The Grantville Gazette is an experiment. It originated as a byproduct of the ongoing and very active discussions which take place concerning the 1632 universe I created in the novels 1632 and 1633 (the latter co-authored by David Weber). This discussion is centered in one of the conferences in Baen's Bar, the discussion area of Baen Books' web site. The conference is entitled "1632 Tech Manual" and has been in operation for about four years now, during which time something on the order of 75,000 posts have been made by hundreds of participants.
Soon enough, the discussion began generating so-called "fanfic," stories written in the setting by fans of the series. A number of these, in my opinion—with some editing, at least—were good enough to be published professionally. And, indeed, a number of them will be very soon—as part of the anthology Ring of Fire, which is being published by Baen Books in January, 2004. (Ring of Fire also includes stories written by established authors such as myself, David Weber, Mercedes Lackey, Dave Freer, K.D. Wentworth and S.L. Viehl.)
As it happens, the decision to publish the Ring of Fire anthology triggered the writing of still more fanfic, even after submissions to the anthology were closed. It is possible that some of these stories will be included in a second anthology—but that depends on such an anthology ever being produced, which, in turn, depends on sales of Ring of Fire. There will be no way to determine that for many months yet.
And, in the meantime... the fanfic kept getting written, and people kept nudging me—okay, pestering me, but I try to be polite about these things—to give them my feedback on their stories. The problem, from my point of view, was that that involved work for me with no clear end result I could see.
Hence... the Grantville Gazette. Once I realized how many stories were being written—a number of them of publishable quality—I raised with Jim Baen the idea of producing an online magazine which would pay for fiction and factual articles set in the 1632 universe and would be sold through Baen Books' Webscriptions service. Jim was willing to try it, to see what happens.
I began by calling this an "experiment," because we simply don't know yet whether it will be successful enough to continue. I hope it will, in which case this will become retroactively Volume 1 of the Grantville Gazette, with more volumes to follow.
"Successful," in this instance—as in any instance involving commercial publishing—can be translated into simple terms: sells enough copies. I realize that sounds crass and crude, but that's just the way it is. Facts are stubborn things, and it's just a fact that commercial fiction publishing is done for profit—or, at the very least, will not be done at a loss. Not for very long, that's for sure. "Money talks, everything else walks." It sounds crude because it is crude—but it's also a fact of life. Baen Books might be willing to continue the Grantville Gazette as a break-even proposition, since sales of the magazine presumably boost sales of the books in the series. But neither I nor anyone else can reasonably expect a commercial publisher to keep producing something at a loss.
So, we'll see. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this issue of the magazine. As will be true in any (possible) later issues of the magazine, the Grantville Gazette contains three things:
1) Stories set in the 1632 universe;
2) Factual articles which explain in depth various important aspects of the setting;
3) Pictorial images which are relevant to the series.
There are four stories in this issue. Two of them—Loren Jones' "Anna's Story" and Tom Van Natta's "Curio and Relic"—were originally submitted for the anthology Ring of Fire. Both of them were stories I would have included in the anthology, except that I ran out of space and, for one reason or another—none of which involved the actual quality of the writing—I decided to accept other stories instead. Loren does have a story appearing in Ring of Fire, by the way, entitled "Power to the People."
Virginia DeMarce, the author of another story contained here ("The Rudoldstadt Colloquy"), is another of the authors with a story in Ring of Fire. She is also my co-author in an upcoming novels in the 1632 series, 1634: The Bavarian Crisis. Finally, her story here introduces a character—Cavriani—who will figure in later stories in the series.
Gorg Huff's "The Sewing Circle" was submitted for the magazine. Gorg is a new writer in the setting, who has not previously been published.
All three factual articles in this issue were written at my request. Rick Boatright was the radio expert whom David Weber and I leaned on for advice while writing 1633, and his article fleshes out the background for the radio material contained in that novel (as well as future novels in the series). The same is true for Bob Gottlieb's expertise with regard to disease and antibiotics. Karen Bergstralh is an experienced horsewoman and an expert on horses—a subject which I find is routinely mishandled in fiction. (Especially the movies—the downhill charge in the recent movie The Two Towers is admittedly a lot of fun. It is also preposterous.)
Finally, I put together a collection of portraits of most of the major political and military historical figures who have appeared so far in the 1632 series. The portraits are accompanied by my own commentary, which is not entirely solemn and not in the least bit reverent. You will find those in the section of the Grantville Gazette entitled "Images."
Eric Flint
October 8, 2003