Wunderbar!

So far, the only person who's read the Winter story from start to finish and given us feedback is Leo's son (and my godson) Inigo. Overall he seems to have enjoyed it, which warms the cockles, I can tell you - though it is possible that he's biased in our favour. What has been really interesting and helpful has been hearing his impressions of the characters - which ones he warmed to, which he found less engaging. Characters take on a life of their own once you've created them, and it's not always easy to tell right away which of them are going to click with your readers.

Inigo particularly liked the Iron Turk, who ended up playing a big part in Winter and, if there is ever a Spring book, he'll no doubt appear in that too. I dug out these early drawings by Martin to show how the character evolved. The ears were added at my insistence, though Martin didn't feel they fitted with the rest of the design. I can't remember now why I thought they were so important. Maybe to humanize him a bit?

The essence of a character

The bit of the iceberg you don't get to see is all the concept art that goes into deciding what the characters should look like. Jack and Estelle went through months of false starts before Leo and Martin hit on the right look for them.

Over on Martin's site you can take a look at some of that early concept work. The Kind Gentleman is particularly interesting. I originally imagined him dressed like a dandy of the late 17th or early 18th century. When he's putting on his mortal guise, he asks, "The latest fashion?" and his minion replies, "What they're all wearing up top." They are just a bit off the mark after sleeping for a millennium or so.

Trouble was, that look wasn't nearly sexy enough for the Arch Deceiver. So Martin hit on the idea of dressing him in late Regency style - below right. That most certainly does "cut a dash", as the Gent himself puts it - and he's still nearly a hundred years out, after all.

Above is Martin's design for the famous chess-playing automaton created by Wolfgang von Kempelen. In the Year of Wonders, of course, the Iron Turk is not a hoax. Just look at the wealth of detail: the leg shape resembling gentlemen's trousers, the glowing valve reminiscent of a turban, and the styling of the face that evokes a long, curving Turkish moustache. I particularly like the fig leaf - added, as Martin said in his notes, in the interests of decency.

Hiss clank whirr

I have said before that Mirabilis is not steampunk. Not least because 1901 isn't really the Age of Steam any longer, but also because steampunk has kind of been done to death. I don't think we'd have had much to add to it. (A steampunk story set in the late 1700s, on the other hand - that could be interesting.)
Having said that, Mirabilis is the story of our world when all of fantasy - everything that the human mind has ever dreamed of - gets poured into the vessel of reality. And steampunk is undeniably part of fantasy, so it wouldn't be right if a few of those tropes didn't get a look in.

Anyway, we love airships and robots and big clanking machines just like anybody else. All we need is an excuse...