I feel for all the world like something Tim Minear was once COMM'd as saying, after Wonderfalls was cancelled. Something about developing an amazing project and then selling it to another network.

The "pftphftphp" factor.

(whatta man, whatta man, whatta man, whatta really fine man...)

Er...sorry.

Don't worry about it...twenty seconds after I typed that, I thought the same thing.

And suddenly I feel much less wimpish for focusing on fanfic instead of original fic for publishing. If someone with your track record can get so screwed . . .

I wonder if they had you pigeonholed as "nice middle-aged lady who writes intricate mysteries with somewhat obscure underpinnings that appeal to a more intellectual audience", and then they couldn't cope with the rock and roll goddess showing up.

insent, deb.

Allyson, received and backflung, and btw, you rock.

connie, I think it's simpler than that (and the "they" in this instance is BB, and purely BB; she just played autocrat and dumped it on Marlene's lap to deal with, which heaven knows she didn't want to do). I think she took a look down the road at other projects she might not have any desire to deal with and over which she wouldn't have the control, and backed away hissing. Her perogative, of course, and better to find out she had that issue now, rather than later.

On an entirely different matter....

I'm thinking about whether New-Slain Knight wants a prologue or not.

If it does, it would be a similar thing to the ones written for FFoSM and Cruel Sister - something between the time of the incident that inspired the song and triggered the haunting (in this instance, it's old like an old thing - we're talking Magna Carta era, King John) and the modern day events.

So, the setting is Cornwall (yes, du Maurier owns the Cornish landscape, I know, but this is honestly very different than hers and besides, I wouldn't dare presume, since I think The House on the Strand is one of the best books of the last century). The connection is to a modern musician, a friend of Ringan's, a folklorist and piano player (shut UP don't even say it yes I decided to make him a piano player) named Gowan Camborne. The theme behind the crime, what's hidden in the story behind the song, is going to be incest. The person affected by this haunting is going to be Ringan's adolescent niece, violin prodigy Becca.

Suggestions? Opinions? Do I need to repost the proposal to refresh memories?

I just took a look at what you sent of Chapter 1, Deb, and I think a prologue would be a good idea. It would provide a good contrast to the, more or less, idyllic setting of Lumbe cottage and set the mood for the book. Plus, it can be obscure enough to get us wondering what the what is and drop all kinds of red herrings and nifty clues that we'll look back at later and say to ourselves, "gah, she sixth sensed me!"

Sail, that's my feeling as well. I think I know the scene I want for a prologue, but I need to decide which town in Cornwall I want to set it in; I'm personally most familiar with the southwest corner of the duchy - St. Ives, Penzance, Mousehole (pronounced MAO-zuhl). But if I want to do a teaser with an Arthurian undertone, it should be north in the duchy, at Tintagel, where Arthur was supposedly born.

OTOH, if I stick with the south bits, I can use St. Michaels Mount. I used to walk out there from Penzance harbour during low tide, and swim back to shore when the tide started coming in and covering the stones of the causeway.

And St. Ives is seriously amazing and haunted. I wish all my pictures of when Jo was a toddler, tromping round St. Ives in her coveralls and red wellies, were digital.

Oh, you have got to set it in the south, just so you can fit in Mousehole. It's begging for a cat to be stalking it.