Interview: Paula Goodlett

We have all tried our hand at fan fiction now and again, but few have seen it get published outside of the Internet. Paula Goodlett took her interest in Eric Flint's Assiti Shards universe and become an important part of the collaborative timeline, with numerous short stories and co-authored novels under her belt. We chatted a little where she talked about herself and was able to answer some questions about the 1632 fan community. Check it out:

Who is Paula Goodlett?

Paula Goodlett is a retired air force MSgt who somehow got involved with Eric Flint's 1632 Universe back in 2003

What got you interested in alternate history?

There were a couple of books that got me started. Mostly it was due to the novel 1632 by Eric Flint. There's an ad in any number of Baen books that directs people to Baen's Bar, where they can discuss Baen novels, sometimes with the author.

But I'd had a bit of an interest in it because of reading Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove's novel, Household Gods.

How would you describe the Grantville Gazettes to someone unfamiliar with the 1632 universe?

The Grantville Gazette first started as an experiment by Eric Flint and publisher Jim Baen. Fans just kept writing fanfic set in the 1632 universe, and posting it to Baen's Bar. Unlike many authors, Eric has no real problem with fanfic. Some of it was so good that he asked Jim Baen if an anthology of fanfic could be published. Jim agreed and the first Ring of Fire anthology was published, with both fanfic and invited author's stories. After that, fans were more inspired and kept writing. Then Grantville Gazette I was published in paperback. Which eventually led to Grantville Gazette II, III, etc. We're currently working on Volume 56, which will be published online in November 2014.

When did you become the editor of the Grantville Gazettes and what are some of your duties?

Eric asked me to take the position of assistant editor in July of 2004. I became the editor in 2006. I read the slush, select the stories, copy edit them, and put them in the online magazine once they're as good as we can get them. The first five Gazettes were published in paper by Baen, exactly as the original ebooks were published. By the time we got to Volume VI, there were too many online Gazettes to continue that, so we started publishing a "Best of" volume in paper with Volume VI.

Note, the online Gazettes are numbered with Arabic numbers. But the paper Gazettes are published with Roman numerals in the title.

What do you believe sets 1632 fans apart from other collaborative efforts in the genre?

Primarily, I think, is support from the owner of the universe, Eric Flint.

Also, however, is that there quite a few people who actually like studying history. Many folks wrote their first Gazette story after reading 1632 and wondering how they would react if suddenly transported back in time.

If you could travel back in time, where and when would you go?

I have no desire to go back in time. :)  I wanna go forward. I want the Enterprise to beam me up. I want rejuve! Not getting any younger here!

As far as I'm concerned, these are the days to be female, because prior eras weren't woman-friendly in general. So I wouldn't want to go back prior to the 1980s, to tell the truth.

What are the "Minicons"?

Miniature conventions attended by 1632 fans, originally. The first five were held in Mannington, WV, the town upon which Grantville is based. We've been all over that town, seen the high school, talked to a coal miner, all sorts of stuff. After a while, though, people would mention that they'd really like to get together with Eric, but they couldn't make it to Mannington. So, eventually, Eric decided that he'd see if he could arrange with other conventions to run a 1632 track along with their usual tracks.  Once a year, we all trek off to wherever the minicon is, and run a program about what's going on in the 1632 universe. We did do one European minicon, back in 2007. Some 15 or so went to Germany, met some German fans, and wandered around Magdeburg, Jena, Erfurt, etc. Saw lots of interesting things there.

1634: The Ram Rebellion is one of my favorite books in the series. Can you tell me more about how that book came about?

Now, there's a story! I'd just become the assistant editor, and we (me, the editorial board, and Eric) were getting Grantville Gazette III ready for publication. That volume was intended to include most of the stories that wound up in 1634: The Ram Rebellion. Eric read the volume and decided -- out of the blue -- that many of those stories would fit into an anthology that covered land ownership laws in 17th century Germany, with a few additions from him and Virginia DeMarce. So we rushed around selecting stories to fill the holes he left in volume III, he wrote his story, and it all wound up being published as 1634: The Ram Rebellion.

As Eric said at the time, "Here's a nice pile of shiny new monkey wrenches, and let's see what we can do with it."

1636: The Kremlin Games was the first novel in the series you co-authored, correct? How was that experience?

Well, mostly it was both a lot of research and a lot of fun. Gorg Huff and I didn't really know beans about 17th century Russia when we started. Lots of books to read.

Part of the idea of the whole 1632 universe is to think about "what if?" So we wondered "what if the first Romanov czar was able to get out from under the constraints he lived with?"

When it comes to writing a 1632 story, what percentage of your time is spent researching vs. writing?

Depends on where it's set and what we're doing in that particular story. Setting a story in Grantville, not so bad. We only have to research what we don't know about whatever tech we're doing. Say 25 percent research. 1636: The Kremlin Games took a caboodle of research, though, as did 1636: The Viennese Waltz. More like 55 to 60 percent.

Speaking of 1636: The Viennese Waltz, that is the next book to be published that you co-authored. What can you tell our readers about this one?

Hapsburg Austria was a very important part of 17th century Europe. It stood as the first defense against the Ottoman Empire for many, many years. Unfortunately, its economy was truly, ah, nonexistent. The United States of Europe certainly doesn't want Austria to go broke, so they allow some help to arrive. The help, however, is a surprise.

There is a lot of speculation on certain forums about the geopolitical situation of the 1632 universe 100 or more years in the future. What do you think is going to happen in 1732?

Oh, there's just no telling. Plans for the series change with every book. Every story, for that matter. There's quite likely to be a long Ottoman war in the near future. There will be a French Revolution, albeit rather earlier than in this time line. In 1636: The Seas of Fortune, Japanese Christians settle California. Truth is, we probably won't know until we get there.

Are there any other projects you are working on?

Gorg Huff and I recently sent Eric the sequel to 1636: The Kremlin Games, which takes us back to Russia. The next book, unless the title gets changed again, will be called 1637: The Volga Rules. It continues the story of Bernie and Natasha, Vladimir and Brandy, as well as Czar Mikhail and his wife Evdokia, and how they carve . . .

Well, don't want to tell too much.

What are you reading now?

John Ringo's Strands of Sorrow, and a book about what happened after Alexander the Great died and how his empire was carved up. It's called Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great the the Bloody Fight for his Empire and was written by James Romm. Yes, there's a reason for that selection, and no, I'm not able to discuss it just yet.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Keep writing. Write a lot. Study grammar and punctuation. (That's the copy editor in me talking.) Mostly, just write and keep at it. It's not a picnic, true. But if you can keep at it and get better and better, you've got a chance. If you read early stories by authors published in the Gazette, and then later stories, you can see how they've improved. Including me. It's a heck of a training ground.

In fact, if you prefer science fiction or fantasy rather than alternate history, check out the Baen's Universe forums on Baen's Bar. It's a good training ground as well.

New Releases 3/26/13

Hardcover

Island 731 by Jeremy Robinson

Description from Amazon.

The high adventure of James Rollins meets the gripping suspense of Matthew Reilly in Jeremy Robinson's explosive new thriller

Mark Hawkins, former park ranger and expert tracker, is out of his element, working on board the Magellan, a research vessel studying the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But his work is interrupted when, surrounded by thirty miles of refuse,  the ship and its high tech systems are plagued by a series of strange malfunctions and the crew is battered by a raging storm.

When the storm fades and the sun rises, the beaten crew awakens to find themselves anchored in the protective cove of a tropical island...and no one knows how they got there. Even worse, the ship has been sabotaged, two crewman are dead and a third is missing. Hawkins spots signs of the missing man on shore and leads a small team to bring him back. But they quickly discover evidence of a brutal history left behind by the Island’s former occupants: Unit 731, Japan’s ruthless World War II human experimentation program. Mass graves and military fortifications dot the island, along with a decades old laboratory housing the remains of hideous experiments.

As crew members start to disappear, Hawkins realizes that they are not alone. In fact, they were brought to this strange and horrible island. The crew is taken one-by-one and while Hawkins fights to save his friends, he learns the horrible truth: Island 731 was never decommissioned and the person taking his crewmates may not be a person at all—not anymore.

Paperback

1636: The Kremlin Games by Eric Flint

Description from Amazon.

A New York Times bestseller in hardcover.  A new addition to the multiple New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series,. After carving a place for itself in war-torn 17th century Europe, the modern town of Grantville, West Virginia continues its quest for survival. A Grantville resident helps Russia modernize, but he in turn must deal with 1600s Russian culture, politics, and women–or wind up dead.

#14 in the multiply bestselling Ring of Fire Series.

1636. Grantville has bounced back and established its new mission and identity, but it seems some have been left behind—people like Bernie Zeppi, courageous in the battle, but unable to figure out what to do with himself in a world that’s utterly changed. Then Russian emissary Vladimir Gorchacov arrives in Grantville and hires Bernie to journey to Moscow and bring the future to a Russia mired in slavish serfdom and byzantine imperial plots. Bernie jumps at the chance. He figures it to be an easy gig, complete with high pay and hot-and-cold running women.

But one thing Bernie hasn’t counted on is the chance to find his purpose in Mother Russia, from fighting the needless death of children from typhoid to building the first dirigible in Russian history. And then there’s love. Just as Bernie realizes his feeling for a certain Russian noblewoman may have gone way beyond respect, he finds them both enmeshed in the deadly politics of Kremlin power struggles.

War with Poland is afoot and Russia itself is about to get a revolution from within–three centuries early. Bernie Zeppi, former Grantville auto mechanic, is going to have the chance to prove he’s not the loser he believed himself to be. For now Bernie’s task is to save the woman he loves and the country he has come to call his own from collapse into a new Dark Age.

The Age Atomic by Adam Christopher

Description from Amazon.

The Empire State is dying. The Fissure connecting the pocket universe to New York has vanished, plunging the city into a deep freeze and the populace are demanding a return to Prohibition and rationing as energy supplies dwindle.

Meanwhile, in 1954 New York, the political dynamic has changed and Nimrod finds his department subsumed by a new group, Atoms For Peace, led by the mysterious Evelyn McHale.

As Rad uncovers a new threat to his city, Atoms For Peace prepare their army for a transdimensional invasion. Their goal: total conquest – or destruction – of the Empire State.

The Good the Bad and the Infernal by Guy Adams

Description from Amazon.

Every one hundred years a town appears. From a small village in the peaks of Tibet to a gathering of mud huts in the jungles of South American, it can take many forms. It exists for twenty-four hours then vanishes once more, but for that single day it contains the greatest miracle a man could imagine: a doorway to Heaven.

It is due to appear on the 21st September 1889 as a ghost town in the American Midwest. When it does there are many who hope to be there: traveling preacher Obeisance Hicks and his simple messiah, a brain-damaged Civil War veteran; Henry and Harmonium Jones and their freak show pack of outlaws; the Brothers of Ruth and their sponsor Lord Forset (inventor of the Forset Thunderpack and other incendiary modes of personal transport); finally, an aging gunslinger who lost his wings at the very beginning of creation and wants nothing more than to settle old scores.

A weird western, a gun-toting, cigarrillo-chewing fantasy built from hangman’s rope and spent bullets. The West has never been wilder.

The Scourge by Roberto Calas

Description from Amazon.

God has forsaken this land.

A mysterious plague descends upon 14th century England, ravaging the country and trapping the souls of the afflicted in eternal madness. The feudal hierarchy--and even the church itself-- slowly crumbles as the dead rise to feed and the living seek whatever shelter they can. The bishops of England call for calm and obedience, but one man isn’t listening.

Sir Edward of Bodiam has been separated from the woman he loves and nothing on heaven or earth can stop him from seeking her out.

Edward and two of his knights travel through the swiftly changing landscape of England, a countryside now overrun by the minions of hell. The knights encounter madness, violence, and sorrow, but Edward fights his way ever deeper into the thickening darkness of unholy terror.

Roberto Calas brings you along on a dark, historical tale full of love, death, and black humor. Follow Edward as he journeys to save his wife, his kingdom, and his very soul.

Video Games

BioShock Infinite

Description from Steam.

Indebted to the wrong people, with his life on the line, veteran of the U.S. Cavalry and now hired gun, Booker DeWitt has only one opportunity to wipe his slate clean. He must rescue Elizabeth, a mysterious girl imprisoned since childhood and locked up in the flying city of Columbia.

To fans, authors and publishers...

Do you want to see your work given a shout out on our New Releases segment? Contact Mitro 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, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a volunteer editor for Alt Hist magazine. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and The Were-Traveler. 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 7/17/12

New Hardcovers and E-books

Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City by Kai-cheung Dung

Description from Amazon.

Set in the long-lost City of Victoria (a fictional world similar to Hong Kong), Atlas is written from the unified perspective of future archaeologists struggling to rebuild a thrilling metropolis. Divided into four sections -- "Theory," "The City," "Streets," and "Signs" -- the novel reimagines Victoria through maps and other historical documents and artifacts, mixing real-world scenarios with purely imaginary people and events while incorporating anecdotes and actual and fictional social commentary and critique.

Much like the quasi-fictional adventures in map-reading and remapping explored by Paul Auster, Jorge Luis Borges, and Italo Calvino, Dung Kai-cheung's novel challenges the representation of place and history and the limits of technical and scientific media in reconstructing a history. It best exemplifies the author's versatility and experimentation, along with China's rapidly evolving literary culture, by blending fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in a story about succeeding and failing to recapture the things we lose. Playing with a variety of styles and subjects, Dung Kai-cheung inventively engages with the fate of Hong Kong since its British "handover" in 1997, which officially marked the end of colonial rule and the beginning of an uncharted future.

The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis

Description from Amazon.

In Ian Tregillis' The Coldest War, a precarious balance of power maintains the peace between Britain and the USSR. For decades, Britain's warlocks have been all that stands between the British Empire and the Soviet Union—a vast domain stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the shores of the English Channel. Now each wizard's death is another blow to Britain's national security.

Meanwhile, a brother and sister escape from a top-secret facility deep behind the Iron Curtain. Once subjects of a twisted Nazi experiment to imbue ordinary people with superhuman abilities, then prisoners of war in the immense Soviet research effort to reverse-engineer the Nazi technology, they head for England.

Because that's where former spy Raybould Marsh lives. And Gretel, the mad seer, has plans for him.

As Marsh is once again drawn into the world of Milkweed, he discovers that Britain's darkest acts didn't end with the war. And while he strives to protect queen and country, he is forced to confront his own willingness to accept victory at any cost.

New Paperbacks

The Chronicles of Vinland by E.B. Boggs

Description from Amazon.

Thorvald Ragnarsson, along with his kinsman, Asmund Grettirsson and a host of fellow Jomsvikings leave for the new world after a dispute with Jarl Sigvaldi. Once they establish a settlement, they come into conflict with the native peoples there, called Skraelings by the Norse. Relations with the Skraelings improve and Thorvald's family grows. But trouble is brewing within the Norse society over religious matters and a larger Skraeling tribe, the Wyandot, threatens the community with more bloodshed. Thorvald?s sons are learning the fighting tactics of the Jomsvikings as the Norse ally themselves with the now peaceful tribes against the Wyandot threat. Once the Wyandot are dealt with, Thorvald breaks with the Christian church, reverting to the worship of the old gods. The settlement?s Abbot, Bolverk, is determined not let that happen and the rift grows even wider. Murder, revenge and brother against brother paint the picture of the struggles in the Chronicles of Vinland.

New E-books

Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned! by Stephen L. Goldstein

Description from Amazon.

Here is the long-overdue obituary for the unbridled greed glorified by Atlas Shrugged and the prophet of profit. In Rand’s story, she let free-marketers John Galt, Dagney Taggart, and their accomplices return triumphant from their “strike” to remake the world in the image of Godless self-interest. Now, on the 67th anniversary of their revolution, try as he may, Atlas can no longer simply shrug and Galt’s successors and their dystopian creation of Free-For-All economics is about to come under attack from an enigmatic group known as the Prometheus Project.

Against the backdrop of the epic struggle between these two opposing forces, Atlas Drugged takes no modern-day prisoners, hurling lightning bolts of damnation at those who put profit before humanity and offering the 99% a vision for taking back the country from the 1% who currently dwell atop Mt. Olympus.

The Second Tejas War by St. Wishnevsky

Description from Amazon.

In an alternative history where the Indian Removal Act failed, ne'er-do-well Jimmie Paschal is thrown violently into the course of history when the Province of Tejas revolts against Mexico. Jimmie is the offspring of the Ridges, the ruling family of the Western Band of the Cherokee Nation, and his Aunt Emily Agnes flees San Antonio to Jimmie's home, the Free Congo Republic, once known as New Orleans.

The Free is a Polyglot, multi-racial city, right in the path of the Confederacy's troop shipments to the new State of Texas. Emily Agnes is assassinated, and Jimmie is enmeshed in a complex series of conspiracies and plots between the USA, the Confederacy, The Five Civilized Nations of Original Americans, the British Empire, the Deseret Theocracy, and a few terrorist organizations, Ghost Dance, the Red Turbans and the Knights of the White Camellia. What is real? What is illusion?

But when all is lost, the motley denizens of The Free discover a secret weapon. An ancient woman called Gran, who seems to have the knack of knowing things she should not have any way of knowing about. It's not magic, its worse. It's Hoodoo.

A hard fantasy set in an exotic America in the romantic year of 1891.

A Traitor's Loyalty by Ian C. Racey

Description from Amazon.

Twenty-five years have passed since the German victory in World War II. Hitler has just died, unleashing a conspiracy that threatens the future of the world…Simon Quinn walked away from a brilliant career with MI-6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, but now, MI-6 has blackmailed him into returning to Berlin. His mission: locate Richard Garner, a British spy who has disappeared and is suspected of defecting. He enlists the help of Ellie Voss, a German woman who opposes Nazi rule but still considers herself a German patriot. Soon, Ellie finds out Quinn’s secret: that he was born in Germany, not England, and that his family fled to London soon after Hitler came to power--because they were Jewish.No sooner do the two of them find Garner than he is assassinated by British operatives who have been secretly shadowing Quinn. Quinn discovers a startling truth-- why Garner went into hiding. A secret treaty between Britain and Germany is about to be signed, which will end the Cold War by making Britain a German satellite state. Pursued by both the Gestapo and MI-6, Quinn and Ellie’s only hope of stopping the treaty is to get news of it to Reinhard Heydrich, a powerful Nazi angling to become Hitler’s successor. But that means Quinn will have to come to terms with the fact that he is helping to become ruler of Germany the man who was essentially the architect of the Holocaust.

New Audiobooks

1636: The Kremlin Games by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett

Description from Amazon.

Acclaimed as "a technothriller set in the age of the Medicis" by Publishers Weekly, Eric Flint's best-selling Ring of Fire series has redefined the alternate-history genre.

In this 10th novel, auto mechanic Bernie Zeppi heads to Moscow to bring Russia into the Industrial Revolution, 300 years ahead of schedule. War with Poland looms, but Bernie is more focused on a beautiful Russian noblewoman. Can he protect them both from the power struggles raging inside the Kremlin?

To fans, authors and publishers...

Do you want to see your work given a shout out on our New Releases segment? Contact Mitro 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, a volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.

Weekly Update #61

Editor's Notes

Phew!  It is finally over, my marathon month of double-posting.  I am returning to the normal schedule, but thanks again to all our readers for helping us celebrate our one-year anniversary.  You sent us an awesome birthday present: a new monthly page view record of 9,235.  I would love to make an attempt to break 10,000 but I think I might put that off until August.  July is the month of my birth so I am going to take it easy and focus on my own writing.  I have some fiction being published this month, plus some guest posting to do.

The poll for the Short Form Sidewise Award has closed.  The winner, by a huge margin, is "Lee at the Alamo" by Harry Turtledove.  We will have to wait until Chicon for the official announcement, but in the meantime, a new poll is up for the Long Form Sidewise Award.  Cast your vote for the best alternate history novel of 2011.

This week I will be continuing my "The Art of Steampunk" segment and I will have the usual New Releases on Tuesday.  I will also be previewing the next book on my reading list and reviewing The Houdini Specter by Daniel Stashower.  Remember you can see updates from Weekly Update on the Althistory subreddit or our own subreddit (which I primarily use in case one of posts gets down-voted in the other subreddit).

And now the news...

Supreme Court Decision Provides Alternate History Moment

In the era of the 24-hour news cycle, it pays to be the first to report on a breaking story.  So with Americans eager to hear the Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Health Care Act (or Obamacare) the major networks raced to make an announcement as soon as the decision was released.

Though ultimately the Supreme Court upheld the individual insurance mandate that was at the heart of the controversy, major news networks like Fox News and CNN at first reported that the Supreme Court had struck down the mandate.  Pundits also took to Twitter, some gleefully tweeting that Obamacare was over.

Of course they were wrong and eventually the truth came out, though it took CNN a full 8 minutes longer than Fox News to realize they had made a mistake.  It was a moment reminiscent of the famous "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline published by the Chicago Tribune.  Surely there are already some alternate historians out there writing and/or posting timelines where the mandate was struck down, but if you want my advice, slow down there Tex.  Let time pass and have last week's news become actual history.  A good alternate history is like a fine wine.  It gets better with age.

Things to do

Readers from the Los Angeles area can check out Rogue Fool Fest 2.  Described as a "DANCE PARTY+ SPECTACLE with a hint of CIRCUS, SEXY & COMEDY set to a STEAMPUNK ambiance" the show is put on by art collective Rogue Artists Ensemble.  It is located at Depict Inc Warehouse and is happens on July 20 starting @ 9 pm.  Tickets and more info can be found here.

Update: Eric Flint

With a new book out, alternate history author Eric Flint has been busy promoting it and preparing for his next release.  He was interviewed on the Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing podcast where he discussed "his work, lawsuits, Amazon’s power, ebooks and how Baen is setting an example more publishers should follow."

Speaking of his work, Geeky Scifi posted a review of 1636: The Kremlin Games calling it "one of the best books in the series and a great addition to this wonderful alternative world that Eric Flint created." A very nice compliment, but Flint is not about to stop one of the longest-running alternate history series (don't quote me on that).  Last week he posted three samples to his upcoming novel 1635: The Papal Stakes (Snippet 6, 7, 8).

As one of the three most prolific alternate history writers, I do not expect Flint to stop writing for a long time, and you should not either.

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

Detroit came close to holding Olympics by David Briggs at Toledo Blade.

The Importance Of The Responsible Use Of History In Fiction by bryantschmidt at Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing.

Books

ALTAFF’s “Books Without Boundaries: Crossover Fiction for YAs and Adults”: ALA Annual 2012 by Barbara Hoffert at Library Journal.

Cherie Priest's The Inexplicables Cover Art, Summary and Release Date by Upcoming4.me.

Coming Soon: Gideon Smith by David Barnett.

Lavie Tidhar: True Confessions of a Book Junkie.

Review of The Real German War Plan: 1904-1914 by Terence Zuber done by Kilobooks.

Comics

Archaia unveils 'Rust vol 2' by Hugh Armitage at Digital Spy.

COMIC REVIEW: Atomic Robo and the Flying She-Devils of the Pacific done by Leo Johnson at Geek Syndicate.

COMIC REVIEW: Titan One Shot done by comicgeekboy at Geek Syndicate.

Comics You Should Own - Rex Mundi by Greg Burgas at CBR.

Games

Alternate History Space Race by Carl at Back Screen Pass.

Clockwork Brain Review by Jennifer Allen at 148Apps.

Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein reviewed by Tim Franklin at Twisted Tales.

Pokémon Conquest Review – An Alternate History I Can Get Behind by Piki Geek at Next Video Games.

*       *       *

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

Weekly Update #58

Editor's Note

So writing twice as many articles a week is harder than it looks, but thankfully I have a lot of great contributors willing to volunteer articles.  In fact Richard Small, author of Confederate Star Rising, contacted me and will be sending his own response to Chris Nuttall's  Musings of an Independent Confederacy.  Publication for that guest post is still TBA, but this week you can look forward to tomorrow's New Releases, an interview with Geoffrey Wilson (author of Land of Hope and Glory), a review of A New Birth of Freedom: The Visitor by Robert G. Pielke and much more.

If you look at the left column you might see a new list of links called "Our Favorites".  These are links to blogs and sites whose owners have been especially supportive of Weekly Update and its mission.  To reward them I have given them greater coverage on this site.  So please check out those sites when you get the chance.

Got our first readers from the Åland Islands and Algeria.  Welcome!

And now the news...

Update: Jennifer Ciotta

Friend of the blog Jennifer Ciotta, author of I, Putin, had some good news to report recently.  Her novel won an Honorable Mention at the New York Book Festival.  Those interested in reading I, Putin can find it on Amazon in paperback or as an e-book.  As of June 10th, it will be available on the Nook, iBook, Sony e-reader and other formats.

Congrats Jennifer and I look forward to the release of your next work.

Update: Eric Flint

Eric Flint, author of the epic 1632 or The Assiti Shards series, will be attending SoonerCon 21 (June 15-17) at Oklahoma City.  On the 16th, Flint will be heading up a panel entitled “Eric Flint: The Author as an Activist”.  You can get a taste of the panel by checking out this Q&A. Haven't read anything by Eric Flint?  Don't worry, Baen has several of his works at their Free Library.

One of Flint's recent releases was 1636: The Kremlin Games, which has snippets available at Flint's website for you to check out as well.

Update: Chris Nuttall

If you are a fan of Weekly Update, you have probably have read an article by Chris Nuttall, who currently has three articles in the top ten most viewed articles of the month.  Well on Sunday, Chris reported on Facebook that he signed his first publishing contract.  The lucky company was UK-based, independent publisher Elsewhen Press.  Chris' story is titled The Royal Sorceress.

I am sure I speak for everyone who contributes and reads Weekly Update when I say congratulations Chris!

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

And Then Everything Changes by John Antonik at West Virginia Mountaineers.

First Evidence Of Parallel Universes: Our Universe Could Be Part Of A Soap Bubble at MessageToEagle.com.

French Open: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer? Actually, there's another possibility by Douglas Perry at OregonLive.com.

If Derrick Rose hadn’t gotten hurt, Bulls would have faced Thunder by Rick Morrissey at Chicago Sun-Times.

Is Obama JFK’s Alternate History? by David Simon Cowell at Pop Culture Has AIDS.

Would ABBA’s famous 1974 winning song have been titled “Dunkirk”? by Ian C. Racey.

Interviews

Matt Forbeck done by AudioTim.

Books

Book Review: Adrift on the Sea of Rains by Ian Sales done by Ian Shone at Alt Hist.

Deal Alert – BY THE BLOOD OF HEROES for $2.99! by Joseph Nassise at Shades of Reality.

Exploiting the Multiverse for Fun and Profit by Paul Melko at Tor/Forge's Blog.

Footnote Fairy Tale by Adam Kotsko at The New Inquiry.

Review of Clementine by Cherie Priest done by Thinking About Books.

Review of Colonization: Second Contact by Harry Turtledove done by Leigh Kimmel at The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf.

Review of Stalking the Vampire by Mike Resnick done by Thinking About Books.

Comics

COMIC REVIEW: Kranburn by Geek Syndicate.

Steampunk Summer by Grant Snider at Incidental Comics.

Films

The Mechanical Grave Now Available by Steve Pattee at Horror Talk.

RPGs

A Bit of History #38: Bad Archaeology by Ken Spencer at RPG.Net.

Art

'Star Wars' Steampunk: Artist Bjorn Hurri Recreates Iconic Characters by Crystal Bell at The Huffington Post.

Steam up your living space with Steampunk style! by Erika Erickson at Up North Live.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for the Alt Hist magazine and a contributor to Just Below the Law. One of his short stories will be published in the upcoming Echelon Press anthology, Once Upon a Clockwork Tale (2013). When not writing he works as an attorney in the state of Illinois and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.

New Releases 6/5/2012

New Hardcover

1636: The Kremlin Games by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett

Description from Amazon.

#14 in the multiply bestselling Ring of Fire Series. After carving a place for itself among the struggling powers of 17th century Western Europe, the out-of-time modern town of Grantville, West Virginia must fight for its life in a war-torn Europe just emerging from medieval skulduggery.

1636. Grantville has bounced back and established its new mission and identity, but it seems some have been left behind—people like Bernie Zeppi, courageous in the battle, but unable to figure out what to do with himself in a world that’s utterly changed. Then Russian emissary Vladimir Gorchacov arrives in Grantville and hires Bernie to journey to Moscow and bring the future to a Russia mired in slavish serfdom and byzantine imperial plots. Bernie jumps at the chance. He figures it to be an easy gig, complete with high pay and hot-and-cold running women.

But one thing Bernie hasn’t counted on is the chance to find his purpose in Mother Russia, from fighting the needless death of children from typhoid to building the first dirigible in Russian history. And then there’s love. Just as Bernie realizes his feeling for a certain Russian noblewoman may have gone way beyond respect, he finds them both enmeshed in the deadly politics of Kremlin power struggles.

War with Poland is afoot and Russia itself is about to get a revolution from within–three centuries early. Bernie Zeppi, former Grantville auto mechanic, is going to have the chance to prove he’s not the loser he believed himself to be. For now Bernie’s task is to save the woman he loves and the country he has come to call his own from collapse into a new Dark Age.

New E-books

Down Other Tracks: Alternate Outcomes of the 19th Century by Alexander Rooksmoor

Description from Amazon.

The world we know today was founded in the 19th century. Many of the countries in existence, our knowledge of the world and the technology we are familiar with came during this century of change. In the latest ‘what if?’ history book from Alexander Rooksmoor, he looks at how things could have turned out differently for the 19th century if history had gone down different turns at the points.

The book starts with the industrial revolution and reaches up to the end of the First World War, the conflict which finally marked the end of 19th century culture and the real beginning of the 20th. He considers a different career path for Napoleon Bonaparte and the vast impact this would have meant for Europe and the rest of the world. Assassinations of Napoleon III, Queen Victoria and King Edward VII are considered and conversely, a longer reign for Kaiser Friedrich III. The derailing of the processes of German and Italian unification and the creation of Belgium are looked at in terms of their local and international impacts. Finally, the book investigates different outcomes for conflicts, whether the Taiping Rebellion could have succeeded; what would have happened in the event of an Anglo-Russian War of 1878 and the implications for the First World War if the Schlieffen Plan had worked, if the British and Americans had stayed out of the conflict or mutinies had spread right through the Allied forces. As with Alexander Rooksmoor’s previous books, this is bound to interest anyone with an interest in how our world has turned out the way it did and all of those who wonder how different it could have been.

The book is written by Alexander Rooksmoor, author of Other Paths: Alternate Outcomes of the Second World War, Other Americas: Alternate Outcomes for the USA in the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries and Other Exits from the Maze: Alternate Outcomes for Tudor and Stuart Monarchs. It particularly complements Other Americas. His books draw on Alexander’s twenty years’ experience in researching and teaching history and in exploring and discussing a whole range of ‘what if?’s.

New References

The Slavery Attractor by Gorg Huff

Description from Amazon.

When I started writing "The Sewing Circle" my first story for the Grantville Gazette. I had no real notion of what economics was, except it was boring and not all that important and perhaps a bit less scientific than astrology. I didn't know what the Federal Reserve did, or even what effect banks and banking had on the economy. I hadn't read Smith, Keynes, Marks or Friedman and I hadn't even heard of Hayek or Ricardo. Ah, the good old days.

But my characters needed to deal with the economics of their situation, so I had to figure out how it would affect them. I had to know what economics dealt with so I could see how it would affect the story. And, as it turned out, I needed to know the same thing for later stories. So for the last ten years I have been studying economics on my own. Reading what the great minds of the field thought. In that reading I learned that a lot of the assumptions in economics were based on looking at the field through the prism of statistical analysis.

The Slavery Attractor is a look at economics through the lens of chaos theory, and I have worked rather hard to make it as short and as clear as I could manage. The article is only around eight thousand four hundred words and makes very little reference to hallowed experts. This is not a learned discourse on what the experts have said about economics. It's a simple look at economics and how they work.

To fans, authors and publishers...

Do you want to see your work given a shout out on our New Releases segment? Contact Mitro 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.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for the Alt Hist magazine and a contributor to Just Below the Law. One of his short stories will be published in the upcoming Echelon Press anthology, Once Upon a Clockwork Tale (2013). When not writing he works as an attorney in the state of Illinois and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.