Sideways in Time Paper Update 10/30/14

Europe in 1925. From Królestwo Kongresowe.

Since my last Sideways in Time Paper update, I found a lot of new research leads. Let's take a look:

• Did you get a chance to read my interview with Sidewise judge and Uchronia contributor Evelyn Leeper? I hope you all enjoyed it because it may be a while before my next interview. I had to postpone my interview with Sidewise judge and Point of Divergence founder Jim Rittenhouse, but I am following up leads with other notable alternate historians in the meantime.
• I have been perusing the The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction for any useful information information. They do have an article on Hitler Wins scenarios, but not much on our slice of fandom. I will keep looking.
• Does anyone speak Italian? Uchronia links to several articles in the Italian language magazine Delos on alternate history. Google Translate, however, is not the best translation software. If anyone may be interested in reading and describing these articles to me that would be great.
• I think I need to comb my own blog's archives for this paper. After I rediscovered the Did Steampunk Kill Alternate History? article, which was useful in helping to explain alternate historians' relationship with the steampunk culture, I got to thinking I may be sitting on a gold mine of information. Going to take a lot of time to sift through over three years of content...
• Can anyone score me a copy of What Almost Was: The Politics of the Contemporary Alternate History Novel by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson. Based on the abstract, this article seems the closest to what I am trying to write that I have ever stumbled upon and I would really like to read it. Sadly, I am not a student anymore and thus I am not part of any institution with access to Project MUSE.
• During one of my random searches through the AlternateHistory.com Wiki, I came upon this list of Non-AH.com timelines including many from different eras of the larger community's history, such as the SHWI era. I even found this interesting Polish-language collaborative timeline, which is great because you don't many of these outside the English language. 

I am still looking for anyone who can provide me with more information on the Geocities era, the Tarrantry Saga and any other gathering or work of alternate historians you think I should include in the paper. 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.

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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.

2012 Sidewise Award Nominees Announced

[Editor's Note: The winners have been announced on 8/31/13.]

This year's nominees for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History have been announced.  The winners will be announced at LoneStarCon 3, this year's Worldcon, in San Antonio, Texas during the weekend of August 29.  The Sidewise Awards have been presented annually since 1995 to recognize excellence in alternate historical fiction. This year's panel of judges was made up of Stephen Baxter, Evelyn Leeper, Jim Rittenhouse, Stu Shiffman, Kurt Sidaway, and Steven H Silver (author of "The Cremator's Tale"). The nominees are below

Short Form

• Lou Antonelli, “Great White Ship” (DailySF, 5/11/12)
• Sean McMullen, “Steamgothic” (Interzone 241, 7-8/12)
• Ian Sales, “Adrift on the Sea of Rains” (Whippleshield Books)
• Catherynne Valente, “Fade to White” (Clarkesworld Magazine #71, 8/12)
• Rick Wilber, “Something Real” (Asimov’s, 4/12)

Long Form

• Thomas Brennan, Doktor Glass (Ace)
• Mark Hodder, Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon (Pyr, Snowbooks)
• Jack McDevitt & Mike Resnick, The Cassandra Project (Ace)
• Matt Ruff, The Mirage (Harper)
• C. J. Sansom, Dominion (Mantle, Pan McMillan)

The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were conceived in late 1995 to honor the best alternate history publications of the year. The first awards were announced in summer 1996 and honored works from 1995. The award takes its name from Murray Leinster's 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time," in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with their analogs from other timelines.

Well I am excited and I'm glad to see we happened to review a couple of the stories before the nominees were announced. It would be nicer if we could have all the reviews up before the winners are announced in August. If you want to publish a review of any of the stories above on The Update, email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

Who do you think is going to win?

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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.