Announcement! Exciting new Snapshot Universe novella available!

My new Snapshot novella, Wrath of Athena: A Snapshot Novella, is now available! It’s out in Kindle format and in print on Amazon. It’s also available in a bunch of formats through Smashwords, and will be out soon for Nook, iPad and pretty much any other e-book format I can think of.

Wrath is a small book in a huge universe. The Snapshot universe features over two dozen continent-sized interacting alternate realities (Snapshots) from the last eighty million years of Earth’s past, but Wrath of Athena focuses on the fate of a fly-by-night petting zoo that does it’s flying by night between Snapshots. 

Build a (Better!) Alternate Timeline

If you really look at what would happen in an alternate  timeline after something significant changed, you realize that events are so inter-related and there are so many points of individual decision that within a decade or two what happens in that alternate timeline is pure guesswork, no matter how meticulously you think it through.

Looking for something?

Looking for my older posts? They’re still at my Livejournal Blog. Enjoy reading!

Alternate Prehistory: What If More Than One Human Species Had Survived?

A series of recent discoveries has made it clear that the current human species is only a fraction of human diversity as it existed in the last ice age. Very different kinds of people lived then, enough different from modern humans to make all of our racial differences look trivial.

First the discoveries, then some alternate history speculation:

Writing: Measuring Writing Progress

It’s hard to measure progress in writing. Quality improvements are what we should really be going for, of course, but it’s almost impossible to measure quality improvement. We can measure quantity of writing, at least in rough drafts. Words per day is pretty simple to track and I find that setting a minimum goal is a good way to motivate myself.

Book Reviews: The Short Drop, Terms of Use, Finding Charlie

The Short Drop by Matthew Fitzsimmons

This isn’t alternate history or even science fiction, but it’s pretty good. It’s a thriller about the daughter of a Senator who went missing ten years before the action takes place. Ten years later, the first clues about the daughter’s disappearance show up. That leads to a very well done mystery with lots of twists and turns and a character (the girl) who we never see, but who becomes very real and at least I cared a great deal about her. I wish I could bottle what the author did to make me care so much about that character and sprinkle some of it over the stuff I write, which definitely needs characters people care more about.

Book Reviews: Time Travel/Alternate History Reviews

Reading: I read two time travel books recently, with very different approaches.

Split Second, by Douglas Richards

This book takes an interesting approach to time travel. In this book, the time traveler can only go back a fraction of a second. Note: What follows contains some spoilers about the setup of the time travel in Richard’s world.

Would You Still Be YOU??

I was recently doing comments for Point of Divergence, the Alternate History Amateur Press Association, when I realized something: Those of us who think about Alternate History much have long realized that very few if any people who actually historically lived would be born even a few years after a major change in history.

Plotting, Pantsing, and a Sneak Peak

I discovered National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) eight years ago and have participated in it every year, writing at least the ‘required’ 50,000 words in a month every year, and usually around 75,000. I think of myself as a professional writer, so I try to harness the NaNoWriMo energy to something that helps my writing goals. That usually means a lot of plotting before the month, so I don’t use up my words on false starts that don’t end up usable.

Book Review: The Red Napoleon

Author:  Floyd Gibbons

It is 1932. Stalin has been assassinated. The Red Army has taken over and launched a massive military buildup. In late 1932, the Red Napoleon does a tricky mobilization that makes the Russian Army temporarily the largest in the world. On January 2, 1933, the Red Army moves west.

Book Review: Conquest of the United States Series

Author: H. Irving Hancock

It is 1920. The Germans have defeated the US fleet and landed an army in New England. Through the rest of book 1 the US army puts up a heroic and very shrewd fight, but still gets clobbered and chased out of New England. The army survives in spite of being outnumbered and outgunned.