NaNoWriMo and a Map

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I’m working on a steampunk story this year. I have the story set in an alternate history. With the development of steampunk technologies the French Empire had some fancy artillery, possibly with targeting controlled by analytic engines. This technology superiority allowed them to defeat the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War.

Now Germany is broken into a number of separate states. Bavaria a French puppet, Hanover dominated by the British, and Saxony falling quickly into the Habsburg sphere. The demilitarized Westphalia region is seeking independence from Prussia. A bit of a mess in Central Europe.

A strong French Empire helped to keep Rome as a Papal State, not having it annexed into Italy. There will be many other differences as I work on the story.

Here is a nifty map:

As I said it will be a steampunk story. No supernatural creatures, magic, psionics, faeries, or vampires will make appearances. It will also focus on some of the ‘punk’ elements so many stories ignore. No adventuring nobles as the main character doing everything for Queen and Country.

It will be a fun project, but it will need a lot of clean-up. Writing 50,000 words in 30 days while still working, gaming, and taking care of other responsibilities can be tricky. They key is to write and worry about editing or changing things until afterwards. Very rough draft.

If it ends up being any good I’ll see about getting out there somewhere for people to explore.

Map of the United States of America circa 1910

Last January I was planning my own twist on the alternate American Civil War. Over the summer and fall of 2014 life happened so I didn't develop it as much as I wished. This map is a spoiler for that timeline - the rebellious northern states, due to their population and industry managed to break free of the United States to for the Federation of Free America.

After the north-eastern states broke away the United States quickly got involved in another war with Mexico. The French decided not to intervene which allowed America to annex new territory. The much weaker United States was seeing itself becoming more isolated with the French and British befriending the FFA. After Germany purchased Cuba from Spain on the 7th of June 1889 the United States worked to improve their relationship with the new German Empire.

Naval agreements between the FFA and British Empire became an increasing worry for the United States. They entered into a formal alliance with Germany in 1911, giving Germany access to additional ports in the Caribbean and Pacific as well as the growing American markets. In return Germany military advisers helped the USA modernize its military and gave financial assistance.

With the coming of the Great War the United States would join the Central Powers as the FFA would soon after join the Allies.

With the world war spreading to North America, the map would end up changing again...