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Review - The Bear Cavalry by D.G. Valdron

To go into more detail on the schedule than anyone wants, lets look at chunks of 28 days, so not quite a month.

Currently, I'd be looking at 5 articles a week so 20 articles (not including new book announcements etc.). From October than would be 6 a week and so 24 articles.

4 of those slots would be on Tuesdays. Tuesdays are reprints of articles first put up elsewhere, 2 of those Tuesdays will have up Vignettes reprinted from the contest and 2 will be articles from Never Was. So that's 4 slots that don't need filling with new material.

Likewise 4 of those slots will be Thursdays. For the remaining months of 2020, Thursdays will have an interview up with someone in the AH community about their projects, whether that's blog, facebook group, youtube channel, publishing company etc. So those 4 slots also aren't open for articles.

So that's 16 slots for regular articles. @Thande, @SpanishSpy and @Alex Richards each have a fortnightly spot for their own regular articles. So they get 2 articles each within the 28 days.

So that leaves us with 10 slots. @heraclius has an extended counter factual scenario serial running once a week for some time yet so that's 4 slots.

So there are 6 slots in those 28 days for everybody else. So the way I look at it is worst case scenario is April, nobody else gives me articles and I have to write 6 myself. That's fine, I'm happy to do that, I have more than enough ideas to do that. Best case scenario is July or August, 6 articles come in and I write nothing. Also fine, I have no problem with that. And more likely most months will look like September where it's somewhere inbetween and it's 5 from other people and 1 from me or 3 vs 3 etc. The point is all the options are acceptable.

I don't know how much interest there'd be in it, or if someone has covered it already (I'm guessing not based on a search of the site), but I'd be up for doing a review of the 1999 Dirk Maggs/BBC Radio dramatization of Stephen Baxter's Voyage. Give me an excuse to go back and listen to it, if nothing else. There might also be an idea to look at "future history" works that have now become AH of a sort, things like Ted Allbeury's 80s novel All Our Tomorrows about a Soviet occupation of the UK in what was then the near-future. I've got a review of it I could brush up, potentially.
 
I don't know how much interest there'd be in it, or if someone has covered it already (I'm guessing not based on a search of the site), but I'd be up for doing a review of the 1999 Dirk Maggs/BBC Radio dramatization of Stephen Baxter's Voyage. Give me an excuse to go back and listen to it, if nothing else. There might also be an idea to look at "future history" works that have now become AH of a sort, things like Ted Allbeury's 80s novel All Our Tomorrows about a Soviet occupation of the UK in what was then the near-future. I've got a review of it I could brush up, potentially.

Hey I'd read those reviews and I'm sure @Gary Oswald would as well!
 
I don't know how much interest there'd be in it, or if someone has covered it already (I'm guessing not based on a search of the site), but I'd be up for doing a review of the 1999 Dirk Maggs/BBC Radio dramatization of Stephen Baxter's Voyage. Give me an excuse to go back and listen to it, if nothing else. There might also be an idea to look at "future history" works that have now become AH of a sort, things like Ted Allbeury's 80s novel All Our Tomorrows about a Soviet occupation of the UK in what was then the near-future. I've got a review of it I could brush up, potentially.

Very much interested in the former. @RyanF covered a little of the latter, but I don't think he got around to 'all our tomorrows'

Be delighted to put up your reviews, just drop me a message, either by starting a conversation here or by emaling me at sealionpressblogeditor@gmail.com
 
Very much interested in the former. @RyanF covered a little of the latter, but I don't think he got around to 'all our tomorrows'

I did not, nor did the BBC when they coincidentally did a similar series of articles soon thereafter.

There's a wealth of material I didn't get around to, might have just clicked an idea in my mind there since I recently saw for the first time "The Year of the Sex Olympics"...
 
Very much interested in the former. @RyanF covered a little of the latter, but I don't think he got around to 'all our tomorrows'

Be delighted to put up your reviews, just drop me a message, either by starting a conversation here or by emaling me at sealionpressblogeditor@gmail.com

Excellent! I'll drop you a line shortly, sir. Just found @RyanF articles, including the one covering a lot of the Very British Dystopias (to name check a Radio 4 documentary from a few years back). An excellent read, as well.
 
Belatedly: Yes, I am DValdron from Alternatehistory.com. Fossil Cove Press is a registered business name, named after Fossil Cove, a nice little cove with a fifteen foot buffalo shaped rock, whose picture I use. And yeah, I bit amateurish. But hopefully I learn as I go. Anyway, wonderful review, wonderful comments, much appreciated.
 
I suppose I should make a thoughtful comment. I think my inspiration for Bear Cavalry was the subject coming up on AH.com, and people saying "That's ridiculous." It felt like a challenge. The other part of it were all those "Most Awesome" posters picturing Bear Cavalry, usually with cossacks and machine guns.

And it's correct. You can't get there in a single jump. But history is never a jump, it's a series of steps, and left turns and right turns, meanderings, repurposings, and just whimsical stuff. So yeah, you can get there.

The trick was to try and make it interesting. A dry recitation didn't seem like much fun. So I abducted Morgan Spurlock, and formatted it as if I was watching a really cool documentary. This is the key to writing. Whatever you are doing, wherever you are, try to make it interesting. That's the only thing.

All these writing coaches with their show don't tell, or their active versus passive voices. No, don't worry about that. Just ask yourself... "How do I make this interesting!"
 
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