Anyway, whilst checking the Internet I picked up on a couple of bits of news. The first is that I've conquered another country. The publisher Eridana in Lithuania is taking on Gridlinked and The Skinner, so that pushes the total of national borders my AG tanks have floated over to a round 10.
Another bit was an email from Gill Mariner. She is a reporter for our local paper The Maldon & Burnham Standard who often does articles about my various achievements. Those articles are always spot-on accurate even if taken from a babbled phone call. This is something you can't expect from the national papers. Gill sent me the picture here, along with this email:...so there I was, trekking through the wilds of India, arriving for a couple of days' stay, weary and covered in dust, at the remote hill fort of Kuchaman (now a fairly rudimentary hotel), towering hundreds of feet up a treacherous zigzag track above the unforgiving deserts of Rajasthan.
I entered a small cave-like room to be greeted by the friendly guardians of the fort.
In that room was a bookshelf offering a small selection of literary offerings to ease the tired minds of the weary travellers . . . and waddaya think?
Yes, The Voyage of the Sable Keech was among them!
Every word of this is true.
Here's the picture to prove it.
It is, don't you think, an increasingly small world we live in. There she was in India, there I was on Crete...
It is, don't you think, an increasingly small world we live in. There she was in India, there I was on Crete...
7 comments:
Glad you're back posting, Neal. I had feared that something bad had happened. Any new thoughts on a more permanent expatriation, as you had contemplated when last in Greece?
Brilliant, I was fearing bad things. Not that my life would really be all that different, but I want to see what happens to Cormac and company. Just started re-reading The Skinner after reading Simmons' Hyperion/Endymion books. I must say that I prefer your somewhat more benevelant and quirky AI. Simmons also gets a little overboard with the spiritual stuff.
Looking forward to "Hill Diggers."
I thought you were probably off decimating the Mediterranean shellfish population. Just think, real soon you won't have to go there for the weather and wildlife, It'll all be on your doorstep due to AGW!! Then you will be able to reduce your carbon footprint by not travelling to Crete. All works out just fine in the end doesn't it!
Anyway, glad you're back.
I am getting very needy for "Hilldiggers", do you have a definite release date? Amazon have gone all coy on me.
Anon, yes, rather large thoughts and some action, which I'll maybe talk about at a later date.
I know what you mean, novawasp, I always remember my disappointment, after reading Chapter House Dune, on discovering Frank Herbert had gone and popped his cogs on me.
Richard, I've been asked about doing a signing of that book on July 7th at Forbidden Planet in London, so about then is the release date. I'll confirm this later since I'll doubtless be slipping into the pub around the corner for a beer or two.
Fancy that - the practical middle of nowhere by anyone's standards, and one of your books is in their library.
Small world indeed!
So that's where my copy got to!
It was on that zig zag track where I stumbled (zigging instead of zagging) and it must have fallen out of my pocket, think she'll let me have it back?
Welcome back. I thought you migrated over to Myspace.
Post a Comment