First, I need to apologize for the long delay between the publication of Volumes 2 and 3 of the magazine. That was due to several factors, only one of which—my own heavy writing schedule this past summer and early fall—was predictable. The others involved illnesses to two key people involved in the work, and the recent decision by Baen Books to issue a paper anthology which will contain about one-third of the material that had originally been planned for this volume. That decision, while it was one I welcomed, required us to do another round of story selection and editing. (The current working title for the anthology, by the way, is 1634: The Ram Rebellion. I hope to have it turned in by the middle of next year, in which case it should be published sometime in 2006.)
Fortunately, however, the material for Volume 4 is already put together and needs only the final rounds of editing and copy-editing. So there shouldn't be the same long delay between publication of this volume and the next. It should be available sometime in late January or February.
People who've read the first two volumes of the Grantville Gazette will notice that I've added a section entitled "Continuing Serials." In this section, I'm placing those stories whose episodes are clearly and definitely not stand-alone stories. In this issue, we conclude the short novel "An Invisible War," which was begun in Volume 2, and we continued the episodes of Enrico Toro's "Euterpe." (Episode 3 will appear in Volume 4 or 5.)
I readily admit that there's a very gray area involved here, because some of the "stand alone" stories in this issue either continue a story thread begun in an earlier story—as, in this issue, Gorg Huff's "Other People's Money" continues with the story begun in "The Sewing Circle," which appeared in Volume 1—or are beginning a new one. An example of the latter is David Carrico's "The Sound of Music." The story that David begins here will continue. The immediate sequel is entitled "Heavy Metal Music" and will appear in Volume 4, and he's at work on yet another...
Just to make things more complicated, a number of the stories in the magazine do and will continue to intersect and overlap with other stories. That's been happening since the very beginning of this series, starting with Ring of Fire. So, determining exactly where one story "ends" and another "begins" is awfully tricky.
Still, there's a basic difference between a story like "An Invisible War" and "The Sound of Music." David's story does work as a stand alone, and while "Heavy Metal Music" will be a sequel, it can also be read on its own terms. Whereas Part II (the conclusion) of Danita's short novel is not a "sequel," it's the second half of the same story.
Finally, I need to make an announcement. Beginning with the next volume of the magazine—actually, she picked up halfway through this one—Paula Goodlett is replacing Cheryl Daetwyler as the assistant editor of the magazine. This is a sad announcement for me to make, not because I don't think Paula won't do an excellent job, but because the reason I had to make the change was because Cheryl suffered a stroke a few months ago. Those of us involved with the 1632 series have all been hoping that she'd recover soon, but unfortunately it's now become clear that her recovery is going to take a lot of time and effort.
As I said earlier, part of the reason for the long stretch between the publication of this volume and the last volume was the uncertainty concerning Cheryl's condition after her stroke. Finally—and reluctantly—I decided to find a new assistant editor, once it became clear that Cheryl would not be recovering quickly. I simply can't manage this work without an assistant editor, and Paula was the obvious choice as Cheryl's replacement. I'll ask all of you who are friends and fans of this series to wish Cheryl the best and give her your prayers if you are religiously inclined. And please welcome Paula Goodlett.
Eric Flint
October, 2004