Weekly Update #50

Editor's Note

Wow.  This is my 50th Weekly Update, an impressive milestone.  It would be even more impressive if I did not screw up the numbering system early on.  Originally my plan was to have one news post a week, hence the name.  Not content to allow days to pass without updating the blog, I posted more than one news post during the week.  Instead of adding a ".1" or ".2", I just titled it by the next number.  So no, I have not been doing this for 50 weeks.  I could go back and renumber all of my earlier posts, but that seems like a hassle and there are more important things to do.

I started a poll to see the level of interest there was in an AH Con.  Judging by early voters, location is important to potential attendees.  So I have created a new poll focusing on what nation(s) you would like the AH Con to located in.  I chose the top ten nations based on the readers of the blog, so my apologies to the fans in Iran and Gabon, you guys are not there yet in numbers.  Disclaimer: there are no concrete plans by myself or anyone else involving an AH Con.  This is simply a hypothetical scenario I am running to gauge interest.  While I would love to promote/attend an AH Con, I have neither the time nor money to organize and finance one.  Still, a guy can dream...

I am going to be extremely busy this week with my real life.  Expect a New Releases post and a review for Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, but I cannot promise you anything else for the time being.  Please have patience with me and I promise by next week things will return to normal.

And now the news...

Submissions Wanted

If you can write alternate history, don't just spend your time contributing to AH.com or the Wiki.  There are publishers out there who are looking for new writers.  Here are a few:

World Weaver Press (a publisher of fantasy, science fiction and nonfiction) will be open for unsolicited submissions on May 1st.  They are looking for both fiction and nonfiction.  They also will be publishing anthologies for works under 30,000 words, but there are currently no anthologies in the works.

The Geek Partnership Society is holding their 14th annual writing contest.  They are looking for original, unpublished works of science fiction that are 5000 words or less.  Deadline is May 15th.

May December Publications, a publisher of horror and speculative fiction, has several open calls for anthologies involving general horror, spiders and zombies.  They also are accepting query letters for full length novels.  They request, however, that you do not send your completed novel until they request a copy.

All three of the above publishers will likely accept an alternate history tale as long as it meets their other requirements.  In the meantime, if you would like to participate in the publishing industry besides being an author, then you are in luck.  Alt Hist is looking for volunteers to help out with publication.  Contact Mark Lord at althist.editor@gmail.com if you are interested.

Before Watchmen News

I am not excited about the upcoming prequel to Alan Moore's excellent piece of alternate history, Watchmen. I would not be living up to the mission of Weekly Update, however, if I did not try and report the updates I find about Before Watchmen.  So with that being said, here are some relevant links to check out:

• Writer Brian Azzarello discusses his work on the Comedian and Rorschach.
• Artist Darwyn Cooke discusses his work on the Minutemen.
• DC is also running an in-universe website known as "New Frontier" after the right-wing/conspiracy theory journal featured in the original comic.

I still do not know whether I will end up reading these comics after all. I really enjoyed the original (and the movie was not bad either), but prequels to classic works rarely work out. If anyone wants to review the Before Watchmen project, please feel free to contact me.

Aether & Iron: A Time Traveller's Day Out

Steampunk fans in New Zealand may be interested in attending the 2nd annual "Aether & Iron: A Time Traveller's Day Out" on Saturday April 28 at the MOTAT in Auckland.  The show promises unique workshops and opportunities to come in costumes for fans of steampunk.  There will also be prizes and other Victorian themed activities for those attending.

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

Could North Korea Have Struck It Rich? by Stephan Haggard at Foreign Policy.

Interviews

George Guidall: The voice of a thousand characters by J. Michael Call at Standard-Examiner.

Maggie Stiefvater at her journal.

Books

Books by Sam White at All The time In The World.

How are Charlie Chaplin and World War I different in a world of vampires? by Charlie Jane Anders at io9.

Irenicon by Aidan Harte REVIEW done by Jon Courtenay Grimwood at SFX.

Review of 1636: The Kremlin Games by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff, and Paula Goodlett done by Publishers Weekly.

Online Alternate History

1636 The Kremlin Games – Snippet 23 by Eric Flint

Heart of Bronze by Michael Rigg.

The Old Man of the Sea of Dreams at A Space About Books About Space.

Films

The Raven clip reads along by CB Droege at TG Daily.

Video Games

Bat-To-Ball: Out Of The Park Baseball 13 by Adam Smith at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Multiplayer Co-op Trailer by William Usher at Gaming Blend.

RPGs

Servants of Gaius RPG Review done by Megan Robertson at Flames Rising.

Media

25 Team-Ups in History That Would Have Changed Everything at Cracked.com.

Frontier Taggers and Other Alternate History Animated Gifs by Jeremy at Jeremyriad.

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Mitro is founder, editor and contributor of Alternate History Weekly Update. When he is not busy writing about his passion for alternate history, he spends his time working as a licensed attorney in the state of Illinois and dreams of being a published author himself one day.