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The New Romantics

Written by Kerryn Offord

Grantville, February 1634

Hazel Patton couldn't stand not knowing what the giggling was all about a moment longer. She poked her head around the corner to find three of her teacher trainees giggling over a book. Walking over to them she held out a hand for the book. Marcie Haggerty passed it over. Hazel sighed. It was by one of the worst of the up-time romantic novelists. Hazel absolutely refused to have her on the shelves of her personal collection. "Why are you wasting your time reading that rubbish?"

"I wasn't reading it, Mrs. Patton."

Hazel's raised her eyebrows.

"Honest, Mrs. Patton, Anna and Elisabeth were asking about some of the descriptions of up-time culture. They wanted to know if . . ."

Hazel held up her hands "I wouldn't trust anything that woman had to say about culture."

"Well, no, neither would I. But they sold, Mrs. Patton. That's what I was telling Anna and Elisabeth. Up-time they published hundreds of her books. I suggested they should look at Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer if they wanted examples of good romances."

Hazel looked at Anna and Elisabeth. "And why are you two so interested in good romances?"

Anna bit her lips and looked guiltily at Hazel. "My cousin works for a printer. He says the romantic novels sell well. We want to try and write one."

"You want to write a romantic novel?" Anna and Elisabeth nodded. Hazel checked Marcie. "And you? Are you trying to become the next best-selling author as well?"

Marcie grinned. "I'd like the money, but it's not easy."

Hazel settled her hands on her hips. "Of course it's not easy. They say write about what you know. What do you three know about romance?" Hazel stared at Marcie, daring her to claim she had experienced romance. Hazel knew all about young men, and romantic they weren't.

"Could you help?" Marcie asked.

Hazel froze. Then she smiled. Back up-time she'd often thought she could write a better story than some of books she received in those monthly bundles. "Yes, I very much think I can. Come round to my place after school and we'll start researching the good stories to see what makes them good."

The Schmucker and Schwentzel Print Shop, April 1634

Ursula Fröbel ran her red pencil through line after line of the reworked Abbreviated Manual of Statistical Principles. Pretty soon she had to stop to sharpen it again. Pen knife in hand she glared at the manuscript. Why can't the fool learn to listen to his editor?

Ursula looked at the eight hundred odd pages yet to be reviewed and sighed. Now would be a very good time to take a break from editing Norris Craft's manuscript. She put it back into its envelope and tossed it into the pending basket. The way she was feeling about Herr Craft right now, it could go into the recycling bin, and to hell with the advance he'd already been paid. To take her mind off the author from hell she turned to her in-basket. Maybe someone had come up with another good idea, like the Grantville Genealogy Club's suggestion that they write a Who's Who of up-timers who came through with the Ring of Fire.

She sighed in fond remembrance. That had proven to be a real gem. They had sold out of the first print run of a thousand copies within the first week, and had done three more print runs since then. And unlike Norris Craft, the genealogical club had been happy to follow their editor's suggestions. But no, only a few bills and queries about advances on royalties populated the basket. That left the "lucky dip" of the "unsols," the unsolicited manuscripts. Why anybody would waste time and energy to write a manuscript without having a contract Ursula didn't know, but plenty of people did. Too many.

The "unsols" were usually dross, with few of them able to hold Ursula's interest as far as the bottom of the first page. The rule was to try and read at least that far before making a decision. Anything that passed got seen by one of the readers, people who were happy to be paid to read through the unsols and give an opinion. If enough of the readers liked a manuscript, then Ursula would read it, but not until then.

Ursula took the first unsol from the top of the basket. She struggled through the introductory sentence, all seventy-five words of it. Ursula was ready to junk it there and then, but there was the rule. Always read the first page before making a decision to dump a manuscript, it might get better. It was hard going, but Ursula managed to get to the end of the first page. There was no stamped self-addressed envelope supplied, so it went straight into the recycle bin.

The next was a bit better. It had a self-addressed envelope, so Ursula put one of the standard rejection forms into the envelope and put it into the out basket. The post would return it to the author.

An hour later there had been nothing worth while and Ursula was starting to get frustrated again. She reached for the next manuscript and started reading.

"Frau Fröbel? If it's not too much trouble, could you please have a look at these?"

Ursula looked up. Stephan Greiner, one of the sales assistants, was standing in front of her desk with a bundle of envelopes in his arms. "Sure. Put them on the top, I'll get to them shortly."

"Thank you, Frau Fröbel. One of them was written by my cousin Anna."

Ursula watched Stephan walk out of her office before turning her gaze to the unsols pile. There was a bundle of four envelopes tied together with string on the top of the pile. It was the first time Stephan had ever pushed forward a manuscript, and if she remembered correctly, his cousin Anna was training to be a teacher. At least she should know how to construct a sentence. She quickly dealt with the manuscript she had been looking at and reached for the bundle.

Ursula spread out the four submissions on her desk. Three of them were regular books. All words, no pictures. But Ursula's eyes locked onto the fourth manuscript. It looked like an illustrated children's book. She had a quick skim through. There were pencil sketches on every page. Then she discovered the single watercolor tucked into a protective folder at the back. Ursula considered the image for a moment. It would be a challenge to reproduce that in a book.

Ursula settled down to do a little reading.

Four hours later

Johann Schmucker looked up from the report he was reading across to his business partner. "Friedrich, we really need something special to take to Frankfurt for the fair. Something more than translations of up-time works."

Friedrich Schwentzel leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on the desk. "Yes, but what? Herr Craft still hasn't delivered a useable version of his Abbreviated Manual of Statistical Principles and we haven't had anything better than a bit of poetry and short stories in the last couple of months out of Ursula's unsols."

Johann grimaced. "Yes. Ursula has become a little vocal about the Craft rewrites."

"She enjoys it, Johann. Take no notice of her complaining. That's half her fun."

Johann looked skeptically at Friedrich. "When she storms in here after yet another lousy rewrite, I hope she puts the blame where it belongs."

A pocket battleship suddenly burst into the office, several large envelopes in her arms. So surprised was he at Ursula Fröbel's entry, Friedrich over balanced on his chair and fell backwards onto the floor.

Johann managed to remain seated. "Yes, Ursula?"

Ursula dumped the envelopes onto his desk. "For months the unsols have yielded nothing but rubbish, then suddenly, not one, but four good manuscripts land on my desk on the same day. And not only are they well written, they are written in German."

Johann had pushed his seat back when Ursula dumped the envelopes on his desk, his recent discussion with Friedrich at the front of his mind. Now he moved his chair forward and opened the top envelope. "What kind of stories are they?"

"Romances."

Johann looked down at the wad of pages in his hand. The first thing he noticed was that it was all neatly typed. "An up-timer author of romances written in German?"

"Only two of them are by up-timers, Johann. A Hazel Patton, and a Marcie Haggerty. The other two are local girls. Elisabeth Müller, and Stephan's cousin, Anna Greiner."

Friedrich, who had scrambled to his feet and righted his chair, walked over to the bookcase. Pulling out the Grantville Genealogy Club's Who's Who of Grantville Up-timers, he checked for the entries of the two up-timers. "Hazel Patton. See Hazel McDonnell. Just a minute. Ah, here we are. Hazel McDonnell. Born September 21, 1929. She is the sister of Dr. McDonnell, and before the Ring of Fire she was a retired school teacher. Since then she has been ...