Is Victorian London The Only Possible Setting for a Steampunk Novel?

[Lia Keyes]

You know the answer to this is no, right? 

Where is your current work-in-progress set? How have you gone about researching it?

 

As you scroll down through the comments, don't forget there are several pages of them, so click through the numbers to read them. :)

 

 

[Helen Ryan]

I'm writing in an alternate history North America, in which the 13 colonies have become a unified British substate, the French and Spanish are still in possession of their properties, and the Deep South is the 'United States'. Also, the slave trade has been reduced because of the huge amounts of indentured servants traveling across the Atlantic to N. America. To add to the mix, England is in the throes of the Steampunk era, and this is gradually coming across the ocean too. Main character is based primarily in the South (Louisiana perhaps?)

 

As for research...I've done alt history research, I'm drawing up my maps, and reading about colonial times, as well as any Steampunk I can get my hands on.

[Allisyn Bridges]

I've actually got two WIPs going.  One set in the 1860's on Airships traveling across Canada, the United States, and the Atlantic.  The other is set in the 1920's with Airship Speakeasies in a large US city.

[Davide Mana]

I'm pretty far from London.
As I mentioned elswhere, I'm writing a series of stories on a colonized Mars in the 1860.
The venue is basically a planetary romance setting with a huge debt to Leigh Brackett, the tech that led Earthmen on Mars is quite steampunkish, and the cast includes a selection of historical and fictional characters, mostly from 19th century Italy and Europe.
While certainly pretty action/adventure-oriented, I'm throwing in political and environmental themes (Imperial activities are going full tilt, and there's a hint at terraformation) - and the mix seems to work fine.

The thing started almost as a joke, but it had potential, so I thought, why not?

[Arthur Slade]

My latest is set in Australia in the rainforest.

Before that it was the Atlantic ocean.

And before that it was London, England. : )

[Lia Keyes]

And that's what I love about your characters, Art. They get around! There's a sense of a fully-realized steampunk world instead of just a city. For a series, I think that's important.

Arthur Slade said:

My latest is set in Australia in the rainforest.

Before that it was the Atlantic ocean.

And before that it was London, England. : )

[Arthur Slade]

My plan is to send them all around the British Empire. A tour of sorts. : )

 

Lia Keyes said:

And that's what I love about your characters, Art. They get around! There's a sense of a fully-realized steampunk world instead of just a city. For a series, I think that's important.

[LP Wood]

I'm working on a story set in 1880s San Francisco, so I've been researching the Big Four (railroad magnates), Chinese immigration issues, etc.  I came across an interesting fact in my reading: that there was talk in the late 1840s of accepting California into the Union as two separate states.  So my story has evolved into an alternate history kind of thing.

[Anna Chen]

My story takes place in Stockholm, Sweden, and partly in China.

[Sarah Ahiers]

I classify my current WIP as a touch of Naval Steampunk, and it's set in a fabricated country. Being that i live in MN and not on an ocean, i had to do a lot of research regarding coastal life and steam-ships as well as victorian age firearms. Fun times!

[Sarah Ahiers]

That sounds awesome. I'm really intrigued by the idea of deep south steampunk

Nell Ryan said:

I'm writing in an alternate history North America, in which the 13 colonies have become a unified British substate, the French and Spanish are still in possession of their properties, and the Deep South is the 'United States'. Also, the slave trade has been reduced because of the huge amounts of indentured servants traveling across the Atlantic to N. America. To add to the mix, England is in the throes of the Steampunk era, and this is gradually coming across the ocean too. Main character is based primarily in the South (Louisiana perhaps?)

 

[Helen Ryan]

Thank you. I think it could work just because it's so unusual. The idea is that Steampunk is filtering over to the South, by way of immigrants, and gradually spreading.

Sarah Ahiers said:

That sounds awesome. I'm really intrigued by the idea of deep south steampunk

Nell Ryan said:

I'm writing in an alternate history North America, in which the 13 colonies have become a unified British substate, the French and Spanish are still in possession of their properties, and the Deep South is the 'United States'. Also, the slave trade has been reduced because of the huge amounts of indentured servants traveling across the Atlantic to N. America. To add to the mix, England is in the throes of the Steampunk era, and this is gradually coming across the ocean too. Main character is based primarily in the South (Louisiana perhaps?)

 

[Hugh Ashton]

At the risk of blowing my own trumpet too hard, check out my Beneath Gray Skies at http://BeneathGraySki.es - the ebook is a free download until Christmas - or buy it from Amazon as a paperback. It deals with a separate Confederacy of the 1920s, which has developed differently from our world's Southern USA. It also features a pretty realistic airship (LZ126 Bismarck).

Sarah Ahiers said:

That sounds awesome. I'm really intrigued by the idea of deep south steampunk

Nell Ryan said:

I'm writing in an alternate history North America, in which the 13 colonies have become a unified British substate, the French and Spanish are still in possession of their properties, and the Deep South is the 'United States'. Also, the slave trade has been reduced because of the huge amounts of indentured servants traveling across the Atlantic to N. America. To add to the mix, England is in the throes of the Steampunk era, and this is gradually coming across the ocean too. Main character is based primarily in the South (Louisiana perhaps?)