C James

Yep, I'm back... Exhausted, but back. Rolled in about an hour ago, after 12 hours behind the wheel. So tired I can hardly see stright. But, I did do one thing... Uploaded Ch 08. :-) Oh, and there will be pictures. Lots of 'em! The reason his Shadowyness mentioned the town of Cliff Dwellers ( small town in Arizona) is I mentioned to him that I'd stopped in his hometown. Yep, that's where he hails from. Pictures to follow. (no digital trickery: Cliff Dwellers is real, and is located just north of the vertigo-inducing Navaho suspension bridge, where the roadbed is a thousand feet over the water of the Colorado river.) Cliffs EVERWHERE. So, is it an surprise that it's Shadowgod's home town? CJ (glad to be back!).

Just wanted to give ya'll a few things to think about.. Nice, restful things. Telluride is the title of chapter 8, and Train Wreck the title of Ch 9. Any guesses what "train Wreck" might mean? Surely nothing... tense, as I'd never do such a thing, but let's just say it's a train wreck or seven, but not a literal one. (no train involved).

Only got a few miniutes and on an awfull connection, can't even get into my Pm box... I miss y'all! Having a GREAT time... Alaska is fantastic, on my way back now... Greetings from Montana! Should be back a lettle ahead of schedule... so, hopefully will be able to post a chapter Tuesday or Wednesday. I want to thank all who have posted while I've been gone. I haven't had chance to more than browse the threads, but I will when I get back. I'll also try and get the forum moving again. Take care, see y'all soon! CJ

That's a good point!! I'll have to settle for just pinning his photo up on every post office bullitin board between heare and Alaska.. Just trying to make him feel wanted.

ROFL! I drank a fair amount of it writing the few chapters I've done. LoL! I can, and have, written parts of this story sober, but it just seems so much easier with a tequila buzz.

But I was planning on mailing them to His Shadowyness.

Thanks everyone!! Yep, there are Mosquitoes in Alaska... They are the official state bird, or should be. I'm leaving in a few hours. I should be able to check in a few times on the trip, and I should be back around oct 4th. CJ

My novel JAKE, based on my short story "Three for Jake", was due to come out this month. My trip put that on hold. Some chapters are written, but, if I posted now you'd end up with one chapter and then a 5 week wait. So, my apologies, but Jake won't roll until early October. CJ

Huh!!?!! Ummm, did somebody Tequila you, Eric? You know I'm not evil... And bewares... Tiger is right.. Don't tempt Shadowyness.. Remember LiS 26? <shudder> I can only address one point of this without giving spoilers. That point is the timeline. You are 100% correct on that; the Changing Lanes Timeline is months ahead of DnCW. However, this does not preclude future interaction; the timelines should sync up again around chapter 50 of Dreams and Cliffed wings. Also, there might be other interaction, of a limited nature, that can occur much sooner without being a spoiler. You'll see. Good catch on the timeline!! CJ

Hi!! Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of my team, including a late-night editing session by Emoe (thanks EMOE!!) and an incredibly fast turnaround by Graeme, we have a couple of chapter for posting while I'm gone. Shadowgod and Joe will be handling the posting. To space things out evenly, Chapter 6, Travel Plans, will post on Sept 9th, Ch 7 Laying the Groundowrk, will post Sep 23rd, Ch 8, Telluride, will post about Oct 3rd if not before, and Ch 9, Train Wreck, will post a week later as we return to a weekly posting schedule. If I can get Ch 10 done soon and mailed in, the above will change and there will be a week's less gap somewhere. I'm leaving in a few hours for my trip, so take care everyone! I'll miss you, and I'll try and check in a few times. CJ

Nope, you read it right.

Very true! They are a good mix, IMHO. BTW, anyone care to speculate on what this might mean,

Shadowyness! Now, now, you can't blame me for this! (see how he always tries to pin stuff on me?) Because it's all your fault that Eric is now a motorcycle rider. You're a bad influence on Eric... Besides, you've almost killed Cody once already... Remember his encounter on the loading bays, and the garroting wire being made ready? Your universe is just too perilous a place for Eric... CJ

Well... anytime shadowgod is involved, there is bound to be danger... He has this heartfelt, maniacal love of imperiling (or worse!) his characters.....

But, your Shadowyness, I can't mention what might happen... See the Echidna? See his spines? I fear the spines! And notice how the Shady One didn't mention his own culpability in putting Eric in peril!??! ECHIDNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, but, but, that's Shadowgod's title, and he wants it back!! I must, as a loyal fan of Shadowgod, endeavor to see that he gets it! Also, I might point out that Shadowgod has had several cliffhangers in DnCW so far! Granted, non have risen to the dizzying, unequaled heights of LiS 26, but it's probably too early in the story for that. Also, I have it on good advice that one reason for Shadowgod's lower than normal posting rate lately is he's still pining over the loss of his title. So, just in case I'm right, why don't we try giving it back to him? CJ

Wow, some great speculation here!!! I can't comment on what will happen (If I do, our anti-spoiler Echidna, Graeme, will turn me into a pincushion! I feat the spines!) However... I can mention that I always bury clues to what will happen, earlier in the story. In this case, although Changing LAnes is supposed to be a stand-alone story, there are some serious clues back in LTMP. Remember the chat Eric and Chase had right after the "Worlds Collide" chapter and Eric's kiss with Cody? That's one good place to look. There are others, in Changing Lanes itself, but as the old saying goes, sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees.... Another nuke would IMHO be highly cliche and repetitive. I'm afraid I can't comment beyond that, other than to say that, like in LTMP, I'm striving to make certain the tech is real. The Stealthed photo recon satellite, for example, is quite real, and so is the general description of how it is built. Sometimes, I may have to make guesses. For example, I do not know, nor can I find out, the specific ORBAT (order of Battle) for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, nor their equipment and tasking manifest. I also don't know for sure where, exactly, their chemical weapons inventory is stored (it will be in several places). All I can do in cases like that is make extrapolations and deductions. Do I know that they would have NBC detectors nearby? No, but doing so is both logical, and has twigged photo annalists to other chem and bio depots in other countries in the past. In other words, it's operationally logical that they would do so, so I assumed that they would do so even though I do not know. John knew that Eric was planning on the Canary Islands, but not that he was going to check it out in person. Eric couldn't tell him in advance, because Helen can read Jon like a book. Obtaining a false, working passport is far from easy. The General's freind Bill works in the wrong side of the as-yet-unnamed agency (he's intel, not operations) to have any access to anything like that. The General's contacts are mainly military. No access to a false passport, nor the means and skills to do it himself. And Yes, I suspect that the Shady One isn't done with Eric yet... That does sound good!! Ground black Pepper on vanilla ice cream is actually one of my own favorites... It's quite good! But then again, the peanut butter and pepperoni sandwich (with tabasco sauce) in chapter one is one of my favorites too. BTW, I bet you know wone of the secrets of good chilli... Chocolate.

Thank you Krista!!! Tiger!!! Sweet, innocent me!?!?!? How can I be the king of Evil Cliffhangers, when there haven't even been any in Changing Lanes? As for Shadowgod.. Him riding his motorcycle in front of Eric was the cause of Eric deciding to get one... Now that was Evil of his Shadowyness! Thank you Benji!!! Yes, the Shady One (or,m as he says on his liscence plate, "Shady-1") did do that.. I'm not sure what he's planning for Eric next though.. I do hope it's nothing like LiS 26! SPiCE needs to rally, and condemn the Shady One for luring Eric onto what Helen described as a Two Wheeled Death Machine! So, whilst I'm away, could you all please make sure to blame Shadowgod for me?

It was the regognition issue that made me take that route initially. I already, per necessity, had to do a lot of "educating" in LTMP (such as related to the technology) so I figured enough was probably already too much. LoL! If I start writing in Italian, there would be far more problems than that. ! LoL! Thanks... Oh, BTW, yes, Senior Frogs is real. And yes, I've been there (to the one in Grand Cayman). To be honest, I didn't find the food that good, but it was a unique name so it found its way into the story (besides, i knew it would catch the eye our you, our resident amphibian!)

I drink Tequila too... In fact, I was ripped on it when I wrote my short story "three for Jake". LoL! Besides, I think Erics and Tequila are a good mix.

I have a question regarding the paparazzi. Paparazzi is a plural term, meaning more than one. The singular is Paparazzo. In LTMP, I used "Papparazzi" as both singular and plural, as this is how people in the industry refer to them. "I had a damn paparazzi on my front lawn!" In the dialog, this is quite okay, but in a third-person narration, should I have done this (in the narration)? I did it mainly for simplicity, but it is an inaccurate usage. So, my question is, should I go back and fix in in the posted chapters of Changing Lanes (and maybe LTMP)? If I shift over to using the correct terms in the narration, I'd IMHO need to do so consistently, which would mean changing the posted chapters. I can do this easily with Changing Lanes as there aren't many chapters. Please let me know what you think. CJ

Yes, I must agree.... His Shadowyness is dropping hints (in Changing Lanes!) of the uber-mega-disaster-cliffhanger he is rumored to be planning (I speak the truth: He really is rumored to be planning this!) for Dreams & Cliffed Wings. I think he's planning on the annihilation of an entire US Coast! He's evil like that, you know...

But, your Shadowyness, what did I say? It's not my fault that your cliffhangers are so traumatizing! I'm just suffering from post-LiS 26 traumatic stress disorder!

Thanks, and thank Wildone, I hadn't heard of Spirit Bears! I'm sorry I've been absent so much lately; I had to get ahead on my work (I'm self-employed, though I prefer not to say in what in public) and prepearing to be away for five weeks takes a LOT of advance work. Then there's the trip itself; I've been finding accomodations en route, reading up on them, reading reviews, bargain-hunting, etc. I've also had to do some advance maintanance on my SUV, pack, take care of all my bills, paperwork, etc, and a hundred other things. Plus of course summer thunderstorms keep me off the computer in the late afternoons and evenings almost every day. And this is all on top of being in the process of building a new house and moving (and I've been doing much of the construction on the new house myself). So, I've been a little busy lately. I'm very much looking forward to my trip. I need a break. I'm going to try and get another chapter of Changing Lanes done before I go (right now, I'm only just finishing Ch 9) otherwise posting will be kind of slow while I'm away. I hope to get 10 done this weekend. As for Shadowgod... Of course its all on him! His cliffhangers are much scarier than bears!! CJ

Bears?? I'm not too worried about bears... Please bear in mind (ack, a pun!) that I've seen a black bear less then 10 feet from where I'm sitting typing this. There's a kind of a stepped pathway around the side of my house, made out of railway ties, and there are often ground squirrels nesting by burrowing under it. Bears like 'em, and a black bear lifted up a section a couple of years ago. I saw it. (there's a window to my right, and the bear was less than five feet from it). Black bear aren't as big and dangerous as Grizzly (I've never seen a grizzly) but they can attack on occasion, though normally they avoid you. I've seen black bears on my property several times, plus the occasional mountain lion. (For those that think I'm a gun not for always going around armed, now you know one reason). I'm more concerned about truly scary things.. such as Shadowgod's cliffhangers. Now those are scary!!! CJ

Thanks!! BTW, I just wanted to clear up one small thing.. The contact has a Russian accent. The Scar wasn't russian. Dimitri was, but Dimitri is dead. The Scar, if alive, would also be missing an arm at the very least. The contact isn't. The contact isn't The Scar.