Weekly Update #70.1

Editor's Note

So last week I took Monday off to celebrate Labor Day, but this Monday I am back with a double-helping of Weekly Update. This post will focus primarily on alternate history, but steampunk fans should stay tuned for part 2 which will focus on the steampunk news of the last two weeks.

Thanks to everyone who voted in our last poll. Based on your answers I will no longer be promoting Weekly Update on Reddit. Sorry to everyone who followed on Reddit, but there was not enough of you following from that site. In the meantime, please check out our new poll on the right. Your votes will help decide what recurring segments continue or are resurrected.

Some good news now, we broke our monthly page view record for the 4th time in a row. Our new record stands at a whopping 11,712 page views in the month of August. This is on top of celebrating our 80,000th page view ever.

Congrats to winners of the Battle of the Book Review Blogs. Although AH Weekly Update did not place, I believe we did end up in 5th place out of dozen or more blogs. That is pretty impressive for such a young site in as niche of market as alternate history. This is a testament to our great fans and I thank you for your continued support from the bottom of my heart.

And now the news...

Update: Eric Flint

I actually got a chance to sit in on a panel headed by Eric Flint at Chicon about electronic publishing. Interesting topic and boy can the man talk, but I will share more details later this week when I publish my recap of Chicon.

That man can write as well. WCG at That's interest... reviewed his recent novel 1636: The Kremlin Games. Although WCG gave a good review of the novel, he did have this to say: "If you're a fan of the series, and haven't gotten tired of the whole thing, I'm sure you'll want to read this book. It's lots of fun. It's just that, for better and for worse, it's series fiction that's been going on for a long time now."

And the series will be going on. Eric has been posting snippets to the next installment of the 1632 series, 1635: The Papal Stakes. You can check out snippets 35, 36 and 37 there if you want.

Alternate Historians remember Neil Armstrong by envisioning his early death

Astronaut and first man on the moon Neil Armstrong died late last month. The 82-year old man was part of an elite club, having traveled farther from home than any other human. Mourning in a way that is unique to alternate historians, we remembered the famous pioneer by speculating about what if he had died earlier. Just check out the article What if Neil Armstrong Had Died on the Moon? by Mark Whittington at Examiner.com where he shares an AH story about such a tragedy along with a link to Nixon's back-up speech in case Neil and Buzz remained stuck on the moon. There is an even a February 2012 dramatization of such an event called Moon Graffiti that made the rounds following the announcement of Armstrong's death.

Things to do

Sept 27: At the London Megastore you can attend the Titan Books Signing Bonanza, featuring such authors as Guy Adams (The Army of Dr. Moreau) and Kim Newman (Anno Dracula series).

October: What if Mary Todd Lincoln had a chance to defend her sanity under modern legal principles? The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, IL will host a courtroom performance between Abraham Lincoln's widow and her son Robert over whether or not she was really insane and needed to be committed to an asylum.

Submissions Wanted

Two more opportunities to get published:

• Spellbound, a quarterly fantasy magazine for children 8-12, is looking for submissions up to 2500 words. Find more details here
• The final anthology to be published by Jake's Monthly has been announced. There is no theme for this one, so dust off that old chestnut and help Jake celebrate his goal of publishing an anthology once a month for a year.

As always, good luck.

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

Alternate History by Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog.

Alternate Histories: 7 Ways the World Could Be Completely Different by Mark Juddery at mental_floss. And check out this rebuttal.

A Counterfactual History: Rick Perry Speaks At the Republican National Convention by Zac Crain at D Magazine.

Guest Post: An Alternate History of Israeli-Turkish Reconciliation by Dov Friedman at Ottomans and Zionists.

Politics & Alternative Reality Fiction by Mike LaBossiere at Talking Philosophy.

Books

Alternative History, Mystery: Dust to Blood by @tmycann at The Masquerade Crew.

Michaele Jordan Reviews Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations at Black Gate.

Review: COUP D’ETAT by Harry Turtledove done by K. Burtt at Geek Speak Magazine.

Review by Seamus Sweeney of Resistance by Owen Sheers at Alt Hist.

Review of Bitter Seeds (Milkweed #1) by Ian Tregillis done by My Bookish Ways.

Review of Northlands 3: Iron Winter by Stephen Baxter done by Falcata Times.

Films

What if The Dark Knight Rises took place in 1930s Shanghai? by Cyriaque Lamar at io9.

Maps

The separatist map of Africa: interactive by Luc Torres, Clar Ni Chonghaile, Finbarr Sheehy and Paddy Allen at The Guardian.

Music

Billy Joel Meets Stephen King Meets The Simpsons by Matt Selam at Time Entertainment.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.