In April of the year 2000, a six-mile sphere centered on Grantville, West Virginia was displaced in space and time to Germany and May, 1631. The inhabitants of Grantville decided to start the American revolution early. The nobility of Europe were not amused.
This story, by Eric Flint, is the basis for a great deal of lively discussion on Baen’s Bar on the Baen web site since 1999. (More information on posting to the Bar is available here.)
The 1632 universe has spawned sequels including anthologies, co-written books by Eric Flint with other authors, and compilations of short stories by those other authors. Frankly, the list is too long to include here, but suffice to say: it’s a lot, and new authors are always, always, always welcome! In fact this entire site (author.1632magazine.com) exists solely to help authors new, old, and anywhere in between to find the resources they need to write in the 1632verse.
Author.1632Magazine.com has all the technical information, archives, and files of interest to the happy habitants of the Baen’s Bar 1632 Group (three different bar forums, to be technical about it), and more are added as they are found or created. You are invited to browse this site, get involved in the discussion groups and even read the free e-book version of the story that started it all – 1632.
Feel free to browse around the site for files and pages of interest to Barflies in general and those who would write in the 1632 Universe. If you want to include an up-timer in your story, you need to get your character from the Grid, created by Virginia DeMarce in the early years. For that matter, a lot of down-timers are included there as well. If you see a character who is used briefly in another story and you think they are perfect for yours, go ahead and ask the author. Having the same “people” show up in different ways in different stories is part of what makes this universe so fun – as long as it all ties together into a coherent story for that character.
Eric always said you can make up down-timers because there’s milyuns and milyuns of them. But famous down-timers … he may have plans for. And certain groups, including hoch adel (nobility) were well defined and you can’t go adding one, willy nilly. If a down-timer is well-known enough to be remembered, ask on the Bar, then let the Gridmaster know you would like to claim them.
Potential authors should first read Iver P. Cooper’s essay “So You Want to Write a Grantville Gazette Story?,” and the rest of the Author’s Manual files. You should also peruse Rick Boatright’s “Dead Horses” article to see if your idea has been flogged to a pile of dog food.
In any case, You are welcome to browse, lurk, participate, smoke, maybe burst into glorious song or even flames. Stranger things have happened here … recently!