Joseph Hanauer
Joseph Hanaueremerged from an E-mail discussion I had with Eric Flint, author of the novel1632.  I had complained that, considering that his novel was set in 17th century Germany, it was a bit odd that the only Jews in the story were from elsewhere.  His response was simple:  "Write a story to fix it."So  I did.  Along the way, I had a great time researching the Jewish world of 17th century Germany and trying to imagine how Jews from that era would react when thrown in contact with the modern world, specifically, the small town of Grantville, West Virginia, as it was in the year 2000.  Of course, that meant I also had to research such things as West Virginia coal mining, plus, of course, the rich and varied fictional world of Eric Flint's alternative universe.It is fair to describe Eric Flint's universe as a tangled ball of yarns written by many different authors.  Some of those yarns stand alone fairly well, while others serve primarily to tie knots between other story threads.  I  wrote this story to stand alone, but it also has its share of knots that I hope will delight those readers who have explored other yarns from the1632universe.