After 5 years and 1,000,000 views, its time to close the door on Alternate History Weekly Update.
I feel bad about doing this, especially after my post celebrating my millionth view where I said I wasn't going anywhere, but I need to be honest with myself and you.
You see when I created Alternate History Weekly Update, one of the primary reasons was to help me write more by giving myself a deadline. More than five years later I can say with all sincerity that I was successful in that goal. I now write all the time for multiple sites and I have even been published. Mission accomplished.
That said, I've found my writing for The Update becoming increasingly stale and just not enjoyable anymore. I don't post many articles outside of my regular recurring series and I find even making those to be like a chore. On top of that, some of you may have noticed on social media that I have taken a short break from the Internet. Its nothing serious, but I certainly hit a wall and needed time to really think about what brings me joy in life.
Sadly this blog does not bring me joy. I will always be thankful for the opportunities it has brought me and the people I have met through it, but I need to break outside of the box it has put me in. Thus this will be the last post on The Update. I won't be taking down the blog because I want to keep it up as an archive of my writing and editing.
So what happens next for me? Well I am not going to disappear. I actually have created a new blog under The Alternate Historian banner. This will be the official site for news about and articles by me...but I will be posting on an irregular basis. My primary focus will now be my YouTube channel because I really do enjoy making videos and I want to become better at it. So if you haven't subscribed already, please do so. Or follow me on Facebook, Twitter (@alt_historian), Tumblr and DeviantArt, all of which are associated with The Alternate Historian. Plus I will still be writing for Amazing Stories, interviewing for SFFWorld and participating as a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge.
More importantly, I am hoping I will have more time to write fiction. I would love to publish more short stories or finally write that novel I always talk about. Because I will now have so much more free time, I might just get the chance.
Once again, thank you everyone for making Alternate History Weekly Update one of the premier sites for alternate history news and reviews. Its been a wonderful ride and I hope you will join me on the next stage of my journey.
Am I old for referencing Dr. Evil? Who the Hell cares...1 MILLIONS VIEWS!!! You can't imagine how good it feels to write that.
I feel the same way reaching 1 million views as I do when reaching my destination on a long hike. I'm happy I got there and I am amazed that I was able to do it, but I realize that I still have a long walk ahead of me before I can finally rest. Its moments like this that make me want to look back at where I came from and also speculate on what the future will bring.
Now usually I like to do a "State of the Blog" post for accomplishments like this, where I go through our growth and such, but because 1 million views is such a big deal, I've decided to forego that (for now) and just be real for a second.
First, I need to say thank you to everyone who made this possible. Thank you to my wife Alana for her endless patience with me shutting myself away in my office to write. Thank you to my family and friends for their help and encouragement for a hobby that has become almost a second job. Thank you to all of the alternate history creators out there for giving me something to talk about, because God knows I can't come up with anything original myself. Thanks also to all of the contributors who are way more talented than I am for submitting guest posts and such to this blog.
Most importantly, thank you to all of my readers. You guys allow me to get through the day by giving me an outlet to be creative. Your comments, both the complimentary and the critical, keep me going, even when times get tough. I've shared some happy and dark times with you guys and no one could ask for a better group of people to do it with.
So now that I am done looking backwards, its time to look ahead at the trek that awaits me. I like to say that I will always be here, bringing news and reviews on alternate history, but we all know nothing lasts forever. This year we saw two blogs that I loved, SF Signal and My Bookish Ways, close their doors for good. It came as a surprise to many, me included, but I sympathized with the people behind them. Its tough blogging full time, especially if you have family or have other projects you want to work on.
Don't worry, this isn't a good bye post. To continue with my hiking metaphor, I may just find myself taking a trail I didn't originally plan to traverse. Blogging is fun, but it does mean I have less time for other things I may want to do. For example, I love making videos for YouTube. It gives me a feeling I haven't felt since I started blogging. I would love to learn how to use better editing software, try out new filming techniques or maybe even take a class on acting or public speaking...but that requires time I don't have.
I also like the idea of being a professional book critic. Instead of pushing papers all day, I could be turning pages and analyzing literature. It sounds...nice. Like something I should have done a long time ago. Although I have a good job and I like the people I work with, there is nothing wrong with having a crazy dream...but to seriously pursue it, I need to find more time in the day.
That said, I can't forget what brought me here. This blog and everyone who hangs out here has helped propel me to where I am now and will continue to push me farther toward the horizon. Leaving this place, if I were to truly do it, would be the hardest decision I've had to make in a long time. So you won't be seeing the end of Alternate History Weekly Update anytime soon.
I'm Matt Mitrovich, your editor. For now, let the journey continue.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger for Amazing Stories, a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not exploring alternate timelines he enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.
Even for a group of people to whom things like time and space are but toys to be played with - it has still been far too long since I’ve been here.
The Alternate History Weekly Update has turned five this month, and having been there since its early birthing cries, I’m proud to see how it’s grown, and to have played my own role in the process.
I actually find myself struggling to come up with the proper words to mark the occasion - how does one celebrate a website that’s kept going long enough that it would now be old enough to start kindergarten were it a child? So, like any good story, I suppose the best place to start is the beginning.
In both cases, it would be the first of many more to come. I’d go on to write dozens of articles for the AHWU, ranging from more timeline showcases, reviews of the controversial Before Watchmen comics, and debates with Matt over the future of the alternate history genre. The site and its readership grew and thrived, and I and my career grew with it. My own website thrived as well, and those tentative steps writing for the AHWU gave me the courage and experience to reach out to other places to freelance.
Five years ago, I was still a greenhorn blogger doing his best to post regularly to his own website. Today, I’ve graduated college, having studied journalism, history and writing, and I work as a newspaper columnist and freelance journalist, and even have won awards for some of my news coverage. I have written for dozens of publications and websites, and still have designs on getting some fiction published in the near future.
I owe a tremendous amount of my own growth to this website, because to some extent, that all started right here at the Alternate History Weekly Update.
How’s that for a “For want of a nail” scenario?
I will be the first to admit some regret that I don’t post here as much as I used to. A word of advice for those of you wish to make a living writing, as someone who does so now as a journalist and a freelance writer, I would say be very careful with what you wish for, as it will keep you busy. Once things settle down a bit more in my life, I’d like nothing more than to get back to contributing a bit more to the AHWU, and like many of you no doubt, am still working on getting a few alternate history stories written and published.
That may be why I've struggled to find the right words to honor the fifth anniversary of the Alternate History Weekly Update. For me, it’s more than a great watering hole of the online alternate history community, or a cousin to my own website, or another outlet I’ve freelanced for. I’ve made colleagues and friends here, cut my teeth as a writer here, and to some extent, it's played a major role in my own life these past five years.
It’s been a pleasure and an honor to be a part of this site and the community that has grown around it these past five years. And I cannot wait to see where the Alternate History Weekly Update grows from here in the years to come, and what role I play in it.
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Soldier, scholar, writer and freelancer, Sean CW Korsgaard has been active in the alternate history community since 2006. In addition to his contributions at the Alternate History Weekly Update, he writes for several newspapers and websites, including his own, which can be found here, and was recently hired by The Progress-Index, where among other duties, he’s the go to history reporter.
The above title is not exactly true. Admittedly, its hard for me to pinpoint the exact date I was introduced to concept of "alternate history". I've said a million times now that my first foray into alternate history was Worldwar: In the Balance by Harry Turtledove, which I probably read somewhere around 1999-2000.
That being said, I assume some of the TV shows and films I watched, like Back to the Future II, played around with the concept. Plus I am pretty sure I read a few Elseworlds books before I read Worldwar. No, what made Worldwar: In the Balance special, besides being an incredibly fun high concept idea backed by a good story and a compelling cast of characters, was the timing of it. I read that book just when the Internet was becoming widespread. Most homes at the time had at least one computer with a modem. Mine was in the basement.
Now as a socially awkward "millennial", I embraced the Internet pretty early and it is where I turned to find more books like Worldwar: In the Balance. It was through the Internet that I stumbled upon the online alternate history community. I was there in the early years of AlternateHistory.com asking questions and crafting my first timelines...and no don't ask to see them. I still to this day refuse to share my original user name, mostly because I am deeply ashamed of my earlier works. If you want a good laugh, go search for my name on Changing the Times and you will see some of my first and more regrettable forays into alternate history.
As the years went by I have done at lot in this community. I survived the fall of Alternia, I rebuilt the world after Doomsday, I guarded the time stream from trolls, I traveled all the way to the United Kingdom just to go sideways in time (where I almost got into a bar fight), I chatted with the master of alternate history himself and...I'm a Sidewise judge. Sorry, couldn't make that last one melodramatic enough.
Yeah I'm being silly, but who cares, right? I mean I created something that lasted five years! I mean the Internet is essentially a goldfish with ADD, so I'm still surprised people are reading this blog after five years. Admittedly I couldn't have done it without all of the great contributors who have submitted articles when I was too busy (or lazy) to write them myself. Special thanks to those people...and if you have been reading all of our #5Years guest posts, you have already run into a few of them and there are more to come before June is up.
Alternate History Weekly Update has been many things to me. It has been the source of my inspiration and the object of my frustration. It has opened doors and almost burned a few bridges. It has kept me busy when I am bored and it has distracted me from more important things. It also has helped keep me going when things were at their darkest.
A blog, however, is nothing without its readers. I wouldn't do all of this without your support. Thank you most of all for sticking with my silly idea of creating a news and review blog about alternate history. I don't know if there will be an end date in the future, but for now, I'm having fun and I'll keep going as long as I do.
Thanks again and now I'm off to celebrate Father's Day with my family.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger for Amazing Stories, a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not exploring alternate timelines he enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.
On June 19, 2011, I posted my very first Weekly Update. Five years later, Alternate History Weekly Update has continued to provide news, reviews and speculation on all types of alternate history, thanks in part to our amazing contributors. To celebrate this milestone I have reached out to some of our most popular guest posters and asked them to submit new articles for you, the reader, to enjoy. The responses have been great so far and here is a list of guest posts I have received at the time of this post:
I am expecting more guest posts to be submitted in the next couple of days and perhaps I will have a surprise or two up my sleeve for you. In the meantime, keep a look out for #5Years to see all the posts that are a part of this celebration.
Thanks again everyone for following this little blog and if you would like to help us mark five years of blogging, let me know at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger for Amazing Stories, a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not exploring alternate timelines he enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.
I am happy to announce that Alternate History Weekly Update just surpassed 900,000 page views! Thanks so much everyone who has stuck along for almost 5 years. It is completely possible to get 1,000,000 views before the end of the year! Time now for our traditional "State of the Blog" post that I publish on these milestones. The last time we obtained another 100,000 view milestone was when we surpassed 800,000 page views on 12/30/15. Our best month in terms of page views was last January when we reached 27,751 views.
Next up, lets take a look at the current top posts of all time (the list on the left is only for the week):
Not too many changes at the top of the list, except for my What If Wednesday getting more views than Weber's article. With that out of the way, lets take a look at the changes in our social media followers:
We had 99 Blogger followers on 12/30/15, now we have 95
We had 633 Facebook fans on 12/30/15, now we have 718
Sad to say I have seen an unusual drop with Blogger, Reddit and Email subscribers. Disappointing, but offset by not only continued growth in Facebook and Twitter, but also in our affiliated sites:
I hope to do a Q&A video for the channel when I reach 1000 viewers, so please subscribe if you haven't already and, while you are there, go check out the awesome channel art designed by Marc Pasquin. In the meantime, if you want to help me with that goal, please consider becoming one of my patrons on Patreon. I have a lot of rewards and milestone goals that I think you will enjoy.
Businesses looking to reach out to our intelligent and engaged community of readers should check out our Advertise page for more details. Those looking to submit a guest post should check out our Submissions page and then email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com (although I am currently not accepting guest posts in June, you will find out why soon). You can also support The Update by clicking through our Amazon banner at the top right corner when you go to purchase your next alternate history book, comic, game or whatever tickles your fancy.
Thanks to all of the readers and contributors of The Update for helping us reach another major milestone. Expect more posts, videos and other alternate history goodness for years to come.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger for Amazing Stories, a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not exploring alternate timelines he enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.
Well its that time again for another "Best of the Year" post. As usual there is nothing scientific about how I choose what is the best alternate history of 2015. Sometimes it is something I personally liked and other times its whatever got the most page views. Anything I covered in 2015 on here, Amazing Stories or YouTube is eligible, so even if something was published years ago it can still be recognized for greatness now.
With the usual disclaimer out of the way, let us begin... Best Novel
I am going to have to agree with the Sidewise Judges this year. The Enemy Within by Kristine Kathryn Rusch was an engaging political thriller that I couldn't put down. It really captured the paranoia of post-JFK assassination politics and I can't recommend it enough.
Best Anthology
It is certainly an old anthology, but Poul Anderson, Charles Waugh & Martin Greenberg's Time Wars was a fun look back at some early time travel/alternate history stories. It contained classics like Poul Anderson's "Delenda Est" and H. Beam Piper's "Gunpowder God", plus another enjoyable read from Harry Harrison, who has always been a personal favorite author of mine. Pick it up if you want to see how modern alternate historians were inspired to write.
Best Short Story
You would think I would have picked one of the short stories from Time Wars as the best of 2015, but that honor actually goes to "The Iron Shirts" by Michael Flynn. A web original recommended by Harry Turtledove himself, its a fun twist on the Age of Exploration that packs other surprises as well. More importantly, its a sign that you don't always need Amazon to find good fiction. Best Timeline
I didn't review many timelines this year, but there are a couple I want to highlight for various reasons. The first is "Winged Hands of the Reich" by Alexander "SpanishSpy" Wallace, which remains one of the funnier timelines out there and a smart commentary on the alternate history genre as well. Then we have the Tarrantry Sagaby its various authors. I always like highlighting old timelines that have become lost in the aether and the Tarrantry Saga deserves not to be forgotten.
Best Comic
I think The Manhattan Projects Vol. 1: Science Bad by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra is the only comic I actually reviewed this year, so it wins the honor by default. If you like secret history and weird, surreal scenes, then you will probably enjoy it (although I haven't picked up Volume 2 yet). I will try to make an effort to read more comics next year.
Best Television Series
Was there any doubt I would declare Amazon's The Man in the High Castleas the best? If you have been watching my series of reviews on YouTube, you know that I have issues with the show. That being said, it is still a visually stunning series with interesting character and, more importantly, its alternate history in the mainstream done well.
Best Film
Hmm...doesn't look like I reviewed any films this year. O well, I still had thoughts on some films that alternate historians might find interesting. Check out The Retro Future of Back to the Future Part II and Top 5 Dieselpunk Films, both on Amazing Stories, if you want to see me tackle alternate history cinema.
Best Podcast
I am giving the nod for this one to The World That Wasn't podcast. They are a newcomer to the scene who we haven't heard much from in months, but hopefully they will step back into the limelight in 2016. I enjoyed their use of music, sound effects and guest historians; and I think you will too. Best YouTube channel
Although I didn't review any specific YouTube videos this year, I still need to give a shout out to Cody Franklin of the Alternate History Hub for doing a remarkable job as always. If you have a moment, check out his most viewed video of 2015:
Best Interview
Well there was that one time I interviewed the master of alternate history, Harry Turtledove. Do you know him? He's the prolific author of alternate history whose books introduced me to our favorite genre. So yeah, he is a pretty big deal. Definitely my favorite interview of 2015. No contest.
Best Non-AH
I thought Andrew Schneider's review of Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel by Dan Ephron deserved to get the nod in this category. Although technically a straight history book, I enjoyed reading Andrew's speculations regarding the implied counterfactuals the book contained regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You should all check it out.
Best Map
This was a tough one. On one hand I can't ignore the impact that this map had on everybody:
It spread like wildfire and introduced more people to the concept of alternate history then any other work in our genre. That being said, I would have to pick "Premier Empire" by Lynn Davis as my personal favorite map of the year:
Its a great looking map from an always talented creator. Best Guest Post
This was a difficult one as well, especially considering the next category was best guest contributor and I try to avoid giving too many awards to the same person. Nevertheless, I can't pick just one so I highly recommend you stop what you are doing and go read Alternate Nuclear Wars by Mark Appleton, Map Monday: Quantum Europe by Daniel Bensen and Historians talk about Rome all the time, but what if Ancient Egypt never fell? by Rebecca Stirling. They were some of the best articles submitted to The Update this year and you don't want to miss out. Best Guest Contributor
One of the most prolific guest contributors of this blog is also the one who consistently produces top viewed articles. That contributor is Sam McDonald, whose The Audio File is one of the most successful recurring series of the year. The fact that he found a home for his work on Amazing Stories and elsewhere is testament to how much Sam has grown as a writer and I think we can continue to expect great things from him in the future. Conclusion
Well as a stuttering cartoon pig once said: "That's all folks!" This is the last post of 2015. Next Monday we return to our regularly scheduled program, but I will be introducing a few new ideas just to keep things fresh. Until then, thank you for everyone who has read, watched, listened to and created alternate history this year. Go out and celebrate the new year with someone you care about and lets get ready for another year of warping history.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.
I am happy to announce that earlier today Alternate History Weekly Update surpassed 800,000 page views! Thanks so much everyone for this belated Christmas gift. I hope to keep giving you all more reasons to visit my little blog in 2016.
Time now for our traditional "State of the Blog" post that I publish on these milestones. The last time we obtained another 100,000 views was when we surpassed 700,000 page views on 8/18/15, which was roughly four months ago. We have seen some impressive growth in 2015 (we also saw 600,000 page views in April) and I would not be surprised if we reached 1,000,000 page views next year. Fingers crossed everybody.
Next up, lets take a look at the current top posts of all time (the list on the left is only for the week):
I would like to apologize for claiming in an earlier State of the Blog post that I wrote the Map Monday for "Quantum Europe". That was completely done by Dan. With that out of the way, lets take a look at the changes in our social media followers:
We had 101 Blogger followers on 8/18/15, now we have 99
We had 547 Facebook fans on 8/18/15, now we have 633
We had 55 Email Subscribers on 8/18/15, now we have 62
Glad to see we again had some major growth on Twitter, but this is the first time we actually had less followers using Blogger since the last State of the Blog post, so that sucks. Now lets take a look at some of our affiliated sites:
Our best month in terms of page views was last August when we reached 27,213 views. I hope to break that record very soon. If you want to help me with that goal, please consider becoming on of my patrons on Patreon. I have a lot of rewards and milestone goals that I think you will enjoy.
Businesses looking to reach out to our intelligent and engaged community of readers should check out our Advertise page for more details. Those looking to submit a guest post should check out our Submissions page and then email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. You can also support The Update by clicking through our Amazon banner at the top right corner when you go to purchase your next alternate history book, comic, game or whatever tickles your fancy.
Thanks to all of the readers and contributors of The Update for helping us reach another major milestone. Expect more posts, videos and other alternate history goodness for years to come.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.
I knew I would probably surpass 700,000 views by the end of August, but I didn't realize that not only would it happen earlier than I expected, but it would be because of the thousands of people who confused this map for being a real historical map of pre-Colombus America. Wow, just wow.
Wells lets begin with my usual "State of the Blog" post that I publish on these milestones. The last time we reached such a milestone was when we surpassed 600,000 page views on 4/3/15, which was roughly four months ago. The time between these milestones is growing shorter and shorter. I may just have to wait until I reach 1,000,000 page views before I do another State of the Blog post again!
Next up, lets take a look at the current top posts of all time (the list on the left is only for the week):
Congrats to Bill Weber, Seb Breit and Sean Korsgaard for remaining in the top ten posts of all time. Now we will take a look at the changes in our social media followers:
We had 99 Google followers on 4/3/15, now we have 101
Our best month in terms of page views was last April when we surpassed 26,000 views. I hope to break that record very soon. If you want to help me that goal, please consider becoming on of my patrons on Patreon. I have a lot of rewards and milestone goals that I think you will enjoy.
Businesses looking to reach out to our intelligent and engaged community of readers should check out our Advertise page for more details. Those looking to submit a guest post should check out our Submissions page and then email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. You can also support The Update by clicking through our Amazon banner at the top right corner when you go to purchase your next alternate history book, comic, game or whatever tickles your fancy.
Thanks to all of the readers and contributors of The Update for helping us reach another major milestone. Expect more posts, videos and other alternate history goodness for years to come.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.
Has it really been four years? In 2011, I was a struggling attorney trying to find a full-time job. I was working on various temporary document review projects, making decent money, but without any real security (plus the work was boring as hell). I was living in a small apartment with my wife that was starting to feel cramped. Worst yet, I was actually pretentious enough to call myself a writer. What did I write about? Nothing, nada, zilch.
Of course, people would ask what I would write about, but I would only tell them about the "ideas" I had because I had nothing concrete to share with them. It took one my fellow contract attorneys, however, to finally utter the fateful words that set me on my current path: "You can't call yourself a writer if you don't write anything."
He was absolutely right. If I was going to continue to call myself a writer, I needed to start writing...but what should I write about? Well I liked alternate history, so I started writing about that. I created Alternate History Weekly Update as means to force myself to write on a regular basis, even if it only meant I was just talking about the news or reviewing other people's work. It was a way to keep me writing and it made me focus on improving my abilities (or lack thereof).
Now four years have gone by and I am eternally grateful for all the opportunities this blog has given me. I have been a panelist at conventions, read a lot of interesting books I otherwise would never have picked up, I have been a guest on one of my favorite podcasts, I traveled to Britain just to talk about alternate history and I got to interview the master of alternate history himself, Harry Turtledove. Most importantly, I am finally a published author. All of this means I don't have to feel like I am lying anymore when I call myself a writer.
I admit there have been times I have thought about closing this blog down. Despite all of the opportunities it has given me, it isn't paying the bills. I did find that full-time job I was looking for and as my career progresses, my amount of free time decreases. On top of that my wife and I are thinking of trying to have children again. As I sit trying to write this next sentence I find I can't even think of the words to describe the pain we felt when we lost our Geraldine. It almost broke me.
Nevertheless, we survived. We still love each other and we still want a family. A new child would mean even less time to blog, but I don't think I will ever truly leave this place. Along with the aforementioned opportunities, the friends I made talking about alternate history on the Internet helped me cope. I have found alternate historians to be some of smartest, interesting and supportive people in this world and I am happy that my ramblings and rants have been found acceptable by them.
I have no idea what the future holds. Maybe I will create that ultimate alternate history website I have talked about in the past. Maybe I will focus on making more videos for my YouTube channel. Maybe I will try to publish some more of my original fiction. Who knows? Right now I am just trying to have fun and not worry too much about the future.
In the end, thank you all for being part of this crazy experiment.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
So when I was out of the country, Alternate History Weekly Update surpassed 600,000 total page views. The last time we reached such a milestone was when we surpassed 500,000 page views on 10/31/15, which was half a year ago. This is just amazing guys. You all helped give me one of the best month's of my life. Thank you.
As has become tradition, lets have our usual state of the blog post. First up, the top posts of all time (the list on the left is only for the week):
The Update still averages more than 22k views a month and I hope to increase that number in the months to come. Plus I have a new YouTube channel that I am going to be pouring some of my passion into. Those interested in that should check out my trailer. Businesses looking to reach out to an intelligent and engaged community of fans should check out our Advertise page for more details. You can also support The Update by clicking through our Amazon banner at the top right corner when you go to purchase your next alternate history book, comic, game or whatever tickles your fancy.
Of course I can't keep bringing you great alternate history content all by myself. I rely on the talented volunteer contributors and guest bloggers who regularly send me submissions. If you are interested, I encourage you to contact me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. All contributors will be given the opportunity to promote their current projects. Check out our Submissions page for details.
Thank you once again for being a fan of The Update. I am back to my regular schedule on Monday and I will have a recap on the Sideways in Time Conference.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
Just in case the wildings attack while I am in the North.
Well this Friday I leave for Britain to go to the Sideways in Time Conference in Liverpool. I'll be able to look around London for a day, then its a train ride north on Sunday for the pre-conference social event at Waterstones Liverpool One before the conference officially begins on Monday. I, however, am not giving my presentation until Tuesday.
From now until April 5th, I will not be doing any blogging here or at Amazing Stories (although you can still check out the awesome interview I did with the master himself, Harry Turtledove). So that means no Weekly Update, Map Monday, New Releases, guest posts or other articles, reviews or interviews for the foreseeable future.
Don't you fret. I will be back on the 6th with an extra long Weekly Update to celebrate my return to blogging. I am also returning to my weekly Amazing Stories schedule with a run down of what happened at the conference and I have an interview lined up with one of my favorite map makers, Lynn Davis. If anyone has any guest posts they would like to submit for that week, please let me know at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. If you need an example of what I am looking for in a guest post, go check out Mark from Atomic Skies's excellent Alternate Nuclear Wars article.
For those interested in reading my paper, "Warping History: An Overview of Fans and Creators of Alternate History in the Internet Age", there was talk of the conference papers being published in an anthology, but if that falls through I will probably publish it myself either on Amazon or here on the blog. I may even record my presentation, either the one at the conference or an edited one I will do later, and post it on my channel.
Speaking of the channel, my trailer currently has 500+ views. I hope to throw myself into making new content for it once I return and as I mentioned before my script on Deseret is finished, so all I need to do is record. After that I will probably have a video review to post on The Years of Rice and Salt.
To be completely honest: holy crap, you guys are freaking awesome! This last month has been wild with all of these opportunities I have had and it is all because of you. Thank you so much for following Alternate History Weekly Update and I really think you guys are going to enjoy what is coming up in the months to come.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
Well another year has passed so its time to announce the best of 2014. As usual, this is a completely subjective selection by myself. Only works I covered on Alternate History Weekly Update and Amazing Stories in 2014 are eligible, so that could mean stuff published pre-2014 may get a nod. On the rare occurrence I mention something I wrote as one of "best" of this year, I promise to share something from one of the many guest bloggers we had this year.
So without further ado...
Best Book
You are going to hear variations of "this was a difficult choice" for a lot of these categories and it begins with the best book of 2014. There were just so many memorable books this year it is really hard to narrow it down. If I had to pick one overall, I would have to go with A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin. It was a fun spy thriller that also had another great story on how it actually got published.
I need to give honorable mentions, however, for Richard Ned Lebow's Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives! (as the best counterfactual book I read this year) and Alan Gratz's The League of Seven(for taking me on a wonderful, nostalgic journey with a book similar to ones I read as a kid).
Best Short Story I guess this honor goes to "Murder on the Orient Elite" by Larry Correia. Although it was an entertaining dieselpunk short story, it sort of won this category by default. I honestly didn't read any alternate history short stories or anthologies. I really need to be better about that in 2015.
Best Comic I read several comics this year, but the one that really stood out was World War Kaiju by Josh Finney and Patrick McEvoy. It just had an interesting premise and it is a must read for anyone looking for some alternate history in their comics.
Best Film
The best film had to be War of the Worlds: Goliath, which both Sean and I watched and reviewed for The Update. It had action, good animation and I got to watch the Batman of American presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, blow up alien death machines. That all being said, I still need to give a honorable mention to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Although I didn't cover it on The Update, it really was a great followup to the first Captain America film.
Best Map 2014 was the year of the map. The Map Mondays and pretty much any posts with a map in it did insanely well when it came to page views. Picking just one, however, has proven to be a herculean task, so instead I narrowed it down to my three favorites. First up, Alan Gratz's Maps of The United Nations of America that gets the nod for the best map published in a book:
Next, the best map not posted originally on AlternateHistory.com goes to "American Quilt" by Jordan Penny:
Finally we end with the best map posted on AlternateHistory.com and that honor goes to "The Grand War" by PlatoonSgt:
Guys keep making great maps and I will keep talking about them on this blog.
Best Web Original
The winner for the best web original I read this year was Let's all go down the Strand - Images of 1984 reboot. I always loved 1984 fan fiction and both of Will's timeline are amazing works of dystopic reimaginings. I highly recommend you check out both the original and the reboot.
Also a honorable mention to False Dmitri's Affiliated States of Boreoamerica, which I didn't cover this year (except for one Map Monday), but I still followed religiously for the past few months. Expect an article on it next year.
Best Interview
O please don't make me choose! I talked to so many interesting people this year. Well if you insist, hear are my top three.
First (and in no particular order), Thomas Wm Hamilton, because its rare when you talk to someone with an asteroid named after them.
Second, it was fun to talk with Ian Montgomerie, the mysterious founder and administrator of AlternateHistory.com, and here his opinions on alternate historians.
Finally, Paula Goodlett, for giving me a ton of info on the 1632 fan community. I never realized how much work goes into building that universe.
Best Contributor
This was a tough one, but I have to give it to Sam McDonald, a contributor known for his popular Flag Fridays and Twilight Histories covers. What I liked most about Sam's work is that you can tell he is a honest fan of the genre and his imagination reflects that. I look forward to seeing more from Sam in the future.
Conclusion
I won't lie, this was a tough year for me. A lot happened that made me want to quit and give up, but one of the things that kept me going was this blog. Writing for The Update kept me sane through some of my darkest moments and I have you guys to thank for it. Although 2014 is a year I sometimes want to forget, luckily I can remember some great times talking about alternate history with all of you.
Have a happy New Year and see you all in 2015.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this important announcement: last weekend, while you were busy celebrating Halloween, Alternate History Weekly Update surpassed 500,000 total page views. That means we are half way to 1,000,000 views! The last time we reached such a milestone was when we surpassed 400,000 page views on 6/10/14, which was less than 5 months ago. I am also happy to announce that we broke our monthly view record AGAIN last month with 24,095 views in the month of October. I am just blown away by The Update's growth over the last few months and I have all the great contributors and loyal readers to thank for it.
As has become tradition, lets have our usual state of the blog. First up, the top posts of all time (the list on the left is only for the week):
A few changes in the ranks. I am glad to see a new face, Dara Fogel, get into the top ten. Next up, lets move on to the state of our social networking presence:
We had 90 Google followers on 6/10/14, now we have 93 (Goal: 100 by 600k, 93% complete).
We had 396 Facebook fans on 6/10/14, now we have 449 (Goal: 600 by 600k, 75% complete).
We had 534 Twitter followers on 6/10/14, now we have 616 (Goal 800 by 600k, 77% complete)
We had 15 Reddit subscribers on 6/10/14, now we have 20 (Goal: 25 by 600k, 80% complete)
I am proud to say the Update averages more than 22k views a month and we continue to grow. I would also like to thank Muzzy Lane again for being our first advertiser. Go and check out their new game Making History: The Great War. Those interested in advertising with us should check out our Advertise page for more details. You can also support The Update by clicking through our Amazon banner at the top right corner when you go to purchase your next alternate history book, comic, game or whatever tickles your fancy.
Of course I can't keep bringing you great alternate history content all by myself. I rely on the talented volunteer contributors and guest bloggers who regularly send me submissions. If you are interested, I encourage you to contact me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. All contributors will be given the opportunity to promote their current projects. Check out our Submissions page for details.
Thank you once again for being a fan of The Update. I hope you enjoy what I have in store for you guys in the future. I will be back next week with Weekly Update and Map Monday.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
As I warned you all earlier this month, my wife and I are moving to our new home at the end of this week. Due to all the work that still needs to get done before the move, I will be posting sporadically or not at all. This has also caused me to put Voices from Alternia on hiatus until the dust finally settles.
Please have patience as I plan to return next month with a bunch of new articles, interviews, reviews and other alternate history goodies. If you have submitted a guest post it may be some time before it is published, but I will work with you to the best of my ability so that the wait is not unreasonably long.
Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
I originally had a long and rambling entry planned where I looked back and commented on everything that came before, but you know what? I don't feel like writing that and I don't think many people care to read that either. Instead, I will just say thank you.
Thanks to everyone who reads, comments and shares my posts.
Thanks to the guest bloggers who help me out when the well runs dry.
Thanks to the guest reviewers who help me get through my back log of review copies.
Thanks to all the fellow bloggers and web gurus who link to this site and talk me up to their audience.
Thanks to those who have invited me to attend and even speak at their conventions.
Thanks to the podcasters who have had me on as guests.
Thanks to all of the creators out their for producing new and exciting alternate histories, along with the publishers who gave them the chance to reach a wider audience.
Thanks to everyone and anyone I forgot to mention.
Three years finished and infinite number of possibilities ahead of us.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
