Welcome to 2011. And I thought 2010 looked like science fiction. Time to look back at accomplishments of the past year...
Okay, enough of that. Things I didn't get done: Imperfect Hope. Yah, I know, it's been number one on my topics these last few months. Time to change the channel...
Got a note from my brother Jeff a few weeks back (Hi Jeff, know you're reading this), He'd gotten a short story published in the Grantville Gazette, a ezine dedicated to Eric Flint's 1632 universe. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is a shared world speculative fiction (sci-fi) series based on the concept of a time-transference of a small area surrounding Grantsville, WV from the year 2000 back to 1630 germany right smack in the middle of the 30 years war. Eric Flint set up some very specific rules about writing in that era, most important of which is that the modern resources available to the uptimers (those from the year 2000) are restricted to an accurate inventory of what was actually in Grantville at the time of the transfer. Population 3000 or so, coal miners and librarians and school teachers, no rocket scientists, no aeronautical engineers, no lost detachment of special forces soldiers on leave.
The grantville Gazette is an ezine consisting of non-fiction articles on recreating technology under those circumstances, historical references and conjecture on societal changes, and fiction short stories or serials based around the events of the print books co-written by Eric Flint. Some years past, Jeff wrote a non-fiction article on "oil mining", a low tech source of much needed hydrocarbons that the Transplaced Grantsville residents might use. From that article came his short story, co-written with Kiwi (I believe) Kerryn Offord about another potential low tech means of obtaining oil in 1634. It's a good read, I have to admit.
Because it's published in an E-zine, I shouldn't post the entire story for the entire world to read, since it is a subscription e-zine, but they do allow previews of about half the story without buying a subscription. You'll find it online at http://grantvillegazette.com/ . For those interested, email me and I'll "loan" you my copy to read as long as you promise not to spread it willy-nilly about the internet. (I'm sensitive to the needs of copyright protection, and since writers to ezines get paid through the 'zine's subscription, if you subscribe, you'll be supporting starving writers like my brother... And perhaps me...)
Not that he's starving, he and Bess Anne are in Kuala Lumpur living in a 3700 square foot penthouse working for a multinational oil company, and has to walk 15 minutes to his office on some upper floor of the Petronas Towers. Other than being half a world away from the triplets, I suspect he's doing fine. ;-)
I hadn't kept up with the 1632 series of late, though it's always been a fascinating storyline to me. They've been pretty strict about keeping the limits of the recreation of technology realistic, and I've enjoyed the meshing of historical characters such as Galileo (tried for heresy in 1632 historically, I won't tell you how the writers have changed history in the book dealing with that case), and Richelieu with fictional characters such as Tom Stone (resident "non-traditional chemist known to the locals as stoner) and his rather undisciplined teenage boys, and challenging topics such as the catholic reformation, the plague, and politics, politics, and more politics. Give it a read. Perhaps I'll have a short story there someday...
Anyway, more to come soon, I promise...
TTFN,
Jim
Okay, enough of that. Things I didn't get done: Imperfect Hope. Yah, I know, it's been number one on my topics these last few months. Time to change the channel...
Got a note from my brother Jeff a few weeks back (Hi Jeff, know you're reading this), He'd gotten a short story published in the Grantville Gazette, a ezine dedicated to Eric Flint's 1632 universe. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is a shared world speculative fiction (sci-fi) series based on the concept of a time-transference of a small area surrounding Grantsville, WV from the year 2000 back to 1630 germany right smack in the middle of the 30 years war. Eric Flint set up some very specific rules about writing in that era, most important of which is that the modern resources available to the uptimers (those from the year 2000) are restricted to an accurate inventory of what was actually in Grantville at the time of the transfer. Population 3000 or so, coal miners and librarians and school teachers, no rocket scientists, no aeronautical engineers, no lost detachment of special forces soldiers on leave.
The grantville Gazette is an ezine consisting of non-fiction articles on recreating technology under those circumstances, historical references and conjecture on societal changes, and fiction short stories or serials based around the events of the print books co-written by Eric Flint. Some years past, Jeff wrote a non-fiction article on "oil mining", a low tech source of much needed hydrocarbons that the Transplaced Grantsville residents might use. From that article came his short story, co-written with Kiwi (I believe) Kerryn Offord about another potential low tech means of obtaining oil in 1634. It's a good read, I have to admit.
Because it's published in an E-zine, I shouldn't post the entire story for the entire world to read, since it is a subscription e-zine, but they do allow previews of about half the story without buying a subscription. You'll find it online at http://grantvillegazette.com/ . For those interested, email me and I'll "loan" you my copy to read as long as you promise not to spread it willy-nilly about the internet. (I'm sensitive to the needs of copyright protection, and since writers to ezines get paid through the 'zine's subscription, if you subscribe, you'll be supporting starving writers like my brother... And perhaps me...)
Not that he's starving, he and Bess Anne are in Kuala Lumpur living in a 3700 square foot penthouse working for a multinational oil company, and has to walk 15 minutes to his office on some upper floor of the Petronas Towers. Other than being half a world away from the triplets, I suspect he's doing fine. ;-)
I hadn't kept up with the 1632 series of late, though it's always been a fascinating storyline to me. They've been pretty strict about keeping the limits of the recreation of technology realistic, and I've enjoyed the meshing of historical characters such as Galileo (tried for heresy in 1632 historically, I won't tell you how the writers have changed history in the book dealing with that case), and Richelieu with fictional characters such as Tom Stone (resident "non-traditional chemist known to the locals as stoner) and his rather undisciplined teenage boys, and challenging topics such as the catholic reformation, the plague, and politics, politics, and more politics. Give it a read. Perhaps I'll have a short story there someday...
Anyway, more to come soon, I promise...
TTFN,
Jim
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