A Bit of Luck

History may be written by the victors, but it is not always written in stone. Often the difference between a win or a loss comes down to the smallest moment, the smallest shift. A bit of luck. This anthology of twenty alternate history short stories revisits several of those pivotal moments and imagines what might have happened if things had gone just a little bit differently. The authors have drawn upon the whole timeline of history to tell stories of Scottish kings and Russian czars who lived instead of died, of wars whose outcome hinged on one person’s single choice, and of inventions that might have changed the world. The collection is filled with familiar figures—including Billy the Kid, Vlad Dracula, and Jack the Ripper—as well as stories exploring two very different fates of the Roman Empire. The anthology also includes an alternate history from the fictional world of The Great Gatsby. Some stories look at events that have not yet happened, and a few blur the meaning of time itself. History can be surprisingly malleable if we simply look at it in a new light. And, with a bit of luck, the stories that connect the past to the present can lead us into a world we never imagined. A Bit of Luck is the ninth anthology edited by Lisa Mangum and published by WordFire Press. Profits support the Don Hodge Memorial Scholarship fund for the Superstars Writing Seminars.