Wizard Required

[dsyoji]

Awesome addition to the story, . More, more, more.

Addition: Excellent

[kf6eml]

Ye've tied the ribbons on it fair, Dear Author.

I think the good Doctor will be proud to include this one in the historical record of his own beloved Merovence.

[cstasheff]

When it comes to your own writing, Kf6eml, please remember that we really do want fan fiction. I will be glad to give the occasional prompt, and I suspect Ortho will be, too. He has given me a short list of minor characters who really need to have their stories told, and I suspect that you can come up with such a list of your own. For example, I never did write the battle scene in which Prester John gets kicked out of his own kingdom by invading barbarians, or why those barbarians were invading, though I did have a hazy notion that an army of centaurs were invading from the northern steppes. There are also the minor characters, such as the roc, who show up just long enough to pull our hero out of a dilemma. Back to the nest, maybe? How tough is it for a roc to find a mate, anyway? They'd obviously have to weave their dwellings on very high cliffs made of stone that wouldn't crumble under immense weight. You might consider what happens when a mountain climber gets caught between a roc and a hard place.

Thanks,
CBS

[kf6eml]

UGH!

[kf6eml]

I'll have to dig out my books and re-read them. I have the whole set, although they are getting somewhat ratty from years of handling.

Only problem is that we're moving to Hawaii in the next month or two, so I won't have too much time to write anything, even if a good idea strikes.

[Ortho the Frank]

@Dad: That was another mousetrap pun, darn you! "Oh! Look! Free cheese! Hey, I wonder what this big spring is for?" *SNAP!*

@kf6eml: Regarding your own writing, fan fic would be AWESOME - but why stop there? For example, while you're busy moving to Hawaii (which I'm sure is a terrible burden), how would you feel about us posting the "Truck Stop Coffee" essay in Chris's Friends? (I've got The Penny Bank bookmarked, by the way). It's short and funny, and I suspect it would be appreciated by the fans who come to this site.

[kf6eml]

You may post anything you like, and feel free to make such spelling, grammar and style changes as you wish. There are some rough spots in many of those things, mainly because most were written in truck stops in the middle of the night (thought about the subject while driving, and had to get them down before I went to bed or they would evaporate overnight.)

[cstasheff]

Please don't feel pressured, kf6eml. Wait till you have too much time. I started WARLOCK IN SPITE OF HIMSELF when I was new in town and only had a few acquaintances, so had nothing to do on weekends. I did, however, have a contest in one of the prozines, so I drew up a list of my favorite monsters, thought up an unlikely hero and a planet on which all of the above could occur, and started writing how the hero encountered each of the monsters. The ideas started coming on their own, and the story grew and grew to doulbe the length specified for entries. By that time, of course, the contest was over but, not to be deterred, I sent to Ace Books and shoved it to the back of my mind, since I was very unlikely to get published.

By the way, the contest-winner was, if I remember, a gentleman named Piers Anthony.

CBS

[kf6eml]

I think I may have heard of him.

I actually submitted a story to a contest, once. LA Times was running a Halloween writing contest, and I wrote that "Old man and his memories" piece and submitted it. I lost the original, and had to re-do it from scratch, but I think it came out okay.

Which reminds me... Since I moved, we cancelled our internet at the old place, and my site is down, so those short pieces are all gone, if you have linked to them. I still have them here, but I don't know where they may be posted for public access.

[Ortho the Frank]

Well, at least I had the forethought to save a copy of Truck Stop Chemistry to my hard drive before your website went offline. I'm planning to use it after The Trail of a Loup-Garou (two more segments to go). Beyond that, though, you'll have to email the essays to us (or post them somewhere on the net).

Chris was planning to post the first two chapters of Starship Troupers book 4 starting next week... but driving all over the country to visit kids & grandkids for Passover and Easter may have put him behind schedule. If we need a extra week of breathing space, we may post Truck Stop Chemistry earlier. We actually have very few one-chapter stories, so it's pretty useful.