MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 1100 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) RE: newbies by "Brooke Shapiro" 2) Re: remove by John Hagen 3) I'm a newbie by "Jay" 4) Birthdays/Van's Gifts by Deniz 5) Letter of introduction by twin-+AT+-webtv.net 6) My Birthday by Chris Wiegand 7) Birthdays/Van's Gifts/Welcome Newbies!/ObMisty of sorts by MorningStar 8) Re: My Birthday by "CHRISTY GOLDBACH" 9) Van(not his gifts)/Likeability(not Van's)/SF in Valdemar by Lee <97jsalaz-+AT+-jasper.uor.edu> 10) Abrev. List by chenchen-+AT+-rgs.edu.sg 11) Re: Abrev. List by mdameron-+AT+-mail.isbe.state.il.us (Mary Jane Dameron) 12) Misty List problems/Newbies by Lonehawk2-+AT+-aol.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 15 Feb 97 21:39:03 UT From: "Brooke Shapiro" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: RE: newbies Message-ID: ok a little bit about me I guess. My first Misty book was Bardic Voices, #1 my fave books are ..well, i guess the Di Tregarde trilogy, Arrows, and Oathbound Books. I'm 16, and have been reading Misty for about 3 or 4 years. so thats about it.. Mara ---------- From: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk on behalf of sage f blackhart Sent: Saturday, February 15, 1997 9:47 AM To: Brooke Shapiro Subject: Re: newbies Ok, Welp. I dont know if I fudged my last message, I think I may have, dratted cats keep getting in the way, sorry.. GRRrr...:) I am Sage Blackhart, My first series by M.Lackey was The Last Herald Mage...I was reffered here by Ahriman... I adore Vanyel, and the Companions..As well as the Oathbound, Tarma and Kethry... I have the luck of having a "lifebonded" who looks and behaves like Vanyel (except he is straight and isnt suicidal at all) I have the hope to be going to DragonCon this year as well... uhm..well, hello all.. -blessed be- Sagey ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1997 18:08:35 -0400 From: John Hagen To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: remove Message-ID: <330633E0.552E-+AT+-snet.net> I think you send a message to listproc-+AT+-herald.co.uk with no subject and the body of the message is unsubscribe If I am wrong would someone please correct me? Lady Sara, LIG and Dryad Extraordinaire Hopeful Diety of all Marsupials, Past, Present, and Future "Resistance is futile!" Data, First Contact ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1997 17:23:58 CDT From: "Jay" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: I'm a newbie Message-ID: Hi everybody, I am a newbie to the list. I wasm't sure if I should send this but what the hell, I did it. A friend helped me get on. I love Lackeys work. My favorite book is of course The Last Herald Mage. I really like three charachters in it. Vanyel being the most favored by me is first. Then Tylendel and his aunt savil. My friend got me started with them and told me to read another of the series first before reading the last herald mage. I think he thought I would be turned off by the fact that the main charachter is shiac. It actually made me like it more. It gave the story a real feeling to it. like it wasn't fiction. Anyways I read the last herold mage first and fell in love. I haven't readd all of her books yet. I need to get a copy of the last of the storm series. I can't find in any of the bookstores around here. :( I just thought I'd say Hi to all of you awsome people out there. I have a webpage and if you know of any really great Lackey sites or sites for The Last herald Mage. send them to me so I can add them to it. If you want to check out the page, here's the URL http://www.dana.edu/~manderso/jheft/index.html If you can't get on for some reason e-mail me at jheft-+AT+-ACAD2.dana.edu Hope to hear from all of you. Jayson ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 97 20:07:59 -0500 From: Deniz To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Birthdays/Van's Gifts Message-ID: <199702160112.UAA15208-+AT+-sirocco.CC.McGill.CA> Okay... looks like my last message didn't make it through to the list... what happenned for this dead space I see of around 22 hours? Grrr... and I had put so much effort into my post. Oh, well. You win some, you lose some. :) Okay, before I get to the SobMisty, here's a quick Birthday announcement: SHELLEY KENNON (kennon-+AT+-inetnow.net) is celebrating her birthday on the 16th! CHRISTOPHER WIEGAND (Star's fiance) is turning 20 the 17th. Looks like he's still lurking, but you can still gift him. !$-+AT+-!%#-+AT+-^%#%^$&$##-+AT+-! Van's Gifts Mat wrote: >I've always interpreted that statement as "I didn't have the Gift >back then, so I couldn't have been a Bard anyway." If he had >meant that he has never had the Gift, he'd most likley have said, >"I don't have the Gift." When he says "didn't", that's in the past >tense. IMHO, he's implying that even though he has it now, he >didn't then. Really? I thought that what he was implying was that it didn't matter to him anymore. What I'm trying to say is that he was saying he didn't have the gift back when he wanted and needed it and having it meant a world of a difference to him. Once he became a Herald, he had "the hunger" and wouldn't have wanted Bardic anymore, because he would see that as being purely selfish. I think that once he became a Herald, he had a place, a sense of belonging, and Fandes- he didn't need Bardic anymore, and it ceased to become the hinge upon which his life hung. I wouldn't be surprised if he never even bothered trying to find out if he had it... he probably assumed he still didn't. Sagey wrote: >It is mentioned that whence it happens all his Channels are blown open, >except his healing..it is there but very weak, he never had the Bardic >Gift beforehand...He would have made a wonderful minstrel but he wanted >to be bard (thats why Tylendel had to help save Van in the first place) >because when they shattered his dream of being a bard he started >"bleeding on the inside" Actually, he would have loved to be a minstrel, but they couldn't take him because he was noble and the first-in-line to his father's estate. Bardic Collegium couldn't take him unless he had two out of three. Amy said: >>Well, my reaction would be that anyone who was as well trained as Van >was, and as capable as he was in control of his abilities, wouldn't have a >problem controling the Bardic Gift...and since his channels were blasted >open in such a manner, and Savil did test him and they trained him in his >gifts, wouldn't this one be covered? Well, I think the critical point is whether or not Van *knows* he has it. If he knows he has it, it'll be down pat, no problems at all. But if he *doesn't* know, he won't be able to account for the affects it'll have on his other gifts and on himself, and could get into a major booboo that way. Here's a model that I hope helps explain my thinking of how the gifts work. I call it the Solar System Model of Gifts. Let's compare a person to a solar system. The person is the star, or sun in the middle, and each of the planets (if any) are gifts. Not only are the planets' orbits (behaviour) determined by their sun, they are also determined by each of the other planets. Things like ThoughtSensing: Receiving and Projecting might even be twin planet systems because they're so closely entwined. Now then, if you had the bent (or a smart enough computer), you could, given the mass and distances (strength, I suppose) of each of the planets, calculate their orbits, accounting for influences from the sun and each of the other planets. Vanyel probably had a very intuitive feel for this. Let's say, now, that there's another planet out there that you were not aware of and did not factor into your calculations. Eventually, you're going to start noticing some errors of the planets from what you calculated. Unless you manage to make the intuitive leap that there is actually *another* planet out there that you haven't discovered, you're gonna think all these errors are random and unpredictable. This can be a bad thing, because this planet that you're not aware of might affect one of the planets you're counting on when you need it most. If you could observe these errors long enough, though, you'd probably come to the realization that there must be another planet, and you could then go about figuring out exactly how it fits into your solar system (locking down/ grounding and centering the gift). I don't have all the chinks worked out yet, but there's what I do have. Hopefully, that was a lot clearer and easier to understand than the whole misled "circles" topic ever was. And maybe even more enjoyable? I *am* sorry I ever brought the topic up. (tDC, that is) love, Deniz Sarikaya, High Priestess of | Confused about anything on this list? Procrastination, Holy Custodian of | Mail me and ask for the NewbieFest! the B-Day List, Dame of the OoAM, | "I have a bucket and three baseball and Demon of Deceitful Aliases. | bats." -- 3rd Rock From the Sun >dsarik-+AT+-PO-Box.McGill.CA< >freakola-+AT+-geocities.com< >http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/9359/< ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1997 23:02:27 -0500 From: twin-+AT+-webtv.net To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Letter of introduction Message-ID: <199702160402.UAA02120-+AT+-mailtod-101.bryant.webtv.net> If it may please the court of Valdemar, I would like to introduce myself. I am known as Vickie, TWIN2BJ. My credentials include a love of all things Misty, Valdemarian and otherwise. My entrance into the world of Misty started with _AotQ_ and hopefully will continue far into the future with more adventures about my favorite Companions and their heralds. My current age is 35 (yes, I know this makes me an older newbie). As a twin, I do not lie about my age but I have been know to lie about BJs age. I live in the Washington, DC area while BJ lives in central Texas. I would like to submit my application to the gods of typos and bad chess moves. I have applied myself time and again to these two causes usually with very unusual results. As proof I submit that while in high school, I wrote and issued a school bulletin for the Chest club which should have been for the Chess club. ObMisty, during my month of lurking, I have not noticed anyone stating what their favorite passages might be. One of mine is from _WoFury_ when Firesong destroyed Falconsbane. The quote is 'If he ever comes back again, it will be as a cloud of gnats!' What an articulate way of saying, another one bites the dust. I will close with a phrase borrowed from Elfquest, 'Shade and sweet water' Vickie aka TWIN2BJ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1997 22:13:12 -0700 From: Chris Wiegand To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Cc: dsarik-+AT+-po-box.mcgill.ca Subject: My Birthday Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19970215221312.006991f0-+AT+-popd.ix.netcom.com > Deniz wrote: Okay, before I get to the SobMisty, here's a quick Birthday announcement: ... CHRISTOPHER WIEGAND (Star's fiance) is turning 20 the 17th. Looks like he's still lurking, but you can still gift him. END QUOTE (smile) I didn't even know that anyone except Star knew. Did Star tell you? I don't remember telling anyone about us, or my birthday, although it's not a problem, just that I don't remember, and Star didn't tell me, although that *is* her style... Chris Wiegand Email: < mailto:cwiegand-+AT+-urgentmail.com > WWW: < http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/7734/ > Mail checked 6am and 6pm. Insert Return Receipt Requested for one. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1997 22:59:05 -0800 From: MorningStar To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Birthdays/Van's Gifts/Welcome Newbies!/ObMisty of sorts Message-ID: <3306B039.2706-+AT+-geocities.com> First things first('cause this is the first area of any message I've had anything to say about so far...) birthday giftings 'cause I wanna get in the habit. Shelley: For your Birthing Day, I gift you with a very special box. Be careful when you open it, for inside are exactly 100 smiley sheep, each one of which will make a bad day lots better. They'll work for anyone you decide to give them too, use them wisely. Chris: Hmmph. As if all the gifts you'll be getting from me aren't enough. Oh, well. You need this one anyway: I gift you with a good memory! Good enough so I won't have to tell you all the little details from Lackey's books after you forget them all. Feliz cumpleanos a vosotros! -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- What can I say? I feel like throwing my two cents' worth in on the Vanyel question. I don't think he had the gift. Or if he did, it was in such a weak amount as not to matter beyond the irony that Savil noted when she tested him. My argument? If he'd had it, when he was posing as Valdir he would have used it at least a little in lieu of the more "noticeable" gifts which he couldn't use lest he attracted some...ahem... unwanted attention. He could have used it to have people thinking of the things he wanted to know. Or he would have at least THOUGHT of using it for such... Just IMO, as ever... By the bye, Deniz, I like your analogy of a solar system as the way gifts work! -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 03:50:42 CST From: "CHRISTY GOLDBACH" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: My Birthday Message-ID: <43DB0935288-+AT+-cottey.edu> okay please help me out. I am a die hard Mercedes Lackey fan and I searched for her on the internet. That is when I found the list thing. Though, I understand it in general, I don't understand it in specific. So please help me out and tell me what exactly is going on. I just want to be a part of anything that has to do with Mercedes Lackey. Please help because I am soo new to this list thing!! Thank you! Chris Goldbach ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 02:17:17 -0800 (PST) From: Lee <97jsalaz-+AT+-jasper.uor.edu> To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Van(not his gifts)/Likeability(not Van's)/SF in Valdemar Message-ID: Conversation dies away in the Great Hall of Misty as a mewling rises above the crowd. "Where is that coming from?" The deities, clergy, knights / dames, et al, mill around. "I think it's that way." They wander out to the veranda, then down to the garden. "Meeeeoooooowwwww!!!!!" Behind the well they find a pile of Heavy Tomes wailing piteously. Lifting the books, they discover a layer of floppy disks... underneath that, a layer of paper... Finally they uncover an unsightly mass of gray fur and red--is it tape? red tape? Some time later, the Eternally Nourished One bathes in the Great Hall [well, I am a cat], refusing to answer questions. "Absent for days? Me? What are you talking about?" ****Van** A few days ago some of y'all were remarking on Van's alleged whininess and somebody pointed out that he once accused himself of same. I just have to say--would *you* really trust Mr. Vanyel "I like Shavri, so maybe I'm not really shaych" Ashkevron's self-judgement?? We are talking about a survivor of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse, here... ****Likeable Gay Men in Fiction** In answer to Cennydd's complaint awhile ago--what about Melissa Scott's Balthazar and, er, the other guy in _Seven-Twelfths Heaven_ and sequels? Or maybe they should be called bisexual. Not that two examples is really enough to overcome the relative absence of likeable gay men in sf/f. I wonder about this word "likeable"--Cen's definition seems to include not only "likeable once you get to know them," but also "easy to get to know," which seems to me to be a bit much to ask of a fiction character. Anyways, in case y'all don't know, there's a nice little URL that may help in the Quest for Queer-Positive SF/F: http://www.iam.com:80/maryanne/balist.html --the Alternative Sexualities in Fantasy and SF Booklist. Not all of these are *positive* portrayels of alternative sexualities (in fact I guarantee you can all find something on the list that'll offend you), but it's a start. ****SF in Valdemar** Okay, my mental habits tend toward the obsessive; I can't ask a question (is there / will there be SF in Valdemar?) without trying to answer it...This goes back to Cennydd's definition of SF as requiring of the reader a rationalist worldview, i.e. the belief that the world can be explained by laws which can be deduced/discovered somehow. I think yes, the Blues and anyone who's fallen under their Influence could write SF; whether it would actually exist as a genre of commerically available novels, I don't know, since that would depend on lots of economic and technological (but mainly economic) factors that I can't think about at nearly 2 in the morning when I'm writing this. Now that I've seen what other people wrote 2weeks ago when I asked that question, I see more controversy in the question of whether Valdemarans could write fantasy. Fantasy is fiction that demands of the reader a nonrationalist viewpoint (let's pretend for the moment that we've never read "science fantasy" or anything along the lines of _The Compleat Complete Enchanter_ where *magic* is explainable by rules that can be--but silly me, *Misty's* writings fall in that category, too), and since Velgarth seems to be primarily nonrationalist, pretty much any fiction any of them writes is going to do that (excepting the theoretical SF). But beyond the rationalism issue, fantasy isn't fantasy unless there's some violation of the (known) rules of the universe. Velgarth does have natural laws (they happen to be quite similar to our universe except in positing a kind of energy that can be manipulated directly by the mind), so it is possible to write fiction that violates those laws...but since Velgarthians typically don't understand their world in terms of laws, how could they differentiate between realistic fiction and fantasy fiction? Fantasy as a *genre* cannot exist until after rationalism begins to dominate the reading audience. whoo, well, that's really quite enough. Happy birthday to all the birthday folk, and HI! to the newbies (Did I hear someone say "pounce"? Speaking of which, where is Mishi, anyway?), and g'night everyone (if you get this in the morning, save the "g'night" until you go to bed). (Oh! I knew I was forgetting something--could somebody who knows how to use PINE tell me if there's a way to delete all those gratuitous blank lines that appear after my sig in the digest version of this list? I've tried, and I can't.) ________________________________________________________________ |*~the Eternally Nourished Lee, Knight of the OAM, Spreader of | |Humor, Self-Appointed User of 5-point Vocabulary Words Such As| |"Panegyric"~* <97jsalaz-+AT+-uor.edu> | |_Meta Geek Code: !gc______http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4709/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 18:23:20 +0800 (SGT) From: chenchen-+AT+-rgs.edu.sg To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-vanyel.herald.co.uk Subject: Abrev. List Message-ID: <199702161023.SAA13975-+AT+-aragorn.sol.com.sg> Hello to all Misty-lovers out there. I just came back from a short vacation and suddenly I find lots of newbies on the list, which means I have get back to work. Notice ~~~~~ Calling all newbies and all old members of the list, If you need a copy of the abrevs. used on this mailing list, Please e-mail me privately at: chenchen-+AT+-rgs.edu.sg I promise to send one to you ASAP No charges. ~~~~~ End of notice That's about all I have to say. Oh yes, one last bit: Happy (Be-Lated) Birthday to all the members who were born in January and February & Welcome all newbies, and all semi-newbies who have returned! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Stormwind ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Learning is a treasure which accompanies its owner everywhere. --Anonymous ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Visit my homepage at "http://members.tripod.com/~eladi/index.html" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 05:27:06 -0600 From: mdameron-+AT+-mail.isbe.state.il.us (Mary Jane Dameron) To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: Abrev. List Message-ID: >Hello to all Misty-lovers out there. I just came back from a short vacation >and suddenly I find lots of newbies on the list, which means I have get back >to work. > >Notice >~~~~~ >Calling all newbies and all old members of the list, >If you need a copy of the abrevs. used on this mailing list, >Please e-mail me privately at: chenchen-+AT+-rgs.edu.sg >I promise to send one to you ASAP >No charges. >~~~~~ >End of notice > >That's about all I have to say. Oh yes, one last bit: > >Happy (Be-Lated) Birthday to all the members who were born in January and >February > > & > >Welcome all newbies, and all semi-newbies who have returned! > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >---------- >Stormwind > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >Learning is a treasure which accompanies its owner everywhere. --Anonymous > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >Visit my homepage at "http://members.tripod.com/~eladi/index.html" > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please send the list of abrevs, and thanks mj ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 15:40:08 -0500 (EST) From: Lonehawk2-+AT+-aol.com To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Misty List problems/Newbies Message-ID: <970216154007_-2110433611-+AT+-emout01.mail.aol.com> I do recall sending a post to the List quite recently that seemed to have gotten lost - any reasons? I'm not even using hotmail this time!!! (At least I stayed subscribed!) I can't quite remember what I wrote on it because I did that on a negative amount of sleep -- quite ungodly to try to type while you're falling asleep over the keyboard. I remember enough to know that I petitioned to the Deity of Nomenclature to becoem Goddess of those who desperately stumble around in need of sleep but valiantly struggle to stay awake and finish their work for the sake of becoming more educatied, and those insomniacs that at last find a peacefull moment of rest and suddenly discover (to their horror) that they've digested such vasts amounts of caffeing that they cannot even blink. ~~~~~ Hello and a warm welcome to all the newbies out there. Feel free to come in and curl up by our fire in a nice and comfy chair - didn't we have a welcoming committee somewhere around here???? (It certainly made me feel more at home when I joined!) If any of you want a copy of the Newbie Fest with explanation of what goes on in this madhou. . . mailing list send a note to Deniz at dsarik-+AT+-po-box.mcgill.ca One quick note though. Remember that when you hit "reply" you are automatically sending your letter to the Misy List. So please keep your requests for lists of abbreviations and Newbe Fests OFF List. ~~~~~ Goddess Bless, Ladyknight of the Order of Amber and Marigold and does anyone know how to do sigs on AOL so I don't have to keep retyping these things??? Shy'hawk ------------------------------ End of MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 1100 **********************************