Day: September 22, 2004

Letter from Steven

Letter from Steven

Heya!
ok… been talking in the kitchen table live. The question is, “is fighting thread easier or harder at night?” The return response from one of the hosts was this has been talked about, but they decided thread must not fall at night. If it doesn’t fall at night, my theory as to why would be “When thread falls, the thread is attacted to pern by the planet reflecting light making it glow like a full moon. Thus when it is night, the thread would not have the migration instincts to fall.” Is this the reason? Has it just not been addressed, perhaps a future book might. Or is ther some other reason behind thread not falling at night.

Cheers,
Steven

Hi Steven,

I guess you missed the Monday reading I gave at Dragon*con. The short answer is yes, Thread does indeed fall at night. And the book that deals with this, in part, is Dragonsblood.

Cheers,
Todd

Letter from Nhorad

Letter from Nhorad

Dear Todd

Hi, it’s me again. I just wanted to thank you for your advice and information on the subject of “sending books to publishers”. I appoligize for the “lack of promptness” of answering your letter. You see, I only go to our public library twice a week, and in that time, I go to your site and check my mail.(letters) I wanted to ask you, I went to Elizabeth Kerner’s website a little while ago, and she said that she did’nt check other peoples books if they were to send it to her (before they got published, you know, to criticize them). And I wanted to know, If/When I finish my latest dragon book HomeWorld, I wanted to know if you would be willing to “criticize” it. Just wanted to know if someone out there with “Authoritizing” experience, could help me on my book. You see, my problem is “not”, coming up with, dragon related, things to write about, but rather the fact of making the book lengthy, and interesting. Please help if you can! Thanks again! Please send my thanks !
to your “mum”.

Sincerly

Nhorad

(P.S.)Thanks for the “words of advice” on “what to put on the internet, and what not to” every little bit helps.

Hi Nhorad,

I thought we’d been through this. The answer is no, I won’t read your book with a view to critiquing it (note: critique, not criticize). Critiquing is very hard work, and it’s way harder to do with a novel.

I also suggest that unless the book is absolutely burning your brain out and causing you sleepless nights of agony, you consider writing shorter work. For one thing, it’s a lot easier to get shorter works critiqued, and for another, you can write many more short stories in the same time as you can write one novel.

My advice is (and has been) to join a writer’s workshop, or try entering a short fiction work in one of the many excellent competitions (The Writers of the Future is probably the best).

The person you want to have read your work is the person who can get it published. I’m not a publisher.

Cheers,
Todd

Letter from Elizabeth

Letter from Elizabeth

Dear Mr. Todd McCaffrey,

My Freshman class has assigned a personal heroes project, and I have chosen you as my subject. For the project, I need to interview my personal hero, and I was wondering if you would do me the favor of having an interview. I would very much appreicate it. I live in Los Angeles as well.

Thank you,

Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth,

I’d be delighted. But I’ve got to warn you first, I expect that you’ve already done some of your homework (like reading “Dragonholder” and my FAQ), so I am sure that you’ll ask questions for which you couldn’t yet find answers.

Feel free to e-mail them to me. I’d like, in return, to have the right to use your questions and my answers in my FAQ or some other web page to help in the future.

Cheers,
Todd