SEA LION PRESS

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

By Gary Oswald. The London Illustrated News depicting "General Sir George Colley at the Battle of Majuba Mountain Just Before He Was Killed". Defeat portrayed as a heroic stand - something the establishment would to want to rectify. Public domain, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. William Ewart Gladstone, four-time Prime Minister of the UK, was an imperialist. He oversaw the largest empire to ever exist and that empire expanded during his time in charge. In particular he made the c

By Ryan Fleming . Alternate history anthologies focused on a single country were nothing new by the time we began work on The Scottish Anthology , nor were themed anthologies unknown in other genres, in alternate history, or even from Sea Lion Press by the time of those first nation-based anthologies. While this was my first effort as an editor of a fiction anthology, I had been proudly featured in anthologies edited by others in both alternate history and other genres. But w

By Charles E.P. Murphy "Chamberlaaaaiiiiin!" King Arthur strode through Commons like judgement, his face pale as the grave, his sword rusted and stained with the blood of Britain's enemies, his finger accusing the man at the bench. "You were warned that a pointless war with our Germanic brethren would bring the nation to ruin! Now--" His sword swung and the Prime Minister... ...ran away on all four legs barking. "Eh....?" And the four MPs on either side of Arthur suddenly ya

By Tom Anderson. Waiting to go at Launch Pad 39B, 17th Ja 2026. Picture public domain by NASA, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. The 2000s Star Trek prequel series Enterprise had a controversial opening sequence; not so much for the imagery used (which shows technological progress in exploration from wooden sailing ships to aeroplanes to spacecraft) but for the poppy theme song ‘Faith of the Heart’, very different from the approach taken in previous series. Despite being poorly re

By Matthew Kresal. The 2016 edition. In the 1950s, the Golden Age of Comics gave way to the Silver Age. The real world changed and, with attention brought to the comics as a result, some old characters retired or evolved while a new generation of heroes came to the fore, culminating at DC with the creation of the Justice League. Suppose for a moment that there was an alternate history where the Golden and Silver Age characters existed in and interacted with the real world of

By Gary Oswald. Paul Dickov nine years after the inciting event. Photo copyright Wikipedia editor 'hst43077' but allowed for any purpose. On the 30th of May 1999 in Wembley Stadium, one of the most important moments in British sport happened. It was the 94th minute of a 90-minute Association Football game, with the score at 2-1. Five minutes had been awarded for stoppage time and so in desperation, with only a minute of the game left, the trailing team played a long ball forw