(Beware the errors. Hot off the press!)

The Argent cleared the Earth’s atmosphere and slowed to a stop. Guthrie powered down the ship’s engines and she floated freely.

“Master Billy,” Guthrie said, “I have parked us in a stable orbit and we will need to remain here while I go to the observatory.”

“Yeah. Sure.” Billy snatched a sheet of paper from the air nearby. “Here’s the form. I know you don’t believe in writing anything down, but us humans can’t remember numbers worth a damn. Well, that’s not quite true. I did know one fellow who could remember numbers.”

“Master Koothrappally?” Guthrie asked. “You have alluded to him in the past.”

“I’m willing to bet he could out-compute even you,” Billy said.

“I will make a full recording of everything required,” Guthrie said. “I calculate that we are twenty-seven hours behind in our launch window. We will likely need…

I’m intrigued when any writer blasts their characters out of the Victorian, or other historical era, and into outer space. Edgar Allan Poe did it with The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaallin in 1835, Jules Verne followed with The Earth To the Moon in 1865, and in 1901 H. G. Wells wrote The First Men In The Moon.  These Regency/Victorian/Edwardian tales offer great inspiration for modern steampunk writers. Jules Verne’s The Earth To The Moon was one of my greatest inspirations for Conquistadors In Outer Space.

I asked the authors of the new book 1889 Journey To the Moon, George Wier and Billy Kring, what inspired them to take their Steampunk story into outer space?

George: First of all, we really should have been in space (and I’m not talking about NASA or the ESA, I’m talking about ALL of us) a damn long time ago. All we’re doing here is…