So Baen has a “challenge” out to readers. The prizes? Get red-shirted in an upcoming Eric Flint novel and receive a complete set of the 1632 “Ring of Fire” eBook series.
Not bad. Of course, I only lack one of the series, so far, so that’s not a biggie, but getting killed off in an Eric Flint novel might be… novel.
So what’s the challenge? Given a 10-mile diameter “Assiti Shard” that displaces either forward or backward in time from 2011, come up with a story proposal. You know: place transported, people, where transported, conflict, etc.
The problem for me is this: it’d be really interesting if a 10-mile diameter area centered around where I took Son&Heir on a country drive here in America’s third world county were transported back in time just 100 years… to the same place. The interesting thing to me would be the situation: how long would it take the people living in this area to discover they’d traveled back in time 100 years? I’m betting on an average of a year, but some might never find out… No. I’m serious. *heh* (You’d really have to know the area I’m talking about. “Piney woods” just doesn’t capture the flavor… )
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OK, the Assiti Shard books and stories, beginning with 1632, are generally just fun reads. But the more extensively read one is in history, especially European history and particularly the Renaissance, the more fun the tales will be.
