1632 plot threads: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:26, 30 July 2009

Revision as of 06:31, 30 July 2009

Line 24:

====Eastern European thread====

The Eastern European thread is taken to be east of the East_Central_European_threadEast Central European thread, the later of which may be understood as the base line through eastern parts of modern day Germany, Austria, western [[Hungary]]. The first fiction written within these theatres was the novelette [[Ring of Fire (anthology)#"The Wallenstein Gambit"|"The Wallenstein Gambit"]] and the prequel short stories leading up to it, all published in [[Ring of Fire (anthology)|Ring of Fire]] but subsequent long fiction planned in the setting had to await authors scheduling issues, so the plot begun by Flint and finished in outline took a back seat to southern, western and central European events which both had ready collaborating authors and themes of their own to explore in the neohistory. So in June 2006, the writing team of {{16writ|[[1632 writers#Goodlett, Paula|Paula Goodlett}}]] and {{16writ[[1632 writers#Huff, Gorg|Gorg |Huff }}]] cracked the Eastern European barrier in "Butterflies in the Kremlin, Part 1: A Russian Noble" when they began the series action in [[Tsar]]ist [[Russia]] in the sometimes comic, sometimes serious serialized novel [[Butterflies in the Kremlin]], which is part adventure, part romance and part spy story. In action to date, an uptime American has moved to Moscow, scandalized the elite of the society, ticked off the bureaucracy and much of the nobility, and helped fight a battle and win it with Poland. Meanwhile the Prince-spy in Grantville has fallen for an American girl (both a commoner and a non-virgin) and as of [[Grantville Gazette XVIII]] are getting married, which is a big deal back in the society of old [[Moscovy]], where the church and the nobility hasn't quite come to grips with a changing world and after a century, half of them still haven't noticed that the grand-duchy has become the [[Tsardom of Russia]].

=====East Central European thread=====

Line 30:

Other works that can be characterized in the setting are parts of the novel [[1634: The Bavarian Crisis]] and the forthcoming sequels [[1635: Soldier of Bohemia]] (long delayed while resolving the demanding schedules of Flint and [[David Weber]]— which delayed the whole series for several years as the [[1634: The Baltic War]] sequel would have been adversely affected.) and [[1635: The Eastern Front]] are also believed to be set in the Eastern or East Central threads. Beginning in September 2007 Flint began the ongoing serialization of the [[The Anaconda Project]] novel which continues from where ''The Wallenstein Gambit'' left off beginning in the [[Kingdom of Bohemia]] in [[Prague]] with discussions in the early chapters about acting militarily and politically (by local [[1632 institutions#Committees of Correspondence|CoCs]]) in the east ([[Silesia]] and other outlying areas of southern [[Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth]]).

The original "working title" of ''Soldier of Bohemia'' was ''1635: King of Bohemia'', and that title and clues revealed in [[1634: The Bavarian Crisis]], which in the most part geographically can be laid in this regional setting. The solo Flint novel, [[The Anaconda Project]] (Serialized to date solely in [[the Grantville Gazettes]]) is also in the setting, and is believed to be the prequel to Soldier of Bohemia which it is speculated, will center its action on the reactions of the new king of Austria-Hungary, Ferdinand III of Austria, and his attack on Wallenstein even as he makes peace with Gustavus and the [[United States of Europe (1632 series)|United States of Europe]], or not. That coming conflict has been foreshadowed in three separate works: The Bavarian Crisis, Flint's tale in [[Ring of Fire II]], and in the Anaconda Project itself, where Wallenstein is strong arming the popular accidental-hero (part of ''The Wallenstein Gambit'') {{16char|Morris| Roth}} into becoming a general and heading up his army and plans in the east for he and Pappenheim expect to be busy in the south with {{16CHAR|Ferdinand[[1632 characters#Ferdinand_III of III|Austria|p=Ferdinand III of Austria}}]]'s armies.

====Southern European thread====

The "Southern European thread", or "Western South Europe and South Central European thread", or perhaps more appropriately, the "South-central and southwestern European thread" involves characters introduced in the short story [[Ring of Fire (anthology)#"To Dye For"|"To Dye For"]] by [[Mercedes Lackey]] but the thread plot action proper kicked off in the second published novel sequel of the series, the best selling ''[[1634: The Galileo Affair]]'' and its direct sequel, ''[[1635: The Cannon Law]]'', both co-written by Flint and [[Andrew Dennis]]. The main characters are in part, Lackey's {{16char|s=The Stone Family}}, combined with Flint's {{16char|Sharon| Nichols}} and {{16char|Larry| Mazarre}}.

====Naval thread====

{{dablink|This section is a distillation in synopsis form of what is known about the authors planning from web fora posts and their websites.<br />''It is about a future or forthcoming thread of action, though one well founded on the naval actions in the novels ''1633'' and ''1634: The Baltic War'', which have set the table. The later work also foreshadows a planned "screw-powered frigate" class of ships under development in {{16plac|Magdeburg}} by [[Admiral]] {{16char|John Chandler|Simspon|p=John Simpson}}<ref>{{Cite 34TBW|long=yes|last=Weber|first=David|pp=|q=}}</ref>}}

Busy best selling authors [[David Weber]] and [[Eric Flint]] in 2002 (writing ''[[1633 (novel)|1633]]'' and [[Ring of Fire (anthology)|Ring of Fire]]) originally contracted together and with [[Baen's Books]] to co-write the five [[#Plot threads|"main series"]] books. When working on the long delayed [[1634: The Baltic War]] novel and with the prolonged and ongoing demand for the series sequels, and considering the already experienced delays imposed by the difficulty of getting schedules between themselves synchronized (It took three planned "windows-of-opportunity" before one worked in ''The Baltic War'') well enough for the two to have the three to six months or so needed to collaborate successfully given the attention-to-detail needs, general reasonableness, and characteristic "historical accuracy" imposed by Flint from the beginning<ref name="TheBeginning">{{Cite web|title=How it all started (Baen Bar Authors forum post 2 March 1999)|accessdate=2008-06-12|url=http://homepage.mac.com/msb/163x/faqs/how_it_started.html|quote={{I}}I'm posting a new topic in a shameless bid to enlist aid and assistance in my next book. Y'all understand this is a serious and solemn project and there'll be none of the usual badinage, disrespect, wild-eyed-opinion-spouting, surly remarks and the other stuff that routinely transpires in the Bar. (Yeah, sure. And pigs will fly.){{I2}}<br /><br />

OK, here's the problem. The novel I'm starting on, Fire in the Hole, requires a wide range of knowledge to write properly. Some of that I have (the history of the period, for instance). Some I can get, from friends. But some of it requires me to scramble like a monkey. Any help I can get will be appreciated.{{I2}}<br /><br />

The setting of the novel is as follows: For reasons I won't go into here (read the book when it comes out, heh heh), a small town in West Virginia finds itself transposed in time and place into Germany in the middle of the Thirty Years War. The time is spring/summer of l630 AD. The place is Thuringia, in central Germany. The Americans are in the middle of one of history's worst wars and they have to survive (and hopefully, prosper). In order to do that, they have the resources available to them which would be in any small town in the area. I'm going to be leaving in three days to spend some time there (I used to live in the area -- near Fairmont and Morgantown --— but it was twenty years ago; things change). One of the things I'll be doing is to catalog the resources available. But the kind of problems the West Virginians will face include:{{i}}...[Several<br paragraphs/><br and lists omitted]{{i}}...{{I}}/>

OK, here's the problem. The novel I'm starting on, Fire in the Hole, requires a wide range of knowledge to write properly. Some of that I have (the history of the period, for instance). Some I can get, from friends. But some of it requires me to scramble like a monkey. Any help I can get will be appreciated.{{I2}}

...[Several paragraphs and lists omitted]<br /><br />

The basic rule is: NO CHEATING. There will not be any "convenient" stuff that wouldn't likely be in a small town. (No military convoys which just "happen" to be parading through town, for instance). On the other hand, the population of the town (which includes a lot of coal miners from the area who are in town that day for a wedding) are the type of blue-collar folks who can jury-rig damn near anything if the stuff is either there or can be obtained.{{I2}}<br /><br />

The setting of the novel is as follows: For reasons I won't go into here (read the book when it comes out, heh heh), a small town in West Virginia finds itself transposed in time and place into Germany in the middle of the Thirty Years War. The time is spring/summer of l630 AD. The place is Thuringia, in central Germany. The Americans are in the middle of one of history's worst wars and they have to survive (and hopefully, prosper). In order to do that, they have the resources available to them which would be in any small town in the area. I'm going to be leaving in three days to spend some time there (I used to live in the area -- near Fairmont and Morgantown -- but it was twenty years ago; things change). One of the things I'll be doing is to catalog the resources available. But the kind of problems the West Virginians will face include:{{i}}...[Several paragraphs and lists omitted]{{i}}...{{I}}

The basic rule is: NO CHEATING. There will not be any "convenient" stuff that wouldn't likely be in a small town. (No military convoys which just "happen" to be parading through town, for instance). On the other hand, the population of the town (which includes a lot of coal miners from the area who are in town that day for a wedding) are the type of blue-collar folks who can jury-rig damn near anything if the stuff is either there or can be obtained.{{I2}}

Finally, a TIP. Alternate history novels have a tendency (for obvious dramatic reasons) to focus too narrowly on the military dimension of the problem. I want to cast a broader net. ... (more)}}</ref>, the two decided to alter their original planning and spin off a new thread—one based on the [[United States of Europe (1632 series)|United States of Europe]] as a naval power, which historically alters the fact that [[List of 1632 characters#Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden|Gustavus]]'s [[Swedish Empire]] was not (Many are unaware that Sweden did colonize north America—colonies which were absorbed into British North American colonies behind the wall of ships helping the nascent [[British Empire]] come into being during the Seventeenth century).

====The Americas thread====

Stories in [[1632 Slushpile]] regarding obtaining strategically important materials and some which have reached publication in regard to the {{16inst|Essen Steel Corporation}} and {{16inst|Essen Chemical}} are foreshadowing activities (mining [[Chromium]] for one) in [[North America]], and others are pursuing [[latex]] [[Rubber]] in [[South America]]. In addition, the three books contracted between Flint and [[David Weber]] ([[#Naval thread|see above The Naval thread]]) will in part involve expeditions sent by [[List of 1632 characters#Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden|Gustavus]] and [[Mike Stearns]] to American shores, as Stearns ([[de facto]]: Flint's alter-ego), has a burn to address and cut off the slave trade as he did in his Rivers of War series.

== Notes ==