In which we think fondly about That Inevitable Victorian Thing
“Kate,” you say, “don’t you have a new book out soon? Why are we talking about this one?”
Because I love it, pocket friends. And because it’s earned out, so if any of you actually purchase it, I get paid.
ANYWAY.
It was the summer of 2013. I was in that weird limbo where I had sold my debut the year before, but I wasn’t going to “officially” be an author until the year after. EXIT was languishing on sub and I was finishing up the first draft of Prairie Fire. But the most important thing that happened (to me) that summer, was that Guillermo del Toro’s cinematic masterpiece Pacific Rim was in theatres. That movie changed my life for a whole list of reasons, but today we’re going to talk about how it gave me That Inevitable Victorian Thing.
It’s fairly common knowledge that I got my start in fanfiction, and that’s also where VICTORIANS started. Pacific Rim fanfic was unique in a lot of ways, because it had nearly unmatched potential crossover alternate universes thanks to two little words: drift compatible.
(Basically: in the movie, the giant robots are controlled by a team of humans who are in complete synchronization with one another because their brains meet up in the drift. It was essentially soulmates, but even better, and fandom ran with it. I’m pretty sure Pacific Rim still holds the record for being disqualified from Yuletide the soonest after it came out, and that’s almost entirely because of the concept of drift compatibilty.)
I was, for unrelated reasons, also obsessed with the BBC version of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North & South at the time, and so it was, shall we say, inevitable that I’d end up writing fanfic. The one I came up with was called “Sea to Sky”, and took place between Vancouver (where Margaret’s dad had been a Jaeger scientist) and Prince George (the factory town where the Jaegers were actually built). I wrote the first chapter, where Margaret attends her cousin’s wedding and everyone begs her to move to the safety of Saskatchewan, and then I had a realization: this was my job now. I could do this for money.
So I scrapped the fanfic and started working on an original story. The robots and aliens were cut, but I held on to the idea that technology could give us a good future, and that humanity could work together to achieve it. (Lorde, typing that sentence in 2025 makes me feel things.) One day, while explaining the book to my friend Faith, she said “Well, I guess it was always inevitable you’d writing something Victorian someday”, and I changed the name of the document right away.
And then there were publishing shenanigans and a brief detour into Star Wars and it was 2017 and That Inevitable Victorian Thing hit the shelves. It was extremely Canadian and no one ever really figured out how to pitch it. From the jump, readers said it was too simple, too idealistic or complained that there was no revolution. And I didn’t really care. The book did exactly what I wanted it to. I wrote a world where England realized how badly it fucked up and did something about it, which let Canada follow suit before we even had Confederation. Of course it was too idealistic.
That Inevitable Victorian Thing was built on two pieces of media that I love, a lifetime of summers in Muskoka, a whole bunch of Canadian inside jokes, and three dances. The Rover, sung by Alan Doyle, is a reel that I’ve had choreographed in my head since grade 11. The Logdriver’s Waltz is a part of my childhood. And the Dashing White Sergeant is a complicated dance I learned in a haunted Scottish castle that really matches the, uh, end themes of the book.
More than anything, VICTORIANS is a collection of everything I’ve ever loved or dreamed, beautifully packaged for sharing. The ephemera at the start of each chapter really captures the soul of what I was trying to accomplish. I was surprised that I got to keep this book’s title, but I was surprised and THRILLED when Andrew said I could get all those little ideas turned into art.
I’d love to tell you that this story has a happily ever after, but those aren’t super common in longterm publishing. After a few years, Penguin looked at the numbers and decided to pull the book from print. In the confusion of the pandemic, I didn’t find out for almost a year. It was a quiet finish for my quiet book, and while hope springs eternal, that might be it. So now every year on Victoria Day Weekend, I try to remember to post something about the book that contains so much of my heart (and a really great joke about Highway 400).
The good news is that you can still buy That Inevitable Victorian Thing. The ebook and audiobook versions are both available and, as I said above, if you do decide to buy it, I receive royalties. If you’re looking for hopepunk that’s almost egregiously optimistic (in hindsight), then I think you’ll like it. Also, it’s EXTREMELY queer.
That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a Canadian near-future sci-fi where a reluctant debutante, a princess in disguise, and the troubled heir of a lumber company all cross paths for the summer that will change their lives, and alter the course of an empire. It’s great for fans of Bridgerton (ish), alternate history (with fallout), and Regency Romances (even though North & South is not), and for people who still hope we can build something.
That Inevitable Victorian Thing is hard to find IRL, but the ebook and audiobook copies are still available to purchase, and you can request them at your local library. Also, it’s my birthday, so it would be EXTRA cool. ;)
And because I am lucky enough that writing is my job in spite of some setbacks, I have two new books available for preorder right now!
Titan of the Stars, out May 27, is a sci-fi horror that Kirkus gave a star, saying “the story vibrates with terror, offering readers a compelling and harrowing treat”
Sky on Fire, out July 22, is an epic sci-fantasy story in a convenient portable form that Kirkus was was “oddly emotionally distant”, but, like, that was kind of the point.
(The audiobooks are going to be SO COOL, ebooks are also available, and if you’re a library person, you can double check with your local branch to make sure they’ll have a copy for you.)