Springpunk?

Yeah, springpunk. I can't take credit for creating that word, but I'll use it. It's got nothing to do with the (looooong overdue) changing of the seasons here in North America. It's also got nothing to do with water. It has everything to do with twisted pieces of metal and the work they can do.

You've probably heard of cyberpunk, in which computers and technology issues substantially impact and/or control peoples' lives, mostly in the future. Many of those works, movies and books, some of them quite extraordinary, are designed to deliver warnings about letting technology take too much control of our lives. Implants and cyborgs and alternate technological universes and highly imaginative violence. Dark. Really, really dark. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy most cyberpunk works because the world-building tends to be exquisite, but I like the sun, too. It can't be dark all the time.

You might have even heard of steampunk. Equipment and vehicles commonly electrically or gasoline powered now are redesigned to be steam-powered. Victorian settings are common. Flight is a popular aspect, either through zeppelins or ornithopters (flapping wing aircraft) or rockets or combinations. And goggles. And leather helmets. I've found much steampunk fiction thematically light: give your all for King and Country and don't swear in front of the ladies or they'll faint. We've been there and done that. The question I ask of the steampunk I read or watch is this: is this steam-powered gadget really necessary? Much of the time the answer is no. And leather helmets are hats, not helmets. No protection at all. Maybe I'm not reading the right stuff. Recommend more if you would. I think the genre has promise, but I'm just not seeing the production.

So, springpunk. A work in which wind-up servants substantially impact peoples' lives. Think of a machine that does the dangerous jobs that people shouldn't do. A toolbox that walks to a job site. A mechanical lumberjack. A mechanical farmhand. A mechanical bartender. Go ahead, make up your own. It can do whatever you want. Now figure out what its existence does to its world and the people in it. And what it might be able to do besides its assigned functions.

That effect on people and on the machines themselves what my e-books are about. I'll let you know when the first one comes out. It should be in a few days.