fallen from grace... fallen.

Dave Freer posting:

Ok I’m going to keep this brief because I’m chasing a deadline in ever decreasing circles and it is now coming around to bite me on the tail end. When I wrote the first Heirs of Alexandra book with Misty Lackey and Eric Flint, I handed over my first draft with great pride. I got this back. (I paraphrase) "If you want people to get your foreshadowing, then you must do it 3 times."
Oddly, it’s pretty good rule of thumb. A decent novel contains some surprises. That doesn’t mean -- as I and many other newbies assumed -- that it was the totally unexpected and unexplained custard pie from left of field. It meant the author had taken us to Goa and showed us the fruit-peel littered road and the troop of monkeys overhead in the trees, and the open manhole, with the hero walking closer while reading his newspaper. Then the author showed us the open manhole and the monkey munching and tossing debris from the overhanging banana tree, pointing at the manhole and sniggering. Then the monkey tossed a rotten banana at the manhole cover, as our hero walked closer and closer to the route to sewers...
And stepped over it.
Onto a banana-peel...

And Merry Moose-kissing to all.

Always remember the Christmas spirit is not what you drink :-)

(pass the bottle, Rudolf. That's why you have such a red nose)