I'll tell you, you don't have to be a Star Gate Atlantis fan to like "Freedom". I have seen maybe two episodes, plus a few of the original Stargate. The only character I'm familiar with from it is Sam Carter, and she only exists by letter in the story. So my only background knowledge is the general idea of the Star Gate universe, which the story more than delivers sufficient info about it. The story stands on its own fine.

I will add that I have not seen espisode even SG that is one tenth as well written as that short story.

I felt slapped in the face many times as an admin/clerical in my office. Assumptions of ignorance or ineptitude, etc., until people got to know me, and realize I had chosen a non-executive role deliberately.

But I don't think I'd ever felt as chilled as when a peer from our sister office and the boss of both our offices were visiting one day. I'd finished the instruction I'd been asked to do, and we wandered off onto other subjects: social commentary, astronomy, weather patterns. (Oh! I remember, it was the spring equinox, and those two or three days when the sunlight's angle changes. I remarked on how beautiful the light was, and that it was due to axial tilt) C was nodding along, and she suddenly turned to Big Boss and asked, "Do you know what she's talking about, most of the time?" BB said, "I just smile and nod."

Which could have been harmless and affectionate, but was delivered with such a sneer not adequately covered with a rictus-social smile. So I stuck to the business at hand after that, and let the rest of them prattle on about whatever. And smiled and nodded.

... but was delivered with such a sneer ...

Ah, for a time machine and an icepick. Or maybe just a spork.

People will tell you that I'm a lover, not a fighter, but nobody treats my Beverly like that without getting a sporking.

Evil, dumb bastards, Bev. I'm with Karl on the ice pick - but if we had a time machine, I'd be asking for a slightly different destination, and maybe drop me off when we're done with the dumb bastards?

Would anyone like to help me write a letter to JK Rowling? Because this is going to be (hopefully) sent through her US agent, Christopher Little, and it's going to have to make him decide she'd be interested.

Tricky.

Dear JK,

From one Brit author to another, please read the enclosed and write a fantastic blurb for it.

Love, Deb

PS Please send Daniel Radcliffe to my friend, Aimee.

(snerk)

Aimee, I wish it was that simple. I'd sacrifuce a NeoCon or something.

Needs to be about the fact that JP has MS. Rowling's mother died of progressive and JK hrself is fierce about the disease.

Oh and on the question I asked A non-fiction book has to sell 7,500 hardback copies for a small publisher to consider it minimally sucessful (it turns out that small publishers do still exist). A large publisher requires 10,000. Don't know the numbers for paperback; but I'd assume the ratio is the same as for fiction .

Gar, in fiction, at least, a lot depends on the size of the print run, and that's going to vary hugely.

Right. I think this is for smallest print run. In non-fiction. Apparently the smallest print run it makes sense to do is 5,000. So a minimally successful non-fiction book would sell all of the first run and half of the second. Obviously the publisher would have to have anticipated that level of sales and not gone much above 10,000 on total copies printed. I guess the point of a 5,000 copy run is that if it does not reach that level of sales, losses have at least been mimimized.

Ms. Rowling has been a hero of mine for some time, because she was almost as broke as me when she started out, and everyone said a kids' book was a very cute way to starve, but you're out of a job. Be more sensible. Not that the books aren't fun to me. They are. Just not as fun as that story. But that would be *my* Rowling letter, not yours, Deb.