From: Karen (karenrt@hotmail.com)

I know it's summer, which means you're probably miserable and ill, what with all of the bountiful nature that's blooming and burgeoning outdoors but...how is "Always" coming along? Do you think we'll see it sometime this year?

No. That is, I think I'll finish it this year, so I suppose a handful of people will see it--Kelley, my agent, my editor--but it won't be generally available for a while yet. Sorry. But I hope it's going to be worth the wait for everyone. I'm finally getting to do something I've wanted to try for about twenty years--write a Big Book of Self-Defence. The trick has been finding a way to not write a manual disguised as fiction, that is, my big book of self-defence, but to actually make it fiction: living, breathing (fighting), that is, Aud's BBSD. I'm still writing it, but it's finally working. And, yee-ha, it's a blast.

No, too, on the being ill and miserable thing (yay!). Summer in our new house has been a constant delight: breakfast on the side deck, picnics at the local park on Puget Sound, evenings on the back deck with a beer, listening to the wind in the trees and the neighbourhood owl (don't know what species; I've heard it, but not seen it). The stars here (we're about 500 meters from the Sound) are so bright; with city lights only to the south and east the stars can shine out cold and sharp. It's like camping (but without the bugs and lumpy ground, and having to risk nettles every time you need to pee--and oh, I always needed to pee a zillion times every night: all that beer. How the hell can you camp without beer?) The wind that blows from the water and up the ravine that runs to the edge of our property keeps us cool and also sweeps away most of the bugs and a lot of the pollen. And, yep, I probably sound smug. That's because I am [g]. Life is good. Even better, autumn--my favourite season--is coming.

From: anonymous

What's SHEFFIELD, CHARLES, "Brooks Too Broad for Leaping", (ss) Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction, ed. Nicola Griffith & Steve Pagel, White Wolf 1998. When was it written and can I find the full version online?

I have no idea when the short story was actually written, but I published it in BtL:SF in 1998, along with a bunch of other SF stories with characters who are gay or lesbian. The notion of the three BtL volumes, Fantasy, SF and Horror, was to bend the landscape of the genre a little: bring in gay and lesbian writers who don't normally write fantastic fiction, and get some straight skiffy (etymology of skiffy: science-fiction --> sci-fi --> skiffy) writers to use gay and lesbian characters. I'm proud of the books.

Deciding on my editorial priorities really helped me with my own writing, too. We (Stephe Pagel co-edited) had several submissions that were beautifully written but awful in terms of story, i.e. there was no There there, empty in the middle, doughnut stories. Then there were the stories in which Love Solved Everything (nice theory but, sadly, untrue). Then there were the badly written but enthusiastic this-happens-then-this-happens-then-this-happens pieces that reminded me of role-playing fiction. And then there were the stories where interesting things happened to real people. I pounced on these with great relief. Some were nicely written to begin with; some really weren't. But I felt an enormous sense of satisfaction when I helped the writer smooth the prose and find the kernel of his or her story. It helped me understand what story is, and what I like about it. It reinforced my belief that creating well-written, well-balanced story is the hardest act in the world. It tripled my determination to always do it anyway, no matter what, to never let one aspect of a piece of fiction overwhelm any other. Stuff has to happen, stuff that matters, to people we care about. And the sentences have to be clean.

As for whether there's a version of the story online, I don't know. Perhaps Google will be able to help you out. Normally I would suggest a polite enquiry (emphasis on polite; try saying something nice) to the author, but I'm sorry to tell you that Charles died nearly three years ago.

From: anonymous

No question, but a comment on an earlier posting mentioning "character cocktails." I don't know if there's a book or series that particularly emphasizes character crossovers though, as you probably know, it's been around in the comic book universe for a long time. The most recent example that comes to mind is the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and its movie incarnation). A Google search on "book character crossovers" turns up some interesting results as well as the typical dross. One link I found, an essay by Jess Nevins, "On Crossovers" at http://ratmmjess.tripod.com/crossovers.html provides a bit of historical context if you want it, though it deals more generally with the idea of characters from one book showing up in another (not often works by separate authors).

Thanks for the link to the essay; very thorough, very useful. I haven't read comic books for a long, long time. Well, more truthfully, I never really read them at all. I didn't come across them in the UK when I was the right age, and haven't been able to fall in love with the form as an adult. But I do read newspaper funnies, and I couldn't help but notice last month that there was a lot of crossover stuff going on. In Blondie (by Dean Young and Denis Lebrun), the Bumsteads' anniversary party, (8.22.05) features characters from Hagar, Mother Goose and Grim, Mutts, Zits, B.C., Curtis, Garfield and probably a host of others I missed. And several of the other strips mentioned the party. It's fun, watching a metaworld develop.

Ever since I got that AN about crossovers I've been toying with the notion of an Aud/Jack Reacher showdown. Only, of course, it couldn't be a showdown because, well, Aud would win, and then Lee Child (Reacher's mouthpiece on earth) would get cross and refuse permission (I would, anyway, if the positions were reversed), so it would have to be Aud and Jack working together, teaming up in pursuit of a common goal. I actually have an idea or two about how to resolve such a conflict of temperament in satisfactory Aud style, but I'm too caught up in Aways to get serious about this at the moment. There again, sometimes it's just fun to play...

From: G-

earlier in july i went to my fave library in greenwich village...the one with the steeple. met a rather sexy nerdish man at the sci-fi section. he turned me onto two things. one was that the library was once a women's prison, not a church as i had thought...and two....you. your book, slow river, got me through a slow death of an deaf uncle riddled with cancer. thank god for good books. it made my days at the hospice tolerable. i needed that river. the library nerd guy never returned my phone call but i'll be sure to return to the 'G' section at the library. a new fan.

How cool. Bless all the nerds (and geeks) of the world. By some definitions, I suppose, you could call me a geek--but, oh, never a nerd. But perhaps that's a cultural thing. To an English (and now Left Coast) person "geek" and "nerd" are different beasties. High geekery is very much a part of life here in Seattle, and to me it means skill, knowledge, and unselfconscious enthusiasm. Nerds, on the other hand, are just geeks without social skills, sometimes without skills of any kind. Your mileage may vary. Other opinions?

Sorry to hear about your uncle. As you say, thank god for good books. They've got me through a few hospital stays myself.

As for not getting a call back, I'm thinking that, nerds being nerds, you should probably have left your email address. And, Greenwich Nerd, if you just happen to be reading this: she likes you. Call. I know, the notion is probably terrifying, but, hey, time to be brave.

From: anonymous

As a great admirer of your writing, I was excited to see in DIVA magazine a reference to a new book by you, _With her Body_. Despite googling I have been unable to trace this book.

Can I ask for help in locating it?

I'll just say: please keep writing, and hope for a reply from you.

With Her Body, a collection of two stories and a novella published by Aqueduct Press, is available through the publisher's website, through some speciality bookshops, and--if you want a signed copy--through the University Bookstore here in Seattle.

One of these fine days I hope to have a full collection of fiction, including a couple of previously unpublished pieces (which, okay, I would have to actually finish first), and maybe a collection of non-fiction: essays and interviews and perhaps some choice Ask Nicola Q&As from the archives. None of that will happen, though, until I've finished Always--and I'm beginning to think *that* won't happen until the networks stop making good shows and Netflicks stops providing old ones on DVD. I'm finding TV so damn interesting at the moment.

As for DIVA: that's a great magazine. I've been subscribing for a year or two and I have to say it's the best designed dyke magazine out there. Very good to look at. An, oh yeah, the words are interesting too.