Drops of Blood » Genre http://www.dropsofblood.com Thoughts on writing. Ways to goose the muse. Tips & links. Maybe snippets of my fiction in progress. Who knows? Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:27:11 +0000 en hourly 1 How Different Can an Alternate History Be? http://www.dropsofblood.com/2007/06/13/how-different-can-an-alternate-history-be/ http://www.dropsofblood.com/2007/06/13/how-different-can-an-alternate-history-be/#comments Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:19:59 +0000 Carolyn Bahm http://www.dropsofblood.com/2007/06/13/how-different-can-an-alternate-history-be/ Hmm, here’s something I didn’t know about a familiar genre. Traditionally, alternate histories apparently have these two features:

  • Just ONE thing changes.
  • You must be able to sum up the difference between the parallel world and ours in one sentence.

Maybe so, way back when. But I think that’s a very limiting definition (and not in a good way). See an interesting discussion (including comments) over at Westerblog, the home of Scott Westerfeld, who writes some very high-concept snappy-sounding young adult novels that I intend to buy soon and add to my toppling to-be-read pile. (Side note to my husband, Harry: If you’re reading this — just kidding! I get all my books from the, uh, library. Yeah, that’s it!)

[tags]genre fiction, DropsofBlood.com, Carolyn Bahm, alternate history[/tags]

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