Previous / Next The Bloody Baroness of Bornholm Written by Kerryn Offord May 1634, 0430 hrs, in the shadow of HammershusCastle, Island of Bornholm, the Baltic “Get ready to jump,” the man at the rudder called. Jesper Hansen tugged his cap down tight and slung his duffle bag over his shoulder. There was a gentle […]
Previous / Next Scraps of Fashion Written by Lisa Satterlund Something to keep in mind when writing fashion into your 1632verse stories is that the down-timers don’t think their fashions are ugly. From the point of view of the twentieth century, the up-timers will see many of the garments the highest classes wear as stiff, […]
Previous / Next The Importance of Having a Pig: Food and Preservation in 1632 Written by Anette Pedersen The Importance of Storage Self-sufficiency was the alpha and omega of housekeeping in the 1632 era, and no matter how rich or poor a household was, it was the responsibility of the housewife or housekeeper to ensure […]
Previous / Next The Steam Car Written by Kevin H. Evans The day approaches, more quickly than we may think, that the demand for automobiles will far surpass the supply that arrived with the Ring of Fire. Also many of the cars from the future will have un-repairable breakdowns. A solution to the transportation gap […]
Previous / Next Note: This is a story of Marla Linder, Franz Sylwester, and their music. It consists of Sonata, Part One (Grantville Gazette Volume 15), Sonata, Part Two (Grantville Gazette 16), Sonata, Part Three (Grantville Gazette 17), and Sonata, Part Four (Grantville Gazette 18). This touching story is part of 1635: Music and Murder, published by Baen. Sonata, Part […]
Previous / Next Homage to Etruria,Part One: The Patron’s Plight Written by Jay Robison I. May 1635, Outside Rome Giulio Gentileschi paused to re-tie the kerchief around his nose and mouth to keep out the dust. His companion, a hulking lefferto named Carlo Belzoni did the same. If only cloth could keep the smell of panic out […]
Previous / Next Comedy of Error Written by Mark H. Huston “Oh. My. God. They have those damned things down-time too?” “What things Flo?” Anna followed Flo’s icy glare toward a temporary stage erected in the Grantville market. On it, a group of Italian traveling players were performing a broad, ribald and highly improvised show. […]
Previous / Next Lost In Translation Written by Iver P. Cooper Spring 1634Grantville “Hans, you fool, where are you!” Hans hurriedly entered the room. The master’s face was red, and his eyes were bulging, making him look rather like a choleric bullfrog. Uh-oh, he thought. What is it this time? He lowered his eyes. “Yes, Master?” […]
Previous / Next Golden Corn—A Tale of Old Joe on the Mountain Top Written by Terry Howard “It’s the first of May and there’s snow on the ground.” Old Joe had talked to himself all of his life. Now with his wife gone he was living alone in a house accustomed to keeping two or […]
Previous / Next Ghosts on the Glass Written by Tim Roesch The first time Mary saw the ghosts she was transfixed. In the beginning, they had frightened her, the ghosts. Now she found them before they found her. She knew where to look and how. With a clever smudge here or a bit of pigment […]
Previous / Next Feng Shui for the Soul Written by Kerryn Offord Grantville, 1633 Kurt Stoltz ignored the rumbling of his stomach and continued his careful scanning of the pages of the newspaper. He well knew that they censored everything. So one had to read everything to detect the tiny inconsistencies that hinted at what they had removed. He […]
Previous / Next Silver Age Written by Virginia DeMarce Grantville, March 1635 Pam Hardesty squatted down next to a set of encyclopedias in the National Research Center. Tuesday. Cross-training for would-be librarians. Someone, somewhere up the food chain, had decided that they would be better-prepared to help researchers in the future if they had some […]
Previous / Next Bunny B. Goode Written by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett “These Americans,” Don Alfredo de Aguilera said with a sigh. “They have no idea of the effects they have.” He cast a sardonic look out the window, then sighed and turned back to his letter. The best he could do was the […]
Previous / Next The Anaconda Project, Episode Six Written by Eric Flint When Jozef finished with his presentation, the immediate reaction of his two listeners was about what he’d expected. Silence. Total, complete silence. After a few seconds, Lukasz Opalinski sighed faintly and leaned back a little further in his heavily-upholstered armchair. He gave the […]
Previous / Next Dark as a Dungeon Written by John Zeek Henry Johnson was happy to see the three horses the family owned in the field. That meant that Anse and Hagen were back from the medical center. Maybe, just maybe the waiting was over. Henry pointed the horses out to Wendel Schultz and Suse […]
Previous / Next Too Late for Sunday Written by Michael Badillo December, 1633, Grantville “Roberta Allene Haggerty! Come here for a minute, please.” “What is it, Momma?” Allie answered, entering her parents’ room. The “please” didn’t fool her a bit. Nobody called you by your full name unless you were in trouble. “We need to […]
Previous / Next The Anaconda Project, Episode Five Written by Eric Flint As he watched the archer bringing his horse around again for another run at the target, Lukasz Opalinski leaned toward the man standing next to him. “So, tell me, Jozef. Is Grantville as exotic as its reputation?” Jozef Wojtowicz didn’t answer immediately. He […]
Previous / Next Quintessentially Blonde Written by Virginia DeMarce Grantville, January 1635 “Why are you asking, Missy?” Debbie Jenkins asked. “You know Pam Hardesty. In the going-to-be-a-librarian-someday classes with me. She’s thinking about when she comes to get married. If she does. And what she’s going to tell a respectable down-time man about that blank […]
Previous / Next Gifted with Pascal Written by Tim Roesch Mary Timm hated church steeples. There was no glass in them. They blocked the light in odd ways, cast shadows where shadows had no place being. They stabbed the sky and mocked the sun. They interfered with her art. Having a boy hanging from one […]
Previous Grantville Gumshoe in a 17th Century World’s FairTom Kidd Spring 1637 What was once a fleeting dream is now a reality. I have an office with my name burnished in gold foil on the door: Schinkenspeck & Mackie Investigations. I’m tickled pink at being an accomplished private eye with many extraordinary tales. Not to […]
Previous / Next The Young Lady of the LakeEdith Wild It was the summer of 1636, I think in late June, maybe in early July. I believe the framework of events leading up to what happened might have been as long as several weeks. The edges blur and memories of events change. Even so, I […]
Previous / Next Miss RedbirdBethanne Kim The Bridal SaloonEarly November 1635 “Look, Carole, I’m not saying the Miss West Virginia pageant isn’t great. It is! We have rented a lot of dresses over the years and you got a nice bump in business for doing hair, but the truth is we’re both stuck. In a […]
Previous / Next Late May 1636 Riding the cog rail up to the Redbird Institute, USE Dorothea Weise breathed in the cool spring air, savoring the sweet scents of lilies of the valley, forget-me-nots, daisies, and cowslips growing in the open space alongside the cog rail’s steep tracks and spiced by the resinous aroma of […]
Welcome to our September 2025 issue. We hope you enjoy it! Next Table of Contents Note: You can open a copy of the Redbird Map with this link. Redbird Reader (fiction) 1. Life List Garrett W. Vance 2. Miss Redbird Bethanne Kim 3. The Young Lady of the Lake Edith Wild Paris Post (more fiction) […]
Previous Unintended Consequences: Dealing with the Population Density Explosion Written by Walt Boyes The reconstruction of Magdeburg brings to mind issues in population density. Although relatively large cities existed in 1634 in OTL, none of them qualifies as a really modern city, as the up-timers would recognize them. The up-timers will cause an unparalleled population […]
Previous / Next Seeing the Heavens Written by Iver P. Cooper “The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope,” according to Henry Ward Beecher. In the seventeenth century, solar system astronomy lay at the center of the debates as to place of mankind in the universe, and the relationship of […]
Previous / Next The High-Stepping Beauties Written by Kevin H. Evans Joseph stood on the platform, his eyes tightly shut, straining with his whole self to hear the whistle. It was time. The schedule said it was time, the whistle would tell. There it was, the distant chime. It was the first notes of a […]
Previous / Next Tell Me What You Eat, and I’ll Tell You Who You Are Written by Anette Pedersen Food and Cooking According to Class in 1632 Introduction In the Germany of 1632 the difference between the food available to the rich and to the poor was immensely bigger than it is today. Not so […]
Previous / Next Note: This is a story of Marla Linder, Franz Sylwester, and their music. It consists of Sonata, Part One (Grantville Gazette Volume 15), Sonata, Part Two (Grantville Gazette 16), Sonata, Part Three (Grantville Gazette 17), and Sonata, Part Four (Grantville Gazette 18). This touching story is part of 1635: Music and Murder, published by Baen. Sonata, Part […]
Previous / Next Stretching Out, Part Four:Beyond the Line Written by Iver P. Cooper Trinidad, April, 1634 It was a lake, but one unlike any other they had seen. This was the famous Pitch Lake of Trinidad. A hundred acres of tar. David Pieterszoon de Vries, captain of the fluyt Walvis, studied it for a few […]
Previous / Next Hunting Traditions Written by Garrett W. Vance Walt Dorrman looked up at the cold blue skies of an early October morning and knew that it was time to go hunting. He went to his small but well loved gun collection and held them one by one, as if greeting old friends. He […]
Previous / Next Sure Thing Written by Kerryn Offord Sunrise, Monday, March 13, 1634,Magdeburg Elisabetha Schmelzer was sure the shadow walking behind her was a man, and that he was following her. Every time she stopped, he stopped as well. She wasn’t quite ready to panic just yet, but a woman alone in this area […]
Previous / Next The Galloping Goose Written by Herbert and William Sakalaucks “Okay, guys, very carefully, peel the logo stencils and coverings off the doors and I’ll get the big one on the back end,” Arlen instructed. The sharp smell of drying paint hung in the air, a fine mist shrouding the gathered crowd, as […]
Previous / Next Doc Written by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett “Get out of the goddamned way, Little Ferdie!” Ferdinand Bader got out of Sergeant Sandler’s way as quickly as he could. Not that he was really in the way, but it was typical of Sandler to shout, just as it was typical of Captain […]
Previous / Next Wedding Daze Written by Virginia DeMarce Grantville, August 1634 Velma Hardesty took a good look at herself in the mirror. Jacques-Pierre Dumais came to the trailer and talked to her for an hour or two at least three or four times a week and gave her ideas on which she was to […]
Previous / Next E. Coli: A Tale of Redemption Written by Terry Howard Ken paused in front of Jimmy Dick barely long enough to say, “Incoming,” before moving down the bar and taking shelter in the back room. Jimmy glanced in the mirror to see his ex-wife, Bina Rae, framed by the early afternoon sun, […]
Previous / Next Duty Calls Written by Karen Bergstralh March, 1634 The room was packed with villagers happy to see visitors and hear the latest news and gossip. Rob Clark, stretching his legs, found two young boys under the table. It seemed to him that every inch of space was crammed with people. Some youngsters […]
Previous Tennis: The Game of Kings Written by Iver P. Cooper Many of the stories of the 1632 Universe relate to the flow of ideas—technological and social—from the up-timers to the down-timers. But the flow can be in the other direction, too. My story “The Chase” (Ring of Fire 2) relates how the up-timers learn […]
Previous / Next The Theobroma Shell Game Written by Karen C. Evans Chocolate, that magical substance that smoothes out the rough parts of our lives. Those of us who have been living with the Grantville “disaster” these past years are reconciled to the fact that we will never have chocolate again. It isn’t available in […]
Previous / Next The Geared Locomotive or What Wood You Shay To? Written by Kevin H. Evans Geared locomotives were developed to handle rough track industrial applications. Most notable were logging short lines, and mining short lines. The traditional steam locomotive has cylinders parallel to the ground with the effort of those cylinders transferred to […]
