Weekly Update #145

Editor's Note

So great news from last month. We clocked in at 18,647 views, our second highest month to date. Thank you everyone so much for your continued support. I couldn't do any of this without all the people who take the time to read and comment on this blog. I do apologize if I can't always respond, but hopefully I will get better.

Thank you also to everyone who clicks through our Amazon banner. As you should know by now you can support the blog by making your Amazon purchases through The Update. I appreciate all the help I can get as I prepare to create a new company to handle all of the alternate history projects I have planned.

And now the news...

Gold Award for Bookworm confirms Christopher Nuttall as star of indie fiction

Congratulations to Friend of The Update, Christopher Nuttall, for winning the Gold award in the Adult Fiction category of the 2013 Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards for his novel Bookworm. The winners of the awards were announced at AuthorConUK in Manchester on April 26.

For those who don't know, Bookworm is a high fantasy novel in which the main protagonist, Elaine, an inexperienced witch in Golden City, has her life turned upside down when she triggers a magical trap hidden within a book. All the knowledge of magic in the Great Library becomes crammed inside her head, making her the "Bookworm" of the title. Avoiding the Inquisition, she tries to understand what has happened to her, but in reality she is a pawn in the dark plans of one who wants the Grand Sorcerer’s power.

Published in 2013, a review on Risingshadow described Bookworm as “fluently written escapism” and said that Nuttall has “woven an exciting and entertaining story of secrets, dark history, books, werewolves and magic, and knows how to keep the story on the move.” In June 2013 it was announced that the German translation rights to Bookworm had been acquired by RandomHouse Germany for publication under their Blanvalet imprint in 2015. The second in the series, Bookworm II: The Very Ugly Duckling, was published by Elsewhen Press in January 2014 and it will be followed by Bookworm III: The Best Laid Plans sometime early 2015.

One again congratulations to Chris and I hope to hear more good news in the future.

Amazing Stories Licenses Classic Name to FuturesPastEditions and Open Road Brands

Amazing Stories made some major announcements last week. First, it announced it licensed their iconic trademark to FuturesPastEditions Ebooks Publisher for the creation of a new imprint that will publish science fiction, fantasy and horror classics from Amazing Stories and it’s companion magazines Amazing Stories Quarterly and Amazing Stories Annual.

The new imprint will be titled Amazing Stories Classic Reprints. The imprint will feature the comet tail Amazing Stories logo, made famous by the magazine in the 1940s and 50s. Works will be published in both electronic and print formats. FuturesPastEditions publisher and editor Jean Marie Stine will be selecting works of historical importance as well as works that should be commonly available but haven’t been for one reason or another. The series is expected to launch with two anthology volumes featuring stories from past Amazing Stories anniversary issues.

Additionally, Amazing Stories online magazine will feature a regularly monthly classic reprint, branded under the FuturesPastEditions name; the first such classic reprint, Don Wilcox’s The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years, was featured in the Amazing Stories 88th Anniversary Edition, currently being published on the Amazing Stories website.

Following that announcement, on the next day Amazing Stories declared that they also licensed the Amazing Stories trademark to to Open Road Brands, LLC. They will be creating and distributing reproductions of early Amazing Stories covers in formats suitable for display and decoration.

Open Road Brands, LLC will be distributing a selection of Amazing Stories cover art to major retail chain stores such as Hobby Lobby and others. Artwork is currently in production, but the Amazing Stories website will be sure to keep you informed of availability sometime later this year.

As one of the original bloggers of the relaunched Amazing Stories I am delighted that the site continues to grow. Please, if you haven't already, become a member of the site and be a part of SF history.

Video Gallery

This week there were two videos that caught my eye. The first was a saucy time travel short from the guys at The Warp Zone:

Okay so maybe the product placement was a little overdone (and I apologize for my pun), but still funny. Now lets watch a short documentary on the history of grand strategy gaming from the folks at Paradox:

Links to the Multiverse

Books

Just finished reading “Zhirinovsky’s Russian Empire: An Alternate History.” at Moe Lane.
Review: The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump by Harry Turtledove at Science Fiction & Fantasy.
Review: Long Live the Queen by Kate Locke at Thinking about books.
Review: The Will of the Dead by George Mann at James A. Stewart's Weblog.
Signing with A for Authors by Alison Morton.

Comics

The Art Of Heb Mueller - Tinges Of Diesel Punk at Awesome Robo.
Comic Preview: Atomic Robo And The Knights Of The Golden Circle #1 at Geek Syndicate.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century in One Hard-Cover Volume at Geek Syndicate.

Counterfactual and Traditional History (Plus News)

The 10 Biggest Misconceptions About the First World War by George Dvorsky at io9.
Minneapolis changes Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day by Aaron Rupar at CityPages.
The Political Science of Game of Thrones by Jacopo Della Quercia at Tor.
Sarah Palin’s Call To Alternate History by Chris Morgan at The Daily Caller.
Steampunk Events for May 2014 at Tor.
The Ten Most Bizarre Theories About Why the Dinosaurs Went Extinct by Mark Strauss at io9.
The Weakness of a Ukrainian Nuclear Deterrent: Counterfactuals and the Stability-Instability Paradox by Matt Fay at Hegemonic Obsessions.
The 'what if' question by Vivek Dehejia at Business Standard.

Film and Television

Da Vinci's Demons 2.6: Meets Charles Dickens at Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress.
Elementary: Season 2, Episode 22. Paint It Black (2014) at Thinking about books.
Exit Log: An Excellent Short Film That Involves Time Travel at SF Signal.
Prairie Nerds: "Jodorowsky's Dune" is an insane study of the biggest "what if" in film history at Tulsa World.
Revolution 2.19: No to Nanites, Yes to Post-Apocalypse at Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress.
The Star Wars Sequel That Never Happened by Mike Ryan at Screen Crush.

Games

First Play: In Her Majesty's Name at The Wargame Shed.
Sweet Old Man Tells You to Kill Nazis. You Damn Well Better Kill Nazis by Evan Narcisse at Kotaku.

Interview

Beth Bernobich at SF Signal.
Dru Pagliassotti at The Qwillery.
Christopher Priest at Lit Reactor.

Podcasts

Dissecting Worlds: Series 8, Episode 5: Alien Gods at Geek Syndicate.
ELEVATOR PITCH: The Springheel Saga, Series Two at Geek Syndicate.
Ratchet RetroCast Episode 29 – Babylon 5: The Last Best Hope for RetroCast at Earth Station One.

Short Fiction

Table of Contents: FUTUREDAZE 2: REPRISE Edited by Erin Underwood and Nancy Holder at SF Signal.
When Shots Rang Out by Lynda M. Vanderhoff – Free Story Extract at Alt Hist.

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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.

Weekly Update #106 Part 1

Editor's Note

Holy crap what a long Weekly Update, I actually had to split it into two parts. You will see the rest of last week's news this afternoon.

No time to editorialize, too much to talk about. All I want to say is that tomorrow's New Releases post is cancelled since there is only one alternate history work coming out this week and I am moving its announcement to next week. Instead I will be sharing a book giveaway that I think you will all enjoy.

And now the news...

What if Romney had won?

It still might be too early to dust of your President Romney timeline (although that hasn't stopped some people) since it has only been a year since the 2012 US presidential election, but people wanting to write such an alternate history should check out the Romney Readiness Project: Retrospective & Lessons Learned by Christopher Liddell, Daniel Kroese and Clark Campbell. Here is the description from Amazon:

The importance of effective and well-planned presidential transitions has long been understood. The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 provided a formal recognition of this principle by providing the President-elect funding and other resources “To promote the orderly transfer of the executive power in connection with the expiration of the term of office of a President and the Inauguration of a new President.” The Act received minor amendments in the following decades, but until 2010 all support provided was entirely post-election. The Pre-Election Presidential Act of 2010 changed this by providing pre-election support to nominees of both parties. Its passing reinforced the belief that early transition planning is prudent, not presumptuous. The Romney Readiness Project was the first transition effort to operate with this enhanced pre-election focus. While Obama’s re-election prevented a Romney transition from occurring, it is hoped that the content of this book can provide a valuable insight to future transition teams of both parties.

In summary the book explains Romney's plan to reorganize the White House along the lines of the business and begin implementing new policy (rolling back Obamacare, tax reform, deregulation and increased military spending). Of course this book has spurred some commentators to imagine what a counterfactual Romney administration would have been like.

Mark Whittington at Yahoo used the book to highlight "what a Romney Administration would have been to the reality of the second term Obama Administration, careening from scandal to scandal, flailing about rudderless with no prospect for anything better for the next three or so years...The tragedy is that the American voters chose chaos over order, incompetence over sound management. Elections have consequences." Despite these strong word, Whittington did admit Romeny would have to deal with a divided Congress just as Obama has OTL.

David Gee at Staffing Talk, however, was a little critical of Romney's plan and shared an example of a client who was trying to find a successor and picked someone who was "a real my way or the highway type." The outcome wasn't pretty: "The staff basically mutinied and ran the VP and would-be CEO out, leaving the wounded company leader to begin his succession plan anew."

Again, it is still pretty early to start guessing whether a Romney presidency would be better then a second term Obama. The people who now think Obama's presidency is finished appear to have forgotten the failed predictions of an all but certain Romney victory. Let history become history, your counterfactual will be better for it.

Chris Nuttall's Great Week

Long-time contributor and friend of The Update Chris Nuttall has been having a great week. Among other things, it was recently announced that Blanvalet Verlag/Verlagsgruppe Random House GmbH will publish the German edition of Chris' novel Bookworm in 2015.

Set in a fantasy world of magic and political intrigue, Bookworm is a dark tale of power and temptation, fear and lust, secrets and destiny. When first published in January of this year it soared up the fantasy best-selling charts on Amazon in the US, UK and Germany, with significant sales across 12 different countries in both ebook and print editions.

This deal marks a significant milestone for Chris and for Elsewhen Press. Chris began self- publishing his novels in 2011. He also submitted his historical fantasy novel The Royal Sorceress to Elsewhen Press, beginning a successful relationship. Bookworm was the second of his fantasy novels to be published by Elsewhen Press. In July, Elsewhen Press will publish their next Chris Nuttall title, Sufficiently Advanced Technology, while August will see the release of The Great Game, the much- anticipated sequel to The Royal Sorceress. The acquisition by Blanvalet of rights for the German language edition of Bookworm serves to underline the quality and appeal of Chris’s writing to a global audience.

On top of this great news, Chris also started blogging at Amazing Stories. He is going to be doing a series of book reviews for the relaunched magazine and you can check out his first one on Allies and Aliens
by Roger Macbride Allen. I look forward to working with Chris at Amazing Stories. Chris has been a popular contributor here at The Update and I am confident the Amazing Stories audience will welcome him.

Apex Magazine’s June 2013 Issue

Issue 49 of the 2013 Hugo Award-nominated Apex Magazine has been released and it has some good stuff for alternate historians. Among other authors, we get new fiction from well-known alternate history authors Lavie Tidhar (Osama) and and Cherie Priest (Boneshaker). Priest also did an interview with Apex that you can check out.

The issue is free to read in its entirety at the Apex Magazine website., but formatted eBook editions are available at Apex Digital, Amazon, Nook, Weightless and other.

By the way, all of you aspiring authors out there should know that Apex Magazine is currently open for submissions.

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

5 Conspiracy Theories That Are Shockingly Easy to Debunk by Douglas A. McDonnell and M. Asher Cantrell at Cracked.
11 Jaw-dropping Weapons From World War II You Probably Never Heard Of by George Dvorsky at io9.
Alternate history: Imagine if the Raiders had traded up for Colin Kaepernick? by David Fucillo at SB Nation.
Beyond the Tracks: The Locomotive in Science Fiction Literature by Jason Heller at Clarkesworld Magazine.
Britain and the euro: what if we'd joined? by Larry Elliott at The Guardian.
Coming Soon: “Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction” by Orson Scott Card, Philip Athans and Jay Lake at SF Signal.
Counterfactualism in Monuments by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.
D is for DIVERGENCE POINT (part 2) by Guy Saville.
Fairy Tales and Steampunk: The Perfect Combination? By Ella Grey at Steamed!
'Falling Skies' showrunner's debut novel to take place on steampunk Pangea by Emily Rome at EW.
Gideon Smith short stories announcement by David Barnett at Postcards from the Hinterland.
Guest Post (& Giveaway): Clifford Beal, author of Gideon’s Angel at My Bookish Ways.
Have Tech, Will Travel: Big List of Tech-Based Time Travel Romances by Heather Massey at Heroes and Heartbreakers.
How to read Lovecraft: A practical beginner’s guide by Matt Cardin at The Teeming Brain.
HP Lovecraft: the writer out of time by David Barnett at The Guardian.
I've been awarded the Liebster Blog award by Alison Morton.
Ohio State football: What if? by Ted Glover at SB Nation.
On the Rhetorical Power of Counterfactuals by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.
Recent Novels That Use Time Travel to Great Effect by John DeNardo at Kirkus.
RFK: What we lost, what we learned by Jeff Greenfield at Yahoo!
Romulus Buckle, Steampunk and the Female Swashbuckler by Richard Ellis Preston, Jr. at The Qwillery.
Story behind Ha'Penny by Jo Walton at Upcoming4me
TRAVELS OF DANGER IN THE YUCATAN: A Mayan Time Travel Odyssey a Novel by Hunter Liguore (Excerpt) at Amazing Stories.

Book Reviews

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick at Dieselpunk.
The Watcher in the Shadows by Chris Moriarty at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.

Interviews

Beth Ciotta at My Bookish Ways.
Jay Lake at Oregon Live.
Jay Lake and Austin Sirkin at Locus Roundtable.
Alan Moore at The Believer.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. His new story "The Enchanted Bean" can be found in Once Upon a Clockwork Tale from Echelon Press. 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.

An Introduction to Bookworm

Guest post from Chris Nuttall.

What sort of society would form if one group of humans was notably superior to the others?

Human history just isn't very encouraging.  Throughout history, men have been stronger and more durable than women – and our societies have been patriarchal, with women rarely being more than second-class citizens at best.  The barbaric treatment of women in Saudi Arabia is not much worse (if at all) than the treatment of women in Ancient Athens.  And sex isn't the only dividing line.  Human history tells us that the strong will eventually dominate the weak.

The world of Bookworm has one major difference to our own; a relatively small number of humans have magic.  They are effectively superior to the mundanes; brute force is largely useless against them.  Kings and princes only remain in power because the magicians allow it, using them as tools to ensure stability.  And even magicians have their social rankings according to power.  Those with little power are barely more important than a wealthy mundane merchant.

And the world also has a long history, obscured in the past.  There were wars against the necromancers, wars that savaged large parts of the world.  Out of the First and Second Necromantic Wars came the Empire, a magician-dominated society that is led by the Grand Sorcerer, the most powerful magician in the world, who is charged with keeping order.  The world of Bookworm has accepted what is effectively a dictatorship because the alternative – hundreds of powerful magicians fighting – is worse.

By our standards, the Bookworm universe is oddly skewed.  On one hand, it has swords and sorcery; on the other, science is advancing slowly, attempting to duplicate what magic can do.  They have railways and may be on the verge of gunpowder.  Some of the economy is remarkably advanced; parts of society seemed mired permanently in the dark ages, with royal families holding absolute power over many of their subjects.  It isn't always a comfortable place to live.

At the heart of the Empire is the Golden City, the seat of the Grand Sorcerer – and the location of the Great Library, the repository of all magical knowledge.  Deep inside the Black Vault, forbidden tomes – available only to the Grand Sorcerer – store the dark secrets of the ancient magicians, the ones who fought the Necromantic Wars.  So much history has been lost ...

...Until now.

Elaine No-Kin is a very minor magician, a young girl with barely enough magic to count.  An orphan, she’s little more than a mundane as far as the great and powerful magicians are concerned – and Elaine prefers it that way.  She doesn't want to get caught up in great events, even the contest to determine who will succeed the Grand Sorcerer.  But events conspire to ensure that she has no choice.  A magical trap, hidden within a book, explodes in her face ... and when she wakes up, she discovers that all of the knowledge in the Great Library has been crammed into her head, including the forbidden knowledge from the Black Vault.  All of a sudden, her life is in terrible danger.  If the Inquisition finds out what has happened to her, she’s dead.

And yet knowing more than any other magician gives her an advantage.  She can see more about the true workings of magic than anyone else, enough to allow her to work spells that do more for less energy.  If she chooses to become involved in political affairs, she could work wonders – but even if she doesn't someone else might make the choice for her.

One thing I love about the universe I designed is that much of its history has been forgotten by the main characters.  Bookworm is a fantasy world that doesn't actually have to follow our own history, not like The Royal Sorceress.  Their history is remarkable – and Elaine learns secrets that the greatest magicians of ages past sought to bury, including hidden powers threatening to explode in the faces of their successors.  But the greatest secret, to Elaine, is something more mundane – her own origins.  It may be that the two sets of mysteries are interlinked ...

I also had a great deal of fun slipping in sly references to other fantasy novels and television shows.  Why not see how many you can spot?

Bookworm is currently available in electronic format and will be out in paperback later this year.  The Royal Sorceress is out in paperback now.  Free samples of both books can be downloaded from http://www.chrishanger.net.

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Chris Nuttall blogs at The Chrishanger and has a website by the same name. His books can be found on Amazon Kindle. Check out his new book Bookworm and The Royal Sorceress, now in paperback.