"I still can't believe I did that," said Anne Jefferson, studying the painting. It was obvious that she was struggling not to erupt in a fit of giggles.

Pieter Paul Rubens looked at her, smiling faintly, but said nothing. He'd gotten a better sense of the way the woman's mind worked, in the days he'd spent doing a portrait of the American nurse, even to the point of understanding that for her the menial term "nurse" was a source of considerable personal pride. But he still didn't fool himself that he really understood all the subtleties involved. There was a chasm of three and half centuries separating them, after all.

Eric Flint's 1632 series is an alternative history series set in 17th century Europe. The small fictional town of Grantville, West Virginia, in the year 2000 was sent to the past in central Germany in the year 1631, during the Thirty Years' War.

Grantville Gazette is an anthology of stories written by several authors set in the alternative universe of Eric Flint's 1632. The Gazettes started as an experiment: a professionally edited, officially sanctioned "fan magazine" published electronically. Initially released as serialized e-magazines, they were later published as e-books. Starting in November 2004, the first Gazette was also released experimentally in a hardcopy edition with Grantville Gazette Volume I as a paperback.

In the lead story by Eric Flint, Anne Jefferson wraps herself in the American flag for a potrait by Peter Paul Rubens.

In Loren Jones’ "Anna’s Story," a young German girl whose family was ravaged by mercenaries is taken in by an old American curmudgeon living on borrowed time.

"Curio and Relic," written by Tom Van Natta, tells a story about Eddie Cantrell before he wins glory and loses a leg at the Battle of Wismar. Eddie learns some lessons in life as well as marksmanship from a Vietnam war tunnel rat who is himself making a difficult transition to the new world created by the Ring of Fire.

In Gorg Huff’s witty "The Sewing Circle," four American teenagers set themselves the goal of launching a new industry, waging an uphill battle against adult skepticism as well as the intrinsic difficulty of the project itself. Just to make their life more complicated, an ambitious seventeenth-century German blacksmith is angling to marry into their budding commercial empire and take it over lock, stock and barrel.

In Virginia DeMarce’s "The Rudolstadt Colloquy," Ed Piazza, the Secretary of State of the small United States being forged in war-torn Germany during the Thirty Years War, has a problem on his hands. A religious conference has been called in nearby Rudolstadt which will determine doctrine for all the Lutherans in the nation. The hard-fought principle of religious freedom is at stake, threatened alike by intransigent theologians and students rioting in the streets.

Grantville Gazette Volume I is available here from the Baen Free Library.

And if you want to read an actual book, click on the link below.