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FAQ - New Questions New | Writing | Games and Gamers | Birds & Animals | Books in Progress | MusicBooks & Movies | Arts & Crafts | Conventions and Fandom | Valdemar | Companions 2006 Q: Dear Mercedes, I would like you to know that I was incredibly moved by your 'essay' regarding Andre Norton. I feel the same way towards your work that you seem to about hers. I first picked up 'Magics Pawn' at my local library when I was ten, I fell in love with the idea of Heralds and love, and the beauty of things bigger than yourself. I would like to read some Andre Norton books, but since she was so prolific, I would like to know where you recommend starting. I have read the 'elvenbane' and 'elvenbred'. Are there any other authors you would recommend? (who are like Andre Norton - the people who made you fall in love with reading fantasy/books). Thank you for existing and writing. A: I would heartily recommend the "Witch World" series, which is probably her longest series. But also BEAST MASTER and LORD OF THUNDER, The "Time Traders" series, and ZERO STONE.Q: Dear Misty: I can't count the number of times I've read, re-read, and simply devoured Sacred Ground, and I've almost got the entire book memorized. I was curious if you were planning on continuing the story of Jennifer Talldeer and David Spotted Horse, or maybe more fantasy/Native books along the same lines as the Medicine featured in Sacred Ground. I even read the stroy outloud to my children (both under age 3), to try and drill into their heads the importance of respecting the earth, and other paths rather than focus on "I'm right, and I'm not going to respect anyone else's choices" that is so prevalent in today's society. My kids just light up when I pull that book out, and my son wants me to read the "Hawk lady" book over and over again. I'd really like to have a new story about "hawk lady" to read them. Thanks for your time. A: Well, sadly, the book didn't generate as much interest as we had hoped, so a sequel was never asked for. Q: Are there any more books/stories in the Bardic Voices/Bardic Choices world 'in the pipeline'? A: Nope. Q: Dear Misty. From my first brush with Valdemar, I have been in love with your books. I must admit I am not always so enamored of all of your co- authored books. Diluted Mercedes just doesn't have the same joy for me as pure Misty.
As youngster growing up lonely and confused about my sexuality, I did
have one wonderful freind. A blue-eyed snow white horse. Now White
Lightning, wasn't as pretty as a Companion. He wasn't very big just a
hand or so bigger than a pony. He certainly never talked in my head.
What made him special, and My Companion, was that he loved me, just as
I was. So you see, the Companions aren't just fiction, they exist
here as well as in Valdemar. I eagerly await you r next books,(even
the diluted ones) Rusty A: Awww! Thanks Rusty! That's the wonderful thing about animals they really do love us just as we are.Q: >I just wanted to let you know that you are the reason i started to write. Thank you for showing me it's okay to live in another world. I hope that one day you read one of my books and love it as much as i loved yours. Candace A: Thanks Candace! Remember that dreams are always worth pursuing!Q: Ms. Lackey, The point of this e-mail is simply to send you a recipe for clotted cream and scones, and to express my admiration of your writing. First, I'm a huge fan (as I'm sure most of your e-mails say) and have read nearly all of your books with the exception of the Bedlam Bardz Series. Secondly, of all your series, my absolute favorite is the Elemental Masters series. You've captured the atmosphere in those books with so much detail, and filled in the background with wonderful description. Gates of Sleep I've re-read more then any book I've ever owned, and am about halfway through it once again. Blackbird Cottage redefined my image of my dream home. From the old house to the English country side.. It even inspired me to read Pride and Prejudice (I have yet to see the movie) and Jane Erie. So thank you for your time and dedication to your writing. Recipe for Devonshire or Clotted Cream:
In winter, let fresh, unpasteurized cream stand 12 hours,
(in summer, about 6 hours) in a heat-proof dish. Then
put the cream on to heat - the lower the heat the better.
It must never boil, as this will coagulate the albumen and
ruin everything. When small rings or undulations form on
the surface, the cream is sufficiently scalded.
Cornish Clotted Cream Take 2 gallons of milk straight from the cow, preferably a high butterfat milk producer such as Jersey or Guernsey. Leave to stand undisturbed overnight in a large wide metal pan, giving the cream chance to rise to the top. The following morning heat slowly , scald, being the proper term , but do not let boil for about an hour. During this time undulations will form on the surface- a semi firm thick slightly yellow crust of cream. Take off the heat, remove to a cold place, taking care not to disturb the crust. Leave to cool slowly. After 12 hours or so skim off the cornish clotted cream crust using a wide bladed knife. Serve cold in a crystal glass bowl. Ideal when spread in dollops on a scone topped with lashings of real fruit strawberry jam with lashing of hot tea as part of a Cornish Cream Tea
Cream Tea Scone
3 C. All Purpose flour
Preheat oven to 450 Thank you very much! I'm glad you are enjoying the Elemental Masters series; I hope we can continue to tickle your fancy with them. Q: I must admit that I am slightly obsessive when it comes to reading and so far yours if the best series I have read but I have 1 question. How did you manage to write as many books as you did about Valdemar? I have read the wheel of time series and after a while it repeated itself. I read the lord of the rings but J.R.R Tolkien only wrote 4 books. I read the dragon lance series which, while there are alot of books only around 10 are by the original authors. You created a world that seems real to me and didn't just give us enough for the story to work. I can see the world that you have described and know how it works. You also kept true to certain things like the bondbirds and their relation to their real and wild counterparts. I am personally only a decent writer and while I am in honors English it is because of my reading ability (and my talent to BS my way through). There are times when I wish I was a good writer but that is only because of the feeling of being immersed in another word. I know that you have better things to do with your time but I want to know how you did it. A: I began small, with one little village with a clearly defined set of boundaries from geographical to religious, and worked my way outward, with the idea firmly in mind that this WAS an entire world and that there would be vast differences across it. By approaching it that way I have kept things relatively consistent. Q: I wish to say that I am a fan of yours, how big depends on personal definitions and I feel I'm a big fan. I wish to tell you what I have just done in my home that includes your books. For the background, I found my first book in a bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan when I was Christmas shopping. It was "By the Sword" and I bought it at the time for the horses. I have outgrown the horse fetish, somewhat, but have kept looking for your books. I found "Children of the Night" after I got out of high school (in 1994) and while in college at Marquette, Michigan, I found your SERRAted Edge series in a used book shop. In the four and a half years of college I snapped up any book I coud find by you and continued when I came home to try for Nursing again at the local community college. Now for the really funny part (at least funny to me). My mom is a Harliquine Book reader (not that I mind, I've read a few myself) and she has never read a book by you before. One day my family and I were going into the store and she wanted to stay out in the car. She said "I don't have anything to read though" and I pulled out my copy of "Children of the Night" that I had stashed in my purse for reading later (when I was bored and sitting in the car). She started reading it and didn't put it down, even when we had an ice storm and our power was knocked out this last week. Now she's reading "Burning Water" and is interested in the stand alone "Fire Rose". I told her that you only wrote three of the Diana Tregarde books and she was a little disappointed. I told her that you had some trouble from people and had foolish questions sent to you about the series. She wanted me to tell you that some people are easy to offend and foolish. My dad is even interested in the Diana Tregarde sereies and he doesn't even like vampire books. (I got grief for reading those when I was a teen, but I still read them.) Now I just have to work on my little brother. Seeing as I am working as a Nurse's Aide and going back for Nursing once more, I don't know if I'll be able to buy as many books as I want for a while, but if you come out with any more, I'll snap them up as soon as I can get money and back down to Grand Rapids and their big book stores. I want to get "The Wizard of London" sometime to add to the two shelves of books by you and, if the possibility is true, I would love to see another Diana Tregarde book. Whatever the book, I look forward to it because you are one of my favorite authors. And thank you for writing Alberich's story in the Valgreth series; for some reason I can relate to the man.
Rachel
P.S. To show how much you influenced me, my e-mail address was
borrowed from a scene from one of your books where it was mentioned
in a dream that a dragon was protecting children. "Ah, the dreams
of wizards." I think that was the quote. I used that and a song
called "Dreamweaver" to make up the address. Q: Hi. I have enjoyed your books for some time. My Sister introduced my to Vanyel back In 1992. Like many of your fans I own your entire collection of the Valdemar Series. The question I have, is: While reading EWxile's Valor I noticed an inconsistancy. In the begining you have Adain as the Young Bard and Mical As the Herald Trainee - yet, when they accompany Herald Alberich (my favourite character after Vanyel), you have Adain on "his" comapnion accompanied by Mical on a sorrel gelding from the stables. Then, at the end of the book, Mical is once again on his comapnion and joins the 'polo' team. Is this a deliberate play to see if readers are on their toes, or an honest error that EVERYONE overlooked? Just wondering. Keep up the wrtiing. I really enjoy them. Barb A: I can promise you that I make more than enough mistakes by accident; I sure don't need to go inserting any deliberately! 2004Q: I'm a big fan of your books, especially the Bedlam's Bard series and SERRAted Edge series. I've been reading since I was 12. I know that Stoned Souls continues the SERRAted Edge series, but it doesn't feature Tannim. Is there any plan to include him and his girlfriend (the name escapes me) in further books? He's my favorite character from all of your books. And is there any plan to maybe include him as a larger character in a Bedlam's Bard series, or Eric in a SERRAted Edge book? I remember Tannim's appearance in Spirits White as Lightning. A: I can promise you that the SERRA characters will me making appearances in the Bedlam Bards books. Larry is going to field the rest of this question! Q: This is not a question but rather comments. I can fully understand your needing to take a break from your (and many of ours) favorite books. In fact I support this because without you having good ideas, the stories won't be as easy to love. I just wanted to pass on my support for you and to let you know that I finished Exile's Valor in 5 hours Halloween night. Yes I know it isn't supposed to be out yet, but one of my local books stores had 2 copies and I had been drooling over your teaser chapters. Unfortunately for me it's made me want to go back and re-read everything else, this is only bad because I can't find half of it due to a recent move. I also got a big kick out of your short story After Midnight that's on your website, I've often wondered how characters would effect the author. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything you've written. Excuse me but now it's time to go and find Arrow's of the Queen and "infect" my daughter (who's 4) with a love of truly wonderful books, she already likes Ms. McCaffrey's work something tells me she'll like yours more.... A: Oh, I HATE moving, it takes me years to find things! Thanks for the support. I confess it does relieve some pressure, and I'm really enjoying doing other things. Q: I have a question to ask Mercedes. I am currently writing a novel ( at the age of fifteen too) and i was wondering something. When you started writing your wonderfull books did anyone ever tell you that you could not do it? and if so how did you get over the critisim? Also thank you very much for inspiring me to pick up a pen and write down those thoughts in my head. A: I have to say that both when I was in high school and writing for fun, and then later, when I began to write seriously and professionally, the people around me, including my family, were all very supportive. What they did caution was that it was very hard to make a living as a writer, and that I should also get a job to pay the bills, but they never told me not to write, or that I was wasting my time. I suppose that it would depend on the criticism; if I was told I was wasting my time, well, it was. after all, my time to waste, and writing is a pretty cheap hobby! If I had been told that what I was writing was bad (which it certainly was at first!) I would have just kept on improving, knowing that Ray Bradbury said that you have to write about a million words before you've had enough practice to write good ones. And if I had been told that no one would ever want to read what I wrote, well I wanted to read it, and sometimes an audience of one is just fine. Q: My name is Laura I'm a resident of Sunnyvale, CA. I'm an aspiring writer. Yes I know you must have been approached a million times with that particular line and I can't profess to be much different except to say I am not perhaps as optimistic as most. I love to write and I feel that it is much more a calling than an errant desire but I am extremely worried. My parents are musicians and my life has been anything but opulent, I am very grateful that I have had the privilege of living in the bay area at all. I fear to ask you what may make me seem shallow since I do consider you to be one of my heroes. I am a student and I hope to pursue creative writing as a major but I am frightened to completely throw myself into the world of the artist (which in my experience is underpaid, under appreciated and wholly misunderstood). Is their any likelihood that I! could make ends meet in an area with some of the highest living costs in the country as a writer? Now that I have that off my mind I would like to join the masses and say that you are one of my favorite writers. I have spent many days and nights immersing myself in your excellent books. I adore the rich worlds in your stories and I admit to being a bit too attached to your characters. I truly hope you take the time to read this and will not judge me too harshly for my question. -Laura A: Dear LauraSigh. I wish I could tell you differently, but---unless you hit odds the equivalent of hitting the lottery, no. You will probably work on your first book for two to four years; this will be totally on your own, without pay, because despite what they say, book publishers do not want to see three chapters and an outline, they want to see the whole book and an outline, because they need to know that you can actually finish what you started. Then you will send the book off, and if it is actually bought, it can take anywhere from a minimum of a year to as much as ten. (You should, of course, immediately sit down and start another, but that is a different "lecture.") At this point, unless, as I said, you manage the equivalent in luck of hitting the lottery, you will be offered the princely sum of between $3,000 and $5,000 as what is called an "advance against royalties". But you don't get this all at once. No, you will get one-third on signing the contract, one third on the acceptance of the REVISED manuscript (and it will probably take you as much as a year to revise it to editorial specs) and one third on the publication of the book, which can take place as much as two years beyond the acceptance of the manuscript. I think you can easily see that you are not likely to be able to make a living at this rate. Now, once the book is in publication, and that advance has been "paid out" (it was essentially a loan against your presumed income from sales), you will get royalties, but they generally don;t amount to more than $2,000 a year for a new writer. And that is only if you keep producing so that the publisher has an incentive to keep your work in print. My best advice is to take a good hard look at the job market in your area, find out what jobs are in demand, figure out what you can do to pay the bills that won't cause you to want to open a vein when you go to work in the morning, and write in your spare time. If you are prolific, good, and lucky (and in my experience it takes all three) eventually you may be able to earn a living at writing. The old "Bob Aspirin" law fopr the point at which you can quit the day job was "Five books in print, contracts for three more, each book doing significantly better than the one before, and income equivalent to 150% of your current income for a year in the bank." I do not know of ANYONE who has violated that law except J.K. Rowling, and she was on welfare at the time she wrote the first Harry Potter book, so she didn't exactly have anything to lose. Q: Misty , I have enjoyed your books for years now and I have been following your career for awhile and can not wait to see where your stories go next . Now on to the question ; it might be an old one , I thought I read on the " In The Work's " link a couple of years ago that you were working on a " Serrated Edge book " tentivly titled " Tempest Fugent " ?? and the group Tempest was going to make an appearance in it . Did this story line get shelved ??????? Steve ( an Ex OKy living in California ) A: Ah, that is stuff that is still on the back burner. Since Larry is the co-author on the SERRA books, and he's been sidelined for a while, we don't know what's going to happen with those yet. Q: Hi! I'm sorry if I sent this to the wrong place but I just had to get this out of my systm! I love your books! I first got interseted in them when purusing a bookshelf and since then I can't put them down. Because I love to read I'll read just about anything (including encyclopedias) but I'm always kind of let down when it isn't Mercedes Lackey! My faves are the Velgrath. I'm often picked at for rereading them until I can actually quote the entire book. I just can't thank you enough for the joy you have given me. I also wanted you to know that after reading The Lark and the Wren I went out and bought myself a fiddle and have proceeded to teach myself. I am now a well accomplished composer and player. When I hit a bumpy spot in my music education I pull down my favorite book of all time The Lark and the Wren and remember the inspiration I had and I can always come out on top. Thank you for all you've given me! Your admirer, Kelsie A: Wow, Kelsie, good on you! I can't even imagine trying to teach myself fiddle! You go, girl! What a great thing to hear that something we did was able to point you in such a fantastic direction! Q: Misty, Do you have any control or say as to what font size your books will be printed in? I just picked up "The Outstretched Shadow" and the font is smaller then what I am use to seeing plus for a person with limited vision, it is extremely hard on the eyes. Dana Mcleod-Lane A: The publishers and the publishers alone decide what font to use. I have no say in it. In a book the size of The Outstretched Shadow, which is something like 300,000 words, they choose the font that will enable them to print and bind a reasonable number of pages. The more words, the smaller the font.All that I can suggest is a page-magnifier, I'm afraid. With publishers and readers demanding bigger and bigger books (in 1960, a standard sized novel was 60,000 words, in 1980 it was 100,000 words; now a standard-sized novel is 150,000 words, and they aren't getting any smaller), you're going to be seeing more books in smaller fonts. Q: I'm a huge fan of yours and also of Anne McCaffrey. The Ship Who Searched is widely regarded as the best of the co-written books in the Brain/Brawn series. Many of us are dying to find out what happens to Tia and Alex and their search for the Eskay homeworld. Is there any hope for a sequel? Pam A: I am never going to so "never," but I am so backlogged now with Major Projects that I'm not even considering it for any time in the next five years.Q: Dear Ms Lackey, I was just wondering what inspires you to keep writing? Besides mundane things like daily bills and such...:) I have always wanted to be a writer and am constantly amazed by authors who manage to write many, many books in a (relatively) short amount of time, as you have. Anyhow, thank you for all the hard work and wonderful stories. I understand if you decide not to answer this as you must keep very busy. Sincerely A: I have so many things I want to write about, and every time I get a new idea it just gets me so jazzed I can hardly wait to get them down on paper. If I could just write as fast as I can think, it would be terrific! Q: Ms. Lackey, First off, thank you so much for fifteen years of incredible reading! I have enjoyed your Velgarth novels and short stories since high school. A lot of my copies of them are now worn out from repeated re-reading. They're great books! And while I understand your wanting to take a break from them, please forgive me for hoping your break is a short one :) I loved "After Midnight" too. I laughed so hard I thought my side would split (especially Lan's "teenage" moment). I am (among many other things) an aspiring writer, and I had a couple of questions for you about writing. You mentioned, in answer to someone else's question, that a short story should ideally be about five to ten thousand words. Have you ever had a short story that wants to grow bigger than that? Like up into that no-man's-land around fifteen thousand words? How do you go about cropping it back? It's definitely a crop-it-back situation; this story does not have a strong enough engine to make it to novel-length. The other thing I'd wondered about is this nasty tendency I have to continuously re-write things. I'll get to a point where I am happy with something, but then by the next time I sit to the computer, I'll have found fifteen things to tinker with in what I've already written. It's not like I've decided what I already wrote is crap ... I just find ways that it could be better. While I think it can be good to strive for perfection, this is getting a bit out of hand, and is not helping my productivity. How do you decide when something you've written is good enough? Thanks for taking time to read this. Wind to thy wings! A: Well, without being able to see the story, I'm not sure what to do about it. The best I can suggest is to look carefully for places you've repeated yourself, which is a common enough mistake. It is very difficult for an unpublished writer to sell anything of that length, I am afraid. As for what to do when you've finished something, the answer is simple. When you are done, print it right then, put it in an envelope, seal it and send it off. Then don't touch it again until you either get an acceptance or rejection letter. You can't edit something that's in the mail. Q: Mrs. Lackey- Allow me to begin by saying that I am a huge fan of yours. I take a keen interest in the lives of writers, as I aspire to this noble position. However, I cannot help but feel frustrated when my essays for various classes, most especially in English and History, are criticized inexorably. My English teacher from two years ago has informed me that this is normal, as creative writing is entirely different from analytical writing. She assured me that most any author will say that they have been told that they cannot write at some point during their lives. I simply wonder if you feel this to be truth? And have you ever been told this? Do you yourself ever dislike something you have written? ~Wind to thy Wings, and thank you ever so much for your time and effort, I eagerly anticipate your next novel! Sara A: Well, I have to differentiate between the crticism of a professional critic and that of a teacher. I never had trouble with essays in school, and I'm not sure why. unless it was that I was in the "advanced" English classes in high school after my freshman year and tested out of the English classes required in college, so as a result the only "diploma mill" English teacher I ever had was the one my freshman year in high school.Now as for critics...they have their own agendas. You have to remember that they are paid to criticize. You also have to remember that bad reviews get more attention than good reviews. I seldom read reviews and don't pay a lot of attention to them. There are a few people---who are not critics---whose judgement I trust, because they are better writers than I am. Those few, I pay attention to! It's not possible to get so good that you can't learn how to be better. Q: I realize this question pertains to a book not yet out and therefore the answer may not appear any time soon. The preview statement for This Sceptre'd Isle states that the series pertains to the origins of the feud between Keighvin and Vidal Dhu. The entire first book is about Dennoriel, who is presumably some relation of Keighvin. D's father is stated to be dead, so obviously K is not D's father. If K is D's son, then when the Serrated Edge series starts, K would be a lot younger than he is presented as being (I'm not sure exactly how old that is and haven't reread the series to get some feel for that). If he does wind up being D's son, then in elf terms he would seem to be barely adolescent, not the mature figure I do remember him being in the series. It works if D changes his name for some reason to K, but otherwise the first book in a trilogy putatively about the feud between two people that never mentions one of the two people is rather weird. shai kane A: Well, it should be fairly easy to deduce this from the text, wherein it is stated that Keighvin and Dennoriel are brothers, that since Vidal Dhu has killed off Keighvin's brother and is trying to kill off Keighvin's niece and nephew, Keighvin would take this amiss when he found out about it. Hence, the origin of the feud. QED.I do try to give my readers credit for having some intelligence and not put circles and arrows around all the important plot points.
Q: Hi Misty, I believe this is the correct venue for this; if not I apologize. The attached picture is a photo I took of a Red-Tailed Hawk(?) that was trapped in the stairwell at my apartment. It kept trying to go through the glass. I remember reading your books on how these birds can act, very scary. I went and got a very thick horsehide blanket to wrap him(her?) up in. I waited till he was sitting on the sill and came up very slowly from below, with the blanket in front of me. I carefully wrapped him up in the blanket, still moving very slowly and making no sudden moves. After he was wrapped up, all he did was open his beak. No struggling or sounds at all. I carried him outside and flung him up in the air, where he took off and flew to the nearest tree. My question is this: I know it worked this time, but if I came across the same situation again, did I do this right or should I have done something different. I saw the size of those talons and beak; if he had decided to struggle I do not know what would have happened. Any advice or opinion is appreciated. The honor of a reply is appreciated. I will be going on deployment soon and will be able to check my e-mail accounts but not surf the web. I thank you in advance. SSgt Kevin Apland A: Dear Kevin You did exactly the right thing, though how a hawk got in your stairwell I have no idea---unless he chased a mouse or rat in there! The only other thing I would suggest is that you make sure his head is covered; the moment you do that, he'll stop struggling and "sleep" (which is why falconers use hoods on their birds). And make sure you've done one of these three things---(a) you have secured the feet by holding them at the ankle above the talons---you can actually do this with one hand by inserting your index finger between the two ankles, wrapping your thumb firmly around one and your fingers around the other---(b) put something in his feet to grip, like a piece of stick---or (c) get a LOT of heavy fabric between you and the talons. Hawks are "birds of the foot"---they kill with their talons. Should it be an owl that you rescue next, putting it in the dark will not work to calm it. Instead, what has worked for me was to temporarily blind it with a flashlight. If it is a Great Horned Owl---two little "horns" (feather tufts) on the top of the head and a set of the biggest, meanest looking talons you've ever seen---watch out for those feet! They exert 400 ft/lbs of pressure, each, and can go right through a Kevlar-lined welding glove as if it wasn't there (as I know to my sorrow).Q: Hi Misty, First thing's first; You Rock. Ever since I read the first Vanyel book over 10 years ago, I have been enthralled and although I'm sure you have gotten gushing from folks in the same vein (I apologize for not coming up with something more unique) but really...you're the best. Keep doing what you do best and create worlds that the weary and heartsick can escape to. Second thing: I'm a librarian and I (among many other things) buy for some of our collections. Any GOOD librarian buys things (s)he both agrees with and fundamentally opposes. As long as they are well-written, as long as they have good reviews, and as long as her/his collection is BALLANCED then it is a Good Thing. In other words, if I'm not outraging someone I'm probably not doing my job correctly. Thank you for realizing we're not a herd of tottering bun monsters that dust books, extort fines, and harass kids. Thank you even more for helping people realize we're strident defenders of the First Amendment, and that although you're unlikely to see"Magic's Promise" in the Church Bookshelf (unless you're Uniterian Universalist) but you're most likely to see it in your public library. If not, have a talk with the Librarians. I do actually have a question: have you considered going graphic? (ahem) By that, I mean graphic novels. You do such a magnificent job painting pictures with words that I can "see" where your characters are and what they're doing. Unfortunately, not everyone sees these as clearly (or at all) in traditional books and I don't even mean the folks that are functionally illiterate. They are an art form unto themselves, and I think that you and Larry would be a great team in that regard. Check out the following (probably at your library) for the amazing scope that they cover. Here are a favorite few Clan Apis Chobits The Collected Beowulf Origin: The True Story of Wolverine Given the strength of your convictions (I read the "Last Straw) you should check out the books When, Why ... If by Robin Wood. That lady has serious class (we have her book here too...hers and yours are challenged often and stolen sometimes....only to be replaced when it happens. -grin- ) and I think you two are of like minds on many things. I wish you the best of luck in dealing with the nitwits.
Q: Dear Misty, I was wondering how a cover artist is selected. I have just finished reading An Outstretched Shadow and it has some of the best cover art I've seen. I'm tired of art where it appears that the artist hasn't read the book at all, missing all of the descriptions of the characters or event on the cover. Thanks, A: Choice of a cover artist and approval of the cover is all in the hands of the Art Director at the book publisher in question; most often the author has no say at all and doesn't know what the cover is going to look like until the book comes out.. I've been lucky in most of my covers so far; often the artist has actually contacted me or my co-authors or both to get the right look. Q: What's on the schedule? A: Heh. Actually, that's a lighter schedule than this year was. Fairy Godmother and Scepter'd Isle are both done---oh, BTW< SI comes bound with a CD with all of my Baen Books and some of Bertas on it. Alta is done and I get galleys tomorrow (I hope). Wizard of Karres is done. Sanctuary is the only one that's not written yet. Candle is half done and ILL MET is about 1/3 done. I'm not only catching up, I'm getting back on proper schedule.
THE FAIRY GODMOTHER Luna Books January 2004 Q: Just to pass on to Ms Lackey. Really liked the comments on intolerance in your Dec,. 2003 newsletter. As a member of the Nez Perce/Cherokee Nations, am well aware of the intolerance of the powers that be in the US in regards to any person of color from any culture. And you are right, when we are all gone, they'll come after different classes of people, etc. Just wanted to say thanks for what you wrote, it is never said enough. Billie Foster A: Oh, my. Now there's a great little christmas present. (hug) Q: Dear Misty First of a big complement to your work. You are one of my favourite authors right up there with Marion Zimmer Bradley and George RR Martin. I recently devoured "Outstretched Shadow" and "Exile's Valor", and I am really, really happy that Alberich found somebody. Throughout the entire book I was worried that she was going to die. I am glad I was wrong in my prediction. The man deserves some happiness. Thank you again for many hours of enjoyment. A: (Giggle) Hey, evidently I'm still putting together characters that people feel are almost real.... Q: To: Mercedes Lackey Hi, before I post my question I wanted to thank you for writing your books. I picked up the "Arrows of the Queen" trilogy at a point in my life where I was in the midst of some very difficult issues. The strength of Talia helped me to get throught that point in my life in one piece, so thank you! After I discoverd Talia, I discovered Lark from your Bardic Voices series, whereas I could use the strength you put into your character of Talia, I could REALLY identify with Lark, I played the violin so that helped! My question is this: is there any chance you'll be writing any more books in the Bardic Voices/Choices series? I haven't been able to get into your non-valdemar books as much as I would like, but the Bardic Voices Series I could get into easily. Thank you again! Sincerely A: Well, I have a lot under contract to deal with before then, but I would like to get back to the Bardic Voices books again one day. Q: Sorry if this is a commonly asked question, but how do you do it? At the moment you are writing many books with several writers. This is a specific question. How exactly can you write a book with more than one author, deal out the chapters? The writing styles obviously would differ. And you must be willing to compromise and work with a team and this astonishes me to no end. You are able to work by yourself, but often choose not to... Please reveal your magic workings, because I cannot comprehend how you manage to live in a working environment where you continually write with others, and are friends with them. All I can say is... Wow. Bravo. This is exposing my age as one unexperienced in relationships, but I remain in the dark as how you manage it. A: Well, you've already mentioned the key word, which is "compromise." The way I've tended to work is this; generally (because I'm what my agent fondly refers to as an "idea generator") I come up with the concept and the broad storiy. Then the two (or more) of us work out the general outline of the book, first, then the detailed outline later. Then we apportion out the parts of the book we really want to work on between us. Then one of us starts. As chapters get written, we both go over them, and then one of us (usually me) does a last pass to smooth out the styles. If the story as outlined isn't working, I get a good look at it, and it's usually me who finds a solution with a plot change. But not always, and both of us have to be willing to compromise at every stage. Working with James Mallory, for instance, there were/are substantial changes to the original story that I'd plotted out, but since those changes were all for the better, I was happy to compromise. Not magic, just using common sense, not getting emotionally committed to what are (in the end) only details, and being focused on the important part, which is telling the best story we can. Q: Having read many of the posts, I just have to say that I, too, do not really have a question...I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I first discovered your books on a friend's bookshelf. She'd found them at a discount odd-lots store (since that time, I have mostly paid full price, and have even gone back later to replace my paperbacks with hard-backs, so...) Anyway, you have brought countless hours of enjoyment tto my life, but more importantly, you have brightened the life of another. My partner was diagnosed with MS after she lost vision in one eye. At about the same time, she developed ocular migraines, which interfered with the vision in her one remaining sighted eye. Since that time, I have read aloud every Velgarth book and many of your others, some of htem many times. Whenever I feel too tired, or my throat starts getting scratchy, I look up and see her transported onto the back of a Companion or flying with a gryphon and am renewed. So thank you, for myself and my partner. A: Wow...that's amazing. You find me without words. Q: We're talking about sequels with Luna now. I'll keep you all updated. I'm glad you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it! A: Hi, The Fairy Godmother is such an awesome book! From start to finish. I just wanted to know- are you planning to write a sequel or another book in the 'five hundred kingdoms' series? I really hope you do. Elena Klovis is a cool fairy godmother, and I'm sure once your fans read this book, they'll be dying for more of this series. Thanks. Q: In one of your compilations of short stories, you asked if readers would be interested in seeing one of your stories turned into a book. Can't remember the name, but it involved the parrot Gray. I highly enjoyed that story and would love to see it in novel form. Are you planning at any point to elaborate on that story line (or have you, and I've missed the books)? I also really enjoyed the "Dick Whittington" stories about S'Kitty. A: The Grey Parrot stories are a lot of fun; I would indeed like to do a book of them when I've cleared out some of my other obligations.Q: How's this for odd fan praise? Your books helped me improve my French. Really. When I went to France (after having studied French for several years), I checked out books of yours that had been translated into French. After constantly reading and rereading your Velgarth books, I knew the gist of a particular line even if I didn't know the exact French word. This greatly helped my French vocabulary. When I went to Montreal, I spent a morning travelling from bookstore to bookstore to find more books of yours in French. I hope to purchase them in Spanish and Italian some day as well. A: Well, that's sure different! I'm glad the books were able to help you out! I get a big charge out of the fact that the French seem to appreciate our work so much. Q: Dear Ms Lackey Thank you for being. I have been a fan for as long as you have been publishing. I have two children who have grown up reading my copies of your books and (because I wouldn't let mine go) have gone on to their own lives with copies of their own. My question is, How is Jennifer Talldeer doing? A: In this weather, I assume Jenny is cuddling with her boytoy next to a fire!Q: Hiya! I'm glad this exsists, I was thinking about the multitude of gryphons in your wonderful Valdemar novels, and began wondering if there was a specific reason you excluded dragons from your works. I'm not complaining or anything, however it was just a curiosity on my point. I have a love for all mythology/mythologicalish type fantasy creatures, but it just struck me, after reading your books for five years that there aren't any dragons. ( and, while writing this, I just remembered about Joust, which I haven't read yet, but I think I'm more referring to the Valdemar books... and I'm meandering so, just tell me if I'm dense and I'll go read more of your books!) ...yeah. I love your writing like white on rice. or... something like that! -Zarkon A: Well, at the time everybody and his dog was writing about dragons, and I couldn't think of a different way to write about them. Plus gryphons are sexy, and how can you not like those feathers? Q: I bought a copy of "The Fairy Godmother" and just finished reading it. I wanted to tell you that it is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Thanks for writing such a great story. Sincerely, A: Cool! I'm really glad you liked it because it was a blast writing it. And if you drop over to www.luna-books.com you'll find a lot more stuff over there! Q: I just find it interesting that you like most authors use some foreign lanquage in your writing, you however take it one step further by actually writing in the literal speaking maner of some lanquages. My question is this, very simple really, did you take any Japanese courses or are your 'foreign' words of a differant sort? I am reading Exile's Honor right now and reconized the speach stile that is extrodinarily like Japanese, and I also noticed some words that are distincly Japanese such as Hai which you use early on in Oathbound. Just curious. Isaiah A: The language that I am most familiar with is actually German, but I've certainly picked up influences from a lot of other languages. Q: Dear Adam; I think this would probably be a bad idea, since I already have a contract for a book based on this premise. Even if you completed a story or book, anyone you submitted it to would recognize the source, which would not do your reputation as a writer any good. May I suggest to you that perhaps you are underestimating you own ability to generate story ideas. If you were to go to www.luna-books.com you would find a series articles I've written on writing that might help you.
Best of luck
My name is Adam and I'm an amateur writer and filker on Long Island, NY. I've been getting gradually exposed to your music and your short stories about Tarma and Kethry over the last few years thanks to my friends and I really love some of your works. One of your songs in particular has recently caught serious hold of my imagination and I wanted to ask you something. "The Duke's Eldest Daughter" is a beautiful song and tale, one I just heard thanks to a gift f a bunch of old filk tapes from a friend. I think it deserves a full-length story treatment. I would like your permission to write an expanded story based on it. I would, of course, give proper credit to you in the manuscript, especially if there's ever any chance it might be publish-able (I'm already working on getting my stories out there, and I've come very close a few times, so I am not giving up). However, I have no idea if this is something you already put down in full story form or not. If this is alright with you, or if you prefer me not to write such a story for whatever reason, I would very much like to know. Please keep up the wonderful work. The two Tarma and Kethry novels are already high on my to-read-soon list! Q: Hi there, Sorry to bother you, but this was the only contact email address listed on Mercedes Lackey's website. I have no idea if I am writing Mercedes Lackey or not...but I assume whoever is reading this has contact with her. I have been wanting to write Ms Lackey a letter, but don't know how to go about it. So I will write the following and hope it gets to her somehow! First of all, I love all the Valdemar books. I have read all of them, except for the most recent one (my student's budget is requiring for me to wait until it comes out in paperback!). I am also eagerly awaiting the next Elvenblood book. Anyway, I have some questions that I don't think have ever been answered in the books. 1) Why is Elspeth's Companion Gwena Grove-born? In Arrow's Flight, it seems like it was a pretty big deal that not only was she Grove-born, but that Rolan was involved (and later feels regret), and the Heralds all "forget" that Gwena was never around before. Is this something that is going to be answered eventually? It has nagged at me. 2) Also from the Arrows trilogy...it is mentioned several times that often the Monarch's Own Companion Chooses an already existing Herald to be the next Queen's Own. Minor question here....is it mentioned anywhere what happens to that Herald's original Companion? Thanks for taking the time to read this...I am a big fan. I also want to state how wonderful I think it is that you devote attention in your books to the reality of falconry and horse care. Here's to all those future novels! A: Elspeth's Companion Gwena is Grove-born because Elspeth is the first Herald-Mage since Vanyel, and it was expected that she would need extra help. She has helped to found the Mage's Collegium, which takes in anyone with Mage-Gift (not just Herald-Mages) and as a consequence she needs the special attention. When the Monarch's Own Companion Chooses and existing Herald, that Herald's Companion is free to Choose again, and does.Q: hey, first off I just wanted to say thank you so much for all the wonderful writing you have done. And although you have heard this before I am very very grateful that you write such amazing books. I am an 19 year old college freshman and I am really dyslexic. Reading is at times painfully slow for me. about 6 or 7 years ago I hated reading any type of books including required books for school. a family friend, not knowing that I hated reading gave me her copy of Magic's Pawn. she insisted that I read it and I don't know why but I decided to read it...maybe because it had a beautiful picture on the front cover. (to this day I still choose a lot of the books I read by there covers..oh well) I began the book and much to my surprise I loved it. I have read all of your books from Valdemar and many of your other books as well. so I wanted to thank you for giving me the motivation to read and to enjoy it as much as I do. it still takes me a long time to finish a book but as my family and friends can tell you I am rarely seen without one of your books in my hand or close bye. so thank you SO much. as for my questions, I loved you valdemar series and bedlam bard series and I was wondering if you had any recommendations as to any authors or books that would interest me as much as yours do? my second question is what kind of books do you enjoy reading?
thank you again. Q: Dear Misty, I was just wondering if you were going to write anymore novel for the Bedlam Bards Trilogy? And if you are not are you beginning to begin a new series close to the same setting. I cannot wait until the new Alta book comes out, But I would also like to know if you plan to make Joust & Alta a series like your Valdemar series? Good luck on your coming books. I hope you enjoy writing them as much as we fans like to read them. Jennifer A: Dear Jennifer; I believe you might like THE FAIRY GODMOTHER from Luna books. Rosemary and I have one more Bedlam Bards book to do, and after that, we will have to see what comes up. There is one more book after ALTA, which will be called SANCTUARY, and after that we will see how things go. Q: I live in South East Georgia and we have several beautiful Raptors in the area. One that I love is the Osprey. Do you have any plans in the future to do something about this magnificence bird. Yours a faithful reader for a few years now, and no you are not older then dirt, I am. Ha! A: Well, at this point, since I'm not doing any Valdemar/Hawkbrother stuff for a while, I don't have any plans for much involving Birds of Prey, but you never know. Q: I'm not actually asking Misty a question, nor do I expect a reply. I just wanted to add my voice to the sane majority who love her work. I appreciate all her hard work in writing book after book of enjoyable, emotional, and intelligent fantasy and I hope the crazy people won't drive her out of the business. That would be a terrible loss for the rest of us. There was a time in my late adolescence and early adulthood what reading good fantasy was one of few pleasures (guilty at times) that got me through college and graduate school. I still llok forward to each of her new books even though it is harder to find the time to read them. Thank you Misty! A: That is just so amazing---and very humbling. And I really, really appreciate it.Q: Hi, On the Anne McCaffrey message board (where a lot of Lackey fans lurk as well) someone came up with the question...how many books do you write a year? Or rather, how much of the co-authored books do you write? I personally can't tell the difference in the writing style of the ones done solely by you, and the ones done with co-authors, and I can't figure out if it's because you wrote most of them, or they write a lot like you, or if you did a final overall-editing sweep that made the writing style sound like you. I saw somewhere once something where you explained how you did "If I Pay Thee Not In Gold" with Piers Anthony, and that's one of my favorite books with you as a co-author, because the way your two styles merged was really interesting (I've read a lot of both yours and Piers Anthony's works). Is that how you do most co-authored books? In any case, you're one busy woman. Wow. ::stares at the hardcovers currently on the bookstore's shelves:: A: Well, last year and this year it looks like it's going to be about 5 books per year. It generally averages between 3 and 5.Q: Dear Misty, I just wanted to tell you how much you books have affected me. In 2000 I developed a streep infection that attacked and killed my kidney's. I was in 12th grade just about to graduate, and I was devistated. But I had a ray of hope, I have a identical twin sister and she offered to "loan" me one. But the big thing was we loved your books and how your charecters had such life. My sister would sit with me at tedious Dyalisis treatments and read Valdemar books with me. It was always something we could talk about that was fun in our life. Whan we finally had our surgerys, and I had a new Kidney and she one less. We sat in our hospital beds reading about Talia, transported away from the drabness of the hospital. We talked constanly about it late into the night, (sometime with the doctors yelling at us about our rest). But I just want to thank you for writing a seires of books with such strong female charecter to look up to and gain strength from. Sara A: Dear Sara---thank you, and I am wishing you the best of luck, and give that wonderful sister of yours a hug from me. You two take good care of yourselves and each other!Q: hi first off i just want to tell you how much i love your books! i have all of the velgarth series. can't get enough of it. but any way i know that you rehabilatate injured birds of prey and wanted to know more about it i was hopeing you could tell me some info or tell me a site i could go to where i could get said info. and i also wanted to know if you are doing any shows on the east coast this year. my german teacher Mary Osmanski didn't know if you were or not. i am geussing that she meet you at an sca event because she says she knows you and well shes in the sca. thank you for answering my questions because i know that you are very busy. Desiree ps were can i find the songs that you wrote the lyrics for because i can't find the songs any where. thanks! A: If you want to get into rehabbing, the first thing to do is to talk to your local Fish and Wildlife or Fish and Game department, who know all of the local rehabbers and can put you in touch with one. You will have to work with and for an experienced rehabber for at least a year. Probably you will not want to or be able to set up on your own. Before you can start rehabbing on your own, you will have to build a facility (big flight-cages at least eight feet tall plus shelter) and buy equipment, then have your facility inspected before you can be licensed. You will have to prove that you have the income or means to feed any birds that come in (which can range from getting donated mice and rats to paying for food; a large hawk eats about $3 a day worth) and that you have either a vet willing to donate his treatment or can pay for it yourself. In addition, the license which used to be free now costs several hundred dollars a year. So going into this on your own is not cheap. The only place to get songbooks, tapes, and CDs is via Firebird Arts and Music. Q: Term papers. As someone who has to deal with all the requests, I sure wish teachers would stop this type of assignment. Teri Lee Firebird. Here's Misty's official answer. A: Term papers and other research I have a heavy writing schedule and I haven't got the leisure time to help people with their term papers or other school assignments. Since you are reading this, I assume you must have a computer, so I suggest that the first thing you should do is go to Google or Dogpile or other search-engine and learn how to use one. The Web is full of hobbyists who are passionate about one topic or another, they create amazing and detailed web-pages about their passions, and you will certainly soon find all the information you could want and then some. I also don't have time to answer extensive lists of questions, but if your paper is about our books, you can probably find everything you need from these sources:
The FAQ section right here. Q: Dear Misty, I ve been a fan for quite a while, and have been keeping up with the Q & A section. I was just curious as to how you got the nickname Misty? Thanks! A: When I was a young teenager, I worked with a day-care center for migrant worker's kids; they were told they had to call us "Miss","Mrs," or "Mr." They called me "Miss Dee" (from Mer--say--DEEs) and slurred it together into Misty; I liked it,and it stuck. Q: I've read and re-read your Valdemar series, and the elemental magic books. Thank you so much for them. I loved Joust and just finished Alta, and now I'm sorry to tell you that you cannot possibly write these new dragon books fast enough. I'm going to be utterly insatiable. Thank you, Thank you. A: I'm having way more fun than should be legal with the Joust books, so no worries there! Q: Hey Misty, I've been one of your biggest fans ever since I started reading fantasy. In my latest FAQ email it says you're coming to New Zealand. Can you please visit the South Island when you come because all the famous overseas people just tour the North Island. I live in the South Island of New Zealand and will be waiting on pins and needles for the time to pass quickly. A: I've sworn that I am going to see and "play with" wild keas this time and we definitely have South Island on the agenda! We'll see if we can't get hold of a bookstore in Christchurch and do a signing. 2003 Q: Proofreading A: A number of people have suggested that they would be the perfect person to proof read, edit, and in general correct many of Misty's books. These folks often include samples of the "mistakes" and a list of credentials --mostly some kind of degree in English. Guys, this is not the place for this. Anyone serious about a job in the publishing industry should move to New York and make the rounds there. If you want to make corrections to Misty's published work, contact her publishers directly. And a word of advice, don't start the job seeking process by telling the editor how bad you think their work is.
Teri Lee Q: When does the Fairy Godmother come out? I read the three chapters that you have up and they really sound interesting!!!! Solarisstar A: The Fairy Godmother ( Adult - Lackey) $24.95 by Mercedes Lackey (Hardcover - January 2004) Q: MS. Lackey, I must say thank you. I have been a library aide for a number of years and you can not imagine the number of parents who ask for a book to be removed from our shelves because it contains magic. Whether dark or good seems not to make a difference. So few of them realize that if the magic in the books was real the books would be on the non-fiction list not fiction. I think sometimes they are in such a panic to "protect" their children that they aren't thinking. While wanting to remove the "magic book" they think nothing of letting their children watch the goriest and cruedest of television shows. I have read your books and see only the purest of fantasy in any of the magic involved. What's fun is fun. Thanks for seeing it for what it is. I look forward to more of your books (especially Valdemar). I have no compunction in recommending them to my students. Thanks, Barbara A: Barbara, thank you for being a librarian; you folks are the frontline troops in the war to keep the lights of literacy and freedom of speech burning. Q: Well, like the subject says, it's not a question, so I won't be disappointed if you don't post it. ;) I just didn't know where to send this, so I hope I haven't done something wrong here! I apologize if I have. I just wanted to say, I am addicted to your books, Mercedes! I've been looking for that special author whose books I can't wait to gobble up, and I've finally found you. :) I tried your books after seeing a review on Amazon that mentioned Vanyel being shaych, and as a bisexual girl, it was great to be able to read a good fantasy novel (trilogy, even!) with such a person as the main character. I've now picked up Brightly Burning, and I can barely put it down. I guess what I'm trying to say is thank you for writing such excellent books! Also, I'm very sorry to hear what's been going on, and I'm not offended. (I'm Pagan. ;) Every group has their crazies. Just stay safe! Take care, and Lord and Lady bless! One of your many fans A: Well, thank you very much, CJ! Keep crunching, we'll make more! By the way, this fall is coincidentally bringing a bumper crop. October is Tor Books---The Mountain's Shadow, vol 1 of the Shadow Mountain trilogy with James Mallory, November is the DAW Valdemar hardback----Exile's Valor, December is both the paperback Sun In Glory anthology from DAW and the Baen Books hardback----This Rough Magic, val 2 of the Heirs of Alexandria series with Flint and Freer and January is The Fairy Godmother from Luna books, which you will find on the Romance side of the aisle. So you'll have lots of choices to give and get for Yule presents (and in January, something to use your Yule present-money for!) Q: Mercedes, Thank you for many years of enjoyment with all your novels. My question to you is how did you get your start in Fantasy Writing? A: I have been writing since I was a kid; I started writing amateur fiction regularly until I thought I had enough experience under my belt to give professional markets a try. I sold several short stories, and with the critique of Marion Zimmer Bradley and C.J. Cherryh, I finally was able to get my work to the point where it was good enough to submit a book to DAW. Of course, we're talking about years of work, here!Q: Hi Misty, I'm yet another longtime fan, a 27 year-old travel agent in this case. I've read a lot of books, genre fiction and not, and I can count off on one hand the authors of books I re-read out of sheer joy of their storytelling and stories, and you are one of them. I can always go back to your Kerowyn or your Elspeth and Darkwind, your Talia or Vanyel - those last two arcs make me cry everytime, guarunteed - and feel like I am transported to their lives and their concerns for a time. I can't thank you enough for all of the help and fun you've given me through the past ten and more years with your books. In fact I was just re-reading, for the fourth time your Queen's Own trilogy and realized that I was reading it for comfort as much as entertainment, while my life spins in turmoil outside. So, I was alarmed for a moment, when I heard in Baen's Bar you were going to stop writing Velgarth books for a while at least. And then I was equally alarmed when I thought about how many and how fast you had been churning out books (does her keyboard start to give off smoke when she types, I wonder to myself). As much as I want to see another 'Heralds and Griffins Take on Evil Mage and/or Insane Tyrant', book on the shelves, you know better than I do what is good for you, and your creations. I've enjoyed your other books too, but I like the Valdemar ones the best (my husband says it's all the purple covers, but I will deny it to the grave, and they aren't all purple). Anyway, I when I need a boost, or an escape I'll just pick up one of your books again, and look forward to any new worlds and new characters you realize. The best thanks I can give you is to keep buying your books, and I fully intend to. Most Sincerely A: Hey, everybody needs a vacation, even from the best job. So, until I come up with a story set in Velgarth that is as compelling as the ones you're enjoying now, I'm taking a break. The last thing I want is for my own favorite series to start limping along and go out with a whimper. Q: Columbia A: I have very deep, emotional ties to the astronauts and the space program; they go all the way back to the Mercury Seven. When we still had NASA TV on our Big Dish, I'd have it on as a default whenever a shuttle was up. I knew a lot of the astronauts' voices well enough that I could pick them out when they were on as CapCom. Last week, something incredibly rare happened. Columbia passed directly overhead at about 6:30 AM every morning; when it was still "night" sky, but high in their orbital flight, they reflected sunlight brilliantly. And we had clear, cloudless skies at the same time. The last thing I would do before I went to bed was to go out and wait for her to come over; the most beautiful star of the morning I have ever seen. She outshone every other heavenly beacon, as if she was trying to drive back the darkness with the brilliant light of all the intelligence, intellect, bravery, and curiousity contained within her. And this was, literally, the first time I have managed to see a shuttle in orbit. I would go to bed, content and thrilled at the same time. I didn't stay up that long on Saturday, though, because, of course, she was coming in and her orbit was changed for the re-entry. And Saturday morning, my good buddy Nancy called me within the minute of it happening to say she was gone, and all seven of my secret "friends" gone with her. It's very hard to sit here and know there is nothing I can do besides sign petitions and condolence books. I know that danger is the name of the game, and I fully agree with Larry's statement; in fact, he said it better than I could. But I know that light of intelligence will not go out; it is the heritage they leave to us. It is up to us to live up to it. 2001 Q: 9/12/01. Could you write something to go out to the newsletter? I'm not doing all that well with this one. Take care. A: Teri Lee has asked me to write something about the events of September 11th. I'm not a military expert, nor an authority on terrorism. I'm not a psychiatrist or a socialogist. I'm not any kind of an expert; I'm just someone who writes books. But amid all the grief, all the anger, all the desire---the need---for some way to strike back at those who have perpetrated this evil, I am seeing, and feeling in myself, the proliferation of the same evil, creeping into the way Americans are thinking, and tainting what we are. I see and hear threats against all Moslems, or even people that just LOOK like Moslems. Before there is even evidence about who is responsible, I am seeing people advocating turning entire countries into radioactive waste. "Kill them all and let God sort them out," seems to be the prevalent opinion. This would make us no better than the ones who massacred all those helpless souls. In fact, it would make us worse. The fanatics of the Moslem world claim that WE are the barbarians, that WE are the ones who slaughter women and children in order to prove a point, that WE are the ones who brought this on ourselves. So in the coming days, ask yourself: are you going to live down to that estimation? Are you going to prove that you are just as ignorant, just as barbaric, just as self-centered as they claim you are? Or, when you hear someone spouting off, venting his or her rage, against perfectly innocent people of good will, are you going to do the right, the brave, the AMERICAN thing? Are you going to stand up to the bigots? Are you going to come to the defense of those of good will, the Moslems and those of Middle Eastern lineage in this country who had NOTHING to do with this atrocity? Are you willing to be called a traitor and worse, in order to defend them and the principles of justice and tolerance that are what is best about this country? The right thing, the brave thing, the hardest thing to be done is to wait---wait until there is proof, wait until we KNOW who is responsible for this. Then, when we know, only then can we allow our rage free rein, against the appropriate target. If you must do something, do something positive. Stand up for tolerance, stand against the bigots, stand up for reason and justice. Raise money for the families of the victims. Give blood. There are people who lost, not family, but homes and possessions. Find ways to help them. Be there to comfort those who have lost someone---be there for your local police and firemen. Bake a cake or make a casserole and take it to the fire station. Hundreds of firemen lost their lives in this tragedy, and firemen everywhere call each other brother and sister---the men and women of YOUR fire companies feel this loss as surely as one of blood. And because they are who and what they are, their feeling of helpless frustration, of being ineffective, is exponentially worse than it is for any of us. Be there for them. But above all, extend the hand of American brotherhood to those who don't look like 'us', who don't worship like 'us,' who have strange accents and strange clothing, and customs we don't quite understand, but who, nevertheless, are as appalled by all of this as any of 'us.' They came here because we are supposed to be tolerant, accepting, generous. Don't prove that our enemies are right about us. Misty |
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