They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with author and Speculative Chic contributor J.L. Gribble, whose latest book, Steel Time (Steel Empires #4), came out last month from Dog Star Books!
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- Steel Empires Book #1
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- Steel Empires Book #2
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- Steel Empires Book #3
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- Steel Empires Book #4
What does J.L. do when she’s not mashing up urban fantasy with alternate history or devouring movies for Speculative Chic? Spoiler alert: let’s just say time travel covers a lot of favorites! Interested? Read on to learn more!
During the brainstorming stage and while I wrote the first draft of Steel Time in 2016, I became pretty obsessed with all things related to time-travel. I’ve always had a soft spot for time-travel stories, but that really ramped up when it came time to write my own. I devoured all types of pop culture that involved the concept, from television (Doctor Who, Travelers) to film (Doctor Strange) to literature (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child).
But some things take timey-wimey goodness to an entirely new level.
Favorite Time-Travel Television Show: Though I don’t have a history reading comic books, I’ve been following DC’s “Arrow-verse” consistently from the beginning. Which means that I was introduced to plenty of ridiculous characters in the early seasons of Arrow and The Flash, and happily followed them to DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. It’s a show that absolutely should not work on so many levels, from the ensemble cast of little-known heroes (and villains) to the time paradoxes the crew encounters (and create and fix and create again). But the characters have heart, and they genuinely care about each other as a team. That’s catnip to me, and the occasional foray into the absurd heightens, rather than diminishes, my enjoyment of the episodes.
Favorite Time-Travel Book Series: I’m not much for bookstore browsing these days, because I get most of my books directly from fellow authors at conventions or by snagging ebooks based on recommendations. So, it was pure happenstance that I found myself killing time in a Barnes & Noble before meeting friends for dinner one evening in 2016. A title on the bottom shelf jumped out at me, and I had to check out the back cover. Thus began my obsession with the Chronicles of St. Mary’s, written by Jodi Taylor, which begins with Just One Damned Thing After Another. At an undisclosed point in the near future, a group of English historians investigate historical events in contemporary time (just don’t call it time travel). Point-of-view character Max is a delight, especially since there are far too few intelligent heroines on the complete opposite side of adolescence who kick ass with their brains and mouths rather than with fists or weapons. The books in this series have made me laugh out loud in the same paragraphs that bring tears to my eyes. Taylor is on book 9 and counting, which means there’s plenty of diligently researched history for you to enjoy through the eyes of disaster-magnet historians.
Favorite Time-Travel Device: This should not be a surprise to anyone who caught my first My Favorite Things column. At last count, my TARDIS collection is over 40 blue police boxes and going strong. I have everything from t-shirts to a vanity license plate to the LEGO set to a cookie jar. But it’s easy to buy officially licensed merchandise from the BBC. Handmade items are much more valuable from a supportive standpoint, which include two of my favorites. I picked up the necklace from a fellow fan at a convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Lily’s Steampunk Emporium added the perfect vintage charms to the TARDIS she’d found. Even sweeter, a very crafty close family friend created the mug as a birthday gift a few years ago. I wear and use both regularly.
Favorite Place Out of Time: I’m very lucky that I get to time travel myself on occasion. I live in easy driving distance from the Maryland Renaissance Festival, which runs August through October every year. I love getting dressed up, drinking mead, and wandering through a magical forest of cute shops and catching fantastic shows of music and acting. Yes, there is actual jousting (it is Maryland’s official state sport, after all). I’ve attended every year since college, usually multiple times per year, and I’ve created my costume piece by piece over time. But there’s no official dress code, and even though the event sets the festival during Henry VIII’s reign, it’s not uncommon to see pirates, plenty of kilts, and the occasional video game character. It’s certainly my favorite place to eat meat on a stick and listen to pipes and drums.
Favorite Space-Travel Device: I mean that quite literally for my “non-speculative” item on this list. Last month, my husband and I finally received the Tesla Model 3 we pre-ordered on the first day possible, back in March 2016. We waited a bit longer than necessary to get the all-wheel drive model with the long-range battery, and I don’t regret a single moment of that time (or a single penny, because it was a lot of them). The Tesla started out as my husband’s obsession (it will be his daily driving vehicle, and he’s literally watching a video about it on YouTube as I write this), but once I sat in the car, and then drove it, I was firmly in the pro-Tesla camp. Say what you want about Elon Musk, but the car itself is exquisitely engineered, and it’s the closest I’ve certainly come to riding in my own personal space ship.
I’ll be pre-ordering my Tesla compact SUV once they are announced next spring. I’ll definitely be spending the extra money to get the blue finish — and then I’ll finally have my very own TARDIS.
By day, J.L. Gribble is a professional medical editor. By night, she does freelance fiction editing in all genres, along with reading, playing video games, and occasionally even writing. She is currently working on the Steel Empires series for Dog Star Books, the science-fiction/adventure imprint of Raw Dog Screaming Press. Previously, she was an editor for the Far Worlds anthology.
Gribble studied English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She received her Master’s degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where her debut novel Steel Victory was her thesis for the program.
She lives in Ellicott City, Maryland, with her husband and three vocal Siamese cats. Find her online (www.jlgribble.com), on Facebook, and on Twitter and Instagram.
Author photo by Brian Roache.
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I also have a fondness for time travel stories (I’m a little ashamed of how much I love the Outlander series) and I definitely want to check out Just One Damned Thing After Another. I wish there was a Renaissance festival closer to where I live because I think that style of dress would look great one me, but it’s not like I can wear it to the grocery store on an average Tuesday.
I didn’t even need to see your name, just the TARDIS mug and necklace to know who was talking about her favorite things this week! Congrats on another great book, J.L.