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Table of Contents

ASSISTANT EDITOR’S PREFACE

FICTION

1. Mail Stop Virginia DeMarce

2. Those Daring Young Men Rick Boatright

3. NCIS -Young Love Lost Jose J. Clavell

4. Those Daring Not So Young Men Rick Boatright

5. A Matter Of Taste Kerryn Offord

6. Those Not So Daring Rick Boatright

7. Anna the Baptist Terry Howard

8. Fly Like a Bird Loren Jones

9. Gearhead Mark Huston

10. Water Wings Terry Howard

11. Under the Tuscan Son Iver Cooper

12. Wings on the Mountain Terry Howard

13. Pocket Money John and Patti Friend

14. Moonraker Karen Bergstrahl

15. The Minstrel Boy John Zeek

16. Ultralight Sean Massey

17. Tool or Die Karen Bergstrahl

18. If at First You Don’t Succeed . . . Paula Goodlett

19. Waves of Change Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff

20. Try, Try Again Paula Goodlett

21. Little Jammer Boys Kim Mackey

22. Safe at First Base Mark H. Huston

23. The Order of the Foot Richard Evans

24. The Transmitter Gorg Huff

CONTINUING SERIALS

25. The Essen Chronicles, Part 3: Trip to Paris Kim Mackey

26. At the Cliff’s Edge Iver P. Cooper

27. Butterflies In The Kremlin, Episode 2: A ‘Merican in Moscow Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett

FACT:

28. Radio in 1632, Part 3 Rick Boatight

29. The Sound of Mica Iver P. Cooper

30. A Tempest In a Baptistry Terry Howard

31. The Daily Beer Annette Pedersen

32. White Gold Kerryn Offord

IMAGES

SUBMISSIONS TO THE MAGAZINE

Preface

My, oh, my. Just what is going on in the never-ending soap opera that is Europe in the years of our Lord 1632, 1633, 1634? There’s almost more activity than a person can keep up with.

Grantville Gazette Volume Nine has it all, from the young men who are trying to learn to fly—without engines—to a young Tuscan who got a sneaky idea on his visit to Grantville. Even more, for that matter, since the spread of crystal radios is addressed—right up to the time someone figures out how to block transmissions, that is.

A near revolt in the dining hall, a murder in Magdeburg, somebody speeding—speeding?—industrial accidents, corncob pipes . . . you name it, we’ve got it.

Come on in. The water’s fine. Volume Nine is chock-full of good stories. Stories about everything from the value of sugar to the reason the Grantvillers need mica, as well as climbing mountains, building ships, what’s going on in Essen and Russia and just what happens to a young man who travels a lot.

Enjoy.

Assistant Editor’s Preface

Wow. Here we go again. Grantville Gazette, Volume Nine.

Who knew, back a few years ago, just how many people would be interested in the continuing soap opera of Grantville, WV, United States of Europe? I certainly didn’t, but I spend part of every single day being happy that I picked up that book with the pickup truck and hillbillies on the cover.

In this issue, as usual, we continue telling the “little” stories. By that, I mean the stories about the regular, everyday people who wound up in a situation they never could have anticipated, even if they’d been science fiction readers in the first place. The everyday sort of young man who misses speeding on the highway—as many young men would, I suspect. Read about him in Mark Huston’s “Gearhead.” The everyday sort of young soldiers, who always complain about the food in the dining hall on base. You can read about them in Kerryn Offord’s “A Matter of Taste.” Terry Howard’s “Anna the Baptist” looks at religion in a manner that Pope Urban just might not appreciate all that much. And Richard Evans’ postulates a “super secret” organization of up- and down-timers in “Order of the Foot.” “Pocket Money” by John and Patti Friend shows us just how determined kids can be . . . if there’s something they want badly enough.

For European everyday sorts of people, try “Mail Stop” by Virginia DeMarce—although I must admit that Martin isn’t the sort of guy you run into just any day of the week. He’s a touch unusual, what with that newly acquired hillbilly accent of his. “NCIS – Young Love Lost,” by Jose J. Clavell shows us a grittier side of the coin, while Iver P. Cooper’s “Under the Tuscan Son” takes us to Italy and a young man with ambitions. John Zeek’s “The Minstrel Boy,” tells us about the desire and longing for family, while Karen Bergstralh’s earnest blacksmith faces misfortune in “Tool or Die.”

What changes will having crystal radios cause? Gorg Huff and I explore a bit of that in “Waves of Change,” while Kim Mackey’s “Little Jammer Boy” presents the more, ah, reactionary side of that argument. We’re still talking about Russia in “Butterflies in the Kremlin, Part 2,” and Kim brings his “Essen Chronicles” to a close in Part 3 of that story.

Non-fiction this issue covers the usefullness of mica, from Iver P. Cooper’s “The Sound of Mica,” while Rick Boatright’s “Radio, Part 3” tells us one of the uses. Food—and yes, it is food—is covered in Anette Pedersen’s “The Daily Beer,” while Kerryn Offord explains sweeteners in “White Gold.” Terry Howard discusses just why the Anabaptists were so unpopular in “A Tempest in a Baptistry.”

Finally, we have a new feature in this issue. For lack of a better term, we’re calling them “European Interludes.” They began with a multi-part challenge: Write me something that doesn’t use a single up-timer. It can’t be set in Grantville or Magdeburg. Tell us what starts happening in the rest of the world, when all the knowledge that Grantville has starts leaking out. The characters don’t have to succeed, they just have to try.

We had a lot of takers. Quite a number of challenge stories are included in this volume and more have been written. Those will be included in future volumes.

We hope you enjoy it.

Images

Note from Editor:

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.

Secondly, and even more importantly, 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 Up-timer 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.

Standard letter of agreement

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.

In the event a story has a payment that exceeds $200, the money will be paid in two installments: half on acceptance, and the remaining half two months after publication of the story.

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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