MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2330 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) RE: MERCEDES-LACKEY digest 2327 by "Misty's Secretary" 2) Re: MERCEDES-LACKEY digest 2327 by "Barbara Martin" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 22:15:15 GMT From: "Misty's Secretary" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Cc: firebird-+AT+-firebirdarts.com Subject: RE: MERCEDES-LACKEY digest 2327 Message-ID: <20000617221515.2834.qmail-+AT+-hotmail.com> >Paul - first - welcome! If you truly are whom you say you are (and we all >know there has been past occurrences of people not being what they truly >appear to be) then welcome even more!!! I agree that you have every right to be suspicious. May I point for evidence at our illustrious list manager down at Herald? (C'mon Mel, back me up??) >Second - I think I speak for many on this list when I say "Give Misty [snip] >she can possibly stand. Thankyou and done. It's my job to make sure that Misty does the best work she can, and I intend to do that job. :) >Here's a question for you (and maybe the Lady herself): When these books >are >contracted or "thought up" are they purposely put together as trilogies? >(obviously not all of them are, but you get my drift...) Is that something >the publishers want to see for selling purposes, or is it more a writer's >perspective of "uhh, this story is going to take alot of pages to reach the >resolutions I am looking for - probably better do it in book size >sections." I left that intact, should someone have deleted the question. Ideally this sort of thing is probably best put to the "Ask Misty" section of firebird, and I'll pass this email on to them so they have the option of immortalising the question there. It's a good question actually. The books are thought up as stories first, and then it's decided how to actually format them in print. They come into three categories basically. Firstly there are the complete stories, that can be fitted into the single novel. The latest, Brightly Burning is an example of these. Then there are the closed stories that would be just too long to do properly in one novel. So, they usually end up as a trilogy, three seeming to be a nice round number for that - it gives the whole story a beginning a middle and an end - and that seems to feel right. Finally there are the open ended stories. These tend to be the ones that end up as series of books. Sometimes the overall story is open ended, and stories within it are of certain sizes. This is how the Velgarth books, whilst being a series as a whole can be single books or trilogies. >And another question for you - in Jinx High, Di talks to the high schoolers >about "what its like to be a professional writer." - How much of that was >Misty's own personal work philosophy - and how much if at all has that >changed as she's written more books and found her stride? I just threw that one at Misty, which was a little cruel - it's a while since she wrote it! After some thought, she told me that that section was pretty much straight up her philosophy on the subject, and she still feels the same way about it. >Hey - if these questions are No-no's in your book...no problem, man. If you >don't know the answer, no problem. Just some stuff I was curious about... > >Again, hope you're legit. Thanks for joining the chaos - May I be the first >(I dunno - I get the digest version!) to give you a big SPLOOSH!!! and hand >you a sheep covered in towels - or was that towels covered with sheep? > >-Susan *peers at the toweling covered sheep* Are you sure that's what you had in mind? Paul Fisher Business Manager, Highflight. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 18:28:03 +0100 From: "Barbara Martin" To: Subject: Re: MERCEDES-LACKEY digest 2327 Message-ID: <005f01bfd94c$057d41a0$0417883e-+AT+-master> Freedom Walker - welcome back! (though you won't remember me, I only started posting recently.) I've had problems with huge numbers of emails as well - I can't get free email and internet access in England, and yes, it is expensive. Eventually I went on to the digest form of the MLML - that way I get less messages AND they all have MERCEDES-LACKEY in the subject line. Makes life a lot easier. >>Heyla list and wow.... I just got done going through 700 messages > You know if we could put ML in a subject line I would > have to have a whole different D**n e-mail address > just for THIS list. Paul - welcome to our happy band! Hope you enjoy what you read, and stick around. > From: "Misty's Secretary" > As you ought to be able to see from the "Name" section of this email, I'm > acting as Misty's secretary. This is an experimental attempt by Misty and > Highflight to have a more accessible public face. > Paul Fisher I get the impression that Companions are quite capable of keeping their status as Guardian Spirits secret and forgotten if they so wish. Quenten did not forget, but that was because the Companions felt that it would be of more help to Elspeth and Skif if they appeared impressive and powerful. Also, as far as I've read (Owlsight), the concept of Guardian Spirits hasn't been discussed by any Herald, IIRC. Suggests to me that they'll keep it under wraps for a while, at least. Who was it Karal/Ulrich told it to? (can't remember, in the process of rearranging all my books - where did they all come from?!) They obviously didn't gossip about it From: "Hill, Susan" >you get the same "the reason clergy are forbidden to pray for victory" scenario there too Call me daft and shallow if you wish (it's happened before) but I never really understood this... ~Babs ------------------------------ End of MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2330 **********************************