<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Sea Lion Press]]></title><description><![CDATA[The home of alternate history publishing. Sea Lion Press sells paperbacks, ebooks, and merchandise celebrating counterfactual fiction.]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 07:45:47 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[The London Overground That Wasn't]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Charles E.P. Murphy. Two of the Overground lines at Gospel Oak station. Picture courtesy Wikimedia Commons, by Matt Brown . The London Overground is exactly what it sounds like, a regular train service like the Underground but not  under the ground. Just like the Underground, it has expanded since it started, with branch lines across the Greater London area and its suburbs, spanning now from West Croydon up to Cheshunt, Stratford to Watford. Just like the Underground, it has a very fiddly...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/the-london-overground-that-wasn-t</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69af45160c1a368a2fa4a7f9</guid><category><![CDATA[Charles EP Murphy]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 07:00:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_9d84db82c86b40f19851f5045e2d0774~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_640,h_480,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What if Toy Story 2 was never rescued by Galyn Susman?]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Gary Oswald. Jessie wouldn't be so happy if Galyn Susman hadn't saved her characters models! Image courtesy Amazon marketplace. Toy Story 2 was the third feature film made by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, a sequel to their first film Toy Story . It was an even bigger commercial and critical hit, one of the best selling and most praised animated films ever made and probably the film that truly made Pixar. Their ability to make not only multiple original films but to...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/what-if-toy-story-2-was-never-rescued-by-galyn-susman</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6987b22c24f01f941abc7791</guid><category><![CDATA[Gary Oswald]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 10 Mar 2026 07:00:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_21ba05cf3d724b3bb86088327450a802~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Writing Alternate History: Real vs Fictional Characters]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Thomas Anderson. Real people ready to go versus the fictional aliens. Original US paperback cover for Worldwar book 3, image courtesy Amazon marketplace. Alternate History fiction (or some of it at least) can be considered a specialised form of historical fiction. In particular, if one has set a story in a timeline not many years after the Point of Divergence (POD) then in theory everyone one meets in such a story should be a person who existed in real history. Of course, in reality this...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/writing-alternate-history-real-vs-fictional-characters</link><guid isPermaLink="false">698118c8889819a51f054970</guid><category><![CDATA[Thomas Anderson]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 07:00:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_020294e610934e1f880087ee5fe4ff35~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_913,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why I Wrote... Streseland]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Alexander Rooksmoor. As Sea Lion Press regulars know, often it is the least likely alternatives which are the most favoured as the basis for novels. The classic is Nazi Germany winning the Second World War, something that would have required multiple divergences from what unfolded in our history. Yet I think I am safe in saying more books and dramatisations have used this rather than any other alternative history scenario. Despite this popularity, far more feasible are alternatives in...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/why-i-wrote-streseland</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6987c2fc3d99955729812777</guid><category><![CDATA[Why I Wrote]]></category><category><![CDATA[Alexander Rooksmoor]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 07:00:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/442a9d_5678bdda02ec4b2d94e4acbecb74598f~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Vignette: Chess Men]]></title><description><![CDATA[By John A. Hopkins 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 92nd contest was The Detective London, August 1949 “I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man repeated. With a sigh, Detective Inspector Percy Tankard pushed his chair back and rested his forehead on his palms. “Why were you at the British Museum?” he asked the floor. “Visiting,” he said...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/vignette-chess-men</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6985ec3c2afb5c3741be28b7</guid><category><![CDATA[Vignettes]]></category><category><![CDATA[John A. Hopkins]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 07:00:44 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_2d1c92a832404e55b765f2c1b73da9f5~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_377,h_391,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Review: Harrier Squadron: Armistice Day]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Charles E.P. Murphy. Cover art by Keith Burns. 1993, the middle of the Third World War, the Asian Bloc and the Western Federation battling for the fate of Europe. Among WESTFED’s greatest assets are the multinational Harrier Squadron, piloting their state-of-the-art jump-jets against the ASBLOC menace. But what happens if there’s a shot at peace? Flight Lt. “Hob” Hogget wants to believe in an armistice but can’t quite trust that it can happen after all the bloodshed. And that’s before he...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/review-harrier-squadron-armistice-day</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6998d788fc53c406386255c8</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Charles EP Murphy]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 07:01:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_155926d87120421b8ed4346443e9f477~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_636,h_768,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Review: The World Hitler Never Made]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Gary Oswald. Paperback cover, courtesy Amazon. Gavriel D. Rosenfeld is the editor of the What Ifs of Jewish History   AH book and owner of the Counterfactual History Review , a blog that has been running for twelve years and covers the way counter-factual thinking has been used and viewed in the mainstream, in both fiction and analysis of the real world. He is also a prominent academic, who serves as President of the Center for Jewish History in New York City and Professor of History at...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/review-the-world-hitler-never-made</link><guid isPermaLink="false">695410c0299c372795f9d9f7</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gary Oswald]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 07:00:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_d11b783b7caf431dbf0414c48f05e50e~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_907,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tales From Development Hell: Bogart Slept Here]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Ryan Fleming. This man doesn't know he'll be hired for Bogart Slept Here. De Niro in the Mean Streets trailer, image public domain and courtesy Wikipedia. The right role can make or break an actor’s career. Often too we hear about the roles an actor may have missed out on that they regret. If a missed role can carry a pang of regret, can the opposite hold true? Can an actor missing out on a role they were all lined up for in fact be a benefit? Not so much in the sense of dodging a bullet...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/tales-from-development-hell-bogart-slept-here</link><guid isPermaLink="false">697e3f726379b93199b2db88</guid><category><![CDATA[Ryan Fleming]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tales From Development Hell]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 17 Feb 2026 07:00:31 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_deacc93b832548e2b0aaa8183452f88c~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_635,h_561,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Review: Doctor Who: The First Sontarans]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Matthew Kresal. Cover courtesy Big Finish site. What would Doctor Who be without its monsters? The Daleks secured the series’ hold with the public in its earliest days while the Cybermen have offered a glimpse of what humanity could become should it chose to overly embrace technology. There have been countless others introduced over the decades that have become recurring foes for the Doctor from the Ice Warriors of Mars to the Weeping Angels of Modern Who . Among those foes are the...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/review-doctor-who-the-first-sontarans</link><guid isPermaLink="false">694efe82e596739bb33c334e</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Matthew Kresal]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2026 07:00:38 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_51981cc03189483e956995aa1821cfda~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_600,h_600,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Fiction Friction: You Are The Last Jedi (Except For All The Others)]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Thomas Anderson. That boy is our last hope...? Force Unleashed featured a few more Jedi and a whole other force-sensitive youth. Cover courtesy Amazon market. In this article, I will examine a phenomenon of writing in which stated absolutes become an unintended restriction on future storytelling. In many ways, this is a counterpart to an earlier article I wrote entitled “The Romulan Straitjacket”  which focused on a similar facet but with a sense of time rather than space. In that article,...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/fiction-friction-you-are-the-last-jedi-except-for-all-the-others</link><guid isPermaLink="false">697e2c0a6379b93199b2b056</guid><category><![CDATA[Thomas Anderson]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2026 07:00:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_db60579070d849c381294551ad6aec3d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_875,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Review: The Midnight Library]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Gary Oswald. The 2020 hardcover edition; image courtesy Amazon. Literary genres are a funny thing. On the one hand they are essentially advertising, 'did you like this book? Well, it's a fantasy book and here are 200 more fantasy books, you'll like them too, please buy them'. On the other hand, it's kind of a reader's guide, telling you, the consumer, what to expect and how to engage with the text. I will react differently to the introduction of a dark handsome neighbour in a romance book...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/review-the-midnight-library</link><guid isPermaLink="false">694863e193dd8b221e6ca5dd</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gary Oswald]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2026 07:00:31 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_167dba1286754d8e83b416d0d8e586fd~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_977,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why I Wrote... The Blood and the Ghost]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Alexander Rooksmoor. Quite often I have been inspired to write a short story or even a novel as a result of disliking how a story I have read or seen turns out. The Blood and The Ghost  was stimulated by me watching all 5 seasons of the TV series The Last Kingdom  (broadcast 2015-23). The series, based on the Saxon Stories  novels by Bernard Cornwell, is set in Wessex between 866-878 CE, the eponymous ‘Last Kingdom’ not under Danish rule. My main prompt for an alternative history was being...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/why-i-wrote-the-blood-and-the-ghost</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69517e1e6c6ab50b8de93c15</guid><category><![CDATA[Alexander Rooksmoor]]></category><category><![CDATA[Why I Wrote]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2026 07:00:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/442a9d_cc794e157fc1425d8b7761e093695ede~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Vignette: Republican Royal Racket]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Charles Cartwright. 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 91st contest was Cons . Question 14.  Read the case study below then answer the subsequent questions in your answer booklet.​  ———   Case Study: Fake Campaign for Restoration of the French Monarchy  During the political and economic crisis in France in late 2028 (which eventually led to the formation...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/vignette-republican-royal-racket</link><guid isPermaLink="false">694855b893dd8b221e6c8706</guid><category><![CDATA[Vignettes]]></category><category><![CDATA[Charles Cartwright]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 07:00:16 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_2d1c92a832404e55b765f2c1b73da9f5~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_377,h_391,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Review: Inferno: The World Dies Screaming]]></title><description><![CDATA[In May and June 1970, viewers of the BBC’s Doctor Who  were treated to an apocalyptic vision of a fascist Britain as Jon Pertwee’s Doctor crossed over in a parallel world. One where Britain was a fascist state that was risking its own destruction with an ill-conceived project unleashing energies from deep within the Earth with the power to transform men into monsters. Inferno  fascinated viewers for more than a half-century and inspired speculation about what led that world to come apart....]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/review-inferno-the-world-dies-screaming</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6935c6e321dbaf583f8c6e16</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Matthew Kresal]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 07:00:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_4dadcfabec4549d5b55e9611c0091334~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_840,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tales From Development Hell: Alfred Hitchcock's Titanic]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Ryan Fleming. The man himself. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Since its 1912 sinking, the Titanic  has loomed large in popular culture, including multiple films. When Alfred Hitchcock, another titanic figure, left the United Kingdom for the United States in the late 1930s, it was common knowledge that his first project would be a drama based on the sinking of the Titanic . For several reasons, that project wound up never happening and Hitchcock’s first American film would...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/tales-from-development-hell-alfred-hitchcock-s-titanic</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69504217103da5c23b9002a9</guid><category><![CDATA[Ryan Fleming]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tales From Development Hell]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 07:00:37 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_00337c1dba774b26a577ab38cd789439~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_808,h_973,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What if there was no Operation Legacy?]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Gary Oswald. One of the New Villages created by the British in Malaysia, where civilians were forcibly relocated to disrupt the communist insurgency. This was publicly known in 1950s Britain - how many civilians were treated by soldiers and police was known &#38; recorded by the government. Photograph in public domain, courtesy wikimedia commons. If you spend any time at all online looking for people talking about the British Empire (and honestly if you're reading this, you probably do),...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/what-if-there-was-no-operation-legacy</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6935cb3c21dbaf583f8c78fa</guid><category><![CDATA[Gary Oswald]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 20 Jan 2026 07:00:30 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_34eb547af93a49bda1e385b87d15b0ea~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_855,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Review: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Charles E.P. Murphy In 2002, the "rage virus" swept through Britain; everyone infected went rabid and turned on the people around them. The world quarantined the nation and abandoned all who hadn't managed to flee. Twenty eight years later, the ageing Dr Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), builder of a vast memorial hewn from human bones, makes a tentative contact with the Alpha infected he's dubbed 'Samson' (Chi Lewis-Parry). The young Spike (Alfie Williams), however, has met something worse than...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/review-28-years-later-the-bone-temple</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6969730544e01db33aff6495</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Charles EP Murphy]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2026 07:00:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_dc2a319aabfc49d493c6413f89c844ed~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_260,h_385,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Dreams From The Dark Years: Third Time Lucky]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Paul Hynes. Lord Gort and General Gamelin pose for a British War Office photographer in October 1939. Both men may have felt France's strategy was all going to plan. Public domain photo courtesy wikimedia commons. On the 2nd of May, the Battle of Berlin finally came to an end. The surviving residents of the German capital emerged from the ruins of their homes and attempted to piece their lives back together in the shadow of the victors. The whereabouts of their own leaders, those who...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/dreams-from-the-dark-years-third-time-lucky</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6935f4301a77096acf96ad9b</guid><category><![CDATA[Paul Hynes]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 13 Jan 2026 07:00:22 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_c91c50bd46b7461485d0c263827f02e1~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_800,h_630,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Fiction Friction: Rulemaking and Rule Breaking in Sci-Fi]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Thomas Anderson. Well, not that sort of worldbuilding. (Logo from Alien franchise, copyright Disney; picture taken from Xenopedia.) The fantasy author Brandon Sanderson has become well-known for his advocacy of what he calls “Sanderson’s First Law (of Magic)”; that is, that an author's ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic. In one sense, this is a manifesto against deus ex machina  and inventing new rules or powers on...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/fiction-friction-rulemaking-and-rule-breaking-in-sci-fi</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69485c9754f477c1ea1477c3</guid><category><![CDATA[Thomas Anderson]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 09 Jan 2026 07:00:31 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_16e22962fcc5443d84ae2de898abadb7~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_460,h_215,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Cocaine Bear and the Joy of an Unlikely Scenario]]></title><description><![CDATA[By Gary Oswald. So AH you can see an alternate version of it! Picture courtesy Amazon. Being enthusiasts of alternate history, everyone reading this is probably able to name an iconic piece of AH fiction in most formats. A book, a comic, a tv show, a video game etc. But it's maybe a little harder when it comes to motion pictures. There have obviously been a bunch of AH feature films but none have really been advertised as the big new AH media in the way TV shows like The Man in the High Castle...]]></description><link>https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/cocaine-bear-and-the-joy-of-an-unlikely-scenario</link><guid isPermaLink="false">692220150acaec313279d520</guid><category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Gary Oswald]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 06 Jan 2026 07:00:15 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/aecf75_61c539f94bc04976a36f9c7aa934a878~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>cepmurphywrites</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>