Choosing an Author for Steampunk Holmes

Datamancer Keyboard

I spent the last few days re-reading many Sherlock Holmes stories and I have to say that while the characters are really cool, the short stories about Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle really don't work all that well for the Steampunk genera. Sherlock spends a lot of time in his flat interviewing clients. Most short stories unwind as narratives about the client and their problem with very little action by Holmes himself. Usually Holmes listens to the client tell there story and then he pretty much solves the mystery with hardly any action other than a site visit. Steampunk Holmes will need to be much more active employing devices of his own design and traveling the streets of an alternative, steampunk London. After all, this is speculative fiction so we need to see some cool locations, characters, and devices.

For this reason I've asked the authors who have posted an interest in working on this project a request to submit to me an original story idea for Steampunk Holmes as well as examples of their writing. I've already received three very different story ideas all of which are excellent. I'll choose the author with the best writing (or most appropriate writing style) and the best idea. It's really cool to see the ideas that come out of speculative fiction authors - they are so creative!