The Baen’s Bar forums are the main clearinghouse for Grantville Gazette stories. Stories are first submitted to the “1632 Slush” forum. Stories are the only content allowed to be posted here, and all potential stories must be submitted to the forum first, even those written by established authors. Comments and criticisms are reserved for the “1632 Slush Comments” forum. This process takes advantage of the long history of beta readers in the fan fiction editorial process, but with the unique twist that the end results are being considered for professional publication. This peer review process also involves more than just editing for grammar and style. Since all the contributions to the Gazette take place in a shared alternate-history universe with an established canon[5], the stories are also carefully screened for continuity, anachronisms, and overall fit within the world’s development and timeline. More comments on the beta reading process are below in the “Gazette Authors” section.
The comments on stories also have a direct impact on which get chosen for publication. When asked about the story selection process of the editorial board, Paula Goodlett, the current editor of the Grantville Gazette, stated,
“A potential author will usually post his first effort and have it get ripped up by the commenters. Then, if he’s serious, he’ll listen to what they tell him and rewrite it. Once a story is getting a lot of comments, I’ll take a look at it, or another member of the ed board will do so. After making sure the story doesn’t violate already published canon in the series, we’ll also determine whether or not any technology that’s developed or used in the story is even possible, once we consider the limitations of the seventeenth century. Just staying within canon and the technology limits isn’t quite enough, though. We want a story people want to read and that’s our primary goal.”
One of the unique elements of the Gazette is that some story characters, before being used in a submitted story, must be “claimed,” or checked out of a central database. The three character types available are up-timers[6], real, historical seventeenth-century down-timers, and invented down-timers. The up-timers, and the invented down-timers are kept track of on “Virginia’s Grid,” a spreadsheet where Dr. Virginia DeMarce, a retired historian, keeps track of the essential data on these characters in the 1632 universe. It contains birth dates, education, employment, marital status, and most importantly, who currently has claim to the character for serials. It is the rough equivalent of a census table, with the addition of authorial rights.
In order to claim a character, a writer first decides character type, looks over the grid to see if there are any previous claims active, and then starts a thread on the “1632 Tech” forum with the subject line “Ping Virginia.” If Virginia DeMarce comes back with the all clear, the writer is free to develop that character in their story, with the caveat that they cannot change previously canonized events.
Historical personages are also available for stories, but are not kept track of in the same manner. However, the first person to use a historical person in a Gazette story is generally regarded as having dibs. Another possibility of character use is the cameo, where a character that someone else may have claim to makes a brief appearance in a story. Cameos do not involve character development and must take place in a location the cameo characters would logically be in. Using characters in cameos is less formalized, but it is generally regarded as good etiquette to consult with the character’s creator or current claimant before using him or her.[7]
The 1632 universe started with a small West Virginia town, Grantville, plonked in the middle of seventeenth- century Germany, with a scattered handful of down-timer Europeans (from the seventeenth century) passing through. As the series grows and the characters wander, more and more people are introduced to the world. With so many characters available, many scenarios can be explored without reliance on the “main” characters, which may be a blessing.
The downfall of many fan fiction stories is their inability to merge with the main storyline; they take characters in directions they were not meant to go, or simply into situations the main story producers don’t wish to deal with. In the Gazette, such explorations are actually a helpful means of story development. As Eric Flint’s universe has expanded, some of the personages introduced in the Gazette have since been introduced into the larger novels that make up the backbone of the series. If these novels are the backbone, the stories of the Gazette are its arteries, pumping new blood to outlying regions. One of these character sets was a family of professional middlemen named Cavriani, who carry one of the main story threads in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis.
By letting others play in “his” sandbox, Eric Flint has turned the Grantville Gazette into a writer’s playground. He stated in the afterword to 1634: The Galileo Affair that part of his goal in the establishment of the Gazette was to encourage new writers; he seems to have more than accomplished this. The Baen’s Bar 1632 Slush/Comments forums are a never-ending writer’s workshop, where new authors can hone their skills, seek commentary, and feedback is nigh-instantaneous and constructive.
The Gazette Authors
It is perhaps telling that many of the stories and authors of the Gazette originated in the 1632 Tech forums on the Baen’s Bar website; a message board that started as a technical advice forum for Eric Flint when he started working on the series. Jenkins in Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers suggests that women fan writers are drawn to continuing serial stories and emotional character development, while male writers are more drawn to technical details and quick resolutions. The Gazette from the beginning has contained both fiction and non-fiction articles, and the fiction sections contain both continuing serials and stand-alone stories. It is perhaps for this reason that the normal fan fiction gender gap is reversed in the Grantville Gazette; the profiles on the “Authors” page are about 80% male. Whether by accident or by design, the Grantville Gazette has created a writing space that welcomes all types of burgeoning writers, and fulfilled at least one utopian goal laid out by early participatory culture predictors.
Because of the open nature of the 1632/Baen’s Bar forums, I was lucky enough to be able to start a Q amp; A dialogue with some of the Baen’s Bar forum-goers in the “1632 Tech” forum. For reference, the question set and selected responses are in Appendix A. The forum-goers’ answers were enlightening and often opened up new modes of enquiry. When asked to self-identify as an author, beta reader, or series fan, most respondents stated “all of the above”; a few identified their growth sequence from fan to author to reader/commenter on the forums, in that order. When asked how working with the Gazette had impacted their development as a writer, only one person out of fourteen replied that it had no impact; of the rest, the most popular response was that the Grantville Gazette was their first professional sale, first time writing fiction, or entry point into the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America). Based on the responses, it seems that fiction writers were more likely to respond to the questions posted; looking back there may have been an unintentional responder bias in the way the questions were set up.
Some of the most diverse replies came in response to the question “How has your work contributed to the shared world of 1632?” These included: the introduction of new technologies such as ballet dance techniques and engineering education, cultural innovations like modern musical theory, maintenance of complex character databases, expanding the storyline into other countries outside Europe, dealing with the problems of using radio during the Maunder Minimum[8], establishing strategy for Cardinal Richelieu (one of the recurring characters in the series), art direction, and the creation of “How-To” writing guides.
I also asked the first-time authors why they chose to submit their first work to the Gazette. Nearly everyone cited the helpfulness of the forums in providing feedback, or stated that they were actively encouraged to write something by another forum member. (In fact, most of the replies to this section could probably be summed up tongue-in-cheek as “The forums made me do it!”) I think most of the responses to this question are fairly well encapsulated by the first answer, “This community not only [recruits] new authors, and pays professional rates, they actively teach writing to those willing to listen and act on advice, and respond with useful information within hours.” (Jack Carroll)
Another question involved the rules for beta readers. There do not appear to be any established guidelines, but most of the forum members cited personal rules fairly similar to those listed by Henry Jenkins in Convergence Culture, i.e.staying positive, making suggestions, and making an honest effort to help improve writing skills. (189) Comments included, “We check each other for accuracy and suggest research resources” (Jack Carroll) , “Try and be constructive . . . and sometimes it’s a real emphasis on try . . .”,
