The Grantville Gazettes
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The Grantville Gazettes describes all the Grantville Gazettes in all published forms.
 'The Grantville Gazette' cover as original experimental paperback
Cover art by Thomas Kidd. |
 <b>'The Grantville Gazette' cover as original experimental eMagazineCover art by Thomas Kidd. |
The Grantville Gazettes are a set of collaborative writing works that started as an experimental sub-set within the 1632 universe created by Eric Flint in the trend setting book 1632. It is particularly notable in that is composed of short fiction which has spawned no less than three best sellers in an age when the market for short fiction (anthologies) of kinds is very poor. In addition, the Grantville Gazettes have served as the feedstock of new ideas and relationships which energize the popular series and find their way into the better know longer works of the series.
The Gazettes are initially published as e-books which are part of and canonical background for the other literatures (novels and anthologies) in the rapidly growing ongoing alternative-history series edited by Eric Flint and set in his ground-breaking 1632 Multiverse starting from May in the year 1631. Beginning in early 2007, the Gazette's publishers added an on-line web based edition published quarterly and moved the paper series to an annual "best of" volume. Additionally the publishers moved to paying full professional rates instead of the semi-pro rates that had been paid. After one year, the Gazette expects to be an SFWA qualifying market.
[edit] The Anthology Authors Process
The various other author's featured in the Gazettes are part of Flints online experiment (Phase II) in developing a milieu in conjunction with many others on the webforum Baen's Bar, specifically the 1632 Tech Manual (oldstyle: '1632 Tech') sub-section of the Bar, and 1632 Slushpile. These authors first submit to a tough peer review process which is the provence and venue of the 1632 Slushpile sub-forum. Once critical reader have deemed the nascent story worthy, the work passes to an editorial board, which also consider how the work will fit into and impact on the milieu as currently planned out and plotted. Some stories have thus served as the genesis of their own 1632 universe sub-series or plot thread. This is chaired by Eric Flint, who retains veto power over all work in the 1632 verse, and Eric then decides in which issue or volume of the Gazette the story should be allocated. Authors get paid a sub-professional rate upon the acceptance of the work, and additional financial remuneration and considerations when the anthology reaches print at a later time.
The Gazettes thus contain short stories based in the world of Flint's 1632 series, and articles about the restrictions on technology available in the time stranded town and the plausibility of items and redeveloped technology within the milieu of the 1632 multiverse; these essays are written by a member of on findings and the results of a more formal subset of contributor-advisors known as the 1632 Technical board. Part of this group also sits on the 1632 Editorial Board
The first gazette was envisioned as an eMagazine experiment funded by Baen Books to be originally published solely as a monthly electronic serialized-book from Baen Books. The experimental joint venture between author-editor Flint and publisher Jim Baen was so successful that the eMagazine has become a sustained self-funding operation of its own, now with Grantville Gazette XI in pre-production and Grantville Gazette X released in December 2006 as a serialized eMagazine. Of particular note, the first and second gazette volumes have followed their publication as an ebook in print. The third is scheduled for publication as an hardcover book in January 2007
[edit] Importance of the Gazettes
The impact of individual stories in the Grantville Gazettes will likely never be truly known, because even the bad one's have shaped the action, commentary, and thought on the web-forums 1632 Tech and 1632 Comments, and even those that fail to meet the final test of espousing 'canon' developments in the neohistory, have influenced later written works, including those by Flint, who is the final determiner as the sole person involved in each work in the milieu of what is acceptable canon. Considered one way, each story written has the ability of setting a new Point of divergence, and the overall story arch told in the various threads. Several fan written stories have suggested major plotlines, even before the concept of the Grantville Gazettes eMagazine reached nomination to Jim Baen, and it's acceptance as an experiment, and those stories were published along established writers in Ring of Fire, and as you will read below in the Flint's own words, other main thread works like 1634: The Ram Rebellion.
But other Gazette stories have filled in important gaps in terms of economics, sociology, and technology: "The Sewing Circle" and its sequel "Other People's Money" which deals with four precocious teen friends and their stubborn insistence on making adult contributions, which end up shaking up the European stock markets when they succeed, and not inconsequentially, setting an example that ripples through Grantville's other youth, who suddenly begin to turn up-timer knowledge of theory and technology into bankable assets. Sociologically, their success doomed tailoring guilds, and spawned down-timer publication of popular fiction, inculcating up-timer sociology et cetera via modern novels, especially perhaps, Romance novels. Apparently even downtimers like their soaps! "A Lineman for the Country" along with a couple of other short stories created the forthcoming important Eastern European thread, and so on.
On another level entirely, the gazette stories are just stories. Since they tend to focus on the ground-level interactions of their protagonists, and those characters tend to repeat, not only in subsequent stories by the same author, but in stories by other, Flint has characterized them in part as soap-operas, then says this about such soap operas in the prolouge to Grantville Gazette IV :
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| There are times I think of just throwing up my hands and publishing all of the stories in the Gazette as "continuing serials." And, in my darker moments, contemplate changing the title of the magazine to The 1632 Soap Opera. That's because, like a soap opera, the characters just seem to go on forever and ever in one episode after another. Unless one of them is actually Killed Off—and then, sometimes, you don't really know For Sure–they'll keep re-appearing. Often enough, in somebody else's episode.
On the other hand, I'm not a snob about soap operas. I used to be, until many years ago my wife's work schedule required me to tape her favorite soap opera so she could watch it when she got home. Initially, I did so holding my nose—and bound and determined to watch only the first few minutes to make sure it was taping properly. This was back in the early days of VHS when I didn't trust the technology involved. (And still don't, but I admit I'm something of a technophobe.)
Before a week had passed, I found myself watching the entire damn episode! Day after day! It was then that I first discovered just how addictive soap operas could be. I'm surprised some enterprising politician hasn't tried to include them in the ongoing and glorious War on Drugs. (Whose prospects, in my opinion, were best described in Eric Frank Russell's Wasp by a disgruntled shopkeeper commenting on the military success of the Sirian Empire: "For months we have been making triumphant retreats before a demoralized enemy who is advancing in utter disorder.")
In defense of the Gazette, I will say that the characters in this soap opera are wrestling with a far broader range of concerns than the usual fare of love pining from afar, emotional misunderstandings that somehow last for years when a simple five-minute conversation could settle it, and, of course, the inevitable jealousies and adulteries. Not that the magazine avoids those, either, of course. But the characters also wrestle with political issues, religious issues, worry about their livelihoods and scheme to make a fortune or at least a decent income.
In short, the Gazette is an ongoing chronicle of the way an alternate history would actually evolve, if you looked anywhere beyond the narrow circle of Ye Anointed Heroes and Heroines. The distinction between this and a soap opera—or The World's Great Literature, for that matter—is mainly in the eye of the beholder.
Yes, sorry, it is. It is widely known, of course, that only women watch soap operas, just as only women gossip. In my innocent youth, I believed these nostrums, until a quarter of a century working in transportation and factories proved to me how ridiculous they were. You can find no better example in the world of "gossip" than what machinists are doing standing around the tool crib or truck drivers are doing at lunch tables in a truck stop. Of course, if you ask them, they will insist they are engaged in the manly art of "shooting the breeze." Just as, if you ask the electricians and millwrights in the maintenance shop who are watching daytime television while waiting for something to break down that requires their expertise, they will insist they are not actually watching the soap operas showing on the set. No, no. They are merely interested in ogling Whazzername's figure.
If this state of affairs irritates you, I can only shrug my shoulders. Don't blame me, blame Homer. To this day, the Iliad stands as one of the world's all-time great soap operas. The much-hallowed "epic" as it exists today is simply a cleaned-up pile of gossip. What it really was, in its inception, were the stories with which bards entertained the courts of Mycenaean kinglets by chattering about which gods and goddesses lusted for which mortals, their mutual jealousies, and what they did to advance their. . . ah. . . "causes."
For that matter, blame the Old Testament. Sure, sure, a lot of it deals with Sublime Stuff like the creation of the universe, etc., etc. But there are whole swaths of the books in the Bible that look suspiciously like soap opera plots to me.
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[edit] Print publication
Starting in November 2004, the first Gazette was also released experimentally in a paper edition with issue I as a paperback. The second volume was released in hardcover in March 2006, this and subsequent titles use Roman Numerals for titles such as are listed below in the section List of Gazettes, as appear on the print publication covers.
In March of 2007, beginning with issue eleven, the gazette moved to add a web-based subscription edition and moved to paying full professional rates instead of the semi-pro rates that had been paid. After one year, the Gazette expects to be an SFWA qualifying market.
[edit] List of Gazettes
The Grantville Gazettes are all edited by Eric Flint who maintains editorial control over the canon for the series on the 1632.org website in conjunction with the 1632 Editorial Board, and the various 1632 Research Committees, all being regular participants to the Baen's Bar forum 1632 Tech (now named 1632 Tech Manual). Gazettes include fact articles (see the research committee) and stories which are initially vetted through a tough peer review on the forum 1632 slush (story material only, forum 1632 Comments for feedback.), typically requiring several rewrites then are subsequently nominated by the Editorial Board, whereupon Flint chooses the stories for inclusion in which volume.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
| Web page links: | | Comments and Content notes |
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| The official and official researching web sites, by Eric Flint's 1632.org, about 1632 universe run in conjunction with Eric Flint and the 1632 Research Committee, including the book series canonical references available for download and reference by any desiring to participate in the collaborative writing process in the series— to write a contribution to The Grantville Gazettes, these are necessarily must sites. Additional Tech articles are sometimes posted thereon before reaching any gazettes.
The 1632 Series Research Material includes a search engine, maps and so forth which enables checking a reference across all published 1632 works.
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| Home page of the "continuing adventure that is "The Grantville Gazettes", homepage. "Current issue" is considered an e-ARC version and will be copyrighted as an e-book dated two months after the e-ARC/e-zine volume date on the 1st day of odd numbered months.
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| Home page of the publisher of the canonical e-book's in the series, includes the ability to buy any of the fifteen individual Grantville Gazettes, or other seven and ignore the subscriptions at www.grantvillegazettel.com entirely.
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| List of Eric Flint Ring of Fire series books published by Baens Books. Click on titles to get sneak peeks.
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| List of Eric Flint Books published by Baens Books. Click on titles to get sneak peeks.
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| Baen's Bar is an official forum with several sections (sub-forums) dedicated to the 1632 universe: 1632 Tech Manual, and 1632 Slush (Slushpile in publishing: Stack of manuscripts for vetting) and Peer review Comments on the slushpile are posted in 1632 Comments.
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| 1632-verse creator, arbitor of canon Eric Flint's website, which has much about his work currently in progress or upcoming (in publication, in planning, under contract, in process) matters in the publication cycle.
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| 1632 universe dedicated German Wikiproject organized to cross reference and encyclopediatize matters and characters pertaining to the 1632-verse. Another must browse for would be contributors to The Grantville Gazettes and students of collabortative writing projects.
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| on the complicated topic of Money, purchasing power, currency, and exchange rates in the days of 1632
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| 1632verse Commonwealth of Two Nations Resource Page - a webpage about Polish-Lthuanian Commonwealth in the 1632 universe, but especially valuable for 1632 fans for it's many period maps and links to other resources.
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| Bibliographic data on all fiction in the overall series as listed by the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
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| Bibliographic data on all fiction in the Grantville Gazette sub-series as listed by the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
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