New Releases 4/28/15

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Hardcovers

Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal

Jane and Vincent have finally gotten some much-needed rest after their adventures in Italy when Vincent receives word that his estranged father has passed away on one of his properties in the West Indies. His brother, who manages the estate, is overwhelmed, and no one else in his family can go. Grudgingly, out of filial duty the couple decide to go.

The sea voyage is long and Jane spends enough time unable to perform glamour that towards the end of the trip she discovers that she is with child. They are overjoyed, but when they finally arrive at the estate to complete what they expect to be routine legal tasks, they realize that nearly everything they came expecting to find had been a lie. Also, the entire estate is in disarray, with horrifying conditions and tensions with the local slave population so high that they are close to revolt.

Jane and Vincent's sense of peril is screaming out for them to flee, but Vincent cannot stand to leave an estate connected with his family in such a condition. They have survived many grand and terrifying adventures in their time, but this one will test their skills and wits more than any they have ever encountered before, this time with a new life hanging in the balance. Mary Robinette Kowal's Of Noble Family is the final book of the acclaimed Glamourist Histories.

Paperbacks

The Adjacent by Christopher Priest

In the near future, Tibor Tarent, a freelance photographer, is recalled from Anatolia to Britain when his wife, an aid worker, is killed—annihilated by a terrifying weapon that reduces its target to a triangular patch of scorched earth.

A century earlier, Tommy Trent, a stage magician, is sent to the Western Front on a secret mission to render British reconnaissance aircraft invisible to the enemy.

Present day. A theoretical physicist develops a new method of diverting matter, a discovery with devastating consequences that will resonate through time.

Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel of 2014.

The Army of Doctor Moreau by David F. Walker

On an unchartered island in the South Pacific, Nazis have uncovered the secret of transforming animals into a human-like army of killers. A team of British and American operatives is sent on a search-and-destroy mission. The team quickly finds themselves in a nightmarish war with savage animals that think they are men!

The Doors You Mark Are Your Own by Okla Elliott and Raul Clement 

Joshua City is one of seven city-states in a post-apocalyptic world where water is scarce and technology is at mid-twentieth-century Soviet levels. As the novel opens, the Baikal Sea has been poisoned, causing a major outbreak of a flesh-eating disease called nekrosis. Against this backdrop of political corruption, violence and oppression, a struggle for control of Joshua City ensues, and a revolutionary group called The Underground emerges.

The Doors You Mark Are Your Own is a sweeping literary epic—the result of years of painstaking writing and world-building by two brilliantly imaginative minds—that readers will get lost in and never want to end.

A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin

[Editor's Note: Check out my review.]

A fast, furious, fun, and acclaimed high concept alternate history thriller from a great new talent, shortlisted for the Terry Pratchett Fiction Prize

I don’t like killing, but I’m good at it. Murder isn’t so bad from a distance, just shapes popping up in my scope. Close-up work though—a garrotte around a target’s neck or a knife in their heart—it’s not for me. Too much empathy, that’s my problem. Usually. But not today. Today is different . . .

The year is 1955 and something is very wrong with the world. It is 14 years since Churchill died and World War II ended. In occupied Europe, Britain fights a cold war against a nuclear-armed Nazi Germany. In Berlin the Gestapo is on the trail of a beautiful young resistance fighter, and the head of the SS is plotting to dispose of an ailing Adolf Hitler and restart the war against Britain and her empire. Meanwhile, in a secret bunker hidden deep beneath the German countryside, scientists are experimenting with a force far beyond their understanding. Into this arena steps a nameless British assassin, on the run from a sinister cabal within his own government, and planning a private war against the Nazis. And now the fate of the world rests on a single kill in the morning. Take the meticulous research of Robert Harris, the spy thrills of Ian Fleming, the classic action of Alistair MacLean, and the wild ride of a Tarantino film and you're coming close to A Kill in the Morning.

To readers, authors and publishers...

Is your story going to be published in time for the next New Releases? Contact us at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.  We are looking for works of alternate history, counterfactual history, steampunk, historical fantasy, time travel or anything that warps history beyond our understanding.

* * *

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.

Sideways in Time Paper Update 11/13/14

I didn't post a follow-up last week on my progress (check out my last update) because the Halloween weekend really cut into my research time. Still I am happy to announce that I have a working title for the paper: Warping History: An Overview of Fans and Creators of Alternate History in the Internet Age.

I think the title is appropriate. As I dived into my research of the alternate history fandom I realized two very important characteristics about alternate historians. First, they aren't exactly "fans" in the traditional sense of the word and, second, the modern sub-genre's formation relies heavily on the development of the Internet. What is my reasoning for these theories? You are going to have to read my history to find out.

Anywho, lets finish up with what I have been doing lately:

• I have been perusing the Turtledove Award archive looking for notable timelines to reference in the paper. I found a fair few and learned more about timelines I already planned to include like...
• Shame on me that I forgot that Graeme Shimmin's A Kill in the Morning got its start on AlternateHistory.com. I think the story of something that began as essentially fan fiction on an online forum and evolved into a professional work backed by a major publisher would go well with my paper.
• Found this Australian article that was very complimentary toward alternate historians. Adding those bits to my characteristics section.

I'm starting to run out of time on this paper and abstracts are due for the conference on December 15th. I hope to use my Thanksgiving Break to begin writing the paper and hammer out the abstract. In the meantime, I am still looking for anyone who can provide me with more information on the Geocities era, the Tarrantry Saga and any information about alternate history map making. If you can help me or know someone who can, please email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. Any new avenues of research will be greatly appreciated.

* * *

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.

New Releases 6/24/14

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Hardcovers

WARP Book 2: The Hangman's Revolution by Eoin Colfer

Young FBI agent Chevie Savano arrives back in modern-day London after a time-trip to the Victorian age, to find the present very different from the one she left. Europe is being run by a Facsist movement known as the Boxites, who control their territory through intimidation and terror. Chevie's memories come back to her in fragments, and just as she is learning about the WARP program from Professor Charles Smart, inventor of the time machine, he is killed by secret service police. Now they are after Chevie, too, but she escapes--into the past. She finds Riley, who is being pursued by futuristic soldiers, and saves him. Working together again, it is up to Chevie and Riley to find the enigmatic Colonel Clayton Box, who is intent on escalating his power, and stop him before he can launch missiles at the capitals of Europe.

Paperbacks

A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin (UK Only)

'I don't like killing, but I'm good at it. Murder isn't so bad from a distance, just shapes popping up in my scope. Close-up work though - a garrotte around a target's neck or a knife in their heart - it's not for me. Too much empathy, that's my problem. Usually. But not today. Today is different . . . '

The year is 1955 and something is very wrong with the world. It is fourteen years since Churchill died and the Second World War ended. In occupied Europe, Britain fights a cold war against a nuclear-armed Nazi Germany.

In Berlin the Gestapo is on the trail of a beautiful young resistance fighter, and the head of the SS is plotting to dispose of an ailing Adolf Hitler and restart the war against Britain and her empire. Meanwhile, in a secret bunker hidden deep beneath the German countryside, scientists are experimenting with a force far beyond their understanding.

Into this arena steps a nameless British assassin, on the run from a sinister cabal within his own government, and planning a private war against the Nazis. And now the fate of the world rests on a single kill in the morning . . .

The Madonna and the Starship by James Morrow

Only Uncle Wonder can save us from the death beam of...
THE DIABOLICAL LOBSTERS FROM OUTER SPACE!

New York City, 1953. The golden age of television, when most programs were broadcast live. Young Kurt Jastrow, a full-time TV writer and occasional actor, is about to have a close encounter of the apocalyptic kind.

Kurt’s most beloved character (and alter ego) is Uncle Wonder, an eccentric tinkerer whose pyrotechnically spectacular science experiments delight children across the nation. Uncle Wonder also has a more distant following: the inhabitants of Planet Qualimosa. When a pair of his extraterrestrial fans arrives to present him with an award, Kurt is naturally pleased—until it develops that, come next Sunday morning, these same aliens intend to perpetrate a massacre.

Will Kurt and his colleagues manage to convince the Qualimosans that Earth is essentially a secular and rationalist world? Or will the two million devotees of NBC’s most popular religious program suffer unthinkable consequences for their TV-viewing tastes? Stay tuned for The Madonna and the Starship!

To fans, authors and publishers...

Is your story going to be published in time for the next New Releases? Contact us at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.  We are looking for works of alternate history, counterfactual history, steampunk, historical fantasy, time travel or anything that warps history beyond our understanding.

* * *

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.

Interview: Graeme Shimmin

I now present my interview with Graeme Shimmin, author of A Kill in the Morning:

Welcome to The Update, Graeme. Tell us about yourself.

I’m an alternate history and spy thriller novelist, and the author of the award-winning novel A Kill in the Morning. I also run a website where I review spy thrillers and advise aspiring authors about writing and getting published.

What got you interested in alternate history?

I'd always been interested in military history and wargames, and I read SS-GB by Len Deighton when I was a teenager. But I think what really got me interested was two things: reading Fatherland by Robert Harris and joining Alternatehistory.com. This was quite a while ago now and there weren't the same social media options, so being able to chat to people from all over the world about a shared interest was a new and exciting thing for me.

Tell us about A Kill in the Morning.

I describe it as “James Bond versus the Nazis”. It’s an action-packed, fun spy thriller set in a world where there's a cold war between Britain and Nazi Germany. It has won YouWriteOn Book of the Year, an AlternateHistory.com Superlative Award and it was shortlisted for the Terry Pratchett Prize.

Stephen Baxter, winner of multiple literary awards, including the Philip K Dick Award, and the John W Campbell Memorial Award, sends this review: “Superbly researched, scarily plausible, and with a great narrative drive – A Kill in the Morning is a cracking counterfactual, and a terrific debut.”

What inspired you to write it?

I’d had an image in my head for years of hanger doors grinding open to reveal an amazing superweapon that I could never quite see. I also had inspiration from all the classic spy novels I'd read. When I started writing, all those ideas just seemed to flood out. About halfway through, I suddenly realised how it had to end and that it was really going to work. I sat back and just thought, "This is the story I was born to write". It was an amazing moment. I felt like a sculptor, chipping away and finding the sculpture was already there inside the marble.

Did you post the original version of the story on AlternateHistory.com?

Yes, AlternateHistory.com was incredibly useful to me. One of the hardest things when you're writing a first draft is the feeling that "it'll never be finished, it's crap, and no one cares anyway". So having ‘fans’ clamouring for the next episode helped to keep me writing. A Kill in the Morning was a big hit on AlternateHistory.com, and winning the Superlative Turtledove award was a huge confidence boost.

Posting every few days did have some disadvantages, for example, I couldn't go back to change things that weren't quite working or introduce things I'd need later and just had to plow on. But actually, for a first draft, 'plowing on' is probably for the best.

The commercially published version is hugely improved from that initial AlternateHistory.com draft of course. It’s 30% longer for one thing, but at the same time I've trimmed out all those bits that didn't work.

Who designed the cover?

It was a joint effort between me, my editor, a cover designer at Transworld called Leon Dufour and an artist called Mark Thomas. My editor and I discussed branding and concepts, and I produced a 'mood board' with references to people and events in the novel, Leon sketched the layout and the elements on the cover and amended them based on suggestions by my editor and me. Then the sketch went off to Mark to be painted. A couple of weeks later, the painting came back, Leon tweaked it and added the lettering. My editor and I wrote the 'blurb' for the back, and then it was done. There's an article on my website where I explain the cover design process in detail. It includes the concept art, etc.

Are there any sequels on the horizon?

I'm editing a novel called Angel in Amber at the moment and hoping to bring that out next year. Angel in Amber is a thriller set in the near future, with Britain trapped between a feuding USA and Europe. It's written in the same all-action style as A Kill in the Morning. After that, there will be sequels to A Kill in the Morning. I've worked out how the series will continue and I've already written the first chapter of the next book.

What are you reading now?

The novel I’m reading is Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene. I’m rereading all his spy-related novels. A non-fiction book I’ve been reading is Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer, as part of my research for the sequel to A Kill in the Morning.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

First and most important: don’t give up the day job!

It took me ten years to get published, and that’s not unusual. Even most commercially published writers have to teach writing to make ends meet.

Second, you have to realise the first draft isn’t the end.

You need to write at least three drafts before you even attempt to find an agent or publisher. There will be at least three more drafts if they buy your book. Related to that: learn the rules of editing - you’re wasting every one’s time, including your own, if you send out work that has basic errors in it.

Third, keep learning and improving.

Read all the classic examples of the kind of novel you want to write, buy books about writing techniques, do creative writing courses, join critique groups, online and in real life, and really listen to your feedback. Learning is the key difference between eventual success and ongoing failure in my opinion. Everyone always says not to give up, and it’s true that you shouldn't, but you have to get better too.

Fourth, Network.

Commercial publishing is a relationship business. You either have to know people or be extremely lucky if you want to get commercially published. How do you network though? Start with other authors. Support each other. Help each other. They move in the circles you need to get into.

Finally don’t give up.

If you keep writing, keep learning and improving and keep networking, you’ll get published eventually.

Book Review: A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin

Sometimes reading about how a book got published is just as interesting as reading the book itself. A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin, to be published in June, actually got its start on AlternateHistory.com when it was published as a alternate history James Bond fan fiction. Over time it was reworked into the novel it has become today. From my point of view, that is pretty cool. I have always held that much of the fiction I read on places like AlternateHistory.com is good enough to be published and now Transworld, which is part of Random House Penguin, agrees with me!

Enough about online alternate history, lets get to the meat of A Kill in the Morning. The story is set in an alternate 1950s where Churchill died in 1941. Britain made peace with Germany thus freeing the Nazis up to make war on the Soviets. The two sides fought themselves to a standstill, but after Stalin is overthrown in a coup, peace is made. Germany gains the western SSRs, but the core of the Soviet Union still exists. Now the powers are locked in a three-way Cold War for supremacy over the world. The United States and Imperial Japan still exist (Japan never attacked Pearl Harbor is this timeline), but neither is considered a great power due to lack of will or resources respectively.

Our hero is a nameless British agent working for "The Service", a combined British intelligence agency made up of MI6 and the SOE. He is an expert assassin who chases skirt, drives fast cars and lives the high life...but he is not James Bond (damn you copyright laws). Nevertheless, the nameless agent is actually a nice touch (they've given you a number and taken away your name) since this is a love letter to the Cold War spy fiction. We follow him play out those old tropes in this alternate timeline where the evil of Nazi Germany replaces the somewhat more mundane evil of Communist Russia.

Reinhard Heydrich is the main antagonist of the piece, making a decent Bond villain despite being a common actor in many WWII alternate histories. The death of the head of the Service, Stewart Menzies a.k.a. the Old Man, is blamed on Heydrich and motivates our hero to seek out vengeance with or without the help of the British Empire. His simple plan of vengeance goes awry as he uncovers a massive conspiracy that could result in another war between Britain and Germany.

I enjoyed reading A Kill in the Morning. Besides the occasional James Bond or Austin Powers film, my experience with Cold War spy thrillers has been minimal. Not knowing what to expect, I enjoyed the constant dangers the main characters were in and the secret war fought between the intelligence agencies of the rival blocs. Shimmin's timeline is unique that it has a victorious Nazi Germany without turning it into a wank and having the British Empire be the leader of the free world instead of the Americans was a good change of pace. I always liked the multi-polar Cold War after World War II, a scenario I would to love see more of, and Shimmin did a great jog giving detailed descriptions of the weapons and vehicles that came out of this alternate timeline.

The story was reminiscent of Moore's Bring the Jubilee which was one of the first classics of the genre that I read and I can see how it inspired A Kill in the Morning. I also enjoyed the supplements that came with the story including a glossary of terms from Shimmin's alternate timeline, a timeline and a list of all the historical persons who had cameos in the story. Many were obscure and I was surprised to discover that many characters who I assumed were fictional were actually real people.

The book is not without its faults. I read an uncorrected proof copy so I can't comment on how many typos will be in the final copy, but there were other issues I think need to be mentioned. The map of Europe at the front of the book could have been more detailed and I am not sure if I completely find the border of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to be plausible. There was also the question about who killed Menzies that was left unresolved. The protagonist is confident that it was Heydrich, but many other characters expressed doubt about that theory. Nevertheless, we never find out exactly who killed Menzies although this becomes less and less important as the real threat in the story unveils itself.

My biggest issue with A Kill in the Morning, however, is the use of the alien space bat plot device. I don't want to give too much of the plot away (so skip to the last paragraph if you are worried) but some of the exotic technology the Nazis use comes from an unknown alien race that intervened in human affairs eons ago. Now in general I don't have a problem with the ancient astronaut trope in fiction. I have seen it plenty of times, most recently in Age of Shiva by James Lovegrove. The problem is I am seeing it too often across the entire SF spectrum. It is starting to become overdone like time travel, parallel universes or steampunk. Not saying any of those categories or tropes are bad by themselves, but I am going to get burnt out soon and turn down the next book that involves little green men mucking around in the past.

Despite my tiny rant above, I can still recommend A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin. It was an engrossing tale of espionage against a truly evil enemy. It was a unique twist on the Nazis win World War II scenario and notwithstanding some quibbles I had with the plot, I still think you will find it an entertaining read written by a true fan of alternate history.

* * *

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.

How to use Point of Departure in an Alternative History Novel

Guest review by Graeme Shimmin.

If you're writing an alternative history story and your readers say they find it implausible, this article shows how to make them suspend their disbelief by using a clear Point of Departure.

A True Story

My novel A Kill in the Morning is set in an alternate 1955. In the alternate world, the death of Winston Churchill in 1941 led to the Second World War ending in a negotiated peace in 1943. In the book the Nazis are still in power in Germany.

When it was being reviewed, I had a comment from a reader that went something like this:

Duh! First you say it's 1955, and then you say that Hitler is in power. Hitler died in 1945, dummy!

What's an alternate history author to do?

I could have just dismissed the criticism. Obviously the reviewer didn't get it. What a moron! But then I thought, if he didn't get it, maybe other people wouldn't get it either. I realised the problem was me. I was the moron.

I hadn't made the Point of Departure clear.

What's a Point of Departure?

A Point of Departure (or divergence) is a single incident that's not the same in the alternative world as it was in the real world. Because of that one alteration, more and more things change, creating the alternative history.

The Point of Departure starts with an actual historical event, such as Napoléon losing the Battle of Waterloo. It replaces that event with another, like Napoléon winning the Battle of Waterloo.

That point of departure is the starting point for building a different world. The alternative history is the answer to the question, ‘What if?’ As in, 'What if Napoléon won the Battle of Waterloo?'

Stamping Butterflies

The changes to real history caused by the Point of Departure should be predictable, at least to start with. Later, what are called 'butterflies' can come in.

The term butterflies is a reference to the famous 'butterfly effect', where a small change in one place can result in huge and unpredictable differences later.

The Butterfly Effect is a name coined by Edward Lorenz, who used the example of a butterfly flapping its wings causing a hurricane several weeks later.

So, if Napoléon winning the Battle of Waterloo means fifty years later Brazil is a world power, that's a 'butterfly'.

Example Points of Departure

• The Germans successfully invade Great Britain in 1940. SS-GB by Len Deighton
• Giuseppe Zangara assassinates President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K Dick
• Reinhard Heydrich is not assassinated in 1942. Fatherland by Robert Harris
• Victorian inventor Charles Babbage makes his mechanical computer work. The Difference Engine by William Gibson

The Alternate Timeline

Once we decide our Point of Departure we have to decide how history diverged afterwards, up to the time of the story. We have to research a timeline.

For example, when I wrote A Kill in the Morning my timeline involved spending time researching World War Two. I produced an alternative timeline starting in 1941 and extending to the time of the novel, 1955, which you can see as an appendix to the novel.

Who cares?

You could just say 'Who cares why the Roman Empire never collapsed. I just want to write about Roman gladiators fighting on the moon!'

But remember:

• The only way to sell a lot of books is to make your readers fall in love with your book.
• To fall in love, they have to suspend disbelief.
• To convince them to suspend disbelief, your alternate world needs to be as convincing as a real historical setting.
• One thing that helps to convince is a clear Point of Departure.

Yes, but how?

So how do we make the point of departure clear?

Spell out the Point of Departure twice in the first chapter.

It's simple really: the explanation has to be up front in the novel, preferably in the first few pages. If the reader is confused they will never get to your great description on page fifty.

I found readers only started to 'get' my novel when I mentioned the Point of Departure twice in the first chapter. People do tend to skim a bit sometimes and you can't be sure they will see your explanation unless you refer to it more than once.

Summary

So, we've learnt:

• The Point of Departure is a single incident where history diverged.
• A clear explanation of the Point of Departure helps you make your alternate history story grab the reader.
• The Point of Departure should be clearly explained in the first chapter of your novel.

* * *

Graeme Shimmin was born in Manchester, UK and studied Physics at Durham University. His successful consultancy career enabled him to retire at 35 to an island off Donegal, Ireland and start writing. He has since returned to Manchester and completed an MA in Creative Writing. The inspiration for A Kill in the Morning - his prizewinning first novel - came from Robert Harris' alternate history novel, Fatherland, and a passion for classic spy fiction.

Preview: A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin

I got a new book to review. It is titled A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin. Check out the description from Amazon:

'I don't like killing, but I'm good at it. Murder isn't so bad from a distance, just shapes popping up in my scope. Close-up work though - a garrotte around a target's neck or a knife in their heart - it's not for me. Too much empathy, that's my problem. Usually. But not today. Today is different . . . '

The year is 1955 and something is very wrong with the world. It is fourteen years since Churchill died and the Second World War ended. In occupied Europe, Britain fights a cold war against a nuclear-armed Nazi Germany.

In Berlin the Gestapo is on the trail of a beautiful young resistance fighter, and the head of the SS is plotting to dispose of an ailing Adolf Hitler and restart the war against Britain and her empire. Meanwhile, in a secret bunker hidden deep beneath the German countryside, scientists are experimenting with a force far beyond their understanding.

Into this arena steps a nameless British assassin, on the run from a sinister cabal within his own government, and planning a private war against the Nazis. And now the fate of the world rests on a single kill in the morning . . .

I also got this handy-dandy author bio from Graeme:

Graeme Shimmin was born in Manchester, UK and studied Physics at Durham University.

His successful consultancy career enabled him to retire at 35 to an island off Donegal, Ireland and start writing. He has since returned to Manchester and completed an MA in Creative Writing.

The inspiration for A Kill in the Morning - his prizewinning first novel - came from Robert Harris' alternate history novel, Fatherland, and a passion for classic spy fiction.

To find out more, and read his spy-themed short stories and book and movie reviews, visit his website.

So stay tuned for either a review here or at Amazing Stories.

* * *

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.