Chad sat on the front porch swing staring blankly ahead. He held a tumbler of Kentucky's smoothest bourbon and water. It was like a cruel joke. I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, those thirty-five new cars you have on your lot? You won't have to pay for them. [...]

"Just sign right there." The blond man, Contz Beckenbauer, indicated the space for her signature and handed her the pen. "Right there, as I said. Then we'll talk about what you will sing for the record." Els hesitated a moment. She was just about to move to dip the pen when Herr Beckenbauer said, "The [...]

  Early October 1634, Naples The ash dust flew up when Vince fell flat on his face. They had just left the main entrance to the mission's rented villa and Vince had tripped in a hole he hadn't been able to see. Tim laughed. “What kind of impression are you going to give the Italians, [...]

May, 1631 The old Buick slowly made its way through the dark countryside, headed away from the high school. The couple inside was elderly, cautious, and tentative on the road. It had been daylight when the meeting at the high school started, now it was well after eleven PM. John's eyes were not what they [...]

Summer 1634, Grantville, State of Thuringia-Franconia “That was the year I broke my nose at the demolition derby.” Tina Marie Hollister pointed to the knot. She'd never bothered to have it repaired. Never had the money, to tell the truth. Probably wouldn't have bothered even if she'd been rich. Kitty Chaffin looked across the desk. [...]

November, 1633, Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving “It was well done of you, Henry. It really was.” Enoch Wiley looked rather doubtfully at a pile of yellowish mush on the cracker in his hand. “What is this stuff?” “Cora makes it out of mashed chickpeas. Some kind of a substitute for chip dip. Not bad—there's onion [...]

Ken looked up when the door opened. When he saw the men who were entering, he moved down to the cash register. Once there, he put his hand on the sawed-off shotgun that hung in a rack on the underside of the bar. "Julio," he called. "Yeah?" Julio Mora replied. "Nine one one, now!" "On [...]

In like manner the lightning when it breaketh forth is easy to be seen; and after the same manner the wind bloweth in every country. (Deuterocanonical Apocrypha, The Epistle of Jeremiah:61) To: The Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Rome From: Adolph Wise S.J., University of Eichstaett. Enclosed with this letter you will find [...]

Julio sat with Odetta and Fenton. The Club was empty. None of the regulars were in and, as usual, Fenton was opening. It was early yet—just past two in the afternoon—and the three had nothing to do. Julio Sanabria looked at his two co-workers. “For two bits, I'd get rid of everything and move away [...]

1633, Jena, Dr. Gribbleflotz's office Dr. Phillip Theophrastus Gribbleflotz took another look at the bill. He was spending that much on candles? Surely not. "Frau Mittelhausen. This bill for candles. Who has been using wax candles so wastefully?" Frau Mittelhausen sighed heavily before looking Dr. Gribbleflotz straight in the eye. "You have been, Herr Doctor. [...]

Chapter One By early morning they had passed beyond the siege lines and lay hidden in a copse of woods four miles from the Magdeburg gates. “We will travel only at night for the first few days,” Henri said, “and hide during the day. Best not to tempt fate.” That afternoon, after sleeping most of [...]

Jena, 1633 The new chemical "battery" was most interesting. Just by adding two electrodes of different metal into a glass container of weak oil of vitriol one could generate enough of the new electricity to light the small light bulb. Dr. Phillip Theophrastus Gribbleflotz returned his attention to the up-time science book. The large printing [...]

Part 1. Preparing pre-recorded material for distribution Sound, no matter how complex, is just waves like the ripples in a pond. It can be considered as the displacement of molecules from their place of rest. A more technical definition would be: Sound is a series of compression and rarefaction waves in a substance, solid, liquid [...]

Note: This essay describes the result of one individual's research into the possible routes and expansion of railroad in Germany after the Ring of Fire. This plan should be regarded as a proposal, and not as an edict. Canon in the 1632 series is established by stories. As you write your stories, you may choose [...]

This article is to run in conjunction with Chris Penycate's discussion of the material technology required to produce down-time records and record players. In addition to Chris' hardware, this article discusses the software of the media industry down-time, the challenges and the requirements to create a “mass media” in early modern Europe. In the days, [...]

Railroading in 1632 Canon The principal focus of this article will be on how the USE will design its first locomotives, but first I will explain what Canon (the entire set of 1632 series novels and anthologies) tells us about railroading after the Ring of Fire (RoF). Mike decides that Grantville's best survival strategy is [...]