Archive for the ‘Fiction’ Category

Terry Pratchett’s Making Money

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

Read this book last night from start to finish so it must certainly have something to recommend it!

All was going along swimmingly until 4000 ancient golems turned up and I really think they derailed the plot. It would have made far more sense if 4 gold ones had turned up and ended up as guards in the bank vault, and that wouldn’t have detracted from the story arcs focused on the bank, on the loss of the gold, and on Mr Bent

The characterisations all worked out – Moist, Cosmo, Vetinari, the underlings, Mr Bent, Hubert, the Igor, Miss Drapes, even the necromanced wizard from the past.

It was just the 4000 golems which knocked it all askew. Given how somehow the rumour of “4 gold golems” turned into the reality of “4 thousand golems” it felt like Pratchett changed his mind suddenly about what was going to happen, maybe thinking it too twee…

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

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Railway Networks and Companies

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Transport Networks

The other night I dreamt of a railway company called CCCM which ran trains across the breadth of Great Britain, and stood for Coombs Connor Chambers Marine. The implication was it was 1914 and the Great War had been going on for three years, and that CCCM were newly in the railway business, since the M stood for Marine and they were mainly a shipping company. They had bought up small railways to create a new large company, in the spirit of the Great Central of OTL. But the difference was that unlike the “all routes lead to London” approach of OTL, CCCM had built their system to join West and East.

Now, this dream lasted not very long, even in dream time. A train was coming in to a small town station at night, and lorries were waiting to unload stuff from it.

The moral of this story is that transport networks are not governed solely by goegraphy, or solely by economics, but also by company ambition and the individual needs of companies who take action to secure what they want, even if the over-arcing logic of economics might argue against it.

Because London was out of bounds for cross-traffic, the major stations in London were all termini. King’s Cross, Euston, Victoria, Waterloo, Liverpool Street, Marylebone, the lines all lead in and out the same way. If the rules had been different, and the railway companies had been permitted to build stations in the city centre then the lines would have run in and out in two directions. Their location would have been different, and their names (of course since, apart from Victoria, their names were location-based).

But not only this, the whole of the railway network would have been different if companies could have run through London and out again. The buying up of smaller companies would have made greater sense if they could have been merged into the one name – if the Great Western could have run through London and out again to the East, then it would have had incentive to buy and absorb the Great Eastern.

It may immediately strike one that the Great Western’s name would not make huge sense if it included the Great Eastern also, but the history of name changes in reality reflects this. The LNWR and the Midland Railways both grew out of other longer-established companies with geographical names. The Grand Junction Railway was the largest of those which amalgamated to make the London and North Western Railway, and it in itself had been an amalgamation of other small companies. The name Grand Junction had made sense when it had been all of these smaller companies merged into one, focused on Crewe. But when it in turn merged with others and got a complete North-South presence, the LNWR was the logical name, naming both ends of the new line, one in London, the other in the North-West.

Had the Great Western been able to run cross-rail in London and swallow up the Great Eastern it would have changed its name – quite possibly (and ironically) to the Great Central, which in OTL was a completely different railway coming down the spine of England, Loughborough to London Marylebone.

Another factor to consider is that driving egomaniac businessmen make the accumulation of diverse railway interests into a single company possible. Terms such as ‘The Railway King’ describe individuals who have drive and ruthlessness to succeed, despite ethical considerations. Different individuals in different places would have led to different outcomes, to different collections of lines under a single company, to longevity for some company names, and shortened life for others.

Money of course is another major factor – shares, or owners with lots of money is how companies get to afford their expansion. Shares led to share scandals, to railway bubbles, to spurts of growth then periods of retrenchment. This, though, is pretty much simple economics, and economic cycles.

In any long-term timeline, the rail networks are not going to evolve identically to OTL. At the smallest level, this can add colour to a timeline or narrative – going to catch the Great British sleeper to Aberdeen, or the Pan-Britannic Railway from London to Cardiff. At a larger level different networks and different companies would effect, and be the effect, of greater national issues.

Grey Wolf

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Countries Not Immediately Affected by Your POD

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

Countries Not Immediately Affected by Your POD

So many times one reads alternate history timelines where the Point of Divergence affects country A, and has knock-on effects only to those countries that country A now does different things towards. Fifty years down the line country B, which never had any conflict with country A, is strangely, weirdly exactly the same as it was in Our Time Line, no butterflies having ever played with its destiny. But this makes no sense at all !

Perhaps the worst example of this kind of writing was Harry Turtledove in ‘The Great War’ series of books. Now, the first books were well-written and well-plotted within themselves but the assumptions underlying the historical convergence was a complete abdication of the role of alternate history. Despite the Confederates winning the American Civil War, despite their being a second such war twenty years later, also won by the CSA, there is STILL the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, and still the exact same alliance systems in Europe. The only difference is that the two American nations are aligned to one and the other, and thus start the war from the beginning.

Now, I will admit that this was an interesting narrative device, and I often see new posters asking on alternate history boards what a Confederate victory would mean for the First World War, but it makes no serious sense at all. The logical answer to that question would be that there would be NO First World War as we know it, and that there may in fact be one a lot sooner.

What needs to be remembered is that country B not doing something does mean it does nothing instead, it will do something else. Where country B is a knock-on from the POD, is affected by what may call second level butterflies this may not be immediately obvious to anyone who doesn’t really know the history of country B and thinks that somehow it exists in a vacuum of its own devising, immune from what everybody else does as long as it does not directly affect them.

Examples

But this is wrong, and illogical. Examples are easy to come by. Let us take Korea, a country that most people regard as the late nineteenth century whipping boy of East Asia. It is not immediately obvious that if there is a world war in 1878 Korea becomes Russian, perhaps. But let us see – if Germany defeats France in 1878, then France is in no position to defeat China in the Sino-French War of the 1880s, and thus Japan is in no position to defeat China in the early 1890s but some clash between China and Japan is likely to occur, with the probability that Japan does not do very well, even if it is able to avoid defeat. Russia’s ambitions in Korea will be strengthened by Japan’s weakness there, and one may well see in 1905 a Russo-Chinese War over Korea, resulting in a limited Russian victory that gains them their objective.

Of course, it may go way, way differently, but that would be alright. As long as there is a causal history then it doesn’t matter what the eventual result is. What does matter is that it is not the default of Japan beats China, Japan beats Russia, Korea becomes a Japanese colony. If France is in no position to defeat China in the 1880s then China will not be so dangerously weakened.

Obviously, if France is not in this position, it does not mean that somebody else may not possibly be taking their place. If Germany has defeated France in 1878 then it is possible that by the 1880s it is coming up against China, resulting in a Sino-German War, and a German victory. But a German victory is more likely to mean that any Japanese ambitions to take territory or influence off China leads to Germany squaring off against Japan, than was the case with a French victory due to French interests in Indo-China. Germany would be viewing a victory against China as a calling card to the Far East, and a ticket to meddle across the greater field of play.

That is only one example, of course, but hopefully it is instructive in some way. A country completely uninvolved in a European war would be affected by the fall-out of that war. It might not immediately notice this in the first ten years, but after twenty there have already been knock-on effects, and after thirty major events concerning the destiny of the country would be going in a different direction.

If we return to the Turtledove example, then we immediately can ask what are the effects of a Confederate victory in the American Civil War, especially bearing in mind how the alliance systems developed by 1914? The first instance is that Maximilian’s Mexico survives, and thus France does not suffer a humiliation in having to withdraw. One can still see the 1866 war between Austria and Prussia taking place, and the formation of the North German Confederation, but would France by 1870 really be so beaten down and paranoid that the Ems Telegramme would drive it to war? In fact, with relative success in Mexico, France would be unlikely even to have engaged in face-saving failed deals with Bismarck over Luxembourg, or even Belgium.

Okay, we could countenance the Franco-Prussian War breaking out, but IMVHO it would have a different beginning, or at least a different legal understanding of such. In OTL Napoleon III saw the Ems Telegram as being the last straw, that if France did not respond it, and he, would be completely humiliated, and in being so his throne would be under threat. But if Mexico was still a live project, and the complete loss of face over Luxembourg had not happened (albeit with Luxembourg still remaining Dutch, simply no attempt being made to buy it) then by 1870 fear of German encirclement would exist, but fear over loss of face and the overthrow of the dynasty would be far less. It may be that as in 1914 it would be impossible for historians to work out objectively where war guilt lay in this alternate Franco-Prussian War, and that legally Germany would look as liable as France.

Maybe none of that matters; if Prussia wins, then the German Empire is formed, but is it so clear cut that the Paris Commune follows upon the defeat? It came to exist because with the empire having lost the last shreds of its legitimacy the radical elements surged into power in besieged Paris. Maybe that happens here, but maybe it does not – France after all still had a field army. The argument over whether to commit it to battle is what lay at the heart of many an argument between Regent Eugenie and the politicos in Paris. Thre Prince Imperial was safely in Britain, and legally the empire could continue in the captivity of its Emperor, especially if he could be abdicated.

Even if the Paris Commune and the dark days of the Germans pressing the siege still happen, it does not follow that the Third Republic would be the inevitable result. Orleanist monarchists had an overwhelming majority in the first assembly and it was assumed that they would restore the monarchy, but the intractability of the proposed king, the Comte de Chambord, scuttled that. Perhaps it is so again, but it need not be – maybe the assembly does not demand the tricolor, maybe Henri d’Orleans can compromise on the Fleur de Lys. One or the other would result in the restoration of the monarchy.

Even if everything in France follows an analogous path, by the mid 1870s things are going to be impacting upon the Third Republic. With an independent Confederacy and a surviving Mexican Empire they cannot do otherwise. If Maximilian and Charlotte do not have any natural children, then his adopted Iburtide heirs are going to acceed to the throne of Mexico. If one assumes that Maximilian and Charlotte’s inability to conceive was due to stress etc then by the 1870s they are likely to have a pregnancy, and if it does not miscarry there will be a child, an heir even if female subject to whatever succession laws Maximilian promulgates and perhaps amends.

Mexican history is never nice and straightforward. If Maximilian only has a daughter he would probably want to marry her to an Iturbide prince, regardless of the semi-incestuos nature of daughter and adopted son, and regardless of the difference in age. If Maximilian’s constitution gives way to the strains it is under and he dies, then an Iturbide may become regent for the daughter, and the daughter may sadly die under uncertain circumstances, or more likely Iturbide attempts to seize power and change the laws of succession. Cue probably European intervention, and also probably Confederate action of some kind.

We can carry on with “If A then B, if B then C” and different values for A,B and C, but the basic principle is what is at issue here. After ten years things may appear the same but the underlying issues have been changed significantly. After twenty years issues of major import have happened in a different fashion from OTL; even if they have not directly impacted they would be but one step away. After thirty years major events are happening in a different fashion as A has affected B and B has now affected C.

I cannot conceive of a realistic situation where after a Confederate victory in the American Civil War, by 1914 the alliance systems are the same as OTL, the rivalries the same, and the impetus for war the same, with the only difference being the existence of the American nations on different sides of the alliance systems.

Turtledove tried an intelligent tactic by having had the German armoured cruisers Roon and Yorck visit the USA prior to the war, but this ignores how even the fact of the US alliance would have changed German High Seas Fleet thinking. Why have a couple of armoured cruisers when you could get a squadron of battlecruisers stationed where they would threaten both CSA warships and British convoys to/from Canada? Even a squadron of light cruisers on permanent station in the USA would be a vastly greater threat, and would make much greater strategic sense.

Even if we swallowed massive convergence and looked solely at the two American nations involvement in the alliance systems, the idea that Europe would continue in the same fashion, down the same road makes no sense at all. North America is not a separate world financially from Europe, and the relationships of OTL are going to be fractured and realigned with two nations and two alliances. The USA is going to be weaker, for having been defeated twice, meaning that people like Carnegie and JP Morgan may well not have the same influence as OTL, and even if they do they would be far less likely to invest in Britain, member of an opposing alliance system, than they would be in the German Empire or in her Austrian and Italian allies. Imagine Carnegie libraries in Austria, or the White Eagle fleet of passenger ships operating out of Naples and Genoa…

If the USA is not able to declare war on Spain, then the position of Spain in the European alliance system becomes an important point. If as Turtledove has it Spain has strangely sold Cuba to the CSA, then it still retains the Philippines and associated islands, and Spain’s role in any Far Eastern front is going to be vital. It is a sad distortion that historians assume that Spain had a rubbish fleet of ancient hulks in 1898 and would not have been able to mount any sort of realistic naval expedition in an ATL 1914. Spain’s ships were not useless, they were just maintained in a relatively poor condition, and nowhere near as good in defence as the Americans proved in attack. By 1914, there would have been a sizeable force of relatively modern cruisers in Manila, especially if we can accept the idea that Spain has sold Cuba to the CSA. Using these offensively, Spain can power-project, it can attack and not defend, and it can make one ship tie down many of the enemy as the German light cruisers did in OTL in 1914.

Now, none of this is what will happen, it is only what could happen, but IMHO the one thing that would NOT happen is for things to go along just as OTL.

Determinations

What is important is that no country is going to remain immune to a change, that one can demarcate temporal boundaries where effects will begin to make themselves felt, even if there is no direct knock-on from the POD, or from its direct consequences.

Countries not immediately affected by your POD are not going to go their merry way down a road of convergence. They are going to be affected, and not a huge amount of research is necessary to see how to rough out a timeline for them where they are affected. It is much easier to accept a timeline where sensible, if low level changes have been impacted upon what might be called third-party countries, than it is to accept dull convergence where this is the less logical of outcomes.

It is of course much easier to accept if the changes and results have been worked through in some detail, rather than with a broad-brush approach. The latter is acceptable as an alternative to no real change at all, but a step-by-step approach to a country makes much greater sense, and provides the story with additional back-stories and topics to dive into than would an attempt to force allohistorical convergence upon a nation.

And it is fun! It may be work, but plotting out how a nation is being affected by the changes around it is fun – or why is the author involved in alternate history in the first place? One would admit that the more countries one has already done, the more complicated it becomes to tie additional countries into the mix, but it is better to tie them into the allohistorical events going on that it is to blithely assume convergence and have them as close to a carbon copy of reality as possible.

For example, if a world war breaks out in the late nineteenth century, one should not assume that Spain pays it no heed and ends up hammered by the USA. Why would they ignore a world war? Why would they not seek to act in their best strategic interests, even if this simply means joining in in the dying months to get the kudos of being on the winning side? And if they did decide to remain neutral, would this not probably mean that they felt free to massively reinforce their colonial forces, build up their garrisons, and take on and destroy rebels that had long been giving them problems? If a world war in the mid 1890s results in a drastically altered Europe, and Spain has remained aloof, might not the price of their remaining aloof be that they have ruthlessly put down both the Cuban and the nascent Filipino rebellions?

Even if we look at a country that tends to hide in the shadows there are interests, worries, fears and hopes that would come to the surface. For example with Portugal, if there is a world war in the early 1890s, to steal the above idea, Portugal is going to have the dual focus of preserving the African empire it does have, and enlarging the claims it maintains on additional African areas. To an extent these overlap, since some of the land that is internationally recognised as Portuguese in this period is actually only claimed, perhaps patrolled by infrequent colonial incursions, but by no means occupied at this juncture. On the other hand, there are lands claimed by Portugal, and claimed by others, where nobody yet has any sort of presence. These latter are open to infraction, especially if one’s rivals are tied down in a major war, and Portugal is not going to be so slow off the mark that if Britain is bogged down in defending its position in Europe, Portugal won’t push its position in what became the Rhodesias. The rose-coloured strip was an aspiration not a dream, was an assumed reality and not a mere hope.

Add in these details to the timeline – Spain vigorously subdues its rebel colonies (again – which means perhaps not for the last time having to do so) and Portugal establishes treaties giving it legal claim on the rose-coloured strip. Even if Britain is victorious in this putative world war, and the USA rearms its navy as per OTL, it does not affect what has already happened as a virtual fait accompli. It adds colour and contrast to your timeline, and means that whatever you have happen down the line (another Cuban rebellion, a US war of conquest, a British Nyasaland even) you have not simply played fool to the Gods of Convergence.

Conclusion

No country exists in a vacuum, except by the laziness or blatant manipulation of the author.

It may look like work to devise a history for a specific country in your timeline, but you are only called into having to do it if that country plays any role in your writing, and anyway, is not creating a whole new alternate world what you are in this for, what you think of as fun?

If its not fun to do this, then perhaps you need to step back, abandon alternate history and either adopt time-travel science fiction, or write pure historical fiction instead. Either is a lot better than bad alternate history fiction, and either can get accolades and praise in the real world, when bad alternate history fiction will never get either

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

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A Day In The Life…

Monday, October 4th, 2010

A Day In The Life Of
- A Walk round an Alternate History world

It is a device I often use when writing a novel set in an alternate history universe – I mentally go for a walk. I take a character on an adventure in my mind around the city he is staying in, away from the plot, away from complications that would derail the plot, and I simply imagine him having a day off, so to speak, a day to himself wandering and experiencing life. It won’t necessarily be as something strange to him, though it may be, it may in fact be a perfectly ordinary day wherein he simply conducts leisure, past-time and utilitarian activities, things that would be ‘off-screen’ if the novel were a film.

Imagine your character’s day, perhaps, as if it were to be an analogue of your own day off. The character lives somewhere he knows, he has errands to run, he has fun to seek out, he has a mixture of people he will meet during the course of that day – some strangers, some he knows simply because they are always there, some he knows to nod at or say good morning to, and some he knows well as friends, to stop and spend some time in conversation with.

Such a mental device seems at first to be mundane – of course there will be shops, taverns, newspapers, vehicles, what have you. But look further and this will bring colour and interconnected realism into your novel. That last phrase may be a bit of a mouthful, but it means to step beyond the plot device of describing the villain’s alternate history car, but never bothering to fill the reader in on the rest of the road traffic, or to describe in detail the peculiar shop that the character has a vital assignation in, without explaining which seemingly strange details are in fact commonplace, and which are unique to that place.

Give yourself as the author an idea of what is normal and everyday for the world that your character inhabits by taking him for a walk around it.

An Example

Let us consider an alternate history novel set in the late 1960s in a Britain that diverged from known history with the death in childhood of Princess Alexandrine Victoria, meaning that in 1837 it was her unloved uncle Ernest Augustus who took the throne as King Ernest I of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of Hannover. It may seem extreme to give us a hundred and thirty years to play with, but we are not concerned so much with the history of events between these dates, but at how that history manifests itself in the everyday life of our character.

He gets out of bed in the morning, and how is the room? Is there a portrait on the wall – of a monarch, or a president, or a dictator? If there is, does he acknowledge it in anyway, or does he ignore it? He uses things like soap, toothpaste, coffee – what makes are they, what is their packaging? Are they sold in bland containers, or in highly colourful ones replete with advertisments? Are there paintings or artwork on their packaging, pictures that would be an everyday sight to a character in this world, but would jar if one were seeing this on the screen, or were as the author teleported in from your own reality?

What is for breakfast, or does he not make his own but heads out to a cafe, inn or some other place to eat? If it is an inn, there are no early opening laws, are people drinking beer early in the morning, are some drinking, others eating? Whilst you may find this in any city centre Wetherspoons these days, just ten years ago it would have seemed an amazing thing from our OTL perspective. Is it something that is normal and from time immemorial for your character and those he associates with?

What does he pay with? If notes, what quality is the paper, what colours are printed on them, what pictures, symbols and portraits can be seen? Is there a current monarch, or are the notes depicting famous people solely from the past? What is the denomination, and the currency – is it a five pound note, or a hundred crown note, or perhaps a ten thousand dollar note? If it is coinage, again what colour, size and shape are the coins, are any bi-metallic, do any have holes in them or be of a non-round shape? Are the metals shiny or dull, are they true coins or tokens instead? Perhaps the payment is by some other form – on account, or a tab, or maybe by telephone call to a bank where a security code verifies the transfer of money? Is there a credit card of some sort, a system where an imprint of the card is sent to the company who then pay the innkeeper whilst billing the character? Does technology allow anything more complicated than this?

Are people smoking, chewing gum, spitting tobacco out on the floor, taking snuff, lighting a joint, shooting up with heroin in plain sight? Does the bar provide newspapers free to customers, or perhaps sell some to them, and does the character read about the world’s news or look instead to celebrity tittle-tattle or the sports news? The latter is often ignored in stories, whilst being very important to many people most of the time. Perhaps he reads of an elite level motorcar race, maybe looks for news on his favourite driver or team, or perhaps there has been a crash and a death, certainly in the past a far more common experience than it is today.

Are sports like football, rugby, tennis and cricket major ones, and if so do the rules resemble those we know today? Perhaps a unified sport somewhere between football and rugby has emerged and he reads of his favourite centre forward lunging over the goal line with the ball in the crook of his arm? Details like this would be easy to miss, but the historical development of sports is never a unified path and can have easily been knocked off course – for example if Ernest Augustus’ rule led to a Republican Revolution that overthrew the monarchy in the mid 1840s, that abolished the great public schools and brought about education reform at so early a date, the playing fields of Rugby and Eton would never have led to the development of games we take for granted today. Instead the village tradition of mass-gang football/handball games could have transformed itself into an orderly sport that was now played universally where-ever the phrase “football” raised its head.

If he even glances at the celebrity news in the newspapers who are they? Are they singers and if so what is the prevailing fashion? Has history led to it being soe kind of celtic folk dance rather than the rock and pop of OTL, or is it all still big bands and crooners; maybe lively piano playing singers in garish outfits, or something entirely left of centre, all-drum outfits with rhythm and no words? Are they filmstars, and if so where is the centre of world film-making, or is there not one (no equivalent to Hollywood) just a number of primary centres based in the major film-making nations of the world?

Names are always useful handles to drop into a story later, or even into a detailed timeline for colour, so who does he follow in motorsport, what is the name of the driver, the team, even the team owner, what is his football team also? The latter can also be a vehicle for showing different municipal and industrial development during the course of an alternate history – if Aston is the name of the city and Birmingham a suburb of it, rather than the other way round, what stopped the trend away from this being the original state of affairs (as it was) towards the prominence of the name Birmingham? If the main football clubs include places such as Nelson and Southport, were the North-West of England even more important industrially than historically? Perhaps cotton never suffered a crisis and the region continued to grow? Does that in turn mean there was no American Civil War, or perhaps a peaceful secession of the South?

What sort of films are the filmstars he is reading about starring in? Are they dramatising events of the past, and if so this would help add some details to a timeline, or to a popular interpretation of the history of this alternate history – what for instance do people consider to be the major events worth turning into a film, even if they are but parts of a far more complex story? Was there romance there, or the do-or-die exploits so beloved of films, or perhaps there is pathos, or a tragedy that needed telling? Are these films in colour, are they made in Britain, or imported from abroad, are the filmstars British or has this aspect become internationalised?

After finishing his meal and his pint he returns the paper and leaves the inn (to give answers that reflect a narrative in this example, rather than to admit of all the other possibilities for each question); where does he go then? Let us say it is a weekend and he has no work to go to, no major plot element he has to develop, and thus no greater imperatives than what he would do when left to himself. The inn is probably near to his home, and he probably needs to buy some things from a shop – most of us, most of the time, need to do this, even if it is only those few items which we have forgotten. What sort of shop does he go into, what sort indeed does he have the choice of, are they in fact free entry or do some shops charge an entry fee, or others require identification or the handing over of some sort of passbook for entry?

Is it self-service or do you queue to ask someone behind a counter to get what you need? Does he buy candles, and if so does this imply that the electricity supply is prone to fail from time to time, or that he is restocking after a perhaps unusual power cut? Does he buy much food or is the general culture to eat out most of the time? Does he look at things for sale and wish he could afford them, or had a need for them, but dismiss them as luxuries – what are these things? Maybe they are pineapples and we can see them as priced each beyond the total cost of his breakfast and ale? Or perhaps they are toiletries, aftershave perhaps which he would like to be able to buy but does not see how he can justify the expense? How does he pay – the same as in the inn, or is it a different way for a shop, and are there are ration coupons, or membership cards or club points in play?

Let us say he returns to his place to put the shopping away, or leave it untidily on the table whatever fits the character best. Does he go straight out again, does he turn on a radio or a television, or is there neither in his home? Is it colour if there is in fact a television? If he has bought confectionary does he eat any, what of the packaging, branding and advertising? A major difference in society would be marked by chocolate bars that come in plain wrappers with no advertising on them as against those in coloured paper resplendant with script and pictures. Which best suits the world that your character lives in?

He goes out again – is it to an inn, to a library, or to a sporting venue? Maybe he meets some people in the street whom he knows; who are they, what are they like, how friendly is one in the street? If there is a woman do they kiss on the cheek, or perhaps snog full on in front of everyone, with nobody taking any notice? Is there an official, and if so is he armed? Do gendarmes walk the street, or uniformed bobbies, or is it unclear who is the picture of the authority on the streets? Maybe there are cameras, maybe there are a corps of plain clothed watchers mingling with the crowds, maybe there are soldiers at strategic points, watching, able to gun down a suspect from afar or come surging out en masse should the crowd turn into a mob with aims more political than sporting?

What sport does he choose to watch? Is he mixing with friends, or with acquaintances or is this not an altogether usual thing for him to do and he has come on a whim, or perhaps just to see an important match, or a famous player in one of his last games? What is the home team called, what are the visitors called? What colours do their fans sport, what chants rise around the ground, what obscenities are screamed, do they sit down or is it a packed and crowded standing area?

If the home team loses is there a riot, are the police pro-active, or are soldiers on the street in armoured vehicles to deter anyone from protesting too voiciferously? Is the talk on the way out of referees or linesmen, or of bloody vengeance that will be wreaked against the fans of the opposing side if only the soldiers would let them at them?

Does the character go home, or to an inn, or to a brothel or a sex show? Perhaps he goes to a street theatre performance, players and music licensced on the corners or intersections at weekend, but what plays are they performing, what music is being played? Are there large crowds or passing interest, is there a carnival atmosphere or is this every Saturday night, something to stop and watch a while before moving on? Are there soldiers or police around, or is everyone in good humour, despite the earlier sporting defeat?

Does he end the evening in an inn, or at a brothel, or does he go home and watch the television or perhaps listen to a radio drama? Many questions could be asked about each option, not least the brothel, but by this time in the exercise these questions should be springing to the front of the author’s mind automatically without the need for further prodding.

This is only one example of “A Day In The Life Of”; other examples perhaps in other settings, other periods, with people of a separate class, could take a drastically different path. But the general effect would be the same, the answers to the questions as to what is normal, what is the usual background, how are frequent events responded to, and so on.

Some of them will soon find their way into your novel or detailed timeline, others will sit in the front of your mind as you add different colour and detail to your scenes, creating this interconnected realism even without referring specifically to details that you have now accepted as canon for your alternate reality.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

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The Austrian Kaiser Frederick Class

Friday, May 21st, 2010

This class of battleships did not, and never could have, existed. By the time that the main armoured warship had come to be known as ‘battleship’, the Habsburg Dual Monarchy was only naming capital ships after its own dynasts.

But as an alternate history class name Kaiser Frederick rings out loud. But one would also have to have an AUSTRIAN emperor called Frederick in the modern era, and THAT is more of a challenge.

Ferdinand – I can’t see him having a kid; whether he could get it up, I don’t know, but if he did was he shooting blanks?

Then the next line are too set in stone, but what if Franz Josef died, and Ferdinand Max became emperor – what would he have called his children? But why Frederick?

Or Franz Josef lives and so does Rudolph but there won’t be a KAISER Frederick coming along from Rudolph’s loins anytime soon because Rudolph himself is going to live to inherit the mantle

What does this tell us? Perhaps that if you are going to invent a non-existent class of battleships, check that their names are at least POSSIBLE?

Grey Wolf

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