MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2658 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) Re: Valdemar Companion/Companions' Choice by "Runewind" 2) Re: Valdemar Companion/Companions' Choice by "Misty's Secretary" 3) Re: Valdemar Companion/Companions' Choice by "Misty's Secretary" 4) Re: Valdemar Companion/Companions' Choice by "Misty's Secretary" 5) As Promised: Take A Thief Snippet by "Misty's Secretary" 6) Re: As Promised: Take A Thief Snippet by Silvershadow 7) Re: As Promised: Take A Thief Snippet by J80Kath-+AT+-aol.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 16:13:09 +0800 From: "Runewind" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: Valdemar Companion/Companions' Choice Message-ID: <3B697C15.16263.1013C0-+AT+-localhost> On 1 Aug 2001, at 7:13, Misty's Secretary wrote: > The real thing to watch out for is the Map that Larry painstakingly > produced. I've seen the original, and it's awesome. I kept telling him > he should draw it to scale, but he wanted the detail. Okay, it's not > really 1:1, but it's awfully big. I'm quite certain that reduced to > book page size it will not be done justice. We have plans afoot to > make posters - so here's a question.. would you guys be interested? If > there aren't enough takers, it won't happen see, and now I've got your > attention.... > > Paul Definite yes! I adore maps and wish I had poster-size maps for all the worlds I read about. Especially if the map is patterned after old maps in style. Runewind ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 06:04:40 +0100 From: "Misty's Secretary" To: Subject: Re: Valdemar Companion/Companions' Choice Message-ID: Actually, these aren't bad ideas, and I'll discuss them with the crew here. I'm not sure how Larry would feel about the map - it's his opus of course :) With regards to special editions and the like, we're not really the people to ask - Misty makes the words, Larry does words and art etc; but after that it's out of our hands. All the cover design, marketing and so forth are in the hands of the publishers. There have been occasions when we only realised that a text was published when we saw it in the shop... If you would like to have a special edition of a Velgarth book, then several thousand of you need to email the publisher :-) Paul ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matt Neimeyer" To: Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 1:42 PM Subject: Re: Valdemar Companion/Companions' Choice > > >The real thing to watch out for is the Map that Larry painstakingly > >produced. > > Ooooh.... Of the whole world? Or just Valdemar? Or... > > >I'm quite certain that reduced to book page size it will not be done justice. > > Could it be done sectionally? (however, that's spelt). So that in the book > you can see maps of Valdemar OR the different sections of Valdemar OR (if > it's bigger) the area of the Silver Gryphon OR the Dhorisha Plains... etc.. > > >We have plans afoot to make posters - so here's a question.. would > >you guys be interested? If there aren't enough takers, it won't happen > >see, and now I've got your attention.... > > I'd be interested. Assuming the cost isn't horrible... In a nutshell, > anything under $15 I'd probably get, anything from 15-30 I'd consider but > I'd have to think real hard, and anything over that and I probably wouldn't > do it. I mean that's two or three books (and if I'm shopping the used book > stores even more) > > Could you guys do it as part of a set of something? Like a commemorative > edition of... something? "Buy this boxed set and get a poster too" type thing? > > One other thought. Very low cost (but not as good resolution) Computer > Wallpapers. Charge a dollar or thereabouts through Paypal (to avoid the > cost of the Credit Card network) or something similar and use those dollars > to defray the cost of printed posters. This way you need a lower return on > the physical posters but are still able to offer them. Release the > electronic version early and then depending on those sales determine if the > physical is feasible. And of course, offer for free an even lower > resolution wallpaper to increase interest. > > Matt > > Pin-Up Poster Sheep for all the walls! > > ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 06:09:51 +0100 From: "Misty's Secretary" To: Subject: Re: Valdemar Companion/Companions' Choice Message-ID: > they make great pressies. Is Larry going to show where on the "modern" map > the sites shown on the Gryphon and LHM maps are? Would definitely buy a > download of that, which might be a lot cheaper than trying to do a, over the > ages map now I think of it. Bad delete finger here, the guy who was talking > about screen savers? Liked the idea. > *grin* I've got several Terry Pratchett maps, some of em even signed. You're forgetting I'm a brit too :-). I still haven't quite got Misty to spell properly, but I'm working on it.... The original map is basically centred on Valdemar, but going quite a ways into Velgarth in all directions. The plan is (as I heard it) to section it up for the book, so it won't be absolutely tiny, but I think it still won't be quite the same. It's likely that parts of the original will not make it into the book; though as noted previously, it's out of our hands here. Yes, the original full scale thing has white gryphon marked on the map. Those of you that appreciate how far away that is will thus be somewhat aware of how far out that map goes... Paul ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 06:11:38 +0100 From: "Misty's Secretary" To: Subject: Re: Valdemar Companion/Companions' Choice Message-ID: > I'd love that. When I was a kid, I had a lovely poster of a large-scale map > of Middle Earth on my wall, with a little castle for Minas Tirith, a little > village where Hobbiton would be, dotted lines showing where the quest had > taken the Fellowship, and dragons and suchwhat all around the edges. I used > to trace the Fellowship around Middle Earth before I went to sleep. I > assume Larry is doing something equally entrancing for Velgarth, and I'd > love to hand it on my walls. Maybe I'll pull out Middle Earth again and > make that room into a whole explorers reading room of fantasy destinations And the new film won't be getting you to do that anyway? :-) *sigh* When Misty and Larry were down in NZ they got the tour of the special effects company doing the effects for LOTR. WHen viewing the trailer recently they were going on about recognising models and such. *grr* Lucky... Paul, who got to stay home. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 10:54:01 +0100 From: "Misty's Secretary" To: Subject: As Promised: Take A Thief Snippet Message-ID: Okay, this is a snippet from "Take A Thief" - the first half or so of the first chapter, just to give you all a feel for it. You can all have this on the strict understanding that you go out and buy the hardback when it comes out. Right? :-) This particular piece hasn't been let out of the stable anywhere else, so you guys get to see it first. Worth sticking to the list right?! I would apologise for the long post, but I rather suspect you'll forgive me this time. I also have permission to post some snippets from "Shadow Of The Lion", since there have been several snippets of that released to the Baen's Bar flies. Larry is busy working on the cover to that one as we speak, which is looking pretty impressive, capturing a big scene from near the end. Let me know if you want it huh? I like email. (If it's a "yes please", then send it to me, not to the list. Kay? - let's be nice and keep out of the one line things.) One snippet sheep. Open with care. S P O I L E R Take A Thief (c) Mercedes Lackey, 2001 CHAPTER ONE "Gerrup." Skif's dreams shattered, leaving him with vague fragments of being somewhere warm, cozy, and sweet-scented. A toe scientifically applied to Skif's ribcage with enough force to bounce him off the back wall of the under-stair cubby he called his own reinforced the otherwise incomprehensible order that he wake up. He woke, as ever, stiff, cold, and with a growling stomach. It was the beginning of another beautiful day at the Hollybush tavern. An' good-mornin' to you, too, bastard. He scrambled to his feet, keeping hunched over to avoid hitting his head on the staircase, his ratty scrap of a blanket clutched in both hands. His uncle's eldest son looked him up and down, and grunted---probably disappointed that Skif was awake enough that a 'pick-me-up' cuff to the side of the head wasn't going to be necessary this time. Skif squinted; Kalchan was a monolithic silhouette against the smoky light from the open kitchen door, narrower at the top and swiftly widening where shoulders would be on an ordinary human, his only distinguishing characteristics from neck to knee being a pair of pillow-like arms and the fat bulging in rolls over his waistband. Skif couldn't see his face, which was fine as far as he was concerned. Kalchan's face was nothing he cared to examine closely under any circumstances. "Breffuss," Kalchan grunted, jerking his head over his shoulder so that his greasy locks swung in front of his face. Skif ducked his head and quickly folded his blanket, dropping it on the pad of rags over straw that served him as a pallet. He didn't need to dress; in the winter he slept in every stitch of clothing he owned. Satisfied that Skif was on duty, Kalchan went on to awaken the rest of the tavern staff. Yah, an' do not a hands'-worth of work, neither. "Breakfast," was what Kalchan had said, but he hadn't meant that it was time for Skif to partake of that meal. As soon as he was out of the way, Skif scuttled out into the kitchen and began the tedious business of lighting the fires, hindered by the fact that his uncle's penny-pinching ways were reflected in every aspect of his purchases. For firewood, he relied on the rag-and-bone men who swept out fireplaces and ovens in more prosperous households, sifting out the ashes for sale to the tanners and soap makers, and selling the clinkers and partially-burnt ends of logs to people like Londer Galko, keeper of the Hollybush Tavern. Nor would Uncle Londer actually buy a decent firestarter, much less keep a candle or banked coals going overnight; Skif had to make do with a piece of flint and one of some other rock. The fact that at least half of this "firewood" had been doused with water---which was, in fact, the law---before the ragmen picked it up didn't make it any easier to light. Before he could do anything about a fire, Skif went to the pile of sweepings from the floor of the common room that he'd collected last night after the last drunken lout had been rolled out the door. Every bit of dust and fluff that looked as if it might possibly catch fire became his tinder. At worst case, he'd have to sacrifice a precious bit of the straw stuffed into his boots for warmth. Heh. Sommun' been trackin' in straw. Hayseed from country, prolly. Oh, ayah---here be nice dust-bunny too. Swearing under his breath, Skif hacked his two bits of rock together, trying generate sparks, hoping one of them would land in the tiny patch of lint and fluff. When one finally did, and finally cooperated with his efforts, he coaxed it into a tiny flame, then got the flame to take hold of the driest of the wood. He nursed it tenderly, sheltering it from the drafts along the floor, begging it to take. Finally he set it on the sooty hearth, surrounded it with what was left of the dry wood from last night, and slowly fed it until it was large enough to actually cook over. Only when the kitchen fire was properly started did the slattern used by Uncle Londer as a cook, dishwasher, and general dogsbody finally shuffle down the stairs from the loft where she slept into the room, scratching head and buttocks at the same time without ever dislodging any of the vermin who called her "home." Skif often wondered why so few people who ate here died. Perhaps it was only because their stomachs were already full of the acidic potions his uncle sold as wine and beer, and once a stomach was full of that rotgut, nothing that came in from the food lived long enough to cause sickness. The kitchen door stood open to the cold courtyard; Kalchan came in that way every morning, bringing the day's supplies. Uncle Londer never bought more of anything for the inn than he absolutely had to. Now Skif braced himself to head outside into the cold. Where 'ud it hurt if he bought for a week? Wouldn' he get it cheaper that way? Skif ran out into the courtyard to unload the wagon---hired for the purpose by the candlemark, together with a boy to drive it. The quicker Skif unloaded the thing, the less Uncle Londer would be charged---and if he didn't save Uncle Londer every possible pennybit, he'd learn about it when Kalchan's fist connected with his head. The boy stared at the ears of his donkey, studiously ignoring Skif, who was so much lower in the social scale than he was. This boy had a coat, new boots, both clean. Ah, stuck-up! Skif thought, and stuck out his tongue at the unresponsive back. First off, a half-sack of flour, followed by a tub of tallow-grease thriftily saved from cook-shops where they skimmed off the grease from roasting and frying, and resold to those who could not afford butter and candles. Maisie would be put to taking peeled rushes and dipping them in the melted grease to make the tallow-dips that served the tavern as lights, and the cook would use the same grease in baking and on the bread. Skif moved it carefully and set it down beside the flour; sometimes the stuff was still liquid underneath, and he didn't dare spill it. Then came a bucket of meat-scraps, which would serve for the soup and meat-pies. I don' wanna know what that meat came from. Reckon it might meow.... Next, a peck of withered, spotty turnips, another of dried beans and peas that were past their best and smelled of mold. Last of all, two barrels of beer and one of wine. Both represented the collected dregs from barrels all over the city, collected last night from one of the large merchants who supplied goods to other inns and taverns. Needless to say, this was the cheapest conceivable form of beverage; it even cost less than the sweet spring water collected from outside Haven. It was so awful that guild cooks wouldn't even use the stuff in sauces; stale and loaded with sediment, if smelled sour even through the wood of the barrel. Skif got the barrels off the wagon quickly, and the boy turned the wagon just as quickly and sent his donkey trotting out into the street. Skif lugged the food into the kitchen where old Moll, the cook, took charge of it all. Only she or Kalchan were allowed to touch the food and drink once it came off the wagon. Skif had no intention of touching any of it. He never ate here---not that Uncle Londer encouraged him to. He wasn't done yet; he had to bring in enough water from the courtyard pump to fill the half-barrel in the kitchen---one bucket at a time. He stumbled on the rutted, frozen dirt of the courtyard; his boots, stuffed with straw for extra warmth, were far too big for him. He didn't care; better too big than too small. Leastwise they don' pinch. Now Skif went out into the common-room to ready it for the first customers, lighting the fire there with a brand from the kitchen fire, arranging bits of wood on either side of the hearth to dry, taking the benches down off the tables, and the shutters off the windows. The oiled paper in the windows didn't do a great deal to keep out the cold, but with snow in the street outside, there was some light getting in this morning, so it was just as well that oiled paper hindered more than it helped in that direction. Skif would never want to see what the common room looked like in the full light of the sun. As horrible as the food and drink here in the Hollybush were, there were two customers waiting for Skif to open the door. He knew them both by sight; two men who would down a minimum of six mugs of foul beer and choke down a slice of stale, burned bread with a scraping of nameless fat before shambling off somewhere, not to be seen until the next morning. Presumably, they had jobs somewhere and this was their breakfast. They slumped down on the benches nearest the door and Skif yelled for Maisie, the fourth member of Uncle Londer's tavern staff. As usual, she emerged from her own cubby of a blocked-up stair that once led to the second floor (which, unlike Skif's had a flap of patched canvas for a door) followed by Kalchan. As usual, she said nothing, only scuttled into the kitchen for the customer's beer and bread, her face set in a perpetual mask of fear. Kalchan hitched at his trews and grinned, showing yellowed teeth, and followed her into the kitchen. Skif shuddered. As awful as his position was here, Maisie's was worse. This was a tavern, not an inn, and the kitchen and common- room were all there was of the place. The tenement rooms upstairs, although they belonged to Uncle Londer, were not available for overnight guests, but were rented by the month. There was a separate entrance to the rooms, via a rickety staircase in the courtyard. This limited the tenants' access to the inn and the fuel and food kept there. Uncle fully expected his tenants to pilfer anything they could lay their hands on, and they responded to his trust by doing so at every possible opportunity. Not that there were many opportunities; Kalchan saw to that. Now Skif was free to leave at last for the lessons that every child was required by Valdemar law to have until he was able to read, write, and cipher. Not even Uncle Londer had been able to find a way to keep Skif from those lessons, much as he would have liked to. Skif didn't wait around for permission from Kalchan to leave, or his cousin would find something else for him to do and make him late. If he was late, he'd miss breakfast, which would certainly please Kalchan's sadistic notion of what was amusing. See ya---but not till dark, greaseball! He shot out the door without a backward look, into the narrow street. This was not an area that throve in the morning; those who had jobs were usually at them by dawn, and those who didn't were generally out looking for something to put some money in their pockets at least that early, or were sleeping off the results of drinking the vile brews served in the Hollybush or other end-of-the-alley taverns. The Hollybush was at the end of the alley, giving Uncle Londer the benefit of giving custom no chance to stumble past his door. There were other children running off up the alley to lessons as well, though not all to the same place as Skif. He had to go further than they, constrained by his uncle's orders. If Skif was going to have to have lessons, his uncle was determined, at least, that he would take them where Uncle Londer chose and nowhere else. Every child in this neighborhood was running eagerly to their various teachers for the same reason that Skif did; free and edible breakfast. This was an innovation of Queen Selenay's, who had decided, based on her own observation, that a hungry child doesn't learn as well as one with food in his belly. So every child in Haven taking lessons who arrived on time was supplied with a bacon-roll and a mug of tea in winter, or a buttered roll and a piece of fruit in summer. Both came from royal distribution wagons that delivered the supplies every morning, so there was no use in trying to cheat the children by scrimping. But if a child was late, he was quite likely to discover that his attendance had been given up for the day and someone else had eaten his breakfast, so there was ample incentive to show up on time, if not early, for those lessons, however difficult or boring a child might find them. Skif had no intention of missing out on his share. His stomach growled as he ran, and he licked his lips in anticipation. Unless luck went his way, this might be the only really edible food he'd get for the rest of the day---and there was no doubt in his mind that the rest of the children in his group were in the same straits. The narrow, twisting streets he followed were scarcely wide enough for a donkey-cart. The tenement-houses, three stories tall including the attics, leaned towards the street as if about to fall into it. There was not enough traffic to have worn away the packed, dirty snow heaped up against the walls of the houses on either side, and no incentive for the inhabitants to scrape it away, so there it would remain, accumulating over the course of the winter until it finally thawed and soaked into the dirt of the street, turning it to mud. But that would not be for several moons yet. There was all of the winter to get through first. At least the cold kept down the smell---from backyard privies, chicken-coops, pigeon-houses, pig sties. The poor tried to eke out their meager foodstuffs any way they could. Pigeons were by far the most popular, since they could fly away by day to more prosperous parts of town and feed themselves at someone else's expense. There were clouds of them on every available perch, sitting as close together as possible for warmth, and whitening the broken slates and shingles of the rooftops with their droppings. Of course, with all the snow up there, the droppings were invisible now. Skif was finally warm now, his breath puffing out whitely as he ran. He had no coat, of course, but no child in his neighborhood had a coat. There were three ways to get warm in the winter---work until you were warm, do something that kept you near enough to the fire that you weren't freezing, or---be as creative about finding warmth as Skif was. After six turnings, he was in a slightly more respectable neighborhood. The streets were marginally wider, a halfhearted attempt to remove the snow had been made, and there were a few dark little shops on the first floors of the tenement houses. More chimneys sported thin streams of smoke, and at the end of this final street, just before it joined one of the main thoroughfares, was the Temple of Belden. It wasn't a large Temple as such things went; it had only four Priests and a half- dozen Novices. But the Order of Belden was a charitable Order, which was just as well, since there wasn't much scope for anything but charity down here. As such, one of the charitable acts performed here was to educate the poor children of the area. But Skif wasn't here because he had chosen the place, or even because Uncle Londer had picked it from a number of options. He was here because his second cousin, the middle son of his uncle's brood of three, was a Novice here. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 15:45:01 -0700 (PDT) From: Silvershadow To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: As Promised: Take A Thief Snippet Message-ID: <20010802224501.11570.qmail-+AT+-web4505.mail.yahoo.com> --- Misty's Secretary wrote: > Okay, this is a snippet from "Take A Thief" - the > first half or so of the > first chapter, just to give you all a feel for it. > You can all have this on > the strict understanding that you go out and buy the > hardback when it comes > out. Right? :-) Well, after reading that... I don't think I survive until the book comes out! *is going to be keeping a lookout for new 'snippets'. Also, a map? Maps are good! I like maps! And as a foot, note, snippits of anything will do! bring 'em on! *grins* ===== Zhai'hellava ~Silvershadow~ Chocobo of Legend Wielder of the Sacred SPOON __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 00:43:11 EDT From: J80Kath-+AT+-aol.com To: Subject: Re: As Promised: Take A Thief Snippet Message-ID: <96.17f20330.289b85df-+AT+-aol.com> I agree, I was truely sad when I came to the end of the snippet. I think I might just go get the hardback, though I generally wait for the paperback, seeing as how I am a poor college student, ah but Christmas is coming. Jennie In a message dated Thu, 2 Aug 2001 6:52:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Silvershadow writes: > > --- Misty's Secretary wrote: > > Okay, this is a snippet from "Take A Thief" - the > > first half or so of the > > first chapter, just to give you all a feel for it. > > You can all have this on > > the strict understanding that you go out and buy the > > hardback when it comes > > out. Right? :-) > > > Well, after reading that... I don't think I survive > until the book comes out! > *is going to be keeping a lookout for new 'snippets'. > Also, a map? Maps are good! I like maps! > And as a foot, note, snippits of anything will do! > bring 'em on! *grins* > > > > ===== > Zhai'hellava > > ~Silvershadow~ > Chocobo of Legend > Wielder of the Sacred SPOON > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger > http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ End of MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2658 **********************************