maybe it's not God...maybe it's animatronics...Disney was One Of Theirs, after all.

I was all about Rog's short stories; Nic adores the novels, but for me, he had the short form down like nobody else.

Everything from "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" to "This Moment of the Storm" to (my favourite, usually) "This Mortal Mountain".

His blurb for "Plainsong" came in a letter that I have locked away. It came on one of the single worst days of my life. I've never been quite as close to walking out into the ocean and not stopping as I was that day. And I got home and there was a letter from New Mexico and a note from Roger and it said "Hey Deb, I just finished Plainsong. Here's a blurb for it - from the heart."

And the blurb made me cry like an idiot for about three hours. It was so lovely, it was such perfect timing.

Roger was also the reason "The Eden Tree" (in progress) is a novel, and not the novella I'd planned. He read it, two-thirds done, and said, why in hell are you wasting your time trying to straightjacket this many Big Big Big Questions in a novella? Spread it out, damn it!"

He was wonderful.

GodDAMNit.

Deb, that's a pretty cool idea. Giving vampires human predators who predate for survival, not sport. Hmm.

Unfortunately, I'd never heard of Roger Zelazny.

P-C, your petticoat is showing.

I'm so confused.

I have no clue what, exactly I meant by that, except that I love Zelazny, especially the Amber novels, as does Connie, and Deb loves the short stories, so you should go read. A lot. Though you don't have to if you don't want to of course.

Though you don't have to if you don't want to of course.

Yes he does. When did we start giving people options?

P-C, go read some of Roger's stuff. The collected Amber series, Lord of Light, the Lonesome October - all brilliant.

the short stories are, in my mind, the best of him. But even the medium of him is better than the best of most.

And bear in mind, I read very little scifi and virtually no fantasy; they tend to leave me rather cold. But Roger was the best.

"Lord of Light" is probably his most famous work, after the Amber series (don't hit me, deb). Arguably his best, if you prefer the long form over the short stories.

and more ...

Whenever I feel like my writing is sadly lacking in descriptive elements, I pull out the Zelazny and check through to see what he does. He has a minimalistic style that nevertheless creates a vivid world. The stream-of-consciousness descriptions of the trips through Shadow in the Amber series put me off when I was younger, but now I find them lush delights of image.