robert b finegold md
AMONG THE FAITHFUL (MAY 2024)
in 1632 & Beyond #5
"Every now and then, all the early readers instantly love a story. Bob Finegold's AMONG THE FAITHFUL is one of those rare gems. Freedom of religion and tolerance were seismic changes. This is the story of one town struggling to adapt after Krystalnacht."
"If you are a fan of the 1632 universe, there are some good stories here. Some wrap up storylines, some are new storylines. The one about Operation Kristallnacht from the other viewpoint is top-notch."
It is one of the most powerful stories I've read in
the 1632 series."
These comments are all unexpectedly kind — for a story that contains but a little kindness (and even that is flawed).
This is my most emotionally complex story to date.
I know, I know.
Do I write any other kind of tale?
I really should. Perhaps, the next one.
AMONG THE FAITHFUL is a 9300-word alternate history tale that I completed following the passing of my mother-in-law, Edith Pagelson.
Edith, of blessed memory was born in Worms, Germany in 1926. She was a Holocaust survivor and educator, and our family matriarch. Edith passed away at the age of 97 on the morning of October 7th, 2023 -- during the very hours that Hamas perpetrated the greatest slaughter of Jews since the Shoah. Thankfully, she did not live to witness the atrocities they committed and that some (even in our own country) celebrated or justified. Nor did she live to witness the eruption of unprecedented antisemitism that followed and continues to grow.
Amid this tempest of hatred, disinformation, and demonization of Jews that have swept up so many (one subject of this tale), I was challenged by how to tell it -- and where I could submit it. Jewish writers have become persona non grata in a significant number of literary publishing markets.
I recalled that author Eric Flint (sadly, now also of blessed memory) and I once conversed about the depiction of Jews in his best-selling 1632 alternate history series. In his 1632verse, antisemitism is forcibly "eradicated." The people of 17th-century Germany are introduced to democratic 21st-century religious freedom— with prejudice (pun intended).
WORMS c. 1635
LAILA TOV (OCTOBER 2023)
A stunning and important collection of stories and art donated by an impressive list of award-winning notable contributors such as David Brin, Terri Windling, Geoffrey Landis, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Scott Gustafson, Stephanie Law, and more -- oh, and one by me -- with 100% of the proceeds to benefit the charities providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine. May freedom reign.
EPUB and print editions with B&W illustrations are available now. Color-illustrated, hardcover, and audiobook editions are forthcoming.
Check out all the contributors and a sampling of the illustrations here!), all in the performance of the mitzvah of tikkun olam: "the repair of the world."
I am humbled to have my faux-Jewish folkloric tale of the love between a crippled tailor and a lamia included in this anthology.
A MADNESS MOST DISCREET (MARCH 2023)
-- NEW NOVELETTE --
A story of my Kabbalist detective Rabbi Jacob Cane.
After moving to Boston, Rabbi Cane is visited by an old love who is seeking to stop her partner's father, a weapons specialist, from detonating a suitcase nuke at a disarmament meeting of the nuclear powers. The problem is her partner's father is one of the Undead.
"Thirteen stories of crimes in fantasy settings and the stubborn individuals who just won’t let them go unsolved."
Edited by Donna Royston and David Keener.
With stories also by: * Reed Bonadonna, * Gregg Chamberlain,
* David Keener, * Emma Melville, * Jeff Patterson,
* Maria Prokopyeva, * Daniel Robichaud, * Donna Royston,
* Shannon Taft, * David Tatum, * Martin Wilsey, and
* Austin Worley.
Cover art by Ivan Zann
In Eric and his co-author Virginia DeMarce's novel 1635: The Dreeson Incident (Baen Books, 2013), this reverse pogrom was given the name "Operation Krystalnacht" in the participants' advanced knowledge of the Nazi Kristallnacht ("Night of Shattered Glass") of November 9-10, 1928 in our timeline — which shattered the life of my mother-in-law Edith, of blessed memory, and her family as did the horrors and tragedies of the Shoah that followed. But, like the forging of damascene steel and the Japanese art of Kintsugi, the too few of Edith's family who survived appeared to me as stronger, more balanced, more aware, and more beautiful.
This tale required relatively minor revision to fit the 1632verse, although I feared it would be a bit too "literary" for the market. I was pleased to find my fear unjustified.
My sincere thanks to 1632 & Beyond editors Bjorn Hasseler and Bethanne Kim and Baen's Bar senior readers Iver P. Cooper (who also appears in this issue as does Virginia de Marce), Marc Tyrrell, George Haberberger, and Jack Carroll for their enthusiasm and support of this tale.
This tale is one I was hesitant to complete, yet, in light of these events, I felt compelled to write. It is dedicated to both Eric and Edith whose names are as blessings.
And we all are in need of more blessings.
Publications in a year of Writing Vicariously
Happily, yet also disturbing . . .
For a year in which I was medically advised to not write new stories, 2022 was one of my MOST successful years in terms of story acceptances. Go figure. : )
I was permitted to edit, an odd exception since I find revising and editing far more taxing -- at least, for my own work. A psych thing, I surmise, but I'm working on it. Editing others' works, conversely, comes far more easily to me, and this kept me actively engaged most of 2022.
Still, I had five stories accepted for publication in 2022, including a never-before-published Kabbalist urban fantasy novelette. As is the nature of this industry, two of these stories were published in 2022, two were delayed until 2023, and the fifth did not appear since its market closed the month the story was to see print.
As Billy Pilgrim philosophizes in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-5: "So it goes."
* NOTE: Unfortunately, this market closed prior to the story's publication.
OF THINE IMPENETRABLE SPIRIT (DECEMBER 2022)
My second Writers of the Future Contest Finalist story.
"If you can command the wherewithal to maybe attain immortal life through an untested procedure and your only child has days to live, what would you do?
A sensorily vivid, emotionally charged story that weaves between urgency and the power of memory, intensified by a yearning for the numinous, this story was nearly perfect."
-- Sherwood Smith, author of the Dobrenica Urban Fantasy series [DAW books], Goodreads review
LAILA TOV (JUNE 2022)
My faux-Jewish folkloric tale of the love between a crippled tailor and a lamia appears in 4th & Starlight, the next volume in the Starlight Anthologies series!
This is the story's first print book appearance.
"Nineteen stories that will fill you with delight, inspire your imagination, get your heart pounding, and leave you misty-eyed with joy."
Edited by 2022 Baen Fantasy Award and Writers of the Future Contest winner M. Elizabeth Ticknor, and illustrated by Liz and Leah Ning.
With stories also by: * Mike Wyant Jr., * K.L. Shwengel, * Kary English,
* Philip Brian Hall, * Rebecca Birch, * Van Alrik, * Kristy Evangelista,
* Preston Dennett, * Dustin Adams, * Y.M. Pang, * M. Elizabeth Ticknor,
* Rebecca E. Treasure, *Alicia Cay, * Julia Ashley, * John D. Payne, and
* Rachelle Harp.
SHATTERED VESSELS (APRIL 2022)
co-authored with KARY ENGLISH
Reprints our story of a redemptive love that spans all time, from Creation to the Olam Haba, "The World-to-Come" -- in less than 5000 words (quite proud of that).
"Twenty stories about the rituals, theology, and identity of practitioners of the future, alternative histories, and the fantastic worlds depicted by scripture and religious folklore."
Edited by Writers of the Future Contest winner Andy Dibble.
Each story is accompanied by essays and discussion questions by religious studies experts from universities across the world
With stories also by:
* Jibril Stevenson, * J. A. Legg, * Andrew Majors, * Brenna Harvey, * Nicki Vardon, * Karl Dandenell, * Terryl M. Asla, * Daniel M. Kimmel, * Joachim Glage, * Chukwu Sunday Abel, * Mike Adamson, * Andy Dibble, *Lauren C. Teffeau, * Alex Shvartsman, * Michael H. Hanson, * Gabriella Buba, * Doug Hawley, * Russell Hemmell, and * Terri Bruce.
Cover art by Julian Faylona
"THE EVIL OF THY DOINGS"
"The Evil of Thy Doings was just incredible -- descriptive, vivid, dramatic, engaging. Bravo!"
. . . the door beside Calabar opened and vomited forth more puta que pariu marines, the foremost standing tall, his bearing, more than his gilded insignia, denoting him as the Spanish tercio’s captain.
In his hands he held, dry, primed, and ready to fire, a musket.
Guay de mi! It was for the damnable ship’s cargo of muskets that Moses, Calabar, and the crew of the Sword of Solomon had come. Muskets urgently needed for some secretive Dutch plan; muskets that Moses and Calabar had been told they would pluck from a Spanish merchant ship “as easily as picking fruit from a tree.” So the pirate Daniel Elfrith had promised.
Damn Elfrith!
. . . The Spanish captain raised his musket, sighting it at Moses.
A 1632 UNIVERSE TALE!
Return to the 17th-century Caribbean where the Great Nations of Europe
strive, and amid the intrigues and battles, the deaths and betrayals, the Sephardic Jewish pirate Moses Cohen Henriques and the Brazilian rebel Fernando Domingos Calabar seek freedom and justice for their people.
A 15,000-word tale that is both a sequel to last year's
And is a companion tale to my gifted co-author Robert E. Waters' (and his
co-author, the esteemed Charles E. Gannon's) novel:
[Baen Books, April 2021]
SEP 2023 Update: Good news! GG #97 is now available again! : )
And a new 1632verse magazine, 1632 & Beyond, has opened.
I'm dusting off some stories I'd begun but set aside after Eric's passing and the closing of the Gazette.
September 1, 2021.
"Set sail for adventure!"
Sets sail: August 14, 2020.
Available now!
"Pirates!"
A treasure trove of tales . . .
From the high seas to high orbit, from swashbucklers to space corsairs.
Here be monsters - human and supernatural, time travelers and spacemen, buccaneers, and ghosts . . .
Twelve gems, each with an illustration. Includes my tale of the historical "Jewish Pirate of the Caribbean" Moses Cohen Henriques.
(Yes, Elizabeth, there were Jewish pirates in the Age of Sail -- and Spain and its Inquisition trembled.)
"The Mouth of the Wicked, by Bob Finegold, tells a pirate tale filled with many twists and turns. It’s a tale about family, and loss, and how seeing the whole picture can change our perception on what we know, or think we know. I enjoyed this story for the history and the passion of the characters, driven by their own shared history, and their understanding of shared events."
--Geoff Habiger's Reviews
3RD AND STARLIGHT
Edited by Robert B Finegold
"The street is unlike any other."
14 stories to amaze, delight, and touch the heart.
An anthology by award-winning and nominated
edgy new voices in science fiction and fantasy.
* Rebecca Birch * Nick T. Chan * Jennifer Campbell-Hicks *
* Philip Brian Hall * K. L. Schwengel * Rachelle Harp * M. E. Garber * * Dustin Adams * Frank Dutkiewicz * M. Elizabeth Ticknor *
* Sean Monaghan * William R. D. Wood * Julie Frost *
* Scott R. Parkin * Kary English * Robert B. Finegold, M.D. *
- Illustrated -
3RD AND STARLIGHT: THE REVIEWS
“Like trying strange and unusual foods, finding new writers to love and follow can be a chaotic, hit and miss experience. This anthology offers delicious and exotic creations by some of the best new writers in the speculative fiction field.“
--William Ledbetter, 2016 Nebula award winning author of “The Long Fall Up.”
“3rd and Starlight is an enchanting mix of tales from up-and-coming authors from Birch’s gentle story of passage to English and Finegold’s saga of love and honor among immortals. There’s something for every reader. Every piece has its own delights!”
--J. Kathleen Cheney, Locus award winning author of “The Golden City.”
“Fresh new discoveries and recent favorites from vibrant new voices in SF and fantasy. Remember these names!”
--Martin L. Shoemaker, WSFA award-winning author of “Today I Am Paul.”
CURRENT EVENTS
Heart is Where the Home Is
Living in the year of COVID-19
KEEP SAFE.
Stay home, when out social distance, wash hands frequently, video chat with family
and friends, binge watch (not eat), exercise, do yard work, declutter, do crosswords,
play board games, paint (even if it's by number), build models -- and, of course: READ.
FREE stories of mine to read online:
* And the Ends of the Earth For Thy Possession
- (SF, alternate history, mystery}
- (historical fantasy, faux-folklore)
- (science fantasy)
- (contemporary & semi-autobiographical) [audio-video]
BE SMART; STAY WELL.
PUBLISHED WORKS IN
