Top Ten Tuesday: Settings I’d like to See More of.

These would not be straight fiction, mostly…I do read straight fiction but I’m really, really picky about what I read.

So, let’s say these are settings for mysteries for the most part. I tend to think that mysteries need something else besides the promise of someone dying and someone else finding out why. So I like to read stories in interesting settings or with characters with occupations that I don’t usually encounter…I like to feel like I’m exploring something I usually wouldn’t get to, whether it be the racing world of the Dick Francis stories, the Regency of Stephanie Barron, or Nevada Barr’s National Parks working heroine.

1. More proto-steampunk. Most of the books I’ve read, the things that make a world steampunk are in full swing. I’d like to see the roots.

2. Medieval Japan/China. That is such a fascinating time period.

3. Books set in Southwestern PA, because it’s so much fun to read a book and go, “Oh, wow! I’ve been there!”

4. Age of sail. I am extremely fond of tall ships.

5. India. I love exotic locales.

6. And, actually, how about Hawaii? (It’s 20 degrees outside…so you may get an influx of warm weather places.)

7. I miss Hillerman’s Jim Chee books…so it would be neat to have some more books in a Native Indian setting.

8. My fascination with Gypsy Wagons predates my love of camping with the SCA, so a mystery or fantasy involving these in some setting is absolutely on my list.

9. I am in love with the late Renaissance/Tudor times right now, so I will happily read stories there.

10. The early times between high Medieval and Roman –exploring some of the interesting laws and politics of the Danes, for example, could make for some nifty mysteries.