Weekly Update #156

Editor's Note

WE'RE BACK!!!

I am writing this at Alternate History Weekly Update's new world headquarters...which is the fancy title for the half-unpacked, spare bedroom in my new home. Still the move went as smooth as it could have and I am a little less stressed out. I even find myself with some rare free time so I sat down and wrote out a Weekly Update.

Sadly sacrifices had to be made. All the research I collected on news and events of the last couple of weeks had to be deleted. Thus nothing, absolutely nothing, happened between 7/14 and 7/27 in the world of alternate history, steampunk, time travel, etc.

O by the way, I got a promotion at work, which means a little more financial security, but possibly a little less time to give to The Update. I will keep you posted on the details, but expect some small blackouts as I get accustomed to my new responsibilities.

And now the news...

Preview: California Bones by Greg van Eekhout

I mentioned California Bones by Greg van Eekhout in New Releases 6/10/14 and several Weekly Updates, but this week the alternate fantasy got some shout outs on a couple sites of note so I decided to give a little more detail on the novel.

In his guest review on SF Signal, Ben Blattberg said "I wouldn't want to live in van Eekhout’s grim, magical LA, but it’s a fantastic place to visit; and despite a few hiccups, the book is a fun thrill-ride." Meanwhile, Greg was a guest on the Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast, the fourth time he has been on the show (although his voice is used in the podcast intro, so technically he has been present for a lot more episodes).

If you have read California Bones please let us know. We would love to post your review here on The Update.

Videos for Alternate Historians

This week is a special film edition of Videos for Alternate Historians. First up, a NSFW trailer for Hot Tub Time Machine 2:

Huh...I guess there wasn't enough cash, cocaine or hookers to get John Cusack to sign up for the sequel. Sad really, I liked the original. It was a dumb, but entertaining, movie that was just self-aware enough to upend some old time travel cliches. Next up, something probably a little more thoughtful. Here is the new trailer for Nolan's Interstellar:

I'm still holding out hope that some of the early rumors that this film would involve parallel universes are true. Finally we end with what could have been the greatest comic book movie that was never made. I bring you the test footage for Deadpool:

Let me know if you can't see anything. Seems like Fox is trying to purge all mentions of it from the Internet.

Got anymore videos you would like to recommend? Let us know at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

Links to the Multiverse

Books and Short Fiction

Author’s fantasy novel marks centenary of Great War by John Herring at Newbury Today.
Cover & Synopsis: A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC by V. E. Schwab at SF Signal.
Defining Steampunk with Authors Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris at Bitten by Books.
Review: Flashing Steel Flashing Fire by Matthew Quinn at The M.
Review: The Language of Stones by Robert Carter at Fantasy Book Review.
Review: Maplecroft: The Borden Dispatches by Cherie Priest at Publishers Weekly.
Review: Napoleon in America by Shannon Selin at Other Times.
Sealed by Noeleen Kavanagh – Free Story Extract at Alt Hist.
Table of Contents: WARS TO END ALL WARS: ALTERNATE TALES FROM THE TRENCHES Edited by N.E. White at SF Signal.

Comics

How to promote a feminist/action/alt. history graphic novel? by Michael Munro at io9.

Counterfactuals, History and News

The 1944 science fiction story that predicted the atomic bomb at Boing Boing.
Bill Clinton's Lost Tape: I Could Have Killed Osama Bin Laden at NBC.
The Bukharin Alternative Part One and Part Two by Scott Blair at The World According to Quinn.
Federal Employee Gets Fired After Writing An Article Criticizing Nukes by Mark Strauss at io9.
If Ireland was treated like Palestine - An alternate history by Andrew Flood at Workers Solidarity Movement.
Lockport’s Steampunk costume gala combines Victorian era, science fiction by Erin Gallagher at Southtown Star.
A Map Of The U.S., If There Had Never Been A Mexican-American War by Mark Strauss at io9.
Watch The European Colonization Of North America In Just 14 Seconds by Mark Strauss at io9.

Film and Television

Ascension: An Alternate History About a Planned Community in Space by Katharine Trendacosta at io9.
Outlander: is this the next Game of Thrones? by Charlotte Runcie at The Telegraph.

Games

The Order: 1886 – A Game That Combines History with Fantasy at The Fuse Joplin.

Interviews

Gail Carriger at The Murverse Annex.
Alyx (A M) Dellamonica at Functional Nerds.
Jacopo della Quercia at The Qwillery.

Podcasts

Dissecting Worlds Series 8, Ep 7b: Religion Conclusions at Geek Syndicate.

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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 #154

Editor's Note

Two apologies today. First up, sorry for trolling all of my American viewers on the 4th. I still thought it was funny.

Second, sorry for the lack of content last week. Things sort of fell apart, but I am hoping for a better week this week. Remember, I did warn you that due to my upcoming move that I would be disappearing for stretches of time.

One more random thought: man is my lap top filthy.

And now the news...

Titan Book Acquires The LA Trilogy by Adam Christopher

Titan Books has acquired Adam Christopher's The LA Trilogy which is set in an alternate 1960s Los Angeles and stars a robot detective and his boss. The deal was struck between Titan Editor Natalie Laverick and Stacia Decker at the Donald Maass Literary Agency. The trilogy is inspired by Raymond Chandler's parody of science fiction in a letter to his agent, from whence Christopher's protagonist was born.

Laverick said, "I'm thrilled to be bringing Adam Christopher's robot PI trilogy over to the UK, and I think Ray and Googol will be right at home at Titan, alongside our Hard Case Crime heavy hitters and fresh sci-fi voices."

"I'm chuffed to bits that Raymond Electromatic has found a second home at Titan," says Christopher, celebrating the deal. 'It's going to be a lot of fun bringing his twisted, alt-universe version of Hollywood to life."

Christopher has written other alternate history novels before, including his debut novel, Empire State, which was SciFiNow’s book of the year and a Financial Times book of the year 2012. The first novel in this new trilogy will be published in September 2015. A novelette set in the same universe, titled Brisk Money, is set to be published by Tor on July 23.

Videos for Alternate Historians

Only one video this week. It is a review of Ignition City by Warren Ellis at Pulp Crazy.

If you know of any videos you think I should check out, shoot me a message. I am always on the lookout for good YouTube videos.

Links to the Multiverse

Books

Acquisitions Announcement from Titan Books by darkphoenix1701 at Geek Syndicate.
Excerpt of The Time Roads by Beth Bernobich.
FINALISTS: 2014 Chesley Awards at SF Signal.
Mark Charan Newton on The Fantasy Of Ancient History at SFX.
Norse Fire: The Nazi Civil War of 1991 by Chris Nuttall at The Chrishanger.
REVIEW: 'Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives!': Counterfactual Examination of a World Without World War I -- and World War II at HuntingtonNew.net.
Shortlisted for the 2014 Self-Published Book of the Year Award by Alison Morton.
What Is Dieselpunk? by Misty Massey at Magical Words.
What is Punk Fiction? by Stephanie Sauvinet at World Weaver Press.

Counterfactual and Traditional History (Plus News)

Alternate endings: America could be vastly different if Founders had failed by Greg Jordan at Bluefield Daily Telegraph.
Bonnie King Charlie: An Alternate History Speculation by Chris Nuttall at The Chrishanger.
China Seeks Great Power Status After Sea Retreat by David Tweed at Bloomberg.
"Counter-Revolution of 1776": Was U.S. Independence War a Conservative Revolt in Favor of Slavery? at Democracy Now.
Kaaron Warren Celebrates Angry Robot’s 5th Birthday by Naming The 5 Most Horrendous Real People You May Not Have Heard Of (+ Giveaway!) at SF Signal.
These Soviet Concept Vehicles Are Clearly From An Alternate Universe by Vincze Miklós at io9.
What If America Had Lost the Revolutionary War? by Uri Friedman at The Atlantic.

Film and Television

The 10 Least Terrible Episodes of "The Time Tunnel" by Andy Hughes at Topless Robot.
Fox cancels sexy Egypt fantasy 'Hieroglyph' before premiere by James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly.
Getting What We Paid For: Penny Dreadful’s Season 1 Finale, “Grand Guignol” by Ryan Britt at Tor.
The Infinite Man Is A Skillfully Amusing Time-Travel Romance by ProjectCyclops at io9.

Games

Dieselpunk RPG InSomnia returns to Kickstarter, and it's not an MMO by Andy Chalk at PC Gamer.
Fox News rips off BioShock Infinite logo, irony ensues by Sam Barsanti at AV Club.

Interviews

Greg van Eekhout at My Bookish Ways.
Jo Walton at Boing Boing.

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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.

Interview: Cody Franklin

I present my interview with Cody Franklin, creator of my new favorite YouTube channel, The Alternate History Hub:

Hello, Cody. Tell us a little about yourself.

Well I try to keep as much of my personal life off the internet so my videos seem less biased and more neutral. However I can say I am an Ohioan, and am currently going through a Journalism undergrad.  I try to think of myself as a creative person.

What got you interested in alternate history?

I've always been interested in history and geography, so after discovering alternate history scenarios people were creating online, it just seemed like a perfect mesh of knowledge and creativity. I instantly fell in love with the genre, yet never began writing my own videos until last year.

Were there any specific online scenarios that inspired you?

I would say that the most inspiring scenario for me was a video on 'alternatehistorypt'. His video 'A Southern Victory' was the first alternate history scenario I had ever seen and introduced me to the genre.

What is The Alternate History Hub?

The Alternate History Hub is a channel solely dedicated to the genre of alternate history, and the 'what if'. Using real life historical evidence, we try to piece together a scenario of what might have been.  Of course we can never 100% predict what might have been, yet we try to use alternate history to teach people how truly fragile history is.  The channel is meant to be a reminder of how for millennia, humans made decisions which eventually led up to you and I.  Like they say, you only appreciate something until its gone, and by using alternate history, we can remind people how we came to be in the modern world.

Why did you want to make alternate history videos for YouTube?

Ever since YouTube was created there has always been alternate history videos.  There were even some channels dedicated to only alternate history. However, even though I respected those channels, their videos were usually poorly researched or incredibly biased.  Looking at those channels I believed I could bring something new to the table, and make 'AlternateHistoryHub' stand-out among the community.  So, I began make alternate history videos.

Who designed your logo?

I created the idea of the AlternateHistoryHub logo.  I call it the United Earth.  However a good friend of mine from another channel, Dale from 'TheFactoid', re-imagined the logo, using my old concept.  His version is the present day logo.

What is the process you go through to create and upload a video?

I come up with an idea for my videos, usually the week before.   The whole process of writing, recording and editing takes about five hours. This comes in handy when I have classes and work, so my videos adapted to my schedule.

Do you have any future what ifs you are working on now?

Right now I'm working on another Alternate Countries video in celebration of our eventual 10,000 subscribers.  That will be in probably two weeks by my estimates.  However I'm also planning on releasing Part Two of an old video "What if the Soviet Union Won the Cold War".

What advice do you have for aspiring YouTubers?

Dare to be different and don't be scared to challenge the status-quo.  If you think you can bring something new to the table, go for it.  That's what makes YouTube special. Channels and people from all walks of life bring their own perspective for all to see and we as a community grow from the words of others.

Believe in your work, and make videos that you find interesting.  If you find something engaging, odds are others will share your passion too.

Videos for Alternate Historians #2

For you viewing pleasure let us begin with this funny video from Chris Hardwick and Chloe Dykstra about BioShock Infinite:

Ah the power of floor sandwiches. Next up is the ridiculously bad SF film, that is sadly an alternate history, After Earth. Don't worry, I think you will enjoy this honest dissection of the movie:

Take a knee alternate historian. It is time to witness the return of Epic Rap Battles of History Season 3. Hitler and Vader battle for a third time in this season opener:

If you see a video you think alternate historians will like, let us know us at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. We are looking for videos on alternate history, counterfactual history, steampunk, historical fantasy, time travel or anything that warps history beyond our understanding. Doesn't matter if it came up last week or last year, if its good we want to know.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. His new short story "Road Trip" can be found in Forbidden Future: A Time Travel Anthology. 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.

Videos for Alternate Historians #1

For your viewing pleasure, here are some new videos for alternate historians. First up, some more trivia on BioShock Infinite from the guys at Achievement Hunter:

If you haven't seen it, go check out part 1. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer for I, Frankenstein:

Hmm...a little too much hand-to-hand fighting for a Frankenstein's monster movie, but what are you going to do. Perhaps the first episode of the web series Progress is more to your liking. You will have to click on the link to be taken to it (Blogger is being funky) but you can watch the teaser below:

If you see a video you think alternate historians will like, let us know us at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. We are looking for videos on alternate history, counterfactual history, steampunk, historical fantasy, time travel or anything that warps history beyond our understanding. Doesn't matter if it came up last week or last year, if its good we want to know.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. His new short story "Road Trip" can be found in Forbidden Future: A Time Travel Anthology. 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.

Videos for Alternate Historians

Got a few videos I think fans of alternate history will enjoy. First up, the book trailer for friend of The Update Alison Morton's new book Perfiditas (sequel to Inceptio):

The launch party for the book is happening November 6 and you can find out more information on her site. Next up, fans of steampunk and video games might enjoy learning some trivia about Bioshock Infinite from the guys over at Achievement Hunter:

Finally, Jonathan Lethem and Kim Stanley Robinson discuss the influence of Philip K. Dick, whose novel The Man in the High Castle is important to our favorite genre as well:

Enjoy!

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. His new short story "Road Trip" can be found in Forbidden Future: A Time Travel Anthology. 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.