I Almost Wish I'd Had The Forethought

Friends You Will Have Need Of, For In You Two Worlds Meet. There Is No One On Both Sides With You, So You Must Learn To Take Your Own Counsel; And Not To Fear What Is Strange, If You Know It Also To Be True. —luthe

But The World Turns, And Even Legends Change; And Somewhere There Is A Border, And Sometime, Perhaps, Someone Will Decide To Cross It, However Well Guarded Its Thorns May Be.

My Capacity For Invention Is Flash Hot Stark, I Thought. Sucker Sunshade. Disembodied Radar-reconnaissance. Not To Mention Bitter Chocolate Death And Killer Zebras. Pity About The Rest Of Me.

When You Write Your First Novel You Don't Really Know What You're Doing. There May Be Writers Out There Who Are Brilliant, Incisive And In Control From Their First 'once Upon A Time'. I'm Not One Of Them. Every Once Upon A Time For Me Is Another Experience Of White-water Rafting In A Leaky Inner Tube. And I Have This Theory That While The Story Council Has Its Faults, It Does Have Some Idea That If Books Are Going To Get Written, Authors Have To Be Able To Write Them.

The Great Thing About Fantasy Is That You Can Drag Dreams And Longings And Hopes And Fears And Strivings Out Of Your Subconscious And Call Them 'magic' Or 'dragons' Or 'faeries' And Get To Know Them Better. But Then I Write The Stuff. Obviously I'm Prejudiced.