Author: JP Dean

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Program

Integrating Character, Plot, and Worldbuilding

Presented by David D. Levine

Many writers are naturals with characters or worldbuilding, but struggle with plot; others have no difficulty plotting but find their characters flat. Hugo-winning science fiction writer David D. Levine shows you his process for developing characters, plot, and world simultaneously and cohesively.

David D. Levine is the author of space-opera caper novel The Kuiper Belt Job. His previous works include Andre Norton Nebula Award winning novel Arabella of Mars, sequels Arabella and the Battle of Venus and Arabella the Traitor of Mars, and over sixty SF and fantasy stories. His story “Tk’Tk’Tk” won the Hugo, and he has been shortlisted for awards including the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, and Sturgeon. Stories have appeared in Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld, F&SF, Tor.com, numerous Year’s Best anthologies, and his award-winning collection Space Magic.

See the Current 2025 Program

Buy Your Discount Exposition Tickets

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Program

European Corpse Medicine (18+)

Presented by M. Leigh Hood

Ancient Greek philosophers drank the blood of youths, English kings took powdered skull, and there’s a reason the world has fewer mummies than it used to. Take a dark tour through Europe’s hidden history of medical cannibalism, corpse medicine, and the restoratively macabre – for your health, of course.

M. Leigh Hood is a rare beast of the Cincinnati wilds, most often found walking her monstrous hound, Shuck, or working hard to exacerbate her carpal tunnel syndrome at the computer. Her work appears in Fairy Tales Punk’d Volume II, Cincinnati Magazine, and the in-development MonThology project.

See the Current 2025 Program

Buy Your Discount Exposition Tickets

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Exposition Updates

28 Weeks until the Exposition!

The “Curse of Cthulhu”

The 1893 Exposition has several odd artifacts from around the world on display, but perhaps the strangest is a statue reported by one publication as a “monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind.” Shortly after this statue was revealed to the public a series of strange events began to occur, mysterious hooded figures were seen flitting through the midnight shadows of the Exposition grounds, and a couple of night ago the Cold Storage Building burst into flames, engulfing the building in an inferno that killed 13 firefighters and four other unfortunate souls. Investigations into the fire have resulted in the puzzling discovery of strange unidentifiable substances and bizarre symbols scorched into the walls . . .

Beginning next week, a series of weekly clues will be released as part of your investigation into the fire and what forces lie behind this unearthly inferno.

Program Updates

This week we began filling in some of the details about presentations that will be part of the program in May 2025.

If you have a presentation, workshop, or some other fun activity that you would like to propose for the 2025 Exposition Program, please fill out our PRESENTER APPLICATION FORM. We are also looking for GAMES MASTERS to run tabletop games, and we are always on the search for talented PERFORMERS.

Exhibitor Updates

Exhibitors at the Exposition are divided into three main locations: The Underground Market (Sienna), The Palace of Fine Arts (Slate), and The Midway Plaisance (Atrium Lobby).

This week we featured the following exhibitors:

Tickets & the Exclusive Pin

Badges and Tea Tickets are already on sale for the 2025 Exposition! Until the end of this year, ALL badges are $10 off the regular price AND the first 100 Weekend Badges sold will receive an EXCLUSIVE brass colored Exposition 2025 pin that matches the theme. The pin design is almost done and we should be able to reveal it in our next countdown update, but we can describe it as the Exposition Ferris wheel and of course . . . tentacles!

Click on the Box Office image below to purchase your tickets today! Please note that for 2025 we will be printing your name (in a fancy font) on the badge, so include “badge names” in the “Order Notes” section of the check out form. In addition to your name, badges will also be labeled with your order number for reference in case lost badges get turned into Registration; that said, however, please remember that lost badges that are not turned in can not be replaced and a new purchase will be required.

Afternoon Tea Parties & Banquets

New for 2025, the Exposition will offer a limited ticket banquet on Friday and Saturday evening. We are currently working on the menu and pricing, but this meal will also offer patrons the opportunity to sit with one of our guests of honor for a meal and pleasant conversation. Details coming in our next countdown update, but meanwhile tickets for our Afternoon Tea Parties are on sale now.

Get Involved!

We are looking for Presenters, Performers, Games Masters, and other people to run sessions for the 2025 Chicago Steampunk Exposition program. Applications are now live; please click on the appropriate image to access the form.

Hotel Rooms

For April 2024, the Exposition hotel was actually sold out. Admittedly not all the people staying at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg that weekend were there for the Exposition, but nonetheless the hotel was sold out. To avoid getting locked out in 2025, we recommend booking your room early (you can always cancel later if needs be) which you can do starting at the end of this month (needs to be 13 months out from the event).

Social Media

On the Horizon . . .

  • More programming!
  • Who is Steampunk Stanley?
  • Exposition 2025 Design Contests.
  • The new Steam & Sorcery adventure!

Categories
Program

Emotion, Chaos, and Madness in Gilded Age Art: Expressionism, Dada, and Surrealism

Presented by Fiona Finnigan

Emotion, chaos, madness- the world strange world of the mind, and the psyche. Shifting, changing, impossible to define or describe rationally and logically. What else to do but make Art about it?

In this lecture, we will discuss the late 19th and early 20th art movements of Expressionism, Dada, and Surrealism.

Fiona Finnigan received her Master in History of Visual and Material Culture ( thats the history of stuff!) from Southern Illinois University. She is an adjunct professor of art at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Illinois. In her free time, she enjoys working on her steampunk gear and doing every kind of needlework known to mankind.

See the Current 2025 Program

Buy Your Discount Exposition Tickets

Categories
Program

The Cosmic Horror Next Door (18+)

Presented by M. Leigh Hood

Dive to the darkest depths of the ocean, fall back through time, and lose yourself in the void of space as we explore concepts, objects, creatures, and events to fascinate and terrify. It’s all real science and it’s all really horrible (or horribly cool, depending on your point of view).

*Bring your own smelling salts.

M. Leigh Hood is a rare beast of the Cincinnati wilds, most often found walking her monstrous hound, Shuck, or working hard to exacerbate her carpal tunnel syndrome at the computer. Her work appears in Fairy Tales Punk’d Volume II, Cincinnati Magazine, and the in-development MonThology project.

See the Current 2025 Program

Buy Your Discount Exposition Tickets

Categories
Exposition Updates

Seven Months until the Exposition

Journey to the Kraken Island!

This coming weekend (November 8th to 10th, 2024) the Crew of the Exposition will be venturing to Madison, Wisconsin for Teslacon’s “The Mystery of Kraken Island” adventure! If you are there as well, please visit our display table to learn more about the party and the games that we shall be running that weekend.

After this year’s Teslacon has concluded, the Exposition will launch into its “full steam” campaign of weekly updates as we countdown the remaining six months leading up to the 2025 Chicago Steampunk Exposition.

Meanwhile, please review the already extensive information that we have already posted about next year’s Exposition:

Tickets & the Exclusive Pin

Badges and Tea Tickets are already on sale for the 2025 Exposition! Until the end of this year, ALL badges are $10 off the regular price AND the first 100 Weekend Badges sold will receive an EXCLUSIVE brass colored Exposition 2025 pin that matches the theme. The pin design is almost done and we should be able to reveal it in our next countdown update, but we can describe it as the Exposition Ferris wheel and of course . . . tentacles!

Click on the Box Office image below to purchase your tickets today! Please note that for 2025 we will be printing your name (in a fancy font) on the badge, so include “badge names” in the “Order Notes” section of the check out form. In addition to your name, badges will also be labeled with your order number for reference in case lost badges get turned into Registration; that said, however, please remember that lost badges that are not turned in can not be replaced and a new purchase will be required.

Afternoon Tea Parties & Banquets

New for 2025, the Exposition will offer a limited ticket banquet on Friday and Saturday evening. We are currently working on the menu and pricing, but this meal will also offer patrons the opportunity to sit with one of our guests of honor for a meal and pleasant conversation. Details coming in our next countdown update, but meanwhile tickets for our Afternoon Tea Parties are on sale now.

Get Involved!

We are looking for Presenters, Performers, Games Masters, and other people to run sessions for the 2025 Chicago Steampunk Exposition program. Applications are now live; please click on the appropriate image to access the form.

Hotel Rooms

For April 2024, the Exposition hotel was actually sold out. Admittedly not all the people staying at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg that weekend were there for the Exposition, but nonetheless the hotel was sold out. To avoid getting locked out in 2025, we recommend booking your room early (you can always cancel later if needs be) which you can do starting at the end of this month (needs to be 13 months out from the event).

Social Media

On the Horizon . . .

  • More programming!
  • Who is Steampunk Stanley?
  • Exposition 2025 Design Contests.
  • The new Steam & Sorcery adventure!

Categories
Exposition Updates

Eight Months until the Exposition

More Cucumber Sandwiches?!

As we continue to countdown to May 2025, the Exposition is hosting several smaller (mostly) FREE* events throughout the year, and the latest one, on October 19th, is another picnic, but this time we are getting spooky and eating in a Pet Cemetery!

Hinsdale Animal Cemetery has graciously invited us to use their Butterfly Garden in their Pet Cemetery to host the latest of our free events.

This event is BYOP (bring your own picnic), but picnickers are encouraged to bring food that can be shared. We shall provide a long table that will be set up in the Butterly Garden, but it also BYOC (bring your own chair) to gather around the Mad Hatter style set up.

To learn more and RSVP, please CLICK HERE for the Facebook Event Page.

* ~ Some of the Exposition events are within other ticketed events run by other organizations.

Tickets & the Exclusive Pin

Badges and Tea Tickets are already on sale for the 2025 Exposition! Until the end of this year, ALL badges are $10 off the regular price AND the first 100 Weekend Badges sold will receive an EXCLUSIVE brass colored Exposition 2025 pin that matches the theme. The pin design is almost done and we should be able to reveal it in our next countdown update, but we can describe it as the Exposition Ferris wheel and of course . . . tentacles!

Click on the Box Office image below to purchase your tickets today! Please note that for 2025 we will be printing your name (in a fancy font) on the badge, so include “badge names” in the “Order Notes” section of the check out form. In addition to your name, badges will also be labeled with your order number for reference in case lost badges get turned into Registration; that said, however, please remember that lost badges that are not turned in can not be replaced and a new purchase will be required.

Afternoon Tea Parties & Banquets

New for 2025, the Exposition will offer a limited ticket banquet on Friday and Saturday evening. We are currently working on the menu and pricing, but this meal will also offer patrons the opportunity to sit with one of our guests of honor for a meal and pleasant conversation. Details coming in our next countdown update, but meanwhile tickets for our Afternoon Tea Parties are on sale now.

Get Involved!

We are looking for Presenters, Performers, Games Masters, and other people to run sessions for the 2025 Chicago Steampunk Exposition program. Applications are now live; please click on the appropriate image to access the form.

Hotel Rooms

For April 2024, the Exposition hotel was actually sold out. Admittedly not all the people staying at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg that weekend were there for the Exposition, but nonetheless the hotel was sold out. To avoid getting locked out in 2025, we recommend booking your room early (you can always cancel later if needs be) which you can do starting at the end of this month (needs to be 13 months out from the event).

Social Media

On the Horizon . . .

  • More programming!
  • Who is Steampunk Stanley?
  • Exposition 2025 Design Contests.
  • The new Steam & Sorcery adventure!

Categories
Exposition Updates

Nine Months until the Exposition

Martians, Wells, and Cucumber Sandwiches!

In the countdown to May 2025, the Exposition shall host several smaller (mostly) FREE* events throughout the year, such as the upcoming Steampunk Picnic at the Museum of Science and Industry to celebrate the 158th birthday of Steampunk founding father HG Wells.

This event is BYOP (bring your own picnic), but picnickers are encouraged to bring food that can be shared. We shall provide a long table, but it also BYOC (bring your own chair) to gather around the Mad Hatter style set up.

Parking is very nearby: take Lake Shore Drive to Science Ave and turn left to the south side of the parking lot (it’s cheaper than the north side).

Learn more about our (mostly) free events by clicking these links to our Facebook event pages:

* ~ Some of the Exposition events are within other ticketed events run by other organizations.

Tickets & the Exclusive Pin

Badges and Tea Tickets are already on sale for the 2025 Exposition! Until the end of this year, ALL badges are $10 off the regular price AND the first 100 Weekend Badges sold will receive an EXCLUSIVE brass colored Exposition 2025 pin that matches the theme. The pin design is almost done and we should be able to reveal it in our next countdown update, but we can describe it as the Exposition Ferris wheel and of course . . . tentacles!

Click on the Box Office image below to purchase your tickets today! Please note that for 2025 we will be printing your name (in a fancy font) on the badge, so include “badge names” in the “Order Notes” section of the check out form. In addition to your name, badges will also be labeled with your order number for reference in case lost badges get turned into Registration; that said, however, please remember that lost badges that are not turned in can not be replaced and a new purchase will be required.

Afternoon Tea Parties & Banquets

New for 2025, the Exposition will offer a limited ticket banquet on Friday and Saturday evening. We are currently working on the menu and pricing, but this meal will also offer patrons the opportunity to sit with one of our guests of honor for a meal and pleasant conversation. Details coming in our next countdown update, but meanwhile tickets for our Afternoon Tea Parties are on sale now.

Get Involved!

We are looking for Presenters, Performers, Games Masters, and other people to run sessions for the 2025 Chicago Steampunk Exposition program. Applications are now live; please click on the appropriate image to access the form.

Hotel Rooms

For April 2024, the Exposition hotel was actually sold out. Admittedly not all the people staying at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg that weekend were there for the Exposition, but nonetheless the hotel was sold out. To avoid getting locked out in 2025, we recommend booking your room early (you can always cancel later if needs be) which you can do starting at the end of this month (needs to be 13 months out from the event).

Social Media

On the Horizon . . .

  • More programming!
  • Who is Steampunk Stanley?
  • Exposition 2025 Design Contests.
  • The new Steam & Sorcery adventure!

Categories
Exposition Updates

Ten Months until the Exposition

48 Hours of Non-Stop Steampunk!

The 2025 Chicago Steampunk Exposition program officially starts at 4PM on Friday, May 30th and does not stop until after 4PM on Sunday, June 1st. We have additional “unofficial” programing on Thursday evening, Sunday evening, and even Monday morning, but the main bulk of the weekend fun is literally 48 hours of non-stop program that runs through both nights of the Exposition. We are currently in the progress of building this program, but meanwhile here is a preview of what we already have ten months out from the convention:

Entertainment & Special Events
Panels & Presentations
  • The Cosmic Horror Next Door
  • Emotion, Chaos, and Madness in Gilded Age Art: Expressonism, Dada, and Surrealism
  • European Corpse Medicine
  • Integrating Character, Plot, and World Building
  • Monsters of the Great Lakes
  • Real Lost Cities
  • Scott Westerfeld Q&A
  • A Seminar Illuminating the Safe Operation of the Sliding Rule
  • State of the Art: What Scientists Knew in 1893
  • Steampunk Economics
  • Triangle House and Hull House: Chicago’s Jane Addams in Fiction and Fact
  • More to be added . . .
  • CLICK HERE if you want to present at the Exposition!
Contests & Gaming

 

Other Exposition Events!

In the countdown to May 2025, the Exposition shall host several smaller (mostly) FREE* events throughout the year, such as the upcoming Steampunk Picnic at the Museum of Science and Industry to celebrate the 158th birthday of Steampunk founding father HG Wells.

Learn more about our (mostly) free events by clicking these links to our Facebook event pages:

* ~ Some of the Exposition events are within other ticketed events run by other organizations.

Tickets & the Exclusive Pin

Badges and Tea Tickets are already on sale for the 2025 Exposition! Until the end of this year, ALL badges are $10 off the regular price AND the first 100 Weekend Badges sold will receive an EXCLUSIVE brass colored Exposition 2025 pin that matches the theme. The pin design is almost done and we should be able to reveal it in our next countdown update, but we can describe it as the Exposition Ferris wheel and of course . . . tentacles!

Click on the Box Office image below to purchase your tickets today! Please note that for 2025 we will be printing your name (in a fancy font) on the badge, so include “badge names” in the “Order Notes” section of the check out form. In addition to your name, badges will also be labeled with your order number for reference in case lost badges get turned into Registration; that said, however, please remember that lost badges that are not turned in can not be replaced and a new purchase will be required.

Afternoon Tea Parties & Banquets

New for 2025, the Exposition will offer a limited ticket banquet on Friday and Saturday evening. We are currently working on the menu and pricing, but this meal will also offer patrons the opportunity to sit with one of our guests of honor for a meal and pleasant conversation. Details coming in our next countdown update, but meanwhile tickets for our Afternoon Tea Parties are on sale now.

Get Involved!

We are looking for Presenters, Performers, Games Masters, and other people to run sessions for the 2025 Chicago Steampunk Exposition program. Applications are now live; please click on the appropriate image to access the form.

Hotel Rooms

For April 2024, the Exposition hotel was actually sold out. Admittedly not all the people staying at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg that weekend were there for the Exposition, but nonetheless the hotel was sold out. To avoid getting locked out in 2025, we recommend booking your room early (you can always cancel later if needs be) which you can do starting at the end of this month (needs to be 13 months out from the event).

Social Media

On the Horizon . . .

  • More programming!
  • Who is Steampunk Stanley?
  • Exposition 2025 Design Contests.
  • The new Steam & Sorcery adventure!

Categories
Exposition Updates

Eleven Months until the Exposition

Leviathan is Coming to Netflix!

We are thrilled to no longer have to keep this a secret . . . Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan series has been made into an anime show and will be streaming on Netflix in 2025! The entire book trilogy will be animated by Orange, best known for Beastars. The composers are Nobuko Toda and Kazuma Jinnouchi, with some songs by Joe Hisaishi. The style of the animation remains close to the books’ illustrator, Keith Thompson, who was brought onto the team at the start. Westerfeld is very involved in the production, consulting on the scripts, designs, and continuity with the adaptation.

The Exposition is very excited and honored to host Scott Westerfeld in May 2025 to celebrate his vast writing achievements, and now celebrate his outstanding Steampunk trilogy reaching a whole new audience on Netflix.

As an author of twenty-five novels, five for adults, and the other twenty for young adults, Westerfeld’s work is expansive and he is widely known for the Uglies quartet, set in a future where cosmetic surgery is compulsory at age sixteen. Additionally, he has penned the Zeroestrilogy, written with Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti, about six teens with strange powers in a small city in California; and the Midnighters trilogy, about five teenagers for whom time freezes every night. My standalone works include four novels set in contemporary New York: So Yesterday, Peeps, The Last Days, and Afterworlds.

Westerfeld’s books have won the Philip K Dick Special Citation, the Aurealis Award, the Victorian Premier’s Award, and have been named NY Times Notable Books and BBYA Top Ten Children’s Books of the Year. I have contributed nonfiction to Nerve, BookForum, the scientific journal Nature. He claims, however, “My greatest accomplishment is, of course, my three Powerpuff Girl choose-your-own-adventure books.” ????

Learn more about Scott Westerfeld at ScottWesterfeld.com

Other Exposition Events!

In the countdown to May 2025, the Exposition shall host several smaller (mostly) FREE* events throughout the year, such as the upcoming Time Travel Pub Crawl at Bristol Renaissance Faire.

Set your time machines for July 13th, 1574 and land outside Bristol’s Absinthe Bar around noon. We’ll gather, take pictures, and then see how many bars we can visit as we complete a circle of the faire together. (Please note, this is an informal pub crawl and is NOT part of the official Bristol Pub Crawl)

Learn more about our (mostly) free events by clicking these links to our Facebook event pages:

* ~ Some of the events are ticketed, but we are not the ones selling the tickets.

Tickets & the Exclusive Pin

Badges and Tea Tickets are already on sale for the 2025 Exposition! Until the end of this year, ALL badges are $10 off the regular price AND the first 100 Weekend Badges sold will receive an EXCLUSIVE brass colored Exposition 2025 pin that matches the theme. The pin design is almost done and we should be able to reveal it in our next countdown update, but we can describe it as the Exposition Ferris wheel and of course . . . tentacles!

Click on the Box Office image below to purchase your tickets today! Please note that for 2025 we will be printing your name (in a fancy font) on the badge, so include “badge names” in the “Order Notes” section of the check out form. In addition to your name, badges will also be labeled with your order number for reference in case lost badges get turned into Registration; that said, however, please remember that lost badges that are not turned in can not be replaced and a new purchase will be required.

Afternoon Tea Parties & Banquets

New for 2025, the Exposition will offer a limited ticket banquet on Friday and Saturday evening. We are currently working on the menu and pricing, but this meal will also offer patrons the opportunity to sit with one of our guests of honor for a meal and pleasant conversation. Details coming in our next countdown update, but meanwhile tickets for our Afternoon Tea Parties are on sale now.

Program Updates

We are looking for Presenters, Performers, Games Masters, and other people to run sessions for the 2025 Chicago Steampunk Exposition program. Applications are now live; please click on the appropriate image to access the form.

Hotel Rooms

For April 2024, the Exposition hotel was actually sold out. Admittedly not all the people staying at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg that weekend were there for the Exposition, but nonetheless the hotel was sold out. To avoid getting locked out in 2025, we recommend booking your room early (you can always cancel later if needs be) which you can do starting at the end of this month (needs to be 13 months out from the event).

Social Media

On the Horizon . . .

  • Music act announcements!
  • Vendor applications!
  • The new Steam & Sorcery adventure!