Copenhagen September, 1636   Today was the day when Birgeta Troelsen would go to the palace. She had finished the first stage of a doublet for King Cristian IV of Denmark. It would be the first time she would be in the presence of royalty. Birgeta was thrilled. She was also scared out of her [...]

Near Trollhättan on the Göta River, Sweden 8:07 PM, May 15, 1635    "Fire in the hole!" The foreman for the demolitions team lit the safety fuse and began running to the trenches. Olof Hansson Svart gave a rueful chuckle as he watched the large clanging man trot toward him. Typical bureaucratic logic. They bought [...]

Chapter 3: Abbeville   Nicholas resisted the urge to stop and take a second look at the face that he had caught out of the corner of his eye. He didn't quite need the look to confirm that the face he had seen was Phillippe, the man he had chatted with in Le Havre. What [...]

Wettin Household, Jena August, 1634   Linda sat in the study she shared with her second husband, Peter Wettin, not one of those Wettins but a distant relation, at the secretary desk she had picked up at a Grantville yard sale. Then she heard a tentative knock at the door. With a great feeling of [...]

In the 1632 universe, helium is mentioned repeatedly as an alternative to hydrogen as a lift gas for airships. While providing slightly (7%) less lift, it has the advantages of being non-flammable and having about half the permeation rate of hydrogen (so it leaks out more slowly). However, this is actually a minor use of [...]

I have put off writing this essay to the very last minute. Not because I don’t want to talk about Mike Resnick, and not because I have too little to say. I have put it off, because each time I write one of these memorials to Mike, his death becomes a little more real. I’ve [...]

Just out from Ring of Fire Press:   Magdeburg Noir (1632), David Carrico The Thief of Cragsport, Robert Waters A Holmes for the Czar (1632), Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett The Rat Rebellion, Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett – paperback release March 1   Coming Soon:   A Song of Passing, David Carrico – paperback [...]

Happy 2020! We hope you’re enjoying Grantville Gazette 87. It’s also time to look back at Volumes 81-86 and make your nominations for Best of 2019. Please send your nomination to walt@waltboyes.com or bjorn@1632.org. Nominations are open until April 1. We will post the finalists in Grantville Gazette 89, coming out May 1, 2020. You’ll [...]

A mile a minute? Piffle. Even meat knows "mind going a mile a minute" is mere metaphor. (Repeat that quickly ten times. I dare you.) But my kind? For us, a light-second per minute would be nearer to apt, if sadly lacking in alliteration. And so, ordinarily, I have my metaphorical fingers in hundreds, even [...]

-1- Dietrich Freyhaph slammed his fist on his desk, causing the small bust of Andrew Jackson to fall over. The delicate glass decanter of ice water teetered precariously, and his wife’s cats scattered out the door and down the hall. “I will not accept defeat,” he roared. “Those Harper’s Landing bitches! That Charity woman. She’ll [...]