Science fiction & fantasy has conventions where fans gather to meet their favorite authors. 1632 minicons began with Eric Flint guiding other writers around Mannington, West Virginia, the model for Grantville. After a few years, the 1632 minicon became a track within another convention, moving from convention to convention to provide opportunities to fans in different geographic areas. Please follow either this link or the QR code and answer these questions to help us plan. We want to bring 1632 to you. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeSlSG8gaq2w_U4_jkPaNf9J84_9BBICYg5_GJ8SCBh-woong/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=113551832623582709704 Thank you so much for your participtation! Here are some examples of the questions: Would you attend a science fiction/fantasy convention with a 1632 track (“minicon”)? How far are you willing to travel for this? How important is easy site access via plane, train, or bus? May we have your ZIP code for convention planning purposes? Which 1632 Baen plotlines or threads would you like to see more of? From which 1632 Baen authors would you like to read more books? Which 1632 & Beyond plotlines or threads would you like to see more of? From which 1632 & Beyond authors would you like to read more books?
Bethanne Kim
Bethanne Kim, Publisher: Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond magazine Book clubs are fantastic! We would love to hear about any book clubs reading and discussing 1632 and any books or magazines in the 1632verse. To answer one common question: The book was originally expected to be a stand-alone book, not a series. Jim Baen, of Baen Books, said that books with even numbers sell better than ones with odd numbers. Thus, it was named for the year the story ends instead of the year it starts. And so that is why all the names for “mainline” Baen books in the 1632verse start with the year the book ends and not the year it starts. General Questions: How realistic do you think 1632 is? What elements make it more, or less , realistic? Is there anything you would change to make it more realistic? Do you think Grantville and the up-timers are a good reflection of a real small town in West Virginia in 2000? 1632 was published in 2000. Over 50 novels, 104 magazine issues, and multiple anthologies in the 1632verse have been written by approximately 200 authors in nearly 25 years. When it was first written, everything was contemporary. Twenty-five years later, technology, pop culture, and a lot of other background things have changed. What challenges do you think this presents to the writers? How do you think readers will respond to this story when the series is 50 years old? How do you think Eric Flint’s life and beliefs are reflected in this novel? What do books and libraries contribute to the plot and to the 1632verse? How much power do Grantville and its residents have to change their world? How do the up-timers comfort themselves when they are sent back in time? How do the down-timers comfort themselves with all the war-related trauma in their lives? How do you think you would cope if you were in…
We are thrilled to announce that we are having the first 1632Con since 2021 in less than three months as part of FantaSci in Raleigh-Durham, NC! We hope you are as excited about this as we are! As of late January, the hotel block still has rooms and there are still tickets available. Please join us! We would love to meet you in person. Eric Flint was scheduled to attend two cons in the winter of 2022 (listed below), but he became too ill and didn’t make either one. How perfect, then that the first 1632Con after his passing is at FantaSci 2024! SUPERSTARS WRITING CONFERENCE 2022February 9-12, 2022, Colorado Springs, Colorado FANTASCI 2022March 25-27, 2022, Durham, North Carolina (And yes, we will try to give more notice in future years.)
Bethanne Kim, Publisher Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond magazine aka: Mannington in 1630s Germany (alternate history series) What does that mean? In 2000, Baen Published Eric Flint’s alternate history novel 1632. Eric lived in Granville, West Virginia when he was working for the unions in the 60s and loved it, so he wanted to show small-town West Virginians making the world better. By 2000, Granville had changed (lots of big box stores), so he looked for a small town closer to his memories and chose Mannington, renamed Grantville in the novel, as his model. In 1632, Grantville is sent back from April 2000 to May 1631 and lands in Thuringia, Germany during the Thirty Years War. They quickly realize they need to make the tools to make the tools to make the things we take for granted in the 21st century, such as light bulbs and toilet paper. Some things, like drugs including penicillin, are simply too far beyond their resources, including their knowledge. For those living in the 17th century, even simple (to us) things like basic sanitation have profound impacts. Grantville is very much a boomtown. Is Grantville identical to Mannington? No, but you have to look close to find differences (other than names). The biggest is that Grantville has a power plant but no oil. Buildings that are demolished in the real world still exist in the 1632verse, particularly near the interchange of Water and Market Streets. The more time passes, the more the two diverge, of course. The massive size of the universe requires extensive coordination. Keeping buildings and geography fairly tightly tied to Mannington makes this easier. For characters, we have something called “the Grid” that lists everyone who came back through the Ring of Fire (the up-timers). Down-timers are people who were already there when Grantville arrived in 1632 or who were born after that. The jobs, birth dates, death dates, family trees, education,…
Bethanne Kim, Publisher: Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond magazine As a small town, up-time Grantville didn’t have a lot of claims to fame. Down-time? It’s the most famous place on the planet, reputed to be a magical place filled wealth and wonders untold. It’s a bustling city whose size is primarily constrained by the local geography. This local geography is one constraint that ensures it will remain smaller than many other cities for the foreseeable future, and that real estate will remain quite valuable. Up-time, the round “Red Barn” run by the historical society and the County Fair were probably the two biggest attractions. They also had Oktoberfest (relatively new in 2000) and the Great Buffalo Canoe Race. Interestingly, down-time Germany did not have Oktoberfest, which didn’t start until the nineteenth century. They did, however, have tons of local fairs, festivals, and other events, both secular and religious in nature, which are not included in this list. Attractions and Annual Events: Breitenfeld Day (September) This is a new down-time holiday to celebrate the victory at Breitenfeld. Canoe Race (May) The Great Buffalo Canoe Race was normally scheduled in May (up-time), but the exact date was based on water flow rates and other weather-related factors. It may need to be scheduled down-time. It also may need to be moved since Fairmont is gone and the new down-stream route may not work for a canoe/kayak race. Description: A canoe race on the Buffalo Creek between Mannington and Fairmont, WV. Saturday, May 6th, 2000. Rain date is May 13th, 2000. Sponsored by The West Virginia Police Reserves. Registration begins at 8:00am at the Hough (pronounced “Huff”) Park Community Building in Hough Park, Mannington. The race starts at 10:00am. Racers may drop over the falls at their own risk, but it is not recommended. The DNR and West Virginia Police Reserves are not responsible for any injuries or accidents. On Sunday, May 7th at 2:00pm there will…
If you’ve ever built a WordPress site, you’ll have seen that new sites are set up so the first post is “Hello world!” Sitting here, about to delete this post, I decided what the heck – I’ll go with it! Welcome to Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond. This is our first post. Read it or skip it, then start reading! You may notice that while this is “our first post,” there are dozens and dozens of older posts. The explanation for that is simple: Those are blog posts, magazine forewords, and other things written primarily by Eric Flint himself but also by other people working for and with him. In fact, one of the two sticky posts at the top of this blog is something Eric wrote in 2005! Hopefully you enjoy reading them! Even if you don’t read any of the rest, please read the one pinned to the top of the blog. It’s Eric’s view on what the 1632verse magazine was all about, and it’s worth the short time it takes to read. All joking aside, we are very proud to be sharing this all new venture. We announced the existence of a new short-story venue for Eric Flint’s 1632 Universe, the magazine “Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond”, at LibertyCon on June 23, 2023. The first issue will be published on 1 August, 2023, with new issues every two months after that. So, look for new issues on the 1st of every odd numbered month! To be assured of not missing a month, please click here to subscribe now. Updated January 26, 2024
Griffin Barber, 1632 writer Friends, We have been talking about how we need to act on the 1632 forums of Baen’s Bar for years. You can’t have a working idea factory if the first answer is always “No!”. Griffin Barber has written a very important piece that we would really like everybody involved with the 1632 Universe to read, and think about. And maybe agree with. Walt BoyesBjorn Hasseler I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Like, ALWAYS. Funny, that, who would think a dyslexic kid with ADD would have any success at all in sitting down to write a story, let alone several lengthy novels and a bunch of short stories? Funnier still, for that same dyslexic1 kid with ADD to grow up and eventually become assistant publisher at a small press like Ring Of Fire Press.2 All I can say is that a red-hot desire to succeed can overcome a great many roadblocks, especially if that desire finds a community that shares not only that desire to succeed, but actively encourages it. I found such a community early on, in the electronic halls of Baen’s Bar, the forum created and hosted by Baen Books. I haunted those halls for a while, posting an occasional opinion or even a snippet of some story I was tinkering with for others to look at. I didn’t get much feedback, but what I did get was both commensurate with my (small) contributions and helpful in a general sense, allowing me to think I might have some chance at writing stories someone might read. I went with that small encouragement and wrote my first novel. (No one will ever see it.) I then set out to try and sell it to a publisher. I started attending conventions and meeting people. Good people. Fun people. Some were even famous, and not just ‘in-genre famous,’ either. I had various advice from those who were kind enough to dispense it.…
(aka the Ring of Fire series)by Eric Flint Whenever someone asks me “what’s the right 1632 series reading order?”, I’m always tempted to respond: “I have no idea. What’s the right order for studying the Thirty Years War? If you find it, apply that same method to the 1632 series.” However, that would be a bit churlish—and when it comes down to it, authors depend upon the goodwill of their readers. So, as best I can, here goes. The first book in the series, obviously, is 1632. That is the foundation novel for the entire series and the only one whose place in the sequence is definitely fixed. The digital eBook edition of 1632 is available as a free download at Baen.com. Click here to get your free copy! Thereafter, you should read either the anthology titled Ring of Fire or the novel 1633, which I co-authored with David Weber. It really doesn’t matter that much which of these two volumes you read first, so long as you read them both before proceeding onward. That said, if I’m pinned against the wall and threatened with bodily harm, I’d recommend that you read Ring of Fire before you read 1633. That’s because 1633 has a sequel which is so closely tied to it that the two volumes almost constitute one single huge novel. So, I suppose you’d do well to read them back to back. That sequel is 1634: The Baltic War, which I also co-authored with David Weber. Once you’ve read those four books—to recapitulate, the three novels (1632, 1633 and 1634: The Baltic War) and the Ring of Fire anthology—you can now choose one of two major alternatives for the 1632 series reading order. The first way, which I’ll call “spinal,” is to begin by reading all of the novels in what I will call the main line of the series. As of now, the main line consists of these seven novels: 16321633 (with David Weber)1634: The Baltic War (with David Weber)1635: The Eastern Front1636: The Saxon…