Greetings all!
Please let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Independence Day!
To quote my hero and all time favorite President, Abraham Lincoln: "I never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence." I hope today is filled with good cheer, patriotism, and a fair bit of summer fun for all of you. I also wanted to thank you all for the kind words and congratulations again about
Blue Skies in Camelot reaching its 100th regular chapter. Once again, let me reiterate my firm belief that this timeline would not be here if it were not for the warmth, kindness, and support you all provide on a regular basis to both me and the timeline. Thank you so much!
If I may, I would also like to provide a quick status report on the future of
BSiC, my writing plans, and basically just check in with you all, as well as answer a few questions you've posed.
My goal, as ever with TTL, is to bring it through several more decades before it reaches its final conclusion. (Its subtitle is
An Alternate 60's and Beyond, after all). I have ideas and plans which carry events ITTL all the way to the present day in some cases, though I do not expect that I will want to write narrative which takes us all the way up to that point. I can firmly say that I do have a fixed story line end-point in mind for
BSiC and though I will not spoil what it is, I expect it to fall somewhere around the years 2005 - 2008. (Let the speculation commence! Or feel free to just sit back, pop some popcorn, and be along for the ride). I will say that we are nearing the end of "Act II" and will soon start up "Act III" (which I believe will likely require the posting of a new thread at some point, thanks to all of the spirited feedback and discussion that this one has generated!). As always, I welcome suggestions and ideas. I love hearing what you all think and trying to implement as much of what you suggest as I am able.
I apologize for the lack of updates and overall momentum over on
BSiC: Closer to Home, my microhistory supplement to
Blue Skies.
I offer no excuses for the lack of activity there on my end, simply a combination of many real-life distractions, and a LOT of creative writing projects (both AH related and otherwise) going on at the same time. I consider
BSiC: Closer to Home to still be semi-active, and I do hope to return more actively to it at some point, but my focus for the time being is definitely on the primary TL proper. Again, hopefully, I will be able to get back on the horse with
Closer to Home at some point soon.
I also have several ideas for totally different timelines that I would like to write in the future which have been percolating in my imagination for a while now, and which have always taken a back seat to
Blue Skies, as I do not want to over-commit myself to too many projects at once and then just not end up working on any of them very well. After Act II is complete, I am toying with the idea of posting TTL "Acts I & II" in the finished forum, and at least starting on one of those ideas, so that I can have a bit of a break from
Blue Skies and explore some other Alt-History scenarios. That isn't to say that I won't finish it. FAR FROM IT
The plan is still absolutely to finish
Blue Skies in Camelot as I intend it (being Four - Five Acts and an epilogue), I just might want to tinker around with some other ideas as well. Regardless of whether any other TL's come out of these experiments or not, expect Act III of
Blue Skies in Camelot to pick up shortly after my "break".
Just to shamelessly gauge interest, my focus is still
firmly American History and I want to possibly write some what-ifs surrounding my other favorite Presidents: Theodore and/or Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and of course, the big, eponymous, heroic one - Abraham Lincoln. If you all would be interested in hearing some of the other TL ideas I have, I would be happy to discuss them here or via PM. In an effort to keep this post (relatively) short, I'll leave it at that for now.
Anyways, on to questions!
@President_Lincoln Any hint on what the next few chapters after Pop Culture 1975 is going to be?
Certainly, Nerdman!
Chapter 101 -
Star Trek and
Star Wars (featuring a large, wonderful guest section written by you,
@Nerdman3000! )
Chapter 102 - The rest of the Democratic Primaries and the Democratic National Convention in New York.
Chapter 103 - President Bush and Representative Schlafly battle it out in the Republican Primaries, and the GOP Convention in Kansas City.
Chapter 104 - The 1976 General Election Campaign - Which I am still working on at the moment.
I did leave something about sports for you, Mr. President. Hope to get some input.
Thank you,
@AndyWho! My apologies for not being quicker to respond.
This summer has been a lot busier IRL than I expected it to be. I will try to read your message and give a thorough, thoughtful answer as soon as possible!
