Dig out those antique brass goggles, folks. The High Priestess of Steampunk is about to set foot in our fair city.

That would be Seattle writer Cherie Priest, who today and tomorrow is guest of honour at the Victoria Steam Exposition at the Fairmont Empress hotel. Priest is the author of Boneshaker, a novel she hopes will do for steampunk what Bram Stoker's Dracula or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein did for horror literature.

What is steampunk? It's a literary and pop-culture movement that first came to the fore in the early 1980s. No doubt a reaction to today's plastic-encased technology, steampunk embraces a whimsical, Victorian-influenced esthetic. It's guided by the fantasy writings of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Retro-technology is all the rage -- anything to do with clockwork cogs, brass fittings, goggles and zany inventions is de rigueur. For more clues, check out such "steampunk" movies as Wild Wild West (wacko retro-technology) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (bizarro submarine, Victorian-era superheroes).

The Seattle Times has just christened Priest the "high priestess" of steampunk. Boneshaker is her sci-fi page-turner about a 19th-century inventor who creates a vehicle that burrows into the Earth. Unfortunately, the machine opens a subterranean vein of poisonous gas. Seattle is walled off to stop deadly leakage. Boneshaker chronicles the adventures of those who dare cavort in the ghost city's toxic terrain.

The inventor is named Leviticus Blue. Priest likes to cull Victorian-sounding names for her novels by studying old tombstones at Seattle's Lakeview Cemetery. "It's totally true," she said. "I love that stuff."

Her book reminded me of the Seattle underground -- a famed network of sub-surface passages and chambers. It's a spooky legacy of the history of the city, literally built on top of its foundations following the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. Not surprisingly, Priest tells me she has taken Seattle's underground tour a dozen times -- they even once offered her a job.

Many quintessential steampunk trappings surface in Boneshaker. These include gas-masks, welder-style goggles, corsets and dirigibles. There's also an amputee woman with a levers-and-pulleys robotic arm grafted right to her bone. This echoes a popular steampunk fashion accessory -- leather "bracers," decked out with whimsical mechanical gadgetry and worn on the arm.

Priest told me Boneshaker -- her best-selling novel to date -- is indeed a deliberate attempt to create a literary magnum opus for the movement. She added: "Steampunk, I think, has been hunting for that for a while."

Saltspring Island screenwriter Jordan Stratford is organizing the Victoria Steam Exposition. Stratford, who dropped by the Times Colonist office in goggles, a bracer and a top hat, said while there have been smaller gatherings in Victoria and elsewhere, this is Canada's first real steampunk conference. In addition to Priest, who will participate in a panel discussion, the event includes an appearance by steampunk writer Nick Valentino (Thomas Riley), goth-influenced cellist/singer Unwoman (a.k.a. Erica Mulkey), film screenings, burlesque (courtesy of Miss Rosie Bitts) and vendors selling appropriate accoutrements (you can buy one of those brass-fitted bracers!).

It turns out Seattle, for some reason, is a steampunk hub. Last year, the inaugural Steamcon conference was expected to attract 800 people. It drew almost twice that number, reportedly making it the largest dedicated steampunk event ever held in the U.S.

Priest figures steampunk is big in Seattle because the city is also home to a huge goth community. Goth, for the uninitiated, is a sub-culture traditionally favouring dyed-black hair, black fingernails and, well ... other black stuff. Priest is a former goth, as are many older steampunks. She said being a steampunk is less radical, more socially acceptable for folk with kids, mortgages and real jobs. There's a strong connection between the sub-cultures; Seattle's reigning steampunk band, Abney Park, started as a goth act.

Stratford believes Seattle's infatuation with steampunk partly reflects the city's history. The movement admires the Victorian era's pioneering spirit of adventure and exploration. This is certainly something Seattle was built upon. Ditto for Victoria, for that matter.

As with any pop culture movement, Steampunk is destined to disappear eventually. But not for a while. Priest noted that while she's regularly invited to participate in speculative fiction conventions, Victoria's is only her second steampunk convention to date.

"But next year," she said, "I have three more."

Admission to the Victoria Steam Exposition at the Empress is $40 for the full weekend. Tickets are available at the door. Cherie Priest's session begins at noon today. For information, link to: http://victoriasteamexpo.com