Eric Flint - Grantville Gazette - Volume 2

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- Chapter 1

Editor's Preface

By Eric Flint

As you can perhaps deduce from the simple existence of a second issue of the Grantville Gazette, the

first issue—which we did as an experiment, to see if there would be enough interest in such an online

magazine—proved to be successful.

Quite successful, in fact, better than I'd hoped. As of today, we've sold about 1750 copies. With that

sales base, the magazine can be financially self-sustaining, which was the prerequisite for being able to

continue with it. I still can't afford to pay professional rates for the stories and articles—which the

Science Fiction Writers' Association has now pegged at five cents a word—but I can cover all the other

costs, including paying professional rates to a copy editor as well as the percentage received by

Webscriptions and Baen Books. And I'm hoping—I think not unreasonably—that over time the

magazine's sales and subscription base will become large enough that I can start paying professional

rates for the stories and articles instead of the current semi-pro rates. In order to do that, I estimate we'd

need a stable sales/sub base of around 2500 readers.

So... onward.

* * *

Now that I know the Gazette will be an ongoing publication, I've got more leeway in terms of the kind

of stories I can include in the magazine. A number of the fiction pieces being written in the 1632 setting

are either long or are intended as parts of ongoing stories. There are two examples in this issue: Danita

Ewing's "An Invisible War" and Enrico Toro's "Euterpe, episode 1." In terms of its length, "An Invisible

War" is technically a short novel. So, it'll be serialized over the next two issues of the magazine. Part I

appears in this issue; the concluding part will appear in the next.

Enrico Toro's story is somewhat different. Neither he nor I know what the final length of this story will

be. It's written in the form of episodes, each told in epistolary form by the narrator. I wanted to include

it, because (along with Gorg Huff's story, "God's Gifts") Toro's piece approaches the 1632 framework

entirely from the angle of how seventeenth-century people react to the events produced by the Ring of

Fire.

Most of the stories that have thus far appeared in either the Gazette or the anthology Ring of Fire have

approached the situation either entirely or primarily from the standpoint of up-timers. What I especially

liked about the stories by Toro and Huff is that up-timers are never the viewpoint characters. In the case

of "Euterpe," Toro is using an actual historical figure and trying to imagine how a young musician of the

time would react to the sudden influx of music written over the next several centuries. In the case of

Huff's story, the character is a fictional Lutheran pastor trying to grapple with the theological

implications of the Ring of Fire.

Given that there are a few thousand up-timers in the 1632 setting—and tens of millions of down-

timers—it seemed about time to me that we started getting more of their view of things into the series.

Although not quite to the same degree, Chris Weber's short novella "The Company Men" also

approaches the setting primarily from the standpoint of seventeenth-century figures. In the case of his

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story, which is an adventure story, that of two mercenary soldiers of the time. And in John Zeek's

murder mystery "Bottom Feeders," we get a nice mix of viewpoints.

There's a nice mix of stories in this issue, I think, in more ways than one. They range from military

stories like Mike Spehar's "Collateral Damage" through stories involving the struggle to expand medical

care (Ewing's "An Invisible War"), and everything in between. The same is true for the factual articles,

where you'll get a treatise on seventeenth-century swordplay as well as a discussion of the practical

challenges posed by geology and mining in the context of the technical resources available to the

characters in the series.

* * *

I should mention that there is one major change in the magazine from the first issue. I'm no longer

including an Images section as a part of the magazine itself. I did that for the first issue, and intended to

continue. However, I failed to take into account that by including so many images in the magazine itself,

it became difficult for many people to download in a reasonable time—and for those using PDAs, often

effectively impossible.

So, while I will continue to expand the images provided, whenever I get the chance, I'm now going to do

it separately from the magazine itself. That way people will be able to download the text of the magazine

without any problems. The Images will now be found at a separate location as part of the Baen Free

Library. The Baen Free Library is free of charge, so they won't cost you anything extra.

To find the images, do the following:

1) Go to Baen Books' web site: www.baen.com

2) Select "Free Library" from the menu at the top.

3) Once you're in the Library, select "The Authors" from the menu at the left.

4) Select "Eric Flint."

5) Select "Images from the Grantville Gazette."

Now that the images are disconnected from the Gazette itself, I'll be adding to them on a separate

schedule. That'll make things easier for me, given my work load. Most likely, I'll add fewer images and

commentary each time, but do it more often than the magazine itself appears.

Eric Flint

March, 2004

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Framed

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- Chapter 2

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- Chapter 2

Collateral Damage

By Mike Spehar

"A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be

slowly born."

— Antoine de Saint Exupery

"Just perfect," Jesse muttered in disgust.

"What was that, Herr Oberst?"

Jesse jammed his hands into the pockets of his flying jacket and looked at his copilot, Lieutenant Emil

Castner, who was leaning against the wing, studying his map. The lieutenant had moved there to get

away from the crowd of mechanics swarming around the nose of their aircraft. Jesse had likewise moved

away, after earning a glare from Chief Matowski for repeatedly butting in on his work.

"Nothing, Emil," Jesse said. "Nothing at all."

The young German nodded uncertainly and turned back to his map. Approving of his copilot taking the

chance to get better prepared for the flight, Jesse rubbed his neck and moved slightly toward the

mechanics, then thought better of it. He always hated it when a supposedly ready aircraft broke down

before takeoff. Standing around, waiting for the wrenchbenders to work their magic, never failed to

grate on his nerves and this time was no exception. He strolled away and, for about the tenth time, patted

the left sleeve pocket of his flight suit, where, in another world and another time, he had carried his

cigarettes.

Damn, he thought. You'd think I'd have gotten past that habit. What's it been—two years, since I've last

had a smoke?

Sometimes, such as when he was flying or waiting to fly, he could almost forget the circumstances that

had brought him here. The cataclysmic Ring of Fire that had mysteriously transported the West Virginia

town of Grantville into seventeenth-century Germany had created a psychological crisis for all of the

Americans caught in the event. Their subsequent battles against the threats of hunger, disease, and

hostile neighbors, had quickly pulled the Americans together, though it had been a hard struggle. And

still was.

The USE and their allies were still engaged in a desperate struggle against formidable enemies. Only the

fall before, through the machinations of Cardinal Richelieu, the countries of Spain, England, and

Denmark had joined the French in the so-called "Ostend Alliance," with the intent of capturing the

Baltic, crushing the independent Netherlands, and, eventually, eliminating the growing power of the

USE. Luckily, the Alliance's initial attacks had been thwarted at Luebeck and Wismar, in no small

measure through the impact of American technology, hastily adapted for war. Now, in the early spring

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