The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives

Certainly that was the best conference I never attended. It was also my first inkling that Steampunk was “big in Europe” and apparently still is.

Lord Kelvin’s Machine is my most recent effort (although ideally not my final effort) to write out another episode in the life of Langdon St. Ives. It’s hard to believe that I wrote that book fifteen years ago, a time of great change in my own life. As ever, I didn’t foresee the change or perceive it occurring (although I can see its shadow in the novel, now that I reread it). Coming to understand change is always a matter of looking back, which is just what I’ve been doing in this afterword, with no other motive, really, aside from nostalgia.

Jim Blaylock

Orange, California

December 10, 2007