Distant Passages in print!!!

Here it is, guys!! Everyone buy a copy, or at least ask for one for Christmas. ;) I'm waiting for mine to come!

Distant Passages: The Best from Double-Edged Publishing 2005

There is some great stuff in there. :) I remember really liking some of these stories when they were in print in the magazines.

And heck ... I'll even give y'all my autograph. *grin* :P

For some reason blogger isn't letting Mara post - but she asked me to clarify that ISSM/Inkishowrimo is in May, not April. Just so you guys know. :)

ISSM

I have my idea! I won't have to cheat! Yay! *grin* It was something that popped into my head and was forgotten about a week later, save for a vague: "Hmmm ... this might be good Nano filler/plot." (Is there much difference between filler and plot during Nano?)

Anyway, it's something I'd probably never get around to writing unless I was terribly bored, because while it's not a bad idea, I have others I like better that need to be written ... and when they're written, I've no doubt others will pop up to take their place. This one tends to sift toward the bottom ... but I shall yank it up for Inkishowrimo. Who knows what other useful debris will come flying up with it? :)

And in response to one of Lyn's comments - I shall indeed shoot you, since you have so asked. With the very gun you threatened to use on Liz and me from the roof. *evil grin*

And I am waiting for a post in Alahndran, as well as one in Dragontongue. ;)

Behind the Foundation

Another insight into the creative processes of the illustrious Merlin.

Daydreaming while driving is generally discouraged, but the results can be quite interesting. I was driving along an interstate in Virginia--or West Virginia, I can’t remember where it was I started— watching the scenery (after a while, even going 75-80 mph gets boring) and I was struck by how impressive the landscape was, mountains covered in trees, and occasional interruption of human structures. Being me I quickly deconstructed the signs of humanity and viewed the world as it would be if human activity ceased. The road would be mostly overgrown fairly quickly, the power lines would be in disarray, the buildings would be falling into ruin.

And then I wondered what people would think if they could see such ruins without the idea that they were built by humans, and without any knowledge of technology. They would probably be assumed to be the product of some advanced race more powerful than our own, and probably be viewed as magical.

So I placed a group of ignorant humans somewhere in our own world after some catastrophe that left all the cities abandoned and technology far regressed. So much time had passed that they did not remember that humans had built the ruins they saw. They assumed that there was some hyper-human almost elven magical race behind the ruins.

So I built the idea of a story I initially named What Came Before, but have since changed to Behind the Foundation.

(And yes, I came back, I regret that I abandoned this place for a time.)