Steampunk sometimes seems to be taking over the world. Cherie Priest’s Dreadnought is just out; Jeff and Ann VanderMeer have Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded coming out early next month. But this phenomenon is even more widespread than I knew. Check out this website on Muslim steampunk for some real insight into just where coal can take you. The website describes the genre this way: “Muslim Steampunk combines the aesthetics of the 12th century Middle East and Mediterranean and pre-modern Islamic science, with an imagined steam technology developed from the Greek Hero engine.” Sounds fascinating and exotic, doesn’t it?

And more on steampunk on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America website. This lengthy, footnoted post offers good insight into where steampunk came from and where it’s going.

Do you reread? Nancy Jane Moore talks about the books she reads over and over. And I confess to rereading Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice every couple of years; it’s such a perfect book!

You’ll find Jonathan Strahan’s “particularly crunchy podcast” of a talk with the critic Gary Wolfe here. There’s a lot of good stuff here, and some nice book recommendations for those who are running out of things to read. (Like if you’ve gotten down to your last 1000 unread books or something. Yeah. Happens to me all the time.)

Music and faerie go together, says Daniel Rabuzzi, with lots of specific examples, in a piece entitled “The Queen of Elfland’s Daughter” in the excellent on-line journal, Cabinet des Fees: A Journal of Fairy Tales.

This is a wonderful interview of Gwyneth Jones, a science fiction and fantasy writer who is also a critic. You’ve never read an interview quite like this one. Really, click. You’ll like it.

I’ve been reading comics ever since the late lamented SF/F/H specialty store in Chicago, The Stars Our Destination, introduced me to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman back in the 80s. I’d had a brief flirtation with the Fantastic Four and Spiderman when I was in college, but I really got into DC’s Vertigo imprint once I discovered there was more where Gaiman came from. I’ve never gone back and read the classics, though. Ranker lists the top ten greatest classic horror comics. Maybe one of these days I’ll pick up a few of these golden oldies.

Sometimes science fictional predictions come true. Mashable gives us the top eleven of them. I think my favorite prediction is of earbuds; Ray Bradbury came up with those in Fahrenheit 451. Cool, eh?

A “friend” who knows I struggle with procrastination sent me this guide to creating a distraction-free writing environment. Of course, it distracted me immensely. It’s very funny. (And as to that “friend” – well, you really are, Regina, and I thank you for a much needed laugh.)

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m not fond of electronic books, even though my Kindle is fully loaded – and I get a fair number of review copies of books I’m longing to read in electronic form only. It’s good to know that there are those in the tech sector of the world who think that the reports of the death of the book have been greatly exaggerated.

Finally, I leave you with this inspiring little film that reminds us that every moment is precious, no matter how few moments we have. I bet you’ll watch it more than once.