SEA LION PRESS

By Gary Oswald. Members of the City Imperial Volunteers burn a farm at Frederickstrad. This left the guerillas unable to feed themselves, and starved civilians in their thousands. Picture out of copyright, held by the National Army Museum. As discussed in the previous article, the British armies in South Africa were firmly in the ascendancy during 1900. But as they advanced into the Boer Republics, capturing their capitals, they made only limited efforts to bring the Boer arm

Edited by David Flin. Written by: Heath Aberdeen Falisha Adiguna Eesha Haq Teddy Harrison Jaiden-David Hinds Ame Lock Eden Murray Betsy Street Chapter Three. Mary and Brian set off with a determined air towards the library. They weren’t sure what they were looking for, but they knew they had to find it. The first thing they did was look up when Halley’s Comet was next due. “July 28, 2061,” Mary read. “Oh, good. We’ve got some time, then. What books will we need?” They eventua

By Alexander Wallace. This article was originally published at Nerds of a Feather and the original article can be found there. Please check that blog for more like this. The English translation's cover, courtesy Amazon. One of the things that consistently provides me with a mild degree of amusement as an alternate history fan is how writers from other genres, and especially outside the speculative fiction scene, and especially outside of genre fiction, accidentally reinvent a

By Wm. Garrett Cothran. The first version of the idea was not really Mad Men in a Nazi victory timeline. That became the larger shape later. The first version was closer to Columbo. I always liked the structure of Columbo: you know who did it. You watch the murderer first. You see the confidence, the planning, the arrogance, the little mistake they do not realize is a mistake yet. Then Columbo appears. He is not there to discover the crime in the usual detective story way. He

Edited by David Flin. Written by: Heath Aberdeen Falisha Adiguna Eesha Haq Teddy Harrison Jaiden-David Hinds Ame Lock Eden Murray Betsy Street Introduction There’s a junior school in south London – it doesn’t matter which one – where I work. One of the things I do there is run an after-school club for some of the older children (aged 9-11). The children in the club work together to tell a story, which I write down and tidy up a little. I’m a sort of a cross between editor and

By Duncan Clacher. On the Sea Lion Press Forums, we run a monthly Vignette Challenge. Contributors are invited to write short stories on a specific theme (changed monthly). The theme for the 70th contest was Public Domain. Letter from Dr. Benjamin Franklin to General George Washington​ Paris, May 3 1777​ Sir, Count Dracula of Transylvania, a nobleman of distinguished military lineage in his Country and famous for his own Bravery and Ferocity as an officer of the Habsburg Im

By Gary Oswald. The European Cup at Le Parc des Princes stadium in 1956: the start of the UEFA tournaments. Creative Commons, courtesy the blog L'Equipe and Wikimedia Commons. In a previous article, I discussed how National Leagues for Association Football emerged in England, Scotland, Ireland and other European countries in the late 19th century. And as soon as that happened, there was debate over which of the winners of those leagues were better. From 1876 to 1905, there wa

By Matthew Kresal. Deathworld cover, image courtesy Big Finish website For Doctor Who’s tenth season, the programme celebrated a decade on-screen with a serial featuring the three actors who had played the Time Lord. But while The Three Doctors as broadcast primarily focused on the Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton incarnations (ill health left William Hartnell in a supporting role) as they faced off against the vengeful Time Lord Omega, the tenth anniversary serial was almos

By Ryan Fleming. Gump & Co cover, image courtesy Amazon marketplace Every work is a product of its time. Some might be ahead of their time or look back to an earlier time, but even these cannot look forward or back without being products of their time. At times, whether or not something can be a product in a particular time can change very suddenly. Adaptations of the comic Watchmen kept struggling during the 1990s in part because the dark Cold War tale seemed out of sync wit

By Gary Oswald. Boer commandos posing for the camera, ready to fight the British invasion. They had sympathy in Europe, which similarly posed and motivated black soldiers never did. Picture public domain, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. In October of 1899, after a long crisis, the two Boer states of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic declared war on the British Empire and sent their armies to invade British Natal and the Cape Colony. There is a great irony of the Se

By Matthew Kresal. Introduced in 1961, the Fantastic Four changed the face of comics. The foursome offered a new take on the genre as a dysfunctional but loving family; their presence put Marvel Comics on the map and set up a still ongoing rivalry with DC Comics both on the page and, later, on cinema screens. They’ve been the stars not only of their own comic for much of the last sixty years but a brief lived radio series, animated television shows, and sometimes ill-fated fe

By Jeff Provine This article was originally posted on This Day in Alternate History and the original article can be found there. Please check that blog for more like this. Battle of Sitka by Louis S. Glanzman. Picture courtesy Wikimedia Commons. The 1804 Battle of Sitka was the last major armed conflict between Russians and Alaskan Natives during the Russian Settlement of Alaska. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Russia was in a unique position in the fur trade. Bec

By Gary Oswald. T.L. Morganfield is an American writer of Aztec themed alternate history, fantasy, and AH romance. Her short story Night Bird Soaring was a finalist for the 2009 Sidewise Awards. Hello and thanks so much for talking to us. First of all, how did you get into Aztec history and mythology and what do you think appeals to you about writing about that culture? I can trace it all to one class with one specific professor in college, and that was Introduction to the Hi

By Tom Anderson. While I am a veteran writer of both published and unpublished alternate history (AH) fiction, The Tenacity of Hope is my first published foray into the dicey world of American politics. In this article I’m going to discuss both why this field is a potentially rich one for AH fiction, and why I chose the specific scenario I did: of a world in which Barack Obama does not become President in 2008 so soon after becoming Senator, but instead at an advanced age in

By Matthew Kresal. On the Sea Lion Press Forums, we run a monthly Vignette Challenge. Contributors are invited to write short stories on a specific theme (changed monthly). The theme for the 96th contest was The Sea. ***** Even in spring, the north Atlantic could be cold. It was something that Lt. Carl Evans felt in his bones, the wind rippling his baggy flight clothes. The only thing still in place was his the front of his shirt and his jacket, the life jacket he wore holdin

By Charles E.P. Murphy Cover of first edition, courtesy Amazon. In another world’s 1960s, Terence O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s Prime Minister, achieves his dream of draining the lake of Lough Neagh to boost employment and gain land. While it doesn’t quite work out, it does cause an archipelago of small islands to rise out of the water: the “Ark”, so named after it becomes a refuge for people fleeing the Troubles. The world sees it as a beacon of hope in dark times, a place whe

By Gary Oswald. Cover courtesy Amazon Meljean Brooks’ The Iron Duke , the first book in the popular Iron Seas series, follows Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth as she investigates a dead body found in the Isle of Dogs, on the property of the Duke of Anglesey, the titular Iron Duke. This is not however, the book you might think it is from that description. This is not a detective novel or a crime novel. Who killed the dead man (who turns out to be one of the Duke’s friends)

By Ryan Fleming. Watchmen: The Deluxe Edition cover, image courtesy Amazon. Hollywood loves to throw around the word ‘unfilmable’ for any work they can’t quickly turn into a motion picture for immediate profit. One such ‘unfilmable’ work was Watchmen – past tense, because like many works at one point considered ‘unfilmable’ like The Lord of the Rings or Dune , it was only ‘unfilmable’ until it was filmed. Although it lingered in development hell for more than two decades, W

By Paul Hynes. The Wehrmacht bring Marshall Foch's mobile headquarters to Compiegne, a deliberate humiliation for the French. Public domain photo from Wehrmacht archives, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. On the 22nd of June 1940, history repeated itself in a tragic manner. The location was a train carriage in the French forest of Compiegne. At the end of the First World War this wagon had served as the mobile headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander, Marechal Ferdinand Foch. I

By Matthew Kresal. Copyright Big Finish Productions The making of a television series, like any creative endeavour, is not without its difficulties. Pitches that don’t quite work out and scripts that aren’t up to scratch are part of that experience. Doctor Who was no exception to that. Indeed, some eras being notable for their production woes and the latter part of Patrick Troughton’s tenure as the Time Lord was such a period with at least one serial being abandoned so late