Topher Lydon

My interpretation, being merely a vessel to allow West to do his own thing, and it being 20 years ago, is that he wanted an example to follow. Andrew is the role model he has at his school that best knows what West is going through. I think Andrew was trying to tell West not to follow, but to lead.

I can't promise I will be ready to release Black Prince, but I am giving it serious thought, and need to shake cobwebs out of my brain before I get compared to George RR Martin one more time...

It's just not done nowadays, not really, but we're much better at this kind of security that we were at the time this is set... thankfully.

Yeah, but what I needed was to change single spacing into double spacing between paragraphs for a 142 page document, so I needed the find replace tool. Used to be so easy, Find: ^p Replace ^p^p Now it's sacrifice my cat to the great Something something Expressions god, perform a black magic ritual, and then make a faustian deal with the wordprocessor devil (involving a monthly subscription) just to get 1/2 of them to change, and the other half, stubbornly, to refuse to do anything. (til I figured out I have a habit of shift returning instead of straight carriage returning that is borne out of too many lessons on typewriters under the watchful ruler rapping of a demented typing teachers in school)

I tried Openlibre today, it's like the extension uptodate version of Openoffice, I think... Intimidating Voodoo to make it replace paragraph breaks, but I wrestled it into doing what I want... and not eating the cat.

James was not in the first draft of this book, my editor, Martin, smartest guy. Read it and stood up to me and said "You can't have Darien doing everything." We fought and argued, and fought some more. But Martin won that arguement. I went back over the book, I needed a reason for Darien to rely upon others. A vulnerability, later chapters actions that were Dariens were split among the other characters, and I realized at the end that I needed a way for Darien to project strength that wasn't directly him. Thus James, described by an early alpha reviewer as James Hetfield meets Altair. Thus James was written into the story, and became a fan favourite. Hell I still have fan art someone drew of him somewhere in my notes. My favourite scene of his is in a later book, when he falls out of the rafters into the middle of one of Darien's dinners. The embarassed Fi'adi had slipped and ended up in the middle of the table or something. Just a random mistake, that to this day, makes me really like the character.

I was dared, by my friend, to somehow work the words Giant Magic Mushroom in the Sky into a book. I obliged and won the bet. Thus not having to do dishes for a month. Worth every word.

These guys make their own hope at times. General Ramsey (Masconi's father) has an amazing plan coming up that buys them time, a bit Theodan on the plains, but it gets the job done. Plus Katz is there, and when you don't have Darien, Katz will do what he has to. I was, at this time, evolving Katz from Fighter pilot to his own ship Captain, filling a role that Darien couldn't fill any longer. Darien was more Macro plot, and Katz stepped in to be more the Taine we were used to... Tain lite, all the kick ass, none of the baggage.

Unknown Location, Unknown System, Unknown Territory “Where am I?” Darien coughed, listening to the sound of rain as it flowed somewhere outside. A loud pattering of rain on leaves, falling heavily through underbrush, the wind stirring the tops of trees. There was peace and quiet, no sound of engines, no chatter of radios, just silence and solitude. He rolled on the coarse cotton sheet, coughing again. His back arched with the pain that lanced through him and he curled deeper into the b

Nope just tried office 365 and NOPE not happening, uh uh... it's gross and smells like a dumpster fire of misery caked in sadness.

Why do I need to be online, have a subscription, have my work saved to a cloud or other new fangled AWEFUL life subscription services. I want a good, old fashioned word processor on my PC that words like Microsoft word used to before bells whistles, and rockets on my Granny's wagon. Ugggh open office is frustratingly broken in so many ways that it is getting unworkable (What you want to change ^p for ^p^p ? No chance, no page formatting for you, silly antique writer) and let's not get into my STILL broken dictionary function and spell checker. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it's like they want it to be needlessly hard.

Thank you, I feel much the same for your work. Now onwards, Ezra's in danger and Enrico has decisions to make.

hahahahah, Though I admit, who are we kidding. There is no way in hell that Andrew would allow his Sprog to drive anything but a Mustang. Though Will will insist that Andrew be nowhere near the driving lessons. Oh man, one mad Carter man driving is bad enough, but two... there wouldn't be an Ottawa road safe again.

I must admit I do miss a bit of the Teenage angst... At least Jacob will be grown up a bit in time for when I write the next one(setting wise) Now i just have to figure out what kind of over the top muscle car to give him just to spite you I am thinking a Lada, just to be obnoxious.

Indeed, but combine it with what is to come and you turn a *might* into an absolute.

My favourite Actress. Well caught, even I didn't notice the subconscious reference

Someone's gonna get what's coming to him, from Will, Andrew, Enrico, or certain Chinese women with an agenda.

This, here, is exactly what I wanted. In the past books Andrew's perspective and focus was very much on what he could do for Will. In this book I get to explore what he gets from the relationship. That Will is just as important for Andrew, vital even. The best relationships are the ones that contain that blind trust that no matter what, they can rely upon each other. Later chapters, Will will be exploring his political future and Andrew will take his turn being the rock.

As for the next: I absolutely can not count the number of times I've done this EXACT thing. While I don't think of myself as particularly handsome, I do seem to attract the younger ones with daddy issues with alarming frequency. The interaction with Sergie was friggen' awesome. I wouldn't have thought to do it like that, but it seems so dead on now that I think about it, which goes to show why this is a great series. Bloodless, but chillingly cold. Keeping Andrew's righteous alignment given the work, the lies, and the constant instability of the ground he is standing on is really hard. Honestly the hardest thing I have had to write. In the last book protecting Will was easy and a no brainer. But this is very different.

That would be unacceptable, I am waiting for Skyler's rise to supreme head of the Gay Mafia, displacing Elton John as the Fairy Godfather!

Let me know when you are caught up and I will slip you the advance copies of the written chapters if you want them. I am working on 14 as I write this.

And finally, damn we aren't wasting time. Let's get into it. But Christ, that nostalgia, right in the chest. It's funny but writing them together after so long, I just knew every action reaction and thought. I thought I would have trouble finding their voices again, but since they're so ingrained. My first real characters, and I've had them so long by this point that it was like they'd never gone anywhere. They're so easy with each other that it is a pleasure to write them.

high praise from you mate.

I am proud to say that the Canadian politicians have their elbows up. And as long as I am still breathing, no one's turning Canada into the 51st anything. Pollivre and his Conservative cronies be damned. Don't worry, I have full plans to have our dear Politician turned diplomat make his feelings on the subject very well known. I wonder if I can have Andrew et al steal a certain Moscow Hotel tape... The thought of taking on the Cult of Personality south of the border in a subsequent book in the series is very tempting. But no idea what I'd call it, I don't think "Carter's very mashed up rotten Orange Stomping" flows too well...

Excuse the earlier version that saw the massive revision struggle I was having with this chapter... All ruddy night, and no sleep. 10 different rewrites of Sinclair vs Enrico, a consistency pass with my digital consistency editing software... and somehow EVERY edited version of the scene wound up in the text >.< modern tech sucks, sorry you guys had to reread the same two paragraphs over and over and over ten times. I have edited it now. Should be free from that. Apologies again, too tried, going to find coffee