Introductions
So, I've been a member of this forum for almost a decade now. During that time I've served in the military, graduated college, and worked as a reporter and freelance writer of some middling success.
During that same decade on this forum, I've done a lot of posts and comments, but never an official timeline... until now.
That's right - after years of discussion, I'm actually doing my official Communist Confederacy timeline.
Some disclosures first... part of why I'm doing this is I'm really struggling to kick off my fiction-writing career. Some really nice non-form rejection letters for some of my short fiction from places like Analog, Galaxy's Edge and Clarkesworld, but still nothing sold or published. What began as an attempt to invert some of the biggest tropes in AH Civil War fiction became this rough sketch of a universe where the South won the American Civil War, proceeded to make an absolute cluster**** of the peace, and after losing TTL's answer to World War I, is split between a vengeful militarized USA and a Communist remnant state, now only barely kept from war because international alliances guarantee it would start another global war.
Eventually, this turned into my first attempt at both a novel and some other short stories, the former I'm still working to finish, the latter I'm trying to sell.
The novel, under the working title "To Live and Die in Dixie" is a spy novel set in this universe's vaguely dieselpunk - because gotta invert the steampunk AH cliche - alternate 1940s, where Malcolm Little has been recruited by the OSS on what they've written off as a suicide mission: rescuing the daughter of one of President Roosevelt's biggest backers being held in the CSSA's most secure military base/prison, and getting back to US soil alive. I actually showed the first chapter and a summary to one of the big six spec fiction publishers, and they loved it - no contracts yet, but I promised to submit to them first once it's finished.
The short stories, I have two so far, one written from the POV of a Confederate soldier by the name of Albert Parsons fighting in Cuba during an eventually unsuccessful war with Spain that sets him on the course of being my Lenin analog, and one from the POV of a "conductor" of the Underground Railroad making one last run to get dissidents out of the CSSA before the border is completely closed. Been shopping them around for a fit, when it comes to short fiction, alternate history is a hard sell.
I mention this, first, because who doesn't try to plug their stuff, and second, because I have to be very careful posting anything on this TL, because I do still plan to sell the novels and other stories, and don't want to risk that... it's a bit of a grey area with publishing. So aside from the first chapter of the novel, which I'll post as a framing device, the rest will be textbook style overview and entirely focused on world-building and history. That should be kosher.
So, after ten years, lots of hype and discussion on this board and elsewhere, I am finally doing my first timeline on the website, and actually doing something other than detail work here on the Communist Confederacy. I hope it lives up to the hype and potential I think it holds.
Let's get things started.
PS - if any of our lovely mapmakers on site are willing to take a commission, I may have some work for you. Likewise for any flag designers.
PSS - Again, my first timeline, but how do I make thread marks?
During that same decade on this forum, I've done a lot of posts and comments, but never an official timeline... until now.
That's right - after years of discussion, I'm actually doing my official Communist Confederacy timeline.
Some disclosures first... part of why I'm doing this is I'm really struggling to kick off my fiction-writing career. Some really nice non-form rejection letters for some of my short fiction from places like Analog, Galaxy's Edge and Clarkesworld, but still nothing sold or published. What began as an attempt to invert some of the biggest tropes in AH Civil War fiction became this rough sketch of a universe where the South won the American Civil War, proceeded to make an absolute cluster**** of the peace, and after losing TTL's answer to World War I, is split between a vengeful militarized USA and a Communist remnant state, now only barely kept from war because international alliances guarantee it would start another global war.
Eventually, this turned into my first attempt at both a novel and some other short stories, the former I'm still working to finish, the latter I'm trying to sell.
The novel, under the working title "To Live and Die in Dixie" is a spy novel set in this universe's vaguely dieselpunk - because gotta invert the steampunk AH cliche - alternate 1940s, where Malcolm Little has been recruited by the OSS on what they've written off as a suicide mission: rescuing the daughter of one of President Roosevelt's biggest backers being held in the CSSA's most secure military base/prison, and getting back to US soil alive. I actually showed the first chapter and a summary to one of the big six spec fiction publishers, and they loved it - no contracts yet, but I promised to submit to them first once it's finished.
The short stories, I have two so far, one written from the POV of a Confederate soldier by the name of Albert Parsons fighting in Cuba during an eventually unsuccessful war with Spain that sets him on the course of being my Lenin analog, and one from the POV of a "conductor" of the Underground Railroad making one last run to get dissidents out of the CSSA before the border is completely closed. Been shopping them around for a fit, when it comes to short fiction, alternate history is a hard sell.
I mention this, first, because who doesn't try to plug their stuff, and second, because I have to be very careful posting anything on this TL, because I do still plan to sell the novels and other stories, and don't want to risk that... it's a bit of a grey area with publishing. So aside from the first chapter of the novel, which I'll post as a framing device, the rest will be textbook style overview and entirely focused on world-building and history. That should be kosher.
So, after ten years, lots of hype and discussion on this board and elsewhere, I am finally doing my first timeline on the website, and actually doing something other than detail work here on the Communist Confederacy. I hope it lives up to the hype and potential I think it holds.
Let's get things started.
PS - if any of our lovely mapmakers on site are willing to take a commission, I may have some work for you. Likewise for any flag designers.
PSS - Again, my first timeline, but how do I make thread marks?