocean at the End of the Lane and Neverwhere.
If you checked my GoodReads account, you’d see that immediately. I’ve read most of the Selection series and I’m still trying to get around to reading Perks of Being a Wallflower.
On the other hand, I’ve come to regard reading as something I like to do for fun when I’m at home. When I’m trying to go to sleep, I pull out a book and start reading it until I start to feel tired enough for bed. But I must say, your stories do leave me with interesting thoughts before I drift off to sleep so I can dream about my own book characters.
I think I should introduce Alexia to Ellie Benson, the heroine of my first novel Nightmare in Northanger, which is yet to be finished. I’m currently stuck on chapter seven with no place to go from there. The Regency Era is not too far from the Victorian steampunk era, so I implemented some steampunk elements in my prisoner-of-Jane-Austen story, which I anticipate a three book tale.
Other than that, I think Alexia would be intrigued in meeting Ellie for the first time. Maybe Alexia could give Ellie a few lessons in how to use a parasol as a weapon while Ellie teaches her the mystery of the chilling Rover Droids.
Perhaps we can have a tea party! Non? I’ll bring the jammie dodgers and the chocolate mint oolong, and you can bring the rest. My Ellie Benson costume, which is 60 percent crochet, still needs work. I’m trying to finish the skirt and the electromagnetic parasol, but they still need a lot of work.
But if you think the tea party isn’t a good enough idea, I guess a rain check will suffice.
Well, I’d best be on my way. I have more short stories and chapters to write and you should get back to your (if I may be bold to say) gorgeous office, which looks like a special writing haven and oasis.
Sadly, the place that I write in is my own bedroom. My desk is preoccupied with books, DVDs, and my television, so the only place where I can write semi-comfortably is my own bed.
As you can tell, I’m broke and never been published. I can’t afford a bigger desk or an entertainment center, let alone my own office.
I hope you are doing well with that tea imported from London and those lovely parasols and bustle skirts. They must be divine.
Happy Writing,
The Lady in the Blue Box
PS- You should be our Guest of Honor at Balticon sometime. It’s only the greatest Baltimore-based science fiction literary convention ever… and they have a steampunk ball where you can dance to Abney Park!
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