Table of Contents
Editor’s Preface
STORIES
1. Poor Little Rich Girls Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff
2. ‘Til We Meet Again Virginia DeMarce
3. One Man’s Junk Karen Bergstrahl
4. Chip’s Christmas Gift Russ Rittgers
5. Dice’s Drawings Dan Robinson
6. The Class Of ’34 Kerryn Offord
7. Magdeburg Marines: The Few And The Proud Jose Clavell
8. Elizabeth Ernest Lutz and John Zeek
CONTINUING SERIALS
10. Heavy Metal Music or Revolution in Three Flats David Carrico
FACT ARTICLES
11. Drillers In Doublets Iver P. Cooper
12. How To Keep Your Old John Deere Plowing: Diesel Fuel Alternatives For Grantville 1631-1639 Allen W. McDonnell
13. How to build a Machine gun in 1634 with available technology: Two alternate views Leonard Hollar, Tom Van Natta John Zeek, Bob Hollingsworth
14. A Looming Challenge Pam Poggiani
| In Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff’s “Poor Little Rich Girls,” we follow the continuing adventures of the teenage tycoons begun by Huff in “The Sewing Circle” (Gazette #1) and “Other People’s Money” (Gazette #3). The focus in this story, however, is on the younger siblings—the so-called Barbie Consortium—and their down-timer associates and enemies.Jose Clavell’s “Magdeburg Marines” and Ernest Lutz and John Zeek’s “Elizabeth” depict the early days of two military units after the Ring of Fire: a reborn U.S. Marine Corps trying to adapt to new circumstances, and the First Railway Company, formed to provide logistics using a combination of up-time and down-time methods and technology.David Carrico’s “Heavy Metal Music” continues the story of the interaction between up-time and down-time musicians that he began in last issue’s “The Sound of Music.”In other stories:—A German craftsman blackballed by guild masters gets a new start in Karen Bergstralh’s “One Man’s Junk.”—Grantville has to deal with the tragic accidental deaths of several high school graduates in Kerryn Offord’s “The Class of ’34.”—In Virginia DeMarce’s “’Til We Meet Again,” a widowed up-timer responds to her husband’s death by joining the faculty in the newly-established women’s college in Quedlinburg.—Julie Sims’ ex-boyfriend finds a new romance in Russ Rittgers’ “Chip’s Christmas Gift.”—in Dan Robinson’s “Dice’s Drawings,” an American retiree finds a new life and maybe a new love in seventeenth century Germany.The fourth volume of the Gazette also contains factual articles dealing with the development of an oil industry, advances in textile and garment manufacture, possible uses of biodiesel technology, and differing views on the prospects of creating a machine gun using the resources and technology available after the Ring of Fire.Volume 4 of the Gazette can be purchased as a single copy for $6. You can also purchase it as part of a $15 three-volume package, which includes volumes 2 and 3. Volume 1 can be purchased separately for $5 in electronic format, and is also now available as a paperback.Volume 5 will be coming out shortly and can be pre-ordered for $6. You can also pre-order it as part of a $15 three-volume package, which will include volumes 6 and 7.COVER NOTE: The illustration on the cover is “Musicians” by Dirck Hals (1591-1656). It was painted in 1623. | |
EBookThis is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.First printing, April 2005Distributed by Simon & Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020Printed in the United States of America | DOI: 1011250008Copyright 2005 by Eric FlintAll rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.A Baen Books Original Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale, NY 10471 http://www.baen.comProduction by Windhaven Press Auburn, NHElectronic version by WebWrights http://www.webwrights.com |
Editor’s Preface by Eric Flint
Once again, alas, I need to apologize for the delay in producing this volume of the magazine. In my preface to Volume 3, I confidently predicted that we’d be able to publish the next volume in late January or February. Instead. . .
Well, here it is, in mid-April.
Again, the main cause of the delay was illness. In this case, my copy-editor got sick with this very nasty strand of the flu that’s been plaguing us recently. Then, by the time she recovered, she had a backlog of other work that was more pressing than the magazine, that she had to do first.
(Which, she did. Sorry, folks, but facts are stubborn things—and it’s just a fact that the income for a publisher that’s generated by an electronic magazine, even a successful one like the Gazette, is always going to put it at the bottom of the priority list. Such is life. No reason we can’t have fun grousing about it, of course, but do be aware that it’s on a par with grousing about the weather.)
Someone might wonder why I didn’t just find a different copy-editor. Picture me gasping with horror. Modean has copy-edited every single piece produced in the 1632 series since the original novel 1632 that created it in the first place. By now, there are many ways in which she knows this universe better than I do. Just to give one example, the official style sheet that I ask people to use when writing stories or articles for the magazine was produced by her,not me. I asked her to do so, which she did by systematizing what had been my semi-conscious practices in 1632 and 1633 and The Ring of Fire.
The point is this: copy-editors are important. They do far more than simply proof-read to check for typos. They are also the people who systematically cross-check the text to make sure the authors are maintaining factual, thematic and stylistic continuity within the story and (in the case of a series) from one story to the next. Continuity lapses are a problem even within a single, stand-alone novel. With a long and complex series like the 1632 series, they can become a major problem without a good copy-editor who knows the material extremely well serving as the watchdog.
I would no more casually change copy-editors for a 1632 project than I would blithely schedule the second half of major dental work with a different dentist because my regular one didn’t have an opening on exactly the day I wanted. (I’ve had the same dentist for twenty-three years and the same doctor for nineteen. There is a reason for this.) Far better, as inconvenient as it might be, to wait a couple of months.
However, all’s well that ends well, and here is Volume 4. There’s even a bright side to the delay, which is that it enabled me and the editorial board to get the fifth volume put together in the meantime. Modean already has it and she tells me—told Paula, rather, my assistant editor—that she foresees no delay in getting that one ready.
So, if all goes well—which it should! it should!—we’ll have Volume 5 ready for publication in two to three months. That would put us back on the triannual schedule I’ve been hoping to maintain all along. (No, we haven’t been doing it. Our actual schedule has been closer to biannual.)
Some remarks on the contents of this volume:
Once again, I had to go through my usual dance, trying to decide which stories should go under “Continuing Serials” and which should be published as stand-alone stories. This is a dance which, as the magazine unfolds, is getting. . .
In the end, I parsed the contents of this volume in such a way that only David Carrico’s “Heavy Metal Music” fell into the category of “Continuing Serials.” I am even willing to defend that choice under pressure, although—fair warning—my defense will lean heavily on subtle points covered by Hegel in his Science of Logic. (The big one, not the abridgment he did later for his Encyclopedia. So brace yourselves.)
“Poor Little Rich Girls,“by Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff, continues the adventures of the teenage tycoons-in-the-making that Gorg began in “The Sewing Circle” in Volume 1 of the Gazette and continued in the story “Other People’s Money” in Volume 3.
I will stoutly insist that Virginia DeMarce’s “‘Til We Meet Again” is a stand-alone story; no ifs, ands or buts about it. I will also admit that, knowing Virginia, the status will last about as long as a snowball in hell. Leaving aside the suspicious appearance of the name “Quedlinburg,” the presence anywhere in the vicinity of Mary Simpson is enough in itself to set off all the alarm bells. I introduced the character of the Abbess of Quedlinburg myself, in 1633—but did so at Virginia’s recommendation. I should have known. . .
As for Mary Simpson, I first introduced her as a minor character in 1632 and then developed her as a major character in 1633. Since then, the dame seems to be taking over the world. She’ll be a major character in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis and I can see her looming in David Carrico’s series.
The same with Karen Bergstralh’s “One Man’s Junk.” In this volume, that story is a stand-alone. Yup, sure is. That status will last until the next volume comes out. At which point the readers will discover that life goes on, for the characters in that story as with so many others.
The same will probably prove to be true, sooner or later, with most about all the other stories in this volume. The truth? The distinction I make for the Gazette between “continuing serials” and “stand-alone stories” is pretty much analogous to the distinction the law makes between first and second degree murder. The one is premeditated in cold blood; the other more-or-less happens in the heat of the fray.
There are times I think of just throwing up my hands and publishing all of the stories in the Gazette as “continuing serials.” And, in my darker moments, contemplate changing the title of the magazine to The 1632 Soap Opera. That’s because, like a soap opera, the characters just seem to go on forever and ever in one episode after another. Unless one of them is actually Killed Off—and then, sometimes, you don’t really know For Sure–they’ll keep re-appearing. Often enough, in somebody else‘s episode.
On the other hand, I’m not a snob about soap operas. I used to be, until many years ago my wife’s work schedule required me to tape her favorite soap opera so she could watch it when she got home. Initially, I did so holding my nose—and bound and determined to watch only the first few minutes to make sure it was taping properly. This was back in the early days of VHS when I didn’t trust the technology involved. (And still don’t, but I admit I’m something of a technophobe.)
Before a week had passed, I found myself watching the entire damn episode! Day after day! It was then that I first discovered just how addictive soap operas could be. I’m surprised some enterprising politician hasn’t tried to include them in the ongoing and glorious War on Drugs. (Whose prospects, in my opinion, were best described in Eric Frank Russell’s Wasp by a disgruntled shopkeeper commenting on the military success of the Sirian Empire: “For months we have been making triumphant retreats before a demoralized enemy who is advancing in utter disorder.”)
In defense of the Gazette, I will say that the characters in this soap opera are wrestling with a far broader range of concerns than the usual fare of love pining from afar, emotional misunderstandings that somehow last for years when a simple five-minute conversation could settle it, and, of course, the inevitable jealousies and adulteries. Not that the magazine avoids those, either, of course. But the characters also wrestle with political issues, religious issues, worry about their livelihoods and scheme to make a fortune or at least a decent income.
In short, the Gazette is an ongoing chronicle of the way an alternate history would actually evolve, if you looked anywhere beyond the narrow circle of Ye Anointed Heroes and Heroines. The distinction between this and a soap opera—or The World’s Great Literature, for that matter—is mainly in the eye of the beholder.
Yes, sorry, it is. It is widely known, of course, that only women watch soap operas, just as only women gossip. In my innocent youth, I believed these nostrums, until a quarter of a century working in transportation and factories proved to me how ridiculous they were. You can find no better example in the world of “gossip” than what machinists are doing standing around the tool crib or truck drivers are doing at lunch tables in a truck stop. Of course, if you ask them, they will insist they are engaged in the manly art of “shooting the breeze.” Just as, if you ask the electricians and millwrights in the maintenance shop who are watching daytime television while waiting for something to break down that requires their expertise, they will insist they are not actually watching the soap operas showing on the set. No, no. They are merely interested in ogling Whazzername’s figure.
If this state of affairs irritates you, I can only shrug my shoulders. Don’t blame me, blame Homer. To this day, the Iliad stands as one of the world’s all-time great soap operas. The much-hallowed “epic” as it exists today is simply a cleaned-up pile of gossip. What it really was, in its inception, were the stories with which bards entertained the courts of Mycenaean kinglets by chattering about which gods and goddesses lusted for which mortals, their mutual jealousies, and what they did to advance their. . . ah. . . “causes.”
For that matter, blame the Old Testament. Sure, sure, a lot of it deals with Sublime Stuff like the creation of the universe, etc., etc. But there are whole swaths of the books in the Bible that look suspiciously like soap opera plots to me.
It’s not even peculiar to western culture. If you want to read the Greatest Soap Opera of all time, you can do no better than start the massive Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. I say “start,” because you may or may not finish themulti-volume work. (I did finish it, myself. But that was after I’d learned to enjoy a good long-running soap opera.) I believe it is still, to this day, the longest epic ever written.
The word “epic,” of course, is what scholars call a soap opera that was written a long time ago, which gives it the patina of respectability. They will defend their use of terms by pointing to such episodes in the Mahabharata as the philosophical discourse between Krishna and Arjuna which is separately known as the famous Bhagavad Gita.
Very sublime, the Bhagavad Gita; yes, yes, no doubt about it. It’s also just one episode out of a multitude which follow (by and large) the adventures of the five Pandava brothers and the wife they share in common, Draupati. (Don’t blame me! I didn’t come up with the kinky stuff, although it’s sure fun to read about.) One of the central adventures of which involves the sublime subject of how the foolish oldest Pandava brother lost their wife in a game of dice.
So, I figure the Gazette is in good company.
One last thing. As I said earlier, Volume 5 of the Gazette should be available within three months. We’re also well on the way to putting together Volume 6. As we did with volumes 2-4, we’ll make volumes 5-7 available as a three issue-package for $15, as an alternative to buying them as single issues for $6 apiece.
And—need I say it—yes, we are accepting pre-orders. You can either purchase Volume 5 for $6 or the three-volume package.
Images
There are various images, mostly portraits from the time, which illustrate different aspects of the 1632 universe. In the first issue of the Grantville Gazette, I included those with the volume itself. Since that created downloading problems for some people, however, I’ve separated all the images and they will be maintained and expanded on their own schedule.
If you’re interested, you can look at the images and my accompanying commentary at no extra cost. They are set up in the Baen Free Library. You can find them as follows:
1) Go to www.baen.com
2) Select “Free Library” from the blue menu at the top.
3) Once in the Library, select “The Authors” from the yellow menu on the left.
4) Once in “The Authors,” select “Eric Flint.”
5) Then select “Images from the Grantville Gazette.”
Submissions to the magazine
If anyone is interested in submitting stories or articles for future issues of the Grantville Gazette, you are welcome to do so. But you must follow a certain procedure:
1) All stories and articles must first be posted in a conference in Baen’s Bar set aside for the purpose, called “1632 Slush.” Do not send them to me directly, because I won’t read them. It’s good idea to submit a sketch of your story to the conference first, since people there will likely spot any major problems that you overlooked. That can wind up saving you a lot of wasted work.
You can get to that conference by going to Baen Books’ web site www.baen.com. Then select “Baen’s Bar.” If it’s your first visit, you will need to register. (That’s quick and easy.) Once you’re in the Bar, the three conferences devoted to the 1632 universe are “1632 Slush,” “1632 Slush Comments,” and “1632 Tech Manual.” You should post your sketch, outline or story in “1632 Slush.” Any discussion of it should take place in “1632 Slush Comments.” The “1632 Tech Manual” is for any general discussion not specifically related to a specific story.
2) Your story/article will then be subjected to discussion and commentary by participants in the 1632 discussion. In essence, it will get chewed on by what amounts to a very large, virtual writers’ group.
You do not need to wait until you’ve finished the story to start posting it in “1632 Slush.” In fact, it’s a good idea not to wait, because you will often find that problems can be spotted early in the game, before you’ve put all the work into completing the piece.
3) While this is happening, the assistant editor of the Grantville Gazette, Paula Goodlett, will be keeping an eye on the discussion. She will alert me whenever a story or article seems to be gaining general approval from the participants in the discussion. There’s also an editorial board to which Paula and I belong, which does much the same thing. The other members of the board are Karen Bergstralh, Rick Boatright, and Laura Runkle. In addition, authors who publish regularly in the 1632 setting participate on the board as ex officio members. My point is that plenty of people will be looking over the various stories being submitted, so you needn’t worry that your story will just get lost in the shuffle.
4) At that point—and only at that point—do I take a look at a story or article.
I insist that people follow this procedure, for two reasons:
First, as I said, I’m very busy and I just don’t have time to read everything submitted until I have some reason to think it’s gotten past a certain preliminary screening.
Second, and even more important, the setting and “established canon” in this series is quite extensive by now. If anyone tries to write a story without first taking the time to become familiar with the setting, they will almost invariably write something which—even if it’s otherwise well written—I simply can’t accept.
In short, the procedure outlined above will save you a lot of wasted time and effort also.
One point in particular: I have gotten extremely hardnosed about the way in which people use American characters in their stories (so-called “up-timers”). That’s because I began discovering that my small and realistically portrayed coal mining town of 3500 people was being willy-nilly transformed into a “town” with a population of something like 20,000 people—half of whom were Navy SEALs who just happened to be in town at the Ring of Fire, half of whom were rocket scientists (ibid), half of whom were brain surgeons (ibid), half of whom had a personal library the size of the Library of Congress, half of whom . . .
Not to mention the F-16s which “just happened” to be flying through the area, the Army convoys (ibid), the trains full of vital industrial supplies (ibid), the FBI agents in hot pursuit of master criminals (ibid), the . . .
NOT A CHANCE. If you want to use an up-time character, you must use one of the “authorized” characters. Those are the characters created by Virginia DeMarce using genealogical software and embodied in what is called “the grid.”
You can obtain a copy of the grid from the web site which collects and presents the by-now voluminous material concerning the series, www.1632.org. Look on the right for the link to “Virginia’s Uptimer Grid.” While you’re at it, you should also look further down at the links under the title “Authors’ Manual.”
You will be paid for any story or factual article which is published. The rates that I can afford for the magazine at the moment fall into the category of “semi-pro.” I hope to be able to raise those rates in the future to make them fall clearly within professional rates, but . . . That will obviously depend on whether the magazine starts selling enough copies to generate the needed income. In the meantime, the rates and terms which I can offer are posted below in the standard letter of agreement accepted by all the contributors to this issue.
Below are the terms for the purchase of a story or factual article (hereafter “the work”) to be included in an issue of the online magazine Grantville Gazette, edited by Eric Flint and published by Baen Books.
Payment will be sent upon acceptance of the work at the following rates:
1) a rate of 2.5 cents per word for any story or article up to 15,000 words;
2) a rate of 2 cents a word for any story or article after 15,000 words but before 30,000 words;
3) a rate of 1.5 cents a word for any story or article after 30,000 words.
The rates are cumulative, not retroactive to the beginning of the story or article. (E.g., a story 40,000 words long would earn the higher rates for the first 30,000 words.) Word counts will be rounded to the nearest hundred and calculated by Word for Windows XP.
You agree to sell exclusive first world rights for the story, including exclusive first electronic rights for five years following publication, and subsequent nonexclusive world rights. Should Baen Books select your story for a paper edition, you will not receive a second advance but will be paid whatever the differential might be between what you originally received and the advance for different length stories established for the paper edition. You will also be entitled to a proportionate share of any royalties earned by the authors of a paper edition. If the work is reissued in a paper edition, then the standard reversion rights as stipulated in the Baen contract would supercede the reversion rights contained here.
Eric Flint retains the rights to the 1632 universe setting, as well as the characters in it, so you will need to obtain his permission if you wish to publish the story or use the setting and characters through anyone other than Baen Books even after the rights have reverted to you. You, the author, will retain copyright and all other rights except as listed above. Baen will copyright the story on first publication.
You warrant and represent that you have the right to grant the rights above; that these rights are free and clear; that your story will not violate any copyright or any other right of a third party, nor be contrary to law. You agree to indemnify Baen for any loss, damage, or expense arising out of any claim inconsistent with any of the above warranties and representations.
THE END
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