Welcome to our May 2025 issue. We hope you enjoy it!
Table of Contents
Introduction and Editor’s Notes Bjorn Hasseler
Magdeburg Messenger (fiction)
1. Waving Goodbye George McClennan Grant
2. The Play’s the Thing Virginia DeMarce
3. Clan MacDonald Terry Howard
4. Cittadino In Villa Or The Economy Of The Citizen In The Country Lancelot Schaubert
5. A Troubled Journey Mark Roth-Whitworth
6. Johan and the Purple Pencil Bethanne Kim
State Library Papers (non-fiction)
7. Economics Are Not Abstract Gorg Huff
8. The Mannington Minute: The Impact Of Mannington On Grantville And Grantville On Mannington Jackie Britton Lopatin
The Magdeburg Messenger (1632 Fiction)
This issue’s stories range from Grantville to the Rhineland to Paris and Reims and across Europe as a whole. As always, some people have found advantages in the Ring of Fire, others have found disadvantages, and unintended consequences abound.
In Virginia DeMarce’s “The Play’s The Thing,” Shakespeare’s grandsons find that when people expect a play to carry a message, they’ll find one.
One of the places in the Ring of Fire we don’t see very often is the Ring Lakes. Those that live there are just like everyone else: some have adapted to the new world, and some haven’t. Find out more in George McClennan Grant’s “Waving Goodbye.”
Not all the Scots who arrive in Grantville are from Mackay’s Regiment. Terry Howard follows some of the others in “Clan MacDonald.”
In his first story in 1632 & Beyond, Lancelot Schaubert follows a historical down-timer who discovers kudzu. “Cittadino in Villa” is very different in this timeline.
The lacemaker Marianne returns in “A Troubled Journey” by Mark Roth-Whitworth.
Sometimes, you just want the kids to go to sleep. Bethanne Kim explains how that turns into an entire project in “Johann and the Purple Pencil.”
State Library Papers (Non-Fiction)
Comparing what something costs in two different places is more complicated than it initially seems. Gorg Huff explains why in “Economics Are Not Abstract.”
The Mannington Minute
Mannington, WV, is the model for Grantville. Jackie Britton Lopatin lives there and will be writing a Mannington column for us.
