The Adventures of Phineas Frakture

[Joseph Gatch]

Although I have been writing for the past twelve years, or so, starting off with historical fiction of pirates (long before they became popular) and then moving on to Star Trek fan fiction with my own stories of the USS Adventure, I have only been involved with Steampunk for the last six.  I was fascinated by the genre when I found models for my cg program Poser based on the style.  In researching it, I was led to Second Life and the City of New Babbage.  My character, Phineas Frakture, had a backstory - a man out of reality (his reality, at least) sort of like the show 'Sliders'. He accidentally invents a device that allows him to slip between alternate realities.  After an unfortunate lighting strike while using the device, he is trapped in New Babbage's reality and has to deal with the chaos that is the city. 

I had originally started writing his stories based on RP with other citizens of the city, however, with starting a new job and having a computer that could no longer run the high graphics of the sim, I had to turn to other means of creating stories.  I found this to be a perfect opportunity to start writing the backstory of how he arrived in the city.  Having stagnated for a while, a former classmate introduced me to a new website that promoted weekly series writing.  I quickly adapted the story I was working on to a twelve chapter format, finished it and submitted it to the editor.  To my surprise, it was accepted and I have been going strong ever since.

The Adventures of Phineas Frakture, on www.bigworldnetwork.com is a prologue to the events leading up to his transition to the New Babbage reality.  Now in its third season, and one season away from going into book form, it has been a wonderful creative outlet and has allowed me to bring my vision of a steampunk universe to people across the world.  

You never know what you can do until you try.  I took a chance and now I am less than a half year away from having a book published, something that I never thought would happen.  And I owe it all to Steampunk.  I love this genre! 

[Lori Holuta]

Well done, Sir!   I know well of New Babbage and its adventures, having an avatar that lived there quite a while herself (Ceejay Writer).  I am so pleased that you've developed your character in this way. Onward with the new season!  I want the book! 

[Joseph Gatch]

Ceejay!  great to see you're here too!  miss being in NB and the coffee, of course.   well, at least there will be 11 copies sold...I'll have the first 10 :)