It is now quite a few years on, in the New Time Line. The effect of the people from the future, the "Americans," has been huge. In this edition’s stories, our authors explore that effect from many different angles.

In our serial, "Painted into a Corner, Part 3" by Robert Waters and Meriah Crawford, we see what happens when a famous and accomplished painter tries to come to terms with the fact that his career in the Original Time Line is not even mentioned in the up-timers’ books. How do you change your life so that you avoid obscurity?

In "Engines of Change: The Miller’s Tale" by Karen and Kevin Evans, a young man thinks enough sideways to realize that up-timer technology can be used to save the family business, a windmill, when the windmill’s access to wind is interrupted by the building of a big house.

In Nick Lorance’s "Sergeant Whatsisname" we find a man dedicated to upholding the true military virtues, honor, dignity, self-sacrifice, in the face of the shenanigans of a group of troublesome recruits from the Committees of Correspondence—who see themselves as revolutionaries, but without the ethics.

"The Grantville Two-Step" by David Dove reveals a man who is slowly coming out of his shell after his wife was left up-time and is as much as dead to him as if she had been shot.

In "The Monster Among Us" Eric S. Brown gives us LARPing, 1632 style!

"The Doom of Sallee" gives us a look into another society than Western European—the Sallee Rovers and their corsair republic founded by Muslims expelled from Spain. Andy Rogers tells the tale of a young woman on a mission and the Moroccan chieftain who gets in her way. Once again, this is a story where up-time history books play an enormous role.

In the "The Ice Queen" a few well-spoken words change the future of two people—and those words are in Klingon.

"Penitence and Redemption" has a young English man running up against Grantville’s 20th-century justice, and learning and growing as a person because of it.

We also feature "Sexuality in the Seventeenth Century," by Virgina DeMarce, whose personal motto is "Time Passed in the Past." Kristine Katherine Rusch provides the wisdom of early adopters in her column, "Notes from the Buffer Zone: Adopting."

In the Time Spike Universe (another Ring of Fire split off from our own universe) Garrett Vance gives us "First Cavalry of the Cretaceous, Part One: A Conspiracy of Ravens" which is just as weird a scene as you can imagine from the title. Spaniards, cowboys and Indians, oh, my!

Finally, in the Universe Annex, we have a fine science fiction story, "The Flood" by Jose Iriarte.

Welcome to the world of 1632!

In "Ultimate Airport Magdeburg: Blacktop" Kerryn Offord shows us what happens when a couple of cut-ups find themselves in the middle of an emergency. In "Engines of Change: Digging Deeper" Kevin and Karen Evans continue their stories about steam engines. "In That Place," by Tim Roesch, is a hard-edged story about what happens when Blaise Pascal’s father has finally had enough of the "Greatest Mathematician in the World" and gives him a dressing-down that he’s deserved ever since the young man arrived in Grantville. Eric S. Brown and Robert E. Waters show us what happens when LARPers don’t think things through in "The Wampus of Grantville." And don’t worry, the dog doesn’t die.

Tim Sayeau shows his versatility as a writer with two stories this month. In the first, "The Bad Seed," he poignantly shows the dangers of knowing the future as a father and mother come to terms with the fact that in the Original Time Line, their three-year-old daughter became an adulteress and a murderer. In Sayeau’s second story, "You’ve Got to Be Kidding!" he shows us what really happens backstage when Gustav II Adolf names Thorsten Engler the "Count of Narnia." We continue mining the humorous vein with Jackie Britton Lopatin’s "The Invisible Dogs of Grantville" which starts out innocently enough as a young man finds a gag stiff leash with collar attached.

Our serial "Ein Feste Burg" continues, as Rainer Prem details what happens when a family squabble leads to attempted murder. In her essay this month, Kristine Katherine Rusch talks about the effect of Star Wars on herself and society. And in an excellent non-fiction piece, Sean Little discusses the effect of a single set of books from the future on the design and construction of warships in the 1632 Universe. Finally, but certainly not least, we present a look into the process of building a novel as Charles E. Gannon shows us some "Faces from the Cutting Room Floor" that didn’t make it into his collaboration with Eric Flint, 1635: The Papal Stakes.

In "Matters of State: The Escape" Mitchell Townshend shows what happens when amateurs try to capture a professional espionage agent, who is bent on escaping the tyranny that England has become.

Bjorn Hasseler’s "Reed and Kathy Sue" is a love story told in letters between Reed, at the front lines, and Kathy Sue, at home with the kids and all the daily strife. Their letters are enlivened by their unapologetic and truly living faith in God.

"The Night Soil King" by Joy Ward and Walt Boyes tells the story of a survivor of the Great Drowning of Men, and his forbidden love affair with a burgher’s daughter—and what that love will make them do. Civil Engineering and revolution await.

Rainer Prem continues his serial, "Ein Feste Burg" with its 23rd episode. Moritz von Hessen saves the day for his aunt Amelie.

In nonfiction, we have part two of Charles E. Gannon’s outtakes "From the Cutting Room Floor." This is an extremely interesting look at what doesn’t make it into a novel, that novelists don’t usually show.

Iver Cooper gives us a look at "Life at Sea," which may be different than what you think it was like. This is part one of a multi-part series.

Kristine Katherine Rusch gives us her column, "Notes from the Buffer Zone." This issue, she reminisces about the future, from the vantage point of a USB stick shaped like Snoopy Beagle.

And in the Universe Annex, we give you "A Green Tongue," by Frank Dutkiewicz, in which a diplomat must find a way to communicate with a vegetable.