He supported himself from that time until age 50 in a variety of jobs, including longshoreman, truck driver, machinist, and labor union organizer.

[1] After winning the fourth quarter of 1993 Writers of the Future contest,[2] he published his first novel in 1997 and moved to full-time writing in 1999.

[3][4] He has edited the works of several classic science fiction authors, repackaging their short stories into collections and fix-up novels.

In 2004, he was faced with a persistent drain on his time[5] by fan fiction authors seeking comment on the four-year-old 1632 Tech Manual web forum focused on his 1632 series.

In the same year, he suggested[5] to Jim Baen the experimental serialized fan fiction e-zine The Grantville Gazette, which also found commercial success.

Subsequently, Flint became editor of the new Jim Baen's Universe science-fiction e-zine while concurrently remaining a creative writer bringing out three to five titles annually.

After the death of Jim Baen due to a stroke and completing the contract for the tenth Grantville Gazette, Flint founded a new website, grantvillegazette.com,[7] which was modeled on the JBU e-zine.

The library is an ongoing experiment in electronic publishing where Flint and Jim Baen advocated for the availability of unprotected e-books in multiple online formats.

Once the bundle reaches four months from its scheduled release date in print, about half of the work is serialized and available to readers purchasing the advanced peek.

They are 1634: The Galileo Affair (2004),[22][23] 1634: The Baltic War (2007),[24][25] 1634: The Bavarian Crisis (2007),[26] 1636: The Kremlin Games (2013),[27] Torch of Freedom (2009),[28] and Cauldron of Ghosts (2014).