Monday, 10 June 2013

Regency Steam Punk

My son suggested I should write Steampunk.
Well, ok, the idea was certainly interesting, and I DID grow up on Jules Verne, but then suddenly, I came up with a thought.
Anything wrong with going back to the beginning of steam and writing in a period of steampunk rising? I KNOW the Regency so well....

So here's my initial thoughts of an opening.



The Prince’s own Steam Dragoniers

If an obscure schoolmaster from Hove, named Meleager Bainbridge, had never performed extra-curricular experiments, and hence discovered the lifting properties of the substance he named ‘Georgium’, after the Prince Regent, then steam engines would never have taken to the skies.
As it was, Trevithick’s mechanical steam dragons, inspired by the chandelier in the Brighton Pavilion, were the pride of the British Army.  The Prince’s Own Dragonniers were men of legendary valour, enough to make any maiden swoon at the sight of their distinctive sky-blue uniforms, and silver tissue pelisses and shakoes. 
Any maiden, that is, but Annette Bainbridge.

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8 comments:

  1. Charlotte Frost11 June 2013 at 11:20

    Go for it!

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  2. Sarah11 June 2013 at 11:33

    Thank you Charlotte!
    I have in notes so far a conflict between hero and heroine, who don't realise that the other is actually clever, the imminent invention of the electric motor by Faraday [properly in 1821 but I'm going to bring it forward because of circumstances] which will revolutionise the ability to control the lifting properties of Georgium, and a runaway prototype which must not fall into the hands of the French, and therefore the need for an unwilling alliance between my prickly protagonists. I have a vague idea of using Georgium to get as far as the phlogiston - one has to have phlogiston - and Hussars In Space.

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  3. Anna M. Thane11 June 2013 at 12:10

    Sounds great! I suggest to add industrial espionage from other British inventors as well. Plus "another woman" - something for the heroine to be in competion with.

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  4. Sarah11 June 2013 at 13:27

    Industrial espionage, great idea, plus the perfidious Americans, and that sophisticated woman who laughs at a provincial schoolmaster's daughter. Danger, Love, history, steam, mix together and stir, and don't forget to loosen the safety valve

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  5. Anne Seebaldt29 June 2013 at 00:41

    Hussars in space? Oh my ... the mental pics.

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  6. Sarah29 June 2013 at 00:47

    >grins<

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  7. ista3 July 2013 at 13:06

    This I would definitely read!

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  8. Sarah3 July 2013 at 14:30

    My thanks! I must do some work on it [and the William Price sequel, and the Vanities and Vexations xover Cousin Prudence sequel, and the next Jane book, and....and... ]

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