If . . .

 

If . . . IF, IF. . . Merrilee is very emphatic about the if, that I make it CLEAR I am not PROMISING ANYTHING . . .

I AM NOT PROMISING ANYTHING.

But if . . . if I were going to write an outtake short story from/about/around/beside PEGASUS, who or what, any of you who read this blog and feel like signing onto the forum to answer, would you like it to be about?  IN TWENTY WORDS OR LESS.

This is a warning as emphatic as Merrilee’s if.  I only want the twenty words or less version.  I’m not very biddable at the best of times (ask anyone who has ever tried to get a short story out of me, including my husband), and anything anyone suggests in any detail I will immediately rebound off of and head out into some other direction entirely.  Sometimes this is because I am a cranky cow, but mostly it’s just because that’s the way suggestions go with me.  Or go away with me.  Plus that I’m allergic to fanfic and paranoid about copyright.

But . . . it’s going to be a long time till PEG II.  (Note that I’m still wrestling with final editorial comments on SHADOWS right now and then there will be copyediting and screaming.  And book jacket art and nervous breakdowns.  And advertising schedules and throwing large heavy objects out of windows.  Also there’s that short Other Thing I may have mentioned working on—as well as the ongoing that is KES.  But I’m hoping to restart PEG II in February.  I’m hoping that more of the first version will be usable than I think but . . . well, I’ll see.  In February.)

And an outtake short story might put us all back in the mood.  Including me.

So.  What, off the tops of your heads, do you think you would like—off the tops of your heads, do you think you might like to hear more about?  I have a few ideas.  (I always have a few ideas.  Ideas have never been the problem.)  Ebon’s childhood?  Ahathin’s apprenticeship?  Niahi?  Hibeehea?  Lrrianay and Aliaalia’s courtship?  I can’t tell you much about Corone and Eliona’s, there’s more of it in PEG II—and I don’t think I can tell you anything about Redfora and Oraan yet because they’ll be important later.  I could tell you about Eliona and her sisters growing up—a sort of SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS with swords and teeth.  Or about Erisika, the cabinet-maker’s daughter who won the battle, saved the kingdom and married the king. Or maybe Balsin and Viktur and Gandam, and Sinsi, and Fralialal, where it all began?

Or something—or someone—else entirely?