Re: upthread on what qualifies as steampunk, aspiring author creative help regarding, and Cherie Priest's
Clockwork Century series, there's a bit of discussion combining those in one of those old Tor/Forge sampler freebies which mixed articles written by the authors about their books with excerpts from said books.
Tor/Forge Author Voices: Volume 2 has a short essay-ette by Priest on what she decided qualified as distinguishably steampunk enough for
Boneshaker and a little about how the worldbuilding came to be (plus an excerpt from
Boneshaker and Volume 3 has an excerpt from
Ganymede).
All 3 volumes are available for free download directly from @
Tor.com (DRM-free, available worldwide, may require site registration), as well as a number of stores which they link to (geo-restricted to US only).
They're actually pretty nifty in terms of giving short behind-the-scenes info on the creative process and the publishing industry (not to mention some fun trivia), and much nicer than the glorified chapter extract wrap-up that I'd dismissed them as when they originally came out a couple of years ago.