"Eric Flint - Grantville Gazette - Vol 4" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

So, if all goes wellтАФwhich it should! it should!тАФwe'll have Volume 5 ready for publication in two to
three months. That would put us back on the triannual schedule I've been hoping to maintain all along.
(No, we haven't been doing it. Our actual schedule has been closer to biannual.)

file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Flint,%20Eric%20-%20Ring%20o...0Gazette%20Vol%204%20(.html%20v3.0)/1011250008___0.htm (2 of 5)4-1-2007 2:19:43
 - Prologue


***
Some remarks on the contents of this volume:
Once again, I had to go through my usual dance, trying to decide which stories should go under
"Continuing Serials" and which should be published as stand-alone stories. This is a dance which, as the
magazine unfolds, is getting. . .
Really, really complicated.
In the end, I parsed the contents of this volume in such a way that only David Carrico's "Heavy Metal
Music" fell into the category of "Continuing Serials." I am even willing to defend that choice under
pressure, althoughтАФfair warningтАФmy defense will lean heavily on subtle points covered by Hegel in
his Science of Logic. (The big one, not the abridgment he did later for his Encyclopedia. So brace
yourselves.)
That said. . .
Well. . .
"Poor Little Rich Girls," by Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff, continues the adventures of the teenage
tycoons-in-the-making that Gorg began in "The Sewing Circle" in Volume 1 of the Gazette and
continued in the story "Other People's Money" in Volume 3.
I will stoutly insist that Virginia DeMarce's "'Til We Meet Again" is a stand-alone story; no ifs, ands or
buts about it. I will also admit that, knowing Virginia, the status will last about as long as a snowball in
hell. Leaving aside the suspicious appearance of the name "Quedlinburg," the presence anywhere in the
vicinity of Mary Simpson is enough in itself to set off all the alarm bells. I introduced the character of
the Abbess of Quedlinburg myself, in 1633тАФbut did so at Virginia's recommendation. I should have
known. . .
As for Mary Simpson, I first introduced her as a minor character in 1632 and then developed her as a
major character in 1633. Since then, the dame seems to be taking over the world. She'll be a major
character in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis and I can see her looming in David Carrico's series.
The same with Karen Bergstralh's "One Man's Junk." In this volume, that story is a stand-alone. Yup,
sure is. That status will last until the next volume comes out. At which point the readers will discover
that life goes on, for the characters in that story as with so many others.
The same will probably prove to be true, sooner or later, with most about all the other stories in this
volume. The truth? The distinction I make for the Gazette between "continuing serials" and "stand-alone
stories" is pretty much analogous to the distinction the law makes between first and second degree
murder. The one is premeditated in cold blood; the other more-or-less happens in the heat of the fray.
There are times I think of just throwing up my hands and publishing all of the stories in the Gazette as
"continuing serials." And, in my darker moments, contemplate changing the title of the magazine to The
1632 Soap Opera. That's because, like a soap opera, the characters just seem to go on forever and ever in
one episode after another. Unless one of them is actually Killed OffтАФand then, sometimes, you don't
really know For SureтАУthey'll keep re-appearing. Often enough, in somebody else's episode.
On the other hand, I'm not a snob about soap operas. I used to be, until many years ago my wife's work
schedule required me to tape her favorite soap opera so she could watch it when she got home. Initially,
I did so holding my noseтАФand bound and determined to watch only the first few minutes to make sure it
was taping properly. This was back in the early days of VHS when I didn't trust the technology involved.
(And still don't, but I admit I'm something of a technophobe.)