So What’s This All About, Then?
Plainly put, we have greatly enjoyed the steampunk genre, or better yet, movement. As computer scientists and children of the silver age of science fiction and comics, the steampunk imagery and philosophy speak to us. Through our literature reading, attending steampunk conventions, web site visiting, and collecting of genre-related graphic novels and art, we decided that we should jump into the creative side of it, rather than just lurking on the consuming side. This web site is our foray into that endeavor.
In 2010, we started a running serialized story about the adventures of Chief Inspector Drake and Dr. “Sparky” McTrowell. Our goal was to add to the story on a weekly basis. To keep it exciting, we would co-author the story by alternating between the two of us for each week’s entry, all the while employing an exciting Penny Dreadful style of writing.
We like to think of ourselves as authors beyond writers. We strive to make literature an interactive experience at conventions. Our signature event is Drake & McTrowell’s Hot Potato School of Writing™, an improvisational audience-participation writing game show. Drake & McTrowell’s Theater of the Historically Improbable™ entertains with skits replete with corny puns and improbable tight squeezes. And did someone say, “sock puppets?” Theater of the Historically Improbable™ also includes readings from our books acted out by the audience with sock puppets.
Over a decade of writing later, we've written four novels and contributed to multiple anthologies and multi-author novel. We've collected artists' renditions of Drake & McTrowell scenes, written a radio show version of our first adventure, and even ventured into Drake & McTrowell themed preserves that we sell at various San Diego venues.
Thanks for visiting.
-- David L. Drake & Katherine L. Morse
How to Read the Adventures of Drake and McTrowell
We provide initial excerpts of our books on this website. For hard copies, we vend our books at west coast steampunk conventions, book-lovers conventions, Comic Con, and Wonder Con. They can also be purchased on Amazon. See our Amazon author pages (Katherine Morse's and David Drake's) for a full listing of our works. It starts with our first novel, “London, Where It All Began.”
Bloops!
Most of our effort is writing the “Adventures of Drake and McTrowell” novels, but we also provide other blog entries. These include D&McT related art, preparation and logs of steampunk conventions, and other related items. Stop by a few times a month to see what we’ve been up to.
Since we had to come up with a name for these “extra blog entries,” we have fallen into the habit of calling them bloops. Kinda fun. Kinda silly. “Could you be a dear and write this week’s bloop, please?” See how polite we can be?
The Logbook of Intriguing and Noteworthy Persons
Since we often attire ourselves as Drake and McTrowell at steampunk conventions, we noticed that we often have our picture taken and posted on the web, with no mention of our characters names or any other details. That is unfortunate since there is so much more to tell. There is more to a steampunk character than their image. And we reckon that other steampunks feel the same way.
To address this, we have added a Logbook of Intriguing and Noteworthy Persons, where steampunks can provide images, details, and the like to tell their tale. If interested, see the terms of use page to see for details. And to answer the obvious question, we don’t use your image or details for any gain. That would be, well, unstylish, to say the least.
What’s For Sale?
We have gathered a following, and we have listened to them. It started small, where they wanted pin-on buttons and logo magnets. Then they asked for presentations and skits. It worked up to T-shirts, hard cover books, and radio shows. Please take a gander at what we have to offer in our General Store. If you are so inclined, please send us action shots of you with your Drake and McTrowell paraphenalia.
