Getting Started Writing Bjorn Hasseler, Editor-in-Chief: Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond Magazine I don’t remember where the idea for Neustatter’s European Security Service came from. I remember going to the library—the New Carrollton branch of the Prince Georges County, Maryland library system—looking for Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars trilogy. I read the first two, but The Last Command was never on the shelf. A couple shelves up or down, though, was a set of eight matching books that were clearly a science fiction series. About the third time the Zahn book wasn’t there, I grabbed David Weber’s first Honor Harrington book, On Basilisk Station. Then I came back got the next two, and the next two, until I’d read up to Echoes of Honor, which was the most recent one on the shelf. (Ashes of Victory wasn’t staying on the shelf any more than The Last Command was.) And then I was out of things to read again. I walked down the aisle, and I saw this book whose cover has three guys in a pickup facing off against a couple guys in armor. It had the same rocket ship publisher logo the Honor Harrington books had. I figured it would be a fun read. 1632 turned out to be awesome. This was sometime between when 1632 was published (February, 2000) and when I moved (December, 2003). At that time, lots of people had websites dedicated to their favorite series, organized into “webrings.” They drove traffic to each other. At some point (it took a while), I found Baen’s Bar. 1632 had three chat boards: Slush, Slush Comments, and Tech. They weren’t just talking about the book; they were working on actual stories in the 1632 universe—that were going to count. And anybody could play. I think by then 1633 had come out, and if Ring of Fire wasn’t out yet, it was certainly a done…
Bjorn Hasseler
Bjorn Hasseller, Editor-in-Chief: Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond magazine Eric Flint studied African history; worked as a machinist; drove trucks; wrote, edited, and published books and short stories; and was a union organizer. He was married to Lucille Robbins and had a daughter, a son-in-law, and two grandchildren. He once posted a picture of himself wearing a shirt that said “Grumpa.” I think Eric liked to come across as grouchy. You could quickly see how much time he spent helping others out, though. That might be when he was risking his personal safety helping the unions or something as simple as taking a couple hours to make sure you understood where he wanted to go when he offered you a co-writing opportunity. Eric’s first novel was published when he was fifty years old. I count at least 69 novels as well as numerous anthologies, collections, novellas, and short stories. He wrote in several genres but was probably best known for alternate history. He didn’t just write; he worked with others, especially helping new authors get started. Between the 1632 series and The Grantville Gazette, he helped over 200 authors be published. For about three-quarters of us, it was our first professional sale. That’s aside from everything he did at Writers of the Future and the Superstars Writing Seminars. As he often pointed out himself, the 1632 universe was less than half of Eric’s writing. Of his many alternate history, science fiction, and fantasy universes, it’s the one he opened to anyone who wanted to write in it. Sometimes he’d look bemused at the directions people took with it, but he’d let them do it, as long as it wasn’t interfering with his own plans. We are excited to help carry that legacy forward. * * *
Bjorn Hasseller, Editor-in-Chief: Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond magazine Jose Clavell served in the US Army, was a nurse at Walter Reed, and served in the Puerto Rico Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. He passed away in March, 2023. In the 1632 universe, Jose developed the USE Marine Corps and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. These are moving stories, and they’re influential on other authors. We’d like to keep Jose in the series. FROM: CPT. L. KLINGL, USEN TO: CDRE E. CANTRELL, USEN —MESSAGE BEGINS— RE: RETURN VOYAGE FOLLOWING OPERATION “ISLAND HOPPERS” AND HURRICANE, CAPTURED PIRATE SHIPS LOW ON FRESH WATER. TWO VESSELS DIVERTED TO PUERTO RICO AND HOVE TO OFF LOCATION LABELED MAYAGUEZ ON UP-TIME MAP. REFILLED WATER. NO ENEMY CONTACT. STOP COMMEND USEMC SGT. J. CLAVELL FOR INITIATIVE LOCATING FRESH WATER AND ESTABLISHING CACHES AND DEFENSIVE POSITIONS FOR FUTURE OPERATIONS. STOP HOWEVER SGT. CLAVELL LEFT USE FLAG. CLAIMS WE OWN ISLAND. STOP —MESSAGE ENDS— “I dunno, Clavell.” Hans Ludolf squinted. His nose was scrunched up, and his lips pursed, all signs that the Marine was very skeptical about something. “I think the captain is pissed.” “Hard to tell, from how he was trying not to laugh the whole time,” Clavell countered. “What if the Spanish find that flag? They will search the area. They might find the caches and fighting positions.” “Then they will think there are patrols on the island and waste a lot of time and many more resources than we left in the caches,” Clavell returned. “And if one of our ships passes between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola and needs food and water . . . It is what the up-timers call a win-win. And who knows? We could find ourselves back there someday.”
Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond Short fiction is back in the 1632 Universe! Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond will publish six issues per year, on the first day of odd-numbered months. Is this from Ring of Fire Press or 1632 Inc.? It’s from a new company, Flint’s Shards Inc. Do you have permission? Yes, we have a contract with Lucille Robbins, Eric Flint’s widow and heir. We will also coordinate closely with Baen Books to maintain the canon continuity for which the 1632 series is known. I missed some Grantville Gazettes. Can I get those? Yes. Grantville Gazette issues are available here individually and in groups of six. What about Gazette issues I paid for but didn’t download? While we are making the back issues of the Grantville Gazette available for sale, we have an obligation to pay the owner of those issues for every issue sold. We do not have permission to give them away for free. I had three issues left on my Grantville Gazette subscription. 1632, Inc. (the company that sold those subscriptions) is no longer in business. Is this going to be just like the Grantville Gazette? Not exactly, but close. We will publish primarily 1632 stories with some stories in the other Assiti Shards universes (Time Spike and Alexander Inheritance). What about 1632 serials? Yes, with caveats: The editors may decide to split a story up into multiple parts. The editors need to see the full serial. Our upper limit is going to be 17,500 words total. That is a hard limit. We can publish novelettes, but not novellas. The same group of characters can go on to have another self-contained adventure. We are strongly in favor of this. But we’re not publishing novels with the serial numbers filed off, either. (Pun fully intended.) What about the other Assiti Shards? Yes, Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond will publish stories in the Time Spike and Alexander…
by Walt Boyes It is my unwelcome duty to tell you that we have lost another member of the 1632 family. This time, it was Head Geek Rick Boatright. Rick passed away on July 22 from pancreatic cancer. He was 66 years old. Rick was a polymath. He knew something about nearly everything and his ability to research little squirrelly facts was astonishing. He and I came up with the Aqualator at a con, and he wrote it into the series. He was the lead presenter, along with Kevin Evans and me, doing Weird Tech at Minicons. (The fact that we lost both Rick and Kevin within eight months, leaving me the Last Amigo, worries me.) He said he wasn’t really a writer, but he had a respectable body of work, and his latest novel (with Kerryn Offord) was published in August. But above all, Rick was a teacher. He gave up teaching because he wasn’t politically correct enough for the Topeka Board of Education, but never stopped being a teacher. He taught everyone he met. The world is much poorer without him in it.
I want to take the time to remember two of the Gazette’s favorite authors. In December, right before Christmas, Kevin Evans passed away suddenly. Then, shortly after that, his wife and writing partner, Karen Carnahan Evans, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, and she passed away in April. We have lost two of the finest authors in the Gazette, but more than that, we have lost two very good friends. Kevin and Karen lived outside Albuquerque, NM, and they participated in the Balloon Festival every year. This gave them a unique skill set for when the 1632verse decided that balloons and dirigibles were the way to go for flight. Kevin was a steam-head and spent many years working on getting a vintage steam locomotive ready to run again. He was a fantastic artificer, and over time, became the 1632verse’s Master Armorer. He created the designs for the rifles and shotguns used by up-timers and down-timers in the stories. He got pushback over the designs, so he built working models and brought them to Ring Of Fire Cons to show them at the Weird Tech panel, which Rick Boatright, myself, and Kevin presided over for years. He proved that you could power a dirigible with a steam engine. He and Rick made the smallest functioning steam engine I’ve ever seen to prove it. Karen was a great writer, and a gastronome. She delighted the 1632verse with bringing modern chocolate back to the seventeenth century. Not only did she produce recipes, but at RingofFireCons, she brought samples of real Grantville chocolate.” Kevin and Karen were members of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), Kevin was knighted as Sir Thorgeirr and Karen served as his squire and shieldmaiden, Lady Tyrca. They were great people, a wonderful couple, actually bigger than life, and the world is significantly smaller and darker with them gone. I am going to miss them dreadfully, and I…