The Story So Far… by Walt Boyes
“What’s in a name…?” In the new universe created by the cosmic accident that sent the West Virginia town of Grantville back in time and across continents to Europe in 1631, Terry Howard’s first offering in this issue is “HAIR Club 250.” What happens when the Club 250 closes, and is remade as a hair salon… and in “Becket’s Blood,” Terry shows us a brave man who courts martyrdom in the England of Charles I.
Grantville’s existence has had many effects, both large and small. In “The Ghosts of the Blauschloss,” Margo Ryor involves her young girl detective writing circle in a case of murder, for real. While a new writer, Anne Keener, gives us a story about the Elsevier printing house, both Original Time Line and New Time Line, called “Stolen Reputations.”
Nick Lorance gives us the prequel to his stories of Sergeant Whatsisname in “Transplanted Seed.”
Meanwhile, Iver Cooper gives us a look at what a universal language might be like, in “The Tower of Babel.”
Kevin and Karen Evans give us another chapter in their continuing saga, “Engines of Change.” This chapter is called, “For a Few Kroner More.” Why the big engine factory doesn’t close after all.
Eric S. Brown and a new collaborator, Anna G. Carpenter, continue the story of the Grantville Monster Society in “An Army of Scarecrows.”
Virginia DeMarce gives us a look at the inside of the court of Burgundy, and the ubiquitous Rohans in “Les Futuriens, Part Two.” And Charles E. Gannon continues his behind-the-scenes look at what didn’t make it into the book in “Papal Stakes: Faces from the Cutting Room Floor, Part 4.”
Jack Carroll shares a non-fiction piece, “1636: Marine Radio in the Mediterranean.”
In her column, “Notes from the Buffer Zone,” Kristine Katherine Rusch talks about the past being very far past. “The Past Is Another Country” looks at the field of genre science fiction writing and how it has radically changed.
The Grantville Gazette is looking for younger writers who want to try their hand at some alternate history science fiction. So get your kids and young friends to give it a shot. We are also looking for stories about ordinary young people, up-timers and down-timers alike, who find themselves reacting to the changes Grantville has made in the world. If you have any questions, email me or Bjorn Hasseler for more information.