I was at Anomaly Con, 2013, and though it was only the third time they ever put this convention on, it was epic. So epic, they pulled in a bestselling steampunk author. Not just any bestselling steampunk author, but none other than Gail Carriger. I jumped on her and interviewed her, unofficially of course, and she kept saying she would deny everything.

Well, I’d like to see her try.

I’m here to shatter some myths about Gail Carriger.

MYTH #1 – Gail Carriger is a soul-tortured author who frets over every word and sheds blood. For her, writing is like a crucifixion.
FALSE! Well, okay, I don’t really know if it’s false or not, but Ms. Carriger did say that she wrote because she loved writing books. And since she loved writing books, she thought she might as well send out what she wrote because hey, why not? Right? In fact, when I asked her about perseverance, she said she didn’t need to persevere because she liked writing books. Wow, an author who likes to write books. How cool is that?

MYTH #2 – After analyzing the market for centuries, she sifted through what she thought the audience would like, then wrote directly for the market, including getting the opinions of different focus groups. For her, writing is like a Hollywood screening room.
FALSE! TRUE! FALSE some more. Ms. Carriger did pay attention to the market in a way. She liked steampunk, but she thought it was all so serious. She wanted something clever, and steampunky, and funny, and so she wrote the book she herself wanted to read. That was Soulless. She wasn’t alone in that ‘cause other people wanted to read it too!

MYTH #3 – Steampunk is a dying subgenre.
FALSE! Ms. Carriger pointed something out. Out of all the conventions she goes to, the steampunk conventions have the youngest audience, the most multicultural audience, and there are more women. Well, there seems to be a more equal division between men and women. So, yeah, steampunk might just be in its infancy. She went on to talk about how interesting it is that in today’s American society, we don’t have a lot of rules of social etiquette, and people might be longing for a time where there was more structure to social interactions.

MYTH #4 – Ms. Carriger is actually not human, but a wheel and cog automaton, created by a mad scientist to write bestsellers.
FALSE! Ms. Carriger is human, and a lovely woman. And I thank her for talking to me.

Find all things Gail Carriger, including how to buy her Parasol Protectorate Series, on her website.