Grantville Gazette XV

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Grantville Gazette XV
Gazette Volume 15 Cover by Paula Goodlett.
Gazette Volume 15 Cover by Paula Goodlett.

"Indoor Tennis", game of Kings?
Gazette Volume 15 Cover by Paula Goodlett.
Author Eric Flint, et al.
Cover artist Paula Goodlett
Country United States
Language English
Series 1632 series
Genre(s) Science fiction, Alternate History
Publisher Baen Books
Publication date October, 2007
Media type E-book & e-zine)
Preceded by Grantville Gazette XIV
Followed by Grantville Gazette XVI

Contents



Grantville Gazette volume 15 and Grantville Gazette vol 15 both redirect to here.
Note: The two main articles covering this large rapidly growing book series and this specific sub-series are kept up to date before publication as new titles are added to this rapidly growing milieu oriented body of works.

Grantville Gazette XV or Grantville Gazette, Volume 15 is the sixteenth Ring of Fire series (or "1632 series") collaborative anthology published in the '1632-verse' shared universe in what is best regarded as a canonical sub-series of the popular alternate history  that began with the February  2000 publication in hardcover of the novel 1632 by author-historian Eric Flint. Baen Books and editor-universe creator Flint decline the distinction, counting this book as the twenty-second published Canonical work in the series. Overall it is also the sixteenth anthology in publication in the atypical series which consists of a mix of main novels and e-zines and "written by invitation" anthologies produced all produced fairly rapidly under popular demand after publication of the initial novel (2000) which was written as a stand-alone work.

Main article: 1632 Editorial Board

The internet forum Baen's Bar figures large in the history of the series overall where 1632 Tech Manual discussions not only convinced Flint to do a sequel, but helped formulate potential story lines in the period early-2000–mid-2001. In fact, the flagship novel's research can be tracked to a post on his first author-fan forum: "Mutter of Demons" (link to request for research help) In the Eric Flint oriented sub-forums 1632 Tech Manual and both 1632 Slush and 1632 Slush Comments all determine the "acceptable" content of these Gazettes, as is covered in depth the The Grantville Gazettes and 1632 Editorial Board articles. Both the shared universe main series and this sub-series are an example of the internet-age Collaborative writing in the literary field in a shared universe tour de force.


[edit] About the Gazettes

The bi-monthly Grantville Gazettes nowadays are published with clockwork regularity; all edited by assistant editor Paula Goodlett and vetted by Eric Flint who maintains editorial control over the canon for the series on the 1632.org website. They began quite differently with Flint as sole Editor, as well as keeper of the canon, and were very much an experiment on several levels explaining somewhat their early irregular appearance, that can best be described as "sporadic and haphazard".

After the initial explosive interest in 1632 Flint's first idea was to open the universe to other experienced writers to ride the wave of popular interest and internet buzz, for he had no plans for a sequel and other projects drawing on his time. That solicitation of stories included an invitation to fans of 1632, and generated far too much good "fan" fiction for a single anthology. In the event, best selling author David Weber was also attracted by the opened universe, and contracted with Flint to co-author five novels in the series. The release of any short fiction was held up by Jim Baen while 1633 was written and rushed into production.

Currently, Mrs. Goodlett, in conjunction with the 1632 Editorial Board, nowadays selects groups of stories from those formally submitted on the web forum 1632 Slush put together each volume with regard to length and diversity and the select the various 1632 Research Committees generated period oriented fact articles and essays which also characterize the gazettes, and distance them from the Ring of Fire anthologies. The e-ARC version of Grantville Gazette I followed the hardcover 1633 sequel and antedated the e-ARC release of Ring of Fire by nine months (February 2003 vs. November, 2003), as did Grantville Gazette II (August 2003). Flint then reviews the assembled collection of stories and alternates, and approves them as canon or not. Those he sets aside sometimes find themselves promoted to a prominent place in the series (see 1634: The Ram Rebellion and Ring of Fire II ), or might just be held for canonically compatible developments to be revealed before they are given publication. Others are simply rejected as non-canonical despite the Editorial Boards selection. The Editorial Board and Research Committee members are all volunteers being regular participants to the Baen's Bar web fora 1632 Tech Manual, 1632 Slush, and 1632 Slush Comments.

The earliest Gazettes are technically rated as fan fiction, which means the authors do not qualify as members in the Science Fiction Writers Association, which requires three stories be published in an accredited publication before a writer is eligible—this changed with Grantville Gazette X when the publication became qualified as a SFWA publication and began paying better than usual pro-rates. The gazettes idea began because there was so much good fan fiction submitted for Ring of Fire , which includes half the stories written by established authors. Flint had in fact, solicited input for ideas from fans before setting out to field research the flagship novel in 1999, so fans were involved in discussing the development of the neohistory from the outset. Subsequently, Flint, an experienced editor, suggested the idea of an online magazine to generate some income flow for the work to publisher Jim Baen using a similar concept to that used for Baen's Webscriptions monthly release. Baen, agreed to the experiment, and the Gazettes began as a serialized e-zine produced only sporadically, the segments of which were collected into an then electronic volume marketed as an e-book.

A subsequent experiment by Baen and Flint was to release the e-book version with an additional story by Flint in print as a mass market paperback. The experiment was successful, and Grantville Gazette II and Grantville Gazette III followed, with Grantville Gazette IV under contract as the last sale from Flint to Jim Baen shortly before his death.

In addition to fiction, the Gazettes include fact articles (based on the work output of the informal group, the 1632 research committee, written by one or more of its members) and stories which are initially vetted through a tough peer review on the Baen's Bar sub-forum 1632 Slush, typically requiring several rewrites then are subsequently nominated by the "EdBoard", whereupon Flint chooses the stories for inclusion in the Canon and for each volume based in part how it leads into or integrates with the ongoing main storyline 'threads' in the various novels.


[edit] eBook Table of Contents

Note: In the earliest three Grantville Gazettes, there were differences between the print published version and the original serialized eMagazine, and then again the intermediate eBook as the 'kinks' were worked out of the experiment. Should additional published works differ, it will be noted in the pertinent article.


Grantville Gazette, Volume 15
Grantville Gazette XV
Table of Contents

  • Assistant Editor's Preface by Paula Goodlett
 
Featured Fiction Story, Continuing serial (novel)
•     The Anaconda Project, Episode Four by Eric Flint
 
1632-verse Fiction:
•     Letters of Trade by David Dingwall
•     The Summer of Our Discontent by Virginia DeMarce
•     A Pirate's Ken by Iver P. Cooper
•     The Old Gray Goose by Terry Howard
•     Breakthroughs by Jack Carroll
•     A Falcon Falls by Kerryn Offord
•     The Whipporwill by John Zeek
•     Dog Days by Richard Evans
 
Continuing Serials:
•     Sonata, Part One by David Carrico
•     [[#Butterflies in the Kremlin, Part Six}, The Polish Incident|Butterflies in the Kremlin, Part Six}, The Polish Incident]] by Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff
 
Nonfiction:
•     Soundings and Sextants, Part Two, Celestial Navigation Methods by Iver P. Cooper
•     The Geared Locomotive or What Wood You Shay To? by Kevin H. Evans
•     The Theobrama Shell Game by Karen C. Evans
•     Tennis: The Game of Kings by Iver P. Cooper


[edit] Notes and References

[edit] References


[edit] Notes

[edit] Publishing history

First publication, December 2007, Copyright 2007 by Eric Flint and 1632.org, Inc.*

Electronic version by WebWrightswww.webwrights.com, SKU: ?1011250008

A Baen Books Original Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale, NY 10471 http://www.baen.com

Produced in the United States of America

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

* The main article The Grantville Gazettes delineates the series books by order 'first published' whether in print as an eBook, or printed book, and so chronologically fixes overall publication order for the overall series when published in any format. For the sake of clarity, the overall 'released in print format' will be used as publication order in articles, as listed in the 1632 series article, which lists only those works where a printed version has been released. The majority of Gazettes have existence only in digital (e-zine or e-book) format.