The state of TIAH
February 11th, 2007
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Alternate Historian's Note: Here we are – 1000 posts on Blogger. Thanks to our temporary exile to Wordpress, we actually passed the 1000 mark a week ago, but we won't count that. Since we started not quite 3 years ago, we've been visited almost 300,000 times, have published close to a million words, and have gotten mentioned in a few cool places. We've written a couple of books based on the web site, and put one of them up for sale – with the other one on the way. Many of you contributed to our financial health by either buying that book or donating directly to the web site – we showed our appreciation for our donors by researching your alternate selves and featuring them in posts (which we will still do, by the way). Before we get to our Guest Historian's work for today, we're going to go through a little retrospective of some of my favorite moments in TIAH – please feel free to add your own reminiscences about TIAH in the comments, or email them to me. I truly appreciate the dedication that you have shown to TIAH in all of our ups and downs over the last three years, and hope that the future holds much brightness and many happy alternate pathways for us all. Now, on with today's retrospective, followed by Guest Historian Stephen Payne's work – be sure to check out his collection, Crimson Kiss, available for free on Lulu, and put up a review!
This one is from December 29th, 2005 – I love it – it is my favorite entry!
in 1769, a French patisserie began offering its bread sliced to its patrons. It was the greatest thing ever.
My favorite timeline is hard to pick, because it's usually whatever I'm writing at the time. However, some of them are closer to my heart than others. And, when I think fondly of what I've written for the site, my 'summer blockbuster' series involving the Australian scientists, the Sheridans, always comes first. It all started June 2nd, 2004, with this innocuous-seeming post:
in 2003, the European Space Agency launched the Mars Express probe. Martian forces terminated it in December, prior to the invasion.
I chronicled their exploits the rest of that summer, and then returned to them February 26th of 2005 with the discovery of the insidious methane crabs of Titan. This was the first entry in that series:
in 2004, exploiting the technology they had adapted from the Martians after the invasion the summer before, the United Nations land an exploratory ship on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. The strange, cold world has seas of liquid methane and an atmosphere similar to earth’s, and scientists had been longing for a close up view for decades.
Follow the entries from then on through July for the thrilling conclusion of the Methane Crabs from Titan story. I love the Sheridans, and they will be included in the collection we're putting together.
My most controversial post was the first September 11th post in 2004. Oddly enough, the two since then have generated nary a peep. I guess time really does heal all wounds.
in 2001, something happened in New York.
Judging by the positive responses I've gotten for it, what most of you consider my best continuing timeline is The Fall – the alternate reality where Lucifer was accepted back into Heaven's fold after his rebellion, but evil still manages to work its way into Paradise. Although it's not my favorite, I do like it, too, and it started with this line on December 29th, 2005:
in 1000 Post-Creation, Gabriel visits Lucifer in Heaven.
What I consider my best work on TIAH is the Lascaux Caves timeline, which started on September 12, 2006 and ended up, appropriately enough, on Halloween. I like it because I was experimenting with the longer form then, and got some good dialog in it, as well as some dramatic tension. Anyway, it started innocently enough, with 4 boys in 1940...
in 1940, the discovery of a cave in Lascaux, France by 4 teenage boys causes a major stir in the archaeological communit...click to read the rest
My favorite time in all of this, of course, was the acquisition of a new historian for our Alternate Academy, on March 26th, 2005 – something that wasn't announced until the following day, with this post:
New Historian Added To Academy!
In an effort to bring you the finest in important events that never occurred, the Alternate History Academy has acquired the services of a brand-new historian. Young Catherine Ann entered the Academy on March 26th at 12:58 PM. Although small, (20 inches, 7 pounds, 1 ounce), she seems to have all the prerequisites we require (10 fingers, 10 toes), and is brimming with energy and is ready to get working at life with her senior historians. Now, all she needs to do is learn how to read and write…
So, that's a little retrospective of our time with you over the last three years. We hope you've enjoyed it all as much as we have, and come back to us every day just waiting to see what never occurred today – just as we enjoy finding it out and bringing it to you!
Enough of our sentimentality! On with Guest Historian Stephen Payne's post!
 Harrry Turtledo.. | In 1993 Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel Alas Trafalgar, in which he posed the question – what if a more cautious Admiral Jellicoe had prevented the sinking of the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in 1916? The outcome is that the British rather than .. |
| .. the Germans gained the North Sea Oil windfall in the 1920s. | |
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge! | |
| In 1858 the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes and the time of languishing is finally at an end. |  Blessed Virgin .. |
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge! | |
 Reza Cyrus Pahl.. | In 1979 the septuagenarian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran. Deteriorating relations with the West and the Embassy Hostage Crisis ended in a catastrophic war with the United States. The rule of His Imperial Majesty Reza Shah II was established in 1981 following a two-year .. |
| .. interregnum in the House of Pahlavi. | |
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge! | |
| In 1981 100,000 gallons (380 m³) of radioactive coolant leaked into the containment building of TVA Sequoyah 1 nuclear plant in Tennessee, contaminating 8 workers. Officers of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) descended upon Richmond, Virginia to meet with Confederate President .. |  Jimmy Carter |
| .. James Earl Carter demanding an explanation for this outrage. The Georgia Giant refused to meet with them sensing Yankee manipulation behind the protests. Of course the United States was not sufficiently advanced to have a nuclear program of their own and the refusal of the Confederacy to share technology with their northern neighbour was the core of the dispute. | |
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge! | |
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2 comments:
the one that made me giggle for hours:
Dec 25th, 2004
"...but the gift of something called a time/space locator, from the wise man known as Tolman..."
Although scattered blogs existed during the late 1990s, it wasn't until 1999 that San Francisco's Pyra Labs created the free Web application Blogger. Originally, the hope was that the innovation would help those collaborating on business projects to coordinate and share information on an internal Web server, a kind of company bulletin board.sportsbook Perhaps there was a mis-reading of Pyra's history (we started the company to build project management software and Blogger was something extra we released) or maybe there's a misunderstanding of how Blogger came to be (we published an internal weblog and used that codebase as part of the original Blogger release). But Blogger was never released with business projects in mind, nor with a focus on internal Web server content.
http://www.enterbet.com
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