Translation: this is the book that killed (a) my editor, (b) my father, and (c) my mother. Well, it wouldn't stand up in a court of law as a homicide charge, but I was working on it when each of them died, and that did a real number on my head. (It's a cursed project.)
It'll come out when it comes. Meanwhile, "Dead Lies Dreaming"—which was never intended to happen at all; it was me giving myself permission to do therapeutic writing in-between hospital visits—has slid straight through edits and is on its way to publication in fall next year, with sequels planned.
]]>I'm still going to finish the Bob, Mo, et al story arc—the Laundry Files aren't finished yet—but it's come to a fork in the path, or maybe a new offshoot. (For TV folks, I guess it's like "Deep Space 9" wrt. "Star Trek", or "Torchwood" wrt. "Doctor Who".)
Just two characters from the previous series crop up in this book: the Prime Minister, Fabian Everyman, puts in a brief guest appearance, and a surviving Spetsnaz soldier from "The Fuller Memorandum" turns up working for the Transnistrian Mafia as a "loss adjuster" (the kind of loss adjuster who carries an AK-74).
]]>"Nice factory you have there. Your children will remain lost until you sign it over to us."
]]>I would like to have had more time with my father; he told me once that not everything is worth doing well (he was a mechanical engineer and had that tendency to aim for perfection every time).
]]>Charlie, we've had our differences of opinion, but I've been where you are. It wasn't fun, it isn't fun, but it is an unavoidable part of being human. Either you will read their obituaries, and attend their memorials, or they will read and attend yours.
Hang in there, guy. The hurting eases off, eventually.
]]>Not that some people won't try.
Googling will find you a few more instances, but few with the record of accuracy that Lowering The Bar has.
]]>Thinking like that has a certain appeal to it, most objections to it boiling down to "I don't like it" and "but free will!!!eleventy"[1] hardly make for arguments against it.
That being said, time to join the people saying condolences to you and your family. Sorry for being late, as usual, new job, and oh the joys[2] of underfunded public transport services...
[1] "collides with free will" is more or less an argument FOR something these days. Though then, there is always Kant: "Moreover, the determinism of modern science no longer threatens the freedom required by traditional morality, because science and therefore determinism apply only to appearances, and there is room for freedom in the realm of things in themselves, where the self or soul is located." I learned about that one from a certain guy I met again at my last work, com eto think about it...
[2] In other news, I cyberstalked[2a] hmpf again lately, and it seems she is writing quite good Laundry fanfic at the moment.
[2a] Err, not really stalked, just read her blog, err.
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