Spring 1635, Chateau d’If   Roderik’s knees buckled. A strong push from behind hastened the fall. His face slid on the cell’s stone floor, dirt and grit scratching his cheek. “We’ll have no more trouble from you.” Eloy’s sunken cheeks tightened and he spat. The prison’s jailors reveled in cruelty. Roderik rolled over and rubbed [...]

January 15th, 1635, Grantville   A sharp slap to the face woke Samuel Franklin, who immediately scrambled for the weapons that were not to hand. He came to himself quickly and quieted down without getting very far. His new wife, of three days, wisely got on top of him to hold him down before slapping [...]

As Les Blocker walked through his veterinary clinic's waiting room he noticed a little girl, Raven Lobkowitz, slumping in her chair in the corner. He saw tears in the girl's eyes, which were focused on something in the distance. He went over to Tracy Lobkowitz, the girl's mother, who was at the checkout counter. "Is [...]

November 1635, Tetschen, near the border between Saxony and Bohemia   John “Puss” Trelli knew someone somewhere had it in for him. Here he was, a poor sergeant in the army with a wife and a baby on the way. And what did the powers that be do? They assigned him to watch while they [...]

January, 1634   Darlene was there to meet Johan when the train pulled in. The weary travelers debarked, and David waved Johan toward Darlene and went to meet the rest of the group that had gathered to welcome them home. And there was Johan, coming toward her and slowing as he came. Darlene started to [...]

Chapter 10: Season's opening We, Johann Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach and Jülich-Kleve-Berg, Hereditary Governor of West Thuringia County, SoTF, USE, want to make known that the first official presentation of the Wartburg reconstruction project will be held in the opening meeting of this year's Spring Session of the Parliament of the County. If weather allows, [...]

            In part 1, I provided an overview of warships and their guns, and in part 2, I discussed how those guns were mounted, laid, sighted and fired, and what happens inside the bore. Here, I talk about what range and accuracy can be expected with seventeenth-century guns, and what the old time line teaches [...]

I used to make faces at people like me. People who would say about a story and/or a TV show and/or a game, movie, comic book—we used to call that [x] and it was sooooo much better in those days. Then I found myself at one of the Oregon Coast Writing Workshops in which everyone [...]

One of my favorite cities is New Orleans, LA, so I was pretty happy when Eric told the Edboard that was where we’re doing our annual mini-con. Doubletree Hotel, New Orleans Airport, 2150 Veterans Memorial Boulevard, Kenner, LA, October 18 – 20, 2013. Come see us, y’all. Panels this year are going to be Weird [...]

Part One of Two: Pyramids in the Corn             If Nate closed his eyes, he could almost imagine he was back home in Texas, sitting under the shady willows at his family's ranch on a summer evening, the smoke from the barbecue heralding the pleasures of the meal to come. Unfortunately, he couldn't close [...]