I’m writing material submit to Eric Flint’s Grantville Gazette, an online publishing house featuring stories written by followers of the 1632 series of books. In these pages are some working notes for the material.
Athena’s Journey introduces Athena Sarah Mawusi Akwete Ocampo. She is a “quarter blood” or “quadroon” daughter of a Portuguese merchant living in a port city on Africa’s west coast. In 1634 she hears from sailors about the seemingly magical appearance of a city from the future in the far-off Germanies. Skeptical at first, too many stories keep on arriving and the details dovetail too much. She decides to go see for herself, leaving in the spring of 1636 (about the same time the Ottoman Empire attacks Europe as chronicled in 1636: The Ottoman Onslaught).
Then second story details what she does once she gets there. She is a merchant’s daughter who followed him around during many of his business deals for years. So once in Grantville it was only natural that she start businesses. First a security firm: body guarding, caravan guarding, bounty hunting, and so on. The second? A media empire!
To write the second story I had to discover just where Badenburg was. A fictional walled city to Grantville’s west, no 1632 stories tells exactly where it is. But I need to know. So – detective work was done.
Laer Carroll 