In 2000 , Baen was the editor guest of honor at Chicon 2000 , that year 's Worldcon . With the interest shown in Flint 's 1632 series , he set up a second talk forum for the new writer , one specialized to the buzz of 1632-verse called 1632 Tech Manual . The fans wanted a sequel , " yesterday " , the research was daunting , so he advised the fledgling writer to open up the universe , to make it a shared universe long before the " normal point " in a fictional universe life-cycle ; Flint was willing to gamble , and the result was Ring of Fire , but in the meantime Baen had paired best selling author David Weber with the emerging mid-list author Flint in a five-book contract and the resulting '' 1633 '' created a new cycle of buzz and interest
Chicon 2000
58th World Science Fiction Convention
Jim Baen