point of divergence « Alison Morton's Roma Nova

Alternative history isn’t just about Nazis!

The Man in the High Castle (original story by Philip K Dick, 1962) and SS-GB (Len Deighton, 1978) have been the most prominent ‘what if’s on the screen recently. Apart from the terrific production values, these stories gripped our imaginations as the most horrific thing that could have happened to Western Europe/America in the […]

How to build an alternative history story

Romans in the 21st century? Possibly provocative, but a perfectly feasible venture into alternative history fiction. How do you do this with no historical foundation?

Setting a story in the past or in another country is already a challenge. But if you invent the country and need to meld it with history that the reader […]

Time and its alternative

Time, ah, that strange thing. Past time, which could be yesterday or fifty years ago, present time which we bumble through, and future time which fascinates and scares us. But what if time wasn’t quite what we think it is? What if we had made different choices at various points in our lives and our […]