1632 series

The 1632 series, also known as the 1632-verse or Ring of Fire "series", is an alternate history book series, created, primarily co-written, and coordinated by historian Eric Flint. It is, excepting the lead novel and the serialized e-novel The Anaconda Project (2007), virtually all collaboratively written, including some "main works" with multiple co-authors (34TRR). However, Flint has mentioned contracts with the publisher for at least two additional solo novels he has in planning on [http://www.ericflint.net his website] . Flint, whose bibliography is dominated by collaborative work, claims that this approach encourages the cross-fertilization of ideas and styles, stimulating the creative process and preventing stale, formulaic works. [cite book |last= Flint|first= Eric|authorlink= |coauthors= |editor= Eric Flint|others= |title=Grantville Gazette II |origdate= |origyear= |origmonth= |url= |format=hardcover |accessdate= |accessyear= |accessmonth= |edition=1st, Hardcover |series= 1632|date= |year= 2006|month= March|publisher= Baen books|location= afterword|language=English |isbn= 978-0-4165-2051-1|oclc= |doi= |id= |pages=324 |chapter=forward and afterwords |chapterurl= |quote= pp316-317 beginning with "Which is the way I intended things, from the moment I decided to turn 1632 from a stand-alone novel it was originally written to be into a series." ... through "where revolutions have typically been depicted as the product of magical hand waving by a handful of big-shot heros. They decree, and therefore it is done." ] This series is the first example of and the inspiration for the Assiti Shards series.

The 1632 series began with Flint's stand alone novel "1632" (released as recently as February 2000) and now includes 1632 series publications count As needed historic research, a common timeline, and character information have been established (from 2000-2004, culminating with the release of "1633" and "Ring of Fire" sequels, but ongoing), additional titles are being added to the series at a rate of three to five per year, not counting The Grantville Gazettes — which hit stride and overcame growing pains in mid-2006 and now are produced bi-monthly in a volume varying 120,000-150,000 words (long novel length). There are currently 1632Count series total allworks works in the series, of which 1632Count GGs Current Count are the Grantville Gazettes' e-zines (e-books) leaving 1632Count series total inprint works in print (three of which are Gazettes). Flint and his collaborators are targeting publishing 2-4 titles per year, not counting the bi-monthly Gazettes. The printed matter published in the canonical Gazettes eclipsed the in print materials in the series during 2006.

eries overview

As stated in the first Grantville Gazette and on his site, Flint's novel "1632" was an experiment [cite book |last= Flint|first= Eric|authorlink= |coauthors= |editor= Eric Flint|others= |title=Grantville Gazette II |origdate= |origyear= |origmonth= |url= |format=hardcover |accessdate= |accessyear= |accessmonth= |edition=1st, Hardcover |series= 1632|date= |year= 2006|month= March|publisher= Baen books|location= afterword|language=English |isbn= 978-0-4165-2051-1|oclc= |doi= |id= |pages=324 |chapter= afterword |chapterurl= |quote= pp316: "...which has to do with the way I see this entire story in the first place—and did from the beginning. "1632" was written as much as an American novel as a science fiction or alternate history novel. More precisely, as a novel that fits within that loosely defined literary category known as Americana. In particular, it was written from a desire on my part to make a relatively ordinary small American town the collective protagonist of the story. And then, as the story unfolded, to keep the focus as uch as possible on what you might call the level of the common man and woman—understanding that, as the story unfolded, more and more seventeenth-century Europeans would become an integral part of that collective protagonist." (hyper links added herein) ] wherein he explores the effect of transporting a mass of people through time — in the case of this series, the small fictional town of Grantville, West Virginia from the United States in the year 2000 to central Germany in the year 1631 — caused by an Assiti Shard event, a sort of cosmic accident affecting the time-space continuum, a literary device he invented to explore time travel themes; with fully outlined plans to explore Roman History, England's History, and American Colonial era history in various other novels using the same device. (These projects he has deferred due to the demands for this series.)

1631-32 occurs in the midst of the Thirty Years' War (1618—1648). The plot situation allows pragmatic American union-oriented political thought to grind against the authoritarian religion-driven societies of an unconsolidated Germany barely out of the Middle Ages. Flint explores examples of suffering due to the petty politics of self-aggrandizement and self-interest on the one hand, and the irreconcilable differences of the schism in Christianity called the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation on the other. Despite the fact that the shift puts Grantville in May 1631 initially, because of the ongoing war and the primitive transportation networks of the day Grantville's arrival has something of a delayed impact, so the bulk of the book's action takes place in 1632, hence the name.

The series was initially continued with two collaborative works that were more or less written concurrently: "1633" (with best selling novelist David Weber to add star power and raise internet buzz) and an anthology called "Ring of Fire" (with other established science-fiction writers, including long "deep background" stories by both Weber and Flint); the eponymous title referring to the appearance of the cosmic event from both inside and outside of Grantville as it arrived in central Germany. The later book is also used in some contexts for the series name, "Ring of Fire series", as is "Assiti Shards series"

Overall, unlike many series, the narratives are not oriented on one group of protagonists with a strong lead character, but instead is carried by an ensemble cast — though most books or short stories, do have several strong characters who carry the action and plot forward. Flint had intended from the outset that the whole town would be the collective protagonist; a reflection of his philosophy that historic forces are not centered in the main on the actions of one or two key individuals, but on the many small independent actions of the many going about their daily lives and coping as best they can.

By late in "1632", the New United States-led coalition of the Confederated Principalities of Europe had become the arsenal and financier (through Jewish connections of real historical interest) for King Gustavus Adolphus who was concurrently turned upon by the scheming Cardinal Richelieu who'd been financing him to spite and weaken the Hapsburgs. Various books from uptime Grantville, especially history books, had found avid readers amongst Europe's ruling elites, changing the plans and strategies of major players of the time, especially Cardinal Richelieu, who maneuvered diplomatically to form a four way alliance, the League of Ostend, to oppose both the New United States and its military protection, Gustavus' expeditionary army and allied princes of the German states.

After the first book, the series begat multiple plot lines or story threads reflecting this independence of action by a multitude of characters. As the sequel "1633" began, the neo-history spread out geographically and led to groups of protagonists acting on behalf of their new nation all over Northern Europe. Next, the novel "", and the first of the anthologies called the "Grantville Gazettes" introduced new strong characters. The former begins what is called the South European thread, and some of the stories in the latter and Ring of Fire began the Eastern European thread (Austria-Hungary northwards to Poland).

Co-author of "1633", New York Times best-selling author David Weber is contracted for no less than five books in the series in what is called the "Central European" or "Main thread" of the series, but there was a lengthy delay before the two busy authors could synchronize schedules to write that next mainline sequel together, "", released in May 2007.

Without waiting for Weber, other sequels such as , , and the Grantville Gazettes continue in one thread or another with in-depth looks at societal ramifications from technology, religion, and social unrest as Europe deals with the outlandish ideas of Grantville's influential presence, to machinations of Europe's elites trying to maintain their hold on power, or leverage off of Grantville triggered events or knowledge for reasons of self-interest. Without mentioning developments in the Low Countries or British Isles (coverage begun in "1633") which have ramifications rippling even across the Atlantic to American shores, suffice it to say the tapestry of tangled events and possibilities for plot development will fill quite a few more novels and anthologies as things stand. There are at least four major works set in the year 1634 and with the first entry in place in early 1635, perhaps not even Flint can guess at the likely size and scope of this series if it keeps the current momentum.

Collective collaborative effort

Fans are encouraged to contribute to the series though an online message board known as Baen's Bar. The entire "Grantville Gazette" and large portions of the "Ring of Fire" anthology, both of which are considered canonical, are paid, fan-written (albeit edited by Flint) works, and have directly contributed material to the main novels. The author also worked with other established authors to develop new stories and plot lines for further novels which are also published in the two "Ring of Fire" anthologies.

"Ring of Fire" has several levels of meaning: First it is the eponymous reference to what the town-folk themselves (and the few outside German witnesses) have come to call the observed phenomenon of their time-space juxtaposition. Secondly, it is a disparaging reference to the effects on the population of Germany at large, suffering under the war's environment outside American-controlled territory, used by Mike Stearns addressing a town meeting:cquote|Then to the crowd: "According to Melissa Mailey, we now live in a world where kings and noblemen rule the roost. And they've turned all of central Europe—"our home, now, ours and our children's to come"—into a raging inferno. We are surrounded by a Ring of Fire. Well, I've fought forest fires before. So have lots of other men in this room. The best way to fight [such] a fire is to start a counterfire. So my position is simple. I say we start the American Revolution—a hundred and fifty years ahead of schedule!"

The beginning

"1632" is the lead novel in the 1632 series. It is a science fiction (alternate history) novel originally released in November 2000, but atypically, continues to actually increase in quarterly sales, as are most of the sequels [cite Sm|Flint, see footnote table in Eric Flint>. Originally a single stand-alone story, the novel is now the first of an open-ended series with over 1632 series publications countpublished in print and an additional rapidly growing number related Grantville Gazettes e-books or e-zines (not in print).

But the beginning is and always will be the flagship novel—the alternative namesake of the series seen from within and without as a "Ring of Fire"—in which Flint tried out the experimental Assiti Shards literary mechanism as a means of involving an "ensemble cast", for he disdains "Strong Men of History" representations and fiction as laughable, but believes strongly that history is a "Messy" thing and true historical forces are the results of the self-interested actions on the part of a host of individuals who are just trying to get along as best they can in life. In a nutshell, that statement applies to the whole series and each of its individual works. In writing 1632, Flint's web forum "Shadow of Demons" at Baen's Bar was soon taken over by exploratory posts as captivated readers commented on the E-ARC released book creating a ground swell of interest ("internet Buzz") in the months before its hardcover release. So strong was the response, especially after the release of the printed work, that a new sub-forum 1632 Tech Manual was created for discussions about it in early 2000, for the discussions had also spilled over into Weber's "Bu-ships" tech forum, and Weber joined the bandwagon suggesting a sequel was in order. In the event, the two co-wrote 1633 and collaborated further on integrating the short fiction (much of it, unsolicited) that begat the de facto ROF-1 sequel [Flint, in "Editors Forward" to "Ring of Fire"] . It was followed by two other related forums: "1632 Slush" and "1632 Comments" within the next two years. (See 1632 Editorial Board on those.)

The Grantville Gazettes are a series of short stories in the collaborative fiction experiment, which for a time, generally also followed as printed works some months later after starting life as an online serialized magazine with an inconsistent and sporadic publication history. (Baen Books was just not geared to regular production of four book length works per year). After the death of Jim Baen and with the publication of Grantville Gazette X by Baen Books, the last under contract with Baen, the Gazettes were again reconstituted as a subscription e-zine, now published regularly at six per year (bi-monthly) and paying "above standard rates" for submissions. They are a "boiler room" powering the collaborative synergy by the people involved with the 1632 Tech Manual and have developed to be a feedstock of new ideas and themes in the series, although most explore the personal experiences ("Ground eye View" stories, Flint teasingly characterized as "Soap Operas" in the forward to Grantville Gazette VI) of minor characters in the series or examine in depth some aspect (e.g a multi-part serial explores and details Grantville's impact on public health in general, and the establishment of a twin teaching hospitals as a joint project of the 16inst|University of Jena and Grantville's new hospital, the 16inst|Lahey Clinic.) of the new society being formed under the leadership and influence of Grantville, 16char|Mike|Stearns and spouse 16char|Rebecca|Abrabanel, and Emperor 16CHAR|Gustavus Adolphus of|Sweden. In general, the anthologies in the series depict deep background canonical to future tales, but which are not in the main stream "action" of the novels focus. A group of stories have on several occasions, occasioned a new plot thread.

Works in the series

In order of publication (includes e-book releases): 1632, 1633, Ring of Fire, The Grantville Gazette (I), 1634: The Galileo Affair, Grantville Gazette II, Grantville Gazette III, Grantville Gazette IV, Grantville Gazette V, Grantville Gazette VI, Grantville Gazette VII, 1634: The Ram Rebellion, 1635: Cannon Law, 1634: The Baltic War, 1634: The Bavarian Crisis

In order of print publication: 1632, 1633, Ring of Fire, The Grantville Gazette (I), 1634: The Galileo Affair, Grantville Gazette II.

Published books

Main/North-Central and Western European thread

Geographical scope: Austria, Denmark, England, Scotland, Spain, France, The Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, Spanish Netherlands, French Netherlands), Germany (Badenburg, Bavaria, Bohemia, Prussia, Duchy of Saxony ), Switzerland (Swabia), Swedish Empire (Finland, Lapland, Norway, Sweden)

Note: In the neohistorical setting, Nation States were more often than not small parts of today's nations, and by today's thinking geo-political regions of modern countries.)
* Novel: "1632" (February 2000)
* Novel: "1633" (August 2002) with David Weber
* Anthology: "Ring of Fire" (January 2004)
** includes the "The Wallenstein Gambit" with Mike Spehar which begins the "Eastern Europe" thread, "In the Navy" by David Weber and other stories annedating "1633" in the neohistory.
* Novel: "" (April 2006) with Virginia DeMarce, crafted as a collection of related 'key developmental events'. This is structured more as an anthology and includes substantial material from Paula Goodlett and other authors, but classed as a novel by the publishing trade since the stories all come together as having a related overall story arch (theme). This book deals with the NUS administration of Franconia and foreshadows attitudes of common folk who come to grips with the new concepts introduced by the up-timers.
** Mostly written from non-American perspective, explores in-depth native reactions to the stimulus of what Grantville is doing inside local societies, in particular in Southern Germany.
* Novel: "" (May 2007) with David Weber, the direct main thread novel sequel to "1633"; this book ties up matters left hanging in "1633" such as the fate of the embassy in London, Eddie Cantrell's experiences as a Prisoner of War, and the siege of Lubeck. Admiral Simpson and the navy he built earns its keep and Mike Stearns as Prime Minister of the United States of Europe continues to run rings around European leaders.
* Novel: "" (October 2007) with Virginia DeMarce
** Chronological sequel to "1632", but continues the Eastern European thread Seeded in "Ring of Fire", stoked in several different Grantville Gazettes, and brought to a boil in "The Ram Rebellion".

South European thread

* Novel: "" (April 2004) with Andrew Dennis, begins the "Italian-French" or "Southern Europe thread".
* Novel: "" (September 2006) sequel to "1634: The Galileo Affair".
** Returns to Italy and France - explores the influence knowledge from the future has on the internal politics of the Roman Catholic church and the Papacy.

= plot thread|s=Eastern European thread =

This thread could possibly be named "South eastern Europe thread" with separate works dealing with Poland, the Baltic and Russia
* Novelette: ROF-1|IN="The Wallenstein Gambit", which continues from two plot-line suggested in ROF-1|"Here Comes Santa Claus" and ROF-1|"A Lineman for the Country" in the same anthology.
* Serialized Novel: The Anaconda Project, published in the new format (own website re-organized) Grantville Gazettes in volumes GG12|p=11 – GG15|p=15 (2007 – January 2008), the solo-written book authored by Flint is available through Webscriptions, and directly continues "The Wallenstein Gambit" and is the first long work in the South eastern Europe thread and serves as a prequel to the 35SoB.

hort fiction in the series

When the novel "1632" was written in 1999, it was conceived as an experiment in the literary genre alternate history by Flint, without intentions of writing any immediate sequel. He had in fact, several other years of writing projects planned, which subsequent developments were to delay as late as publication in 2006-2007. Flint—as a relatively new writer at the time, following the popular demand for a sequel elected to invite other established authors in the Baen's stable of writers to share the universe in order to rapidly develop its potential—in this he traded on his experience as an editor. This went on concurrently with a great deal of reader input in what became the "1632 Tech" sub-forum on Baen's bar. In this initiative, he became the editor (He was already a Baen editor for the Baen Free Library) and together with fan input on Baen's Bar, and collaboration with established best-selling author David Weber on the first long sequel, "1633", concurrently put together the "Ring of Fire" anthology to inaugurate the short fiction in the series.

The novel and anthology shaped one another, all filtered through and also shaped by the discussions on Baen's website. This process continues to this day, primarily in the form of "The Grantville Gazettes". Initially an experimental e-magazine of fan fiction, the first volume was successful enough to be released as a paperback. Subsequent Gazettes have also been released in print form.

Flint, as editor of all the short fiction, also maintains the series canon (co-ordinated by the [http://www.1632.org 1632.org] Web site) and all copyrights to the alternate history universe per se, and with Flint as the controlling editor, the consequence is semi-pro or professional payment rates aside, Baen doesn't publish anything in the series which is not canonical.

In point of fact, the short fiction in the series frequently provides a more in-depth background and foreshadows larger events that are the meat of the long fiction in the series. The longer works are replete with mentions to events covered in the shorter works, and with characters and the history and events unfolded in such materials. Flint always publishes one of his own stories within the short fiction collections, or in the case of , considerably more, as it introduces several important background factors that are central to further series developments as the altered history is to unfold to the reader.

"The Grantville Gazettes"

The "Gazettes" began as an experimental semi-professional online magazine featuring fan fiction and non-fiction edited by Flint and (eventually) a volunteer editorial board. At the time of Jim Baen's death in the summer of 2006 ten Grantville Gazettes were under contract and they had (with some fits and starts) settled into a new version roughly and irregularly three times a year. Baen's production staff was somewhat over worked by the deadline and the serialized magazine gave way to an E-book release from the sixth volume onward—though this was explained by Flint as primarily being due to Flint's other commitments, such as editing the new science fiction magazine Jim Baen's Universe. Earlier on, he'd explained the production delays in terms of overworked proof readers, executive editors, and so forth. Issues VI through X, after being released as E-books seem likely to not see print, where Jim Baen has been releasing (all but the first) issues some months later as hardcover books, the last he bought has yet to appear. Flint has explained that the market for anthologies is always very soft, no matter the genre, and it seems likely that any new print version from the Gazettes will be a "Best of The Grantville Gazettes".

In the meanwhile, Grantville Gazette X was jointly published as an e-book by Baen, but also as the first foray of "Eric Flint Enterprises" at [http://www.grantvillegazette.com/ www.grantvillegazette.com/] which looks to be a joint venture of Baen Books and Flint where the new incarnation of the e-zine also pays SFWA rates and maintains a bi-monthly (six per year) publishing schedule. It is modeled very much on the same lines as Jim Baen's Universe, which is edited by Flint.

Beginning in early 2007, the Gazette's publishers added an online web-based edition published quarterly and moved the paper series to an annual "best of" volumne.Fact|date=November 2007 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.

The web based version is available at http://www.grantvillegazette.com

1632-verse Glossary of Terminology

:Advisory to Readers: "1632" was a standalone novel. Events since its release have led to a unprecedented shared universe experiment in the writing of collaborative fiction. This has led to certain needs and means of discussion, which accounts for the prominence of this section.

* 1632-verse/1632 universe— a way of referring to and clarify the distinction between entities or new time lines in science-fiction, its sub-genre alternate history, and discussions in science involving such esoteric physics as the Many world's hypothesis and Parallel universes in Quantum Mechanics.

* Badenburg — A fictional walled town or small city located within five to six miles of the locus of Grantville's new home. Citizens of the town were witnesses to the Ring of Fire, and have places in many of the short stories building the societal canvas of the works. For example, some of its people owned lands supplanted by the territory of Grantville within the Ring of Fire. A series of stories in Grantville Gazette III and explores how the economic and personal effects of such circumstances were worked out and settled between the down-timer and up-timers. Second state in the New US (NUS).

* CPoE or CPE, (October 1632—10 October 1633 NTL) — CPoE. Formed at the end of 1632 (novel) in the aftermath of the Battle of Grantville, with Gustavus II Adolphus as "Captain General" of the" 'New United States'," but not its monarch.

* Down-timer* — Any native born in Early Modern Europe.

* Emperor of the United States of Europe — see USE.

* Gazettes / Grantville Gazettes—an experimental Online Magazine launched by Baen Books with (See: "main article: The Grantville Gazettes, and 1632 Editorial Board")

* Grantville — a town containing a cast of about 3,500 of the collective protagonists exploring the 'what if' theme of what sort of changes might come about in the chaotic history of the Thirty Years' War and the resulting social and political development of Europe (and the world) if such a community of modern rural Americans landed in Europe one fine afternoon. The "up-timer" Americans possess advanced technology, are experienced at organizing and recruiting as well as walking around with a chip on their shoulders and are limited to the town's small stocks and industrial resource base but showed up with its libraries, industries, electricity, an educated motivated populace, 'can-do' attitudes, a smattering of modern combat knowledge and modern thought patterns in the heart of disorganized, unled, war-torn central Early Modern Europe.
* OTL — Our Time Line, or the history of our world sans a Ring of Fire.

* NTL — New Time Line, or the history of our world from May 1631 after the Ring of Fire. NTL and OTL are long standing abbreviations with wide acceptance amongst science fiction circles.Fact|date=August 2008 New Time Line was coined to handle comparison of events in Parallel World discussions.Fact|date=August 2008

* NUS or "New US", (by late Fall 1631—Fall 1632 NTL) — The New United States located in southern and western Thuringia — a loose collection of territories, towns and free cities lead by its first state, the "up-timers" (Americans) of Grantville, that Mike Stearns put together in the winter of 1631-32 to oppose the effects of "the wars" raging through Central Europe.

* Ring of Fire — the label or name given to the three mile in radius spherical space-time bubble caused by the Assiti shard that exchanged part of Thurigia with Grantville, West Virginia. While in the main faint and translucent, at ground level, the sphere appeared as an ephemeral (perhaps 15 seconds) wall of shimmering flames from the outside. Within, those near the edge also perceived something of the flames, but the effect was swamped and overwhelmed by the thunder-like sound blast that shook walls and rattled windows and fixtures like a mini-earthquake and the overwhelming blast of bright white light that was believed by many to be a huge display of sheet-lightning.

* "The Prince of all Germans", or The Prince of Germany, or just The Prince (perhaps most common) —a popular unofficial title bestowed gratefully and spontaneously by the populous at large in the areas of Germany which have benefited from the advent of the Mike Stearns influence under the NUS, CPoE, and USE governments. The title began to become widespread circa the end of the novel "1633" in the unrest that lead to the USE, is mentioned a few times in "The Ram Rebellion" and becomes very obvious in the early chapters of "The Baltic War".

* Up-timer* — Any 20th century American from Grantville, WV.

* The USE, (10 October 1633— present NTL); the successor to the CPoE, a Monarchial Constitutional Republic the United States of Europe formed at the end of the novel "1633" during a demonstrative outbreak of nationalism triggered by news of the Battle of Wismar circa October 9 and 10th during protracted radio negotiations between Mike Stearns, who was appointed its first Prime Minister, and Gustavus II Adolphus Vasa, who became the new Emperor of the United States of Europe in the agreement. * The hyphen is considered canonical by the 1632 Tech forum, 1632 Editorial Board, and 1632.org.

1632 Tech Manual, Slush and Slush Comments

1632 Tech Manual, 1632 Slush, and 1632 Slush Comments are each specialized sub-forums of a specific sub-community of the general online community known as Baen's Bar which is a web site focused on the publishers works and forums to let fans interact with writers. The first sub-form, "1632 Tech Manual" (from early 2000—generally known just as "1632 Tech") is dedicated to developing the background for collaborative fiction in the first Assiti Shards type fictional universe — 1632 universe or "1632-verse" — that began in the novel 1632 by Eric Flint, and the second two are spin-offs related to the fact that the series generated a lot of solicited fan-fiction, which has become a hallmark of the series, when such is accepted as canon. That process is ongoing at plainlinks|http://www.grantvillegazette.com/issues/ grantvillegazettes.com and in part explains the synergy of the series as literally hundreds of well educated people and experienced people have worked together to put together a logical and likely chain of events and societal impacts given the departure point postulated in the initial novel—a town of thirty-five hundred from a blue-collar rural community characteristic of the town where Eric Flint's mother called home.

The later two forums were eventually created and set aside as a submission venue and talk forum about such submitted work for the initial anthology ROF-1 and the eventual series of serialized e-zines, The Grantville Gazettes all of which resulted from (originally) unsolicited manuscripts plus Flint's decision to make the milieu a Shared universe by inviting in other writers. About that time, Flint was contributing a short story and contracting for a novella to the Honorverse spin-off series "Crown of Slaves" and had become good friends with David Weber, who has opened that sub-series in similar fashion to other writers. Weber expressed an interest in writing within 1632-verse, and that discussion may have given Flint the idea of soliciting manuscripts from other writers on the huge infant canvas. It is certain, he had no plans for a sequel beyond the initial novel.

As the collaborative effort evolved, the Grantville Gazettes — along with "1632 Tech" where technical aspects are hammered out and discussed to a surprising thoroughness — became a seed stock of new ideas and developments which give the rich verisimilitude to the background and plotting of the longer fiction in the series. Another distinction (sometimes very indistinct) is that stories in the Gazettes are normally told from the viewpoint of the common resident living through the international repercussions that the influence of Grantville's knowledge has caused on the larger stage. In seeming contradiction, about half the fiction in the Gazettes is merely emotive—amusing, tragic or dramatic, sometimes taking on many aspects of the popular soap opera—which is to say commercially successful and desirably entertaining to its subscribers. Even though those kinds of tales have little importance save as "color" or deep background, they serve to gradually illuminate the society coming into being and are valuable to the reader in illuminating the dissonances between our modern era and the emerging Europe of the fictional neohistory, as well as the practices and life of the Europe in our real history. Quite frequently a character developed in a minor soap opera-ish story will appear elsewhere in the series in a more important role, including as main protagonist anchoring a major work. (e.g. 16char|Nowell |Murphy and others in about half the book 34TRR)

The 1632 Slushpile

"Slushpile" is publishing trade jargon referring to the pile(s) of unsolicited submissions to a periodical. In the "Continuing adventure" [cite web|title=Grantville Gazette homepage|url=http://www.grantvillegazette.com|accessdate=2007-10-17] of the Grantville Gazettes According to Flint, the unsolicted stories began shaping the background thought in the series milieu, and the magazine "idea" was born whilst he tried to recoup some of the time costs involved in examining the fan-fiction. [cite GG01|title=Preface for the paperback edition|ch=Editors' Preface
q=But, in the meantime, the fan-fic kept getting written, and people kept nudging me—okay, pestering me, but I try to be polite about such things—to give them my feedback on their stories. ... Once I realized how many stories were being written—a number of them of publishable quality—I raised with Jim Baen the idea of producing an online magazine which would pay for fiction and factual articles set in the 1632 universe and would be sold through Baen Books' Webscriptions service. Jim was willing to try it, to see what happens.
pp=2] Also, he judged some of the tales to be professional quality, and indeed, incorporated many of them into about half of ROF-1|x. The flagship novel was written as a stand-alone literary work, an experiment with the new Assiti Shards story premise, and was but one of three such universes planned by Flint in 2000. However, the sensation and interest engendered by the "1632" novel's publication subsequently caused the other works to be delayed while the "1632" series was developed. The other books in the overall Assiti Shard series currently under contract are
* "Timespike", with Marilyn Kosmatka, in production, publication scheduled for May 2008." [http://www.ericflint.net/index.php/forthcoming/ Forthcoming] " at ericflint.net (accessed 26 October 2007). "May 2008 will see the publication of TIMESPIKE by Eric and Marilyn Kosmatka, a different branch of the "Assiti Shards" universe."]

* "By Any Other Name", with Sarah Hoyt, first draft completed; Eric Flint scheduled his part of the writing for 2007-2008 in October website announcement.cite web|title=Known scheduled for writing during 2007
url=http://www.ericflint.net/index.php/forthcoming/|accessdate=2007-10-26
quote= [Eric has scheduled his writing for and the] "First draft is in Eric’s hands from Collaborators... By any other name (with Sarah Hoyt]

* "1776", a solo novel, original name was "1781"; production overdue and delayed.

"1776" supposes George Washington and Frederick the Great are transposed to ancient Rome's Crisis of the Third Century; "By Any Other Name", takes place in several different time frames including a transposition of the Assiti themselves into Elizabethan England; and "Timespike" involves transpositions of various populations into the unpopulated late Cretaceous era (145-65.5 million years ago).

The "1632 Tech Manual" forum has had a large role in developing the overall series as its discussions revolve around the course of likely events, reactions and developments as the fictional town of 3,000 souls transplanted into the middle of the religious based Thirty Years' War.

Historical connections

::Notice This section has largely been supplanted (i.e. is being subsumed and moved) by the articles:main|1632 characters|1632 places|1632 institutions|1632 series battles all of which are under construction.