by Jeff | Jun 8, 2021 | Interviews https://youtu.be/stKjEC1CZ2k JMW: Hello, this is Jean Marie Ward for BuzzyMag.com. With me today is Eric Flint, the New York Times bestselling author of over 50 novels and the creator of the ever expanding 1632 Universe. Welcome, Eric. When you sat down to write the proposal for 1632, what made you think it would be a good idea to transplant West Virginia miners into the Germany of the Thirty Years War? Eric Flint: Well, what I wanted to use the novel for…novels should work on several levels. One of them is just entertainment. And I write action-adventure novels. So I wanted something in a setting that would allow me to do that which the Thirty Years War was certainly good for. Thirty Years War was kind of sheer chaos that was probably, most historians would agree, the most destructive war Europe ever went through, worse than any of the two world wars, especially in terms of its impact on Central Europe, which is centered on Germany but involves other countries around what’s today the Czech Republic, other parts. At the time, that was really the center of Europe. And that was true politically, as well as culturally. Through a mysterious ancient alien civilization the residents of Grantville, West Virginia are thrown back in time to 1631 Germany in the middle of the 30 Years War. On top of coping with the shock of being displaced in time and location, the people of Grantville must overcome the surrounding raging war, language barriers, and numerous social and political issues, including class conflict, witchcraft, feminism, the reformation and the counter-reformation, among many other factors. The image people have of Germany is a Germany that was created out of the Thirty Years War and the outcome of it. But the Germany prior to the early years of the Thirty Years War is a very, very different place. It was very dynamic. It was quite…