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November 18, 2003

pushing my luck, but I can't help it: FARSCAPE NEWS

The Save Farscape campaign.... HAS DONE IT. I can hardly believe it, but the word is now official. They will start filming in December on a miniseries. Let's hope that's just the beginning of an empire.

one more thing: Japan

Quick before the internet disappears on me: JAPAN on the map! Now that surprised me, but I'm very pleased. And all of you who went over there today? What kind people you are. A bright spot in an otherwise difficult day.

ISP shenanigans: all to go quiet on the western front

We are having problems with our internet service provider (QWest!!!), and it may all disappear any moment. Dog knows how long before it's up again -- and that means everything, web and email. If you don't hear from me for a while you'll know why.

you! yeah, you!

Have you put yourself on the map yet? The link is right there, see? it gives me a childish joy to see lots of pins in that map. Do me the favor, okay?

characters (part one)

It's very nice to hear from people who have read books I've mentioned here. Cathy wrote to say how much she enjoyed Diana Norman's A Catch of Consequence. She's also having trouble getting hold of The Vizard Mask (which hasn't been published in this country). I got my copy so many years ago I don't even remember where, to be truthful. It might even be one of the books that my parents-in-law (who live in England) sent me. It's really discouraging when there's a great book out there to read and you can't get hold of it for less than $50. Cathy wants to know if Vizard Mask is worth that much; my answer would have to be -- it would be to me, but I can't predict if it will be to her.

Cathy also asked:

I was wondering how the new book was coming, and if you could maybe at some point post another excerpt as well as maybe who the main characters will be.  I love Nathaniel Bonner and his "Boots", but any character you write is great and amazingly interesting. 
  I can tell you that old characters you haven't seen for a while come back to hunker down in the new novel (the title of which is still being debated, by the way). Jennet comes from Scotland, and Luke (Nathaniel's son by his early alliance with Giselle Somerville) has got a large role to play. There's also Simon Ballentyne. You may remember his father, who took Hannah up on his horse on the journey to Carryckcastle in Dawn on a Distant Shore.  Nicholas Wilde, who was so involved in apple husbandry (and who married Dolly Smythe at the end of Lake in the Clouds) is also very much in evidence. Of course various army battalions come tramping through, and you'll spend some time getting to know them on Nut Island. Oh yes, and Kit Wyndham, who is a major in the King's Rangers. He's around a bit in this novel, and a lot in the next one.

Hope that's enough to keep you happy for the moment.

I also had an interesting question from Cindy by email:

My (compound) question is this:  What else can I do to ensure that my characters are not too far off the mark, and how much should I worry about it?  As far as possible I've based my characters on historical fact, but it looks as though a fair amount of extrapolation will be necessary.  It seems to me, at this point in my literary development, at least, that one of the worst things that could happen would be for my work to be dismissed as inaccurate.

That's an excellent question, but one that needs a longer answer. I'll start to put one together and post it here.