Starting with a blinding flash of light, the Ring of Fire transported the town of Grantville, West Virginia, through time and space into the middle of the Thirty Years War. Now stranded in the brutal world of the seventeenth century, the lives of Grantville's residents rocketed off on strange trajectories. Some became wealthy, selling their skills and priceless objects from the future. Others became powerful and influential figures in Europe's tangled and treacherous politics. Still others became renowned for their knowledge and learning. And some, of course, stayed poor and didn't play much of a role in anything.
Then… there was Jimmy Dick. Born James Richard Shaver, Jimmy Dick was a well-known figure in Grantville. Depending on whose opinion you asked, he was a shrewd fellow—even a wise one—who was a thorn in the side of people who were self-important and pompous. Or he was just a jerk; a jackass; an embarrassment to the town.
His nickname started out as "Jimmy the Dick" or "Dick Head." Right after the Ring of Fire, the Germans of the seventeenth century started calling him Herr Head.
