My friend Brenda Clough decided to venture an interpretation of what I am doing. Over on Usenet (I'm quoting this with her permission) she said,
"From this restriction it is obvious that Barnes intends the ultimate owners to be institutions (libraries, universities or big collectors) rather than the common or garden fan. A major university's research collection is well able to accomodate visiting scholars.
"Since the material does have research value (if not now then in future when Barnes' work will be better appreciated) it would be a mitzvah for the new owner to indicate, somewhere, a disposition of the manuscripts. Leave them to your alma mater in your will, for instance. At the very minimum, keep all the stuff together in an acid-free box in a dry room, and label it clearly so that your kids or grandkids don't just toss it after you die."
Well, alas, this isn't quite the way things are. I've mentioned before that I did academic cultural history for a long time – I was a theatre professor and taught theatre history and my research interests were in popular theatre, i.e. the stuff people went to as opposed to the stuff that was admired. Cultural history types in the various arts tend to mix and mingle a lot – because it's all one culture and it's all one people, and the same people who went to melodramas are the ones who bought broadside sheet music and penny dreadfuls and all the rest.
And here's something I'm very painfully aware of: libraries, archives, and museums are very dangerous places for pop culture collections, and can pretty much be counted on to destroy them at the earliest opportunity. There are shining exceptions – in theatre, there's the British Museum, the Harvard Theatre Collection, the Huntington, and the Musee des Arts du Spectacle – but for the most part, a collection donated to a library is going to be rather quickly either tossed or "edited" in a way that loses most of the information.
Yet if I'd just sold it through a private collector (an option I did explore), I'd have been cutting off some very important aspects with regard to my writing career, which is probably only about halfway through (I just turned fifty, my first story was published when I was twenty-five…)
Anyway, here's sort of my outline for what I'm thinking and what I'm trying to do.
1. University libraries are run by academic librarians, and for the last two generations, their focus has not been on archival of cultural materials, nor even on the support of research, but on "service," which is defined approximately as getting as many undergrad cans into as many comfy chairs as possible. Archives take up space that can be better used for desks with computer terminals so that students can check their email, or couches where students can pretend to study. As a result, there's an immense amount of throwing away even in the regular collections. Just to cite some examples I've witnessed:
a. At one time it was standard to maintain copies of older editions of books for scholars to study the changes over time. For example, when I was writing the article about lighting in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, and wanted to see how Stanley McCandless (the inventor of modern stage lighting) had changed in his thinking, I needed copies of all four editions of his basic book on lighting. This turned out to require interlibrary loan and a good deal of time, because nearly every library had thrown out the earlier editions. Furthermore the interlibrary loan people kept helpfully bringing me the fourth edition when I had asked for earlier ones, because "look, there's one that's more up to date." A friend of mine studying the thought of some recent economists tells me that situation is even worse; he's given up on libraries entirely and uses aLibris and various used book stores to try to locate earlier editions. What do you suppose that mentality will do when it finds it has six successive drafts of a book?
b. Large libraries that are the alma mater of important theatrical designers are well-known for keeping the (often not important) writings and tossing the (vital) blueprints, working drawings, renderings, and so forth; librarians are a logocentric bunch. In one case I discovered that where a collection of materials by Frank Napier (one of the developers of modern sound effects) had been donated, the library had retained a copy of the manual he'd written (which is still widely available) and of all the playscripts he'd worked from, but thrown away all his machine diagrams (utterly irreplaceable and vital to understanding his work). Now, as a science fiction writer, I find myself thinking about the table covered with butcher paper that Heinlein used to plot the orbits for Space Cadet. Do you suppose that, say, the Truman State Library would have kept that butcher paper, had it been donated there?
c. Increasingly large libraries have a policy of trashing "obsolete media" – LPs, 78s, 16 mm film, and so forth – even when there are no equivalent replacements available. I know of one collection of early opera recordings – 78s dating from the 1910-30 era – where a music school library simply noted down the titles as they threw them out, put a line into the budget for replacing those 78s with CDs, and happily pocketed the difference when many of them turned out not to have been available on CD. My department chair once spent several days dumpster diving because the library had decided to throw out all the movies-on-film, even though picture quality on VCR was of course much worse and for some movies there were no VHSreplacements available; he was sternly warned that he was "interfering with library policy" by rescuing that material, since the library had determined that VHS was just as good.
d. Or, in short, librarians often don't know what they're discarding, don't understand it, and don't want to. Maintaining archives is not "service" and service is what you get money for.
2. I need these collections to be more than just kept. I need them looked at and sought after. This is a career move, folks. Let me just explain how things look to me:
a. Over in the commercial side of my life, where I do unprompted response studies (yeah, I know that's an oxymoron, but to survey analysts a "response" is the raw data, so that's what we call spying on blogs and other e-communication), I've concentrated for a couple of years on the study of Gen Y (as marketers call them) or the Millennials (as they prefer to be called), the giant generation born 1978-95 (boundaries are always in some dispute, but those are the years I use). Now and then I get to look at their reading habits, and here's the main thing I observe:
i. For older generations asked to name favorite books, writers, etc., for example on dating sites, the list tends to be of bestselling writers, mainly commercial ones, as you would expect for any group of people that aren't professors or critics.
ii. But for gen Y, the most frequently cited favorite books, authors, etc. coincide with eerie precision to various English-teacher association lists of most-assigned books. (Certain exceptions noted, because there are some widely assigned books almost no one likes).
iii. This jibes pretty well with the observation that gen Ys who say they like to read – i.e. the actual readers among them – cite "class assignment" as the most common way they found their favorite author.
b. So, I said to myself, "Self, what causes a contemporary book to get taught, at least at the college level where you know much of anything about it?"
i. And now I shall let you all in on a small, not terribly dirty secret. Professors very often are assigned to teach classes outside their areas of expertise, and when they are, the first thing they do is go to the scholarly literature to see what the main lines of thinking about the subject is. This saves a great deal of time – you find out who you absolutely have to read, and also you avoid falling for various nut theories, and just in case your students ever do study with someone who actually knows the subject, you haven't loaded them up with things they'll have to unlearn.
ii. So the quick answer is that the ones that are assigned, to a great extent, are the ones of whom studies have been done.
c. Now, each of those collections I have been auctioning off is effectively a master's thesis or a journal paper in a box. "The search for an ending in John Barnes's THE SKY SO BIG AND BLACK." "John Barnes's planned deployment of Elizabethan theatrical tropes in ONE FOR THE MORNING GLORY." "The Evolution of Teenage Slang in John Barnes's Century Next Door series." "Barnes's stock cast goes on the road: how his sci fi characters played in men's action adventure." "Elements of oral storytelling in John Barnes's FINITY and GAUDEAMUS." And so forth and so on. Any decent grad student or junior faculty member could derive half a dozen papers from any of the collections – it would be easy. And what I'm betting is that if I make it known that the collections are there – and that they are easy paths to something publishable, with everything you need in one place – that the occasional desperate-for-a-paper master's or Ph.D. candidate will give it a whirl.
d. Which means, in very brief, I get written about by scholars, which means professors looking to teach a sci fi class (that's what they'll call it, gnash though the fans may) will find my work referred to in "the literature" (by which they mean, not literature, but things about literature), and I shall be forcefed to the next generation – which seems to be the main way that writers are reaching them nowadays. (Even Harry Potter came in through the classroom initially – via the Scholastic Book Club).
3. Okay, you can argue about the effectiveness of that as a strategy, but it's not necessarily any dumber than going to conventions and trying to be charming, or logrolling to get awards. And there's one more aspect to this worth mentioning. Collectors in general profit by having the subject matter of their collections written about. Scholarly articles are a big part of why some artists are more collectible than others
a. Just to cite an example I'm familiar with, pre-World War 2 theatrical posters are insanely valuable nowadays, but in many cases fine works in better than average condition fetch less at auction because little or nothing is known of the artist – the few surviving posters are locked away in collections, so no one has ever studied them to find the achievement and significance of the artist.
b. On the other hand, of course no collector wants the inconvenience and risk of opening up the collection to outsiders. The real ideal would be to have the artists you collect be heavily studied in other people's collections.
c. This of course is the classic tragedy of the commons or n-person prisoner's dilemma – what's best for everyone is slightly more costly to the individual. And one way to solve such problems is simply to impose a rule from outside.
4. So originally I imposed the scholarly access rule out of pure self-interest, but I've been delighted to discover that the collectors who have bought various collections from me are so far unanimous in wanting to make things available to scholars, in wanting to see the materials studied. Whether I like it or not, I seem to have run into a little vein of human cooperativeness and sharing, and I treasure that experience.
a. And thanks to the web and the internet, the scholar, critic, fan historian, or whatever who wants to look at the history and development of any of my works will be able to find out where the source is quickly and easily; in some ways this is better accessibility than in many museum collections, which tend to have archaic card catalogs referring to "Box, Author Smith, paper materials, 4 of 7." (This happens even to famous people; there probably was never a set designer more famed than Gordon Craig, and the Musee des Arts du Spectacle is justly proud of their Craig collection, but even they have things cataloged as "box, papers, Craig.") With final versions of letters of provenance posted on line, along with contact info, which I'll be doing as soon as the auctions are complete, the scholar will be able to find the collection and will know what's in there.
b. And in a real sense, the collectors I've found are exactly the ones I would want to have found. They genuinely want it and will care for it and promote it. I really don't think it could be in better hands. I know Gary Thompson (your source for Meme Wars and for One for the Morning Glory, now) has expressed disappointment that the collections didn't go for more money, and I certainly like money myself, but mostly I'm overjoyed that the collections seem to be finding genuinely good homes. Certainly much better homes a university library (apt to be abusive) or mine (apt to be neglectful). For the writer who cares about preservation, anyway, this is the road I heartily recommend. I've found nothing but good on it.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Last three collection auctions for some months -- letters of provenance for TIMELINE WARS, TIME RAIDER, and GAUDEAMUS
Rather than post those big honking links, this time I'll just steer you to my ebay store, where you can see all the auctions still ongoing. That url is:
http://stores.ebay.com/John-Barnes-Science-Fiction-Store
I liked writing men's action adventure way too much; if it had made money for me I might have settled into it forever. Part of my problem is that it's hard for me to imagine anyone being as violent as the typical men's a/a hero, so I tend to explain them as being 1) so dumb they can't think of anything else to do except violence, or 2) so crazy they prefer violence. TIME RAIDER -- the Dan Samson books -- is the former, and basically the books are men's a/a with an overlap of New Ageish fantasy (and a link to Atlantis and the Wisdom of the East and the Matter of America and all sorts of stuff -- just not much of that in the three books that started the series, because Dan Samson didn't know much yet. Of course in a real sense Dan Samson was unlikely ever to know much).
Anyway, Harlequin liked TIME RAIDER but didn't want to continue it, so they asked for another series, "more sci fi," which they then paid for but decided not to publish because it was "too sci fi." That was TIMELINE WARS -- which was Chron Wars while it was at Harlequin -- which my agent later resold to Harper Collins. By the time he did I'd destroyed a lot of material I should've kept, so that collection is priced a little lower. Mark Strang, the TIMELINE WARS hero, used to be an art historian but now he basically goes to alternate histories and blows stuff up because he's on a vendetta against about a million timelines.
So one big amiable doofus, and one psychotic intellectual, and neither one worked out. If I ever do men's a/a again (doubtful, the field is dying), I plan to call that series PSYCHO MORON.
GAUDEAMUS is one of my Edmunds -- I got that useful term from John Boyd, who used it to refer to his wonderful THE RAKEHELLS OF HEAVEN, still my favorite sf novel. An Edmund is a book that is like Edmund in King Lear -- "a whoreson, but there was great sport in his making." I've had three Edmunds in my writing career -- One for the Morning Glory, Finity, and Gaudeamus -- and while they've distinguished themselves by a lack of sales (and a surfeit of fanmail -- as far as I can tell, everyone who does read them writes to me), I can't think of them in any way other than fondly. So I suppose whoever ends up as the Keeper of Gaudeamus should be warned -- there's a little extra piece of my heart in the box.
And now the letters of provenance --
LETTER OF PROVENANCE regarding Materials Sold as the "Time Raider (Dan Samson) Collection"
To whom it may concern:
On March 11, 2007, I sold to [NEW OWNER] the following items which were used in the preparation of my three book series, TIME RAIDER:
1. Wartide
2. Battlecry
3. Union Fires
To the best of my knowledge, this letter enumerates what each item is, its date of creation when known or an estimate when not known, its condition on March 11, 2007, and other information which may be pertinent to scholars and collectors.
If at some future time I discover further materials which would have been included in this collection if they had been found before March 11, 2007, they will be shipped to [NEW OWNER] at my expense, and with a similar letter of provenance, plus a revised version of this full letter.
PREAMBLE: This collection is sold as a unit. It is recommended that it be kept intact rather than broken up, particularly in light of [NEW OWNER]'s obligation to assist in scholarly access to these materials. (See the LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING).
DEFINITIONS: Besides the titles listed above, the following other titles occur in this collection:
Wartide was originally The Guns of Time, and in a proposal to revive the series it was suggested it be titled Soldier of Time
Battlecry was originally The Way To Dusty Death and in a proposal to revive the series it was suggested that that title should be revived
Caesar's Bicycle was originally A Mind Divided, and in a proposal to revive the series it was suggested it be titled Castle Thunder
ABOUT MISSING MATERIAL: There are no copy edits or page proofs here because Harlequin did not allow a writer to do a courtesy check of the copy edit or the page proofs. The editor did send an extensive list of line-edit type questions, to which I responded by email, and the finished books are very close to my drafts as originally turned in.
PRINT QUALITY: Except for Item E, the professionally produced publisher materials, and the research photocopies, all the drafts produced by me are "draft quality" dot matrix – i.e. gray not black, on fanfold paper. I was broke in those days and the objective was to get something I could mark up, since the books were submitted on disk anyway. They're all quite readable but not particularly pretty. Most are unburst fanfold.
TAG Short description Dating (as much as is known) Long description and commentary
A Rushes/Rough draft of the THE GUNS OF TIME July 15-July 22, 1990, inclusive First draft in eight days flat; monetary and divorce emergency caused that. First few pages (from 7-15) are hand numbered because I hadn't figured out how to make Word do page numbers yet. All other pages are dated.
B "safety copy" of A MIND DIVIDED Probably June 1991 Copy printed out as a backup, unmarked, very close to the final printed version, on one unburst fanfold.
C Photocopied research used to prepare an outline for the next three books (if the series had continued) October 1992 There's not much of this; it was used to prepare a document which is now apparently lost, but which was one of the sources of Item E about a decade later
D Second draft of THE GUNS OF TIME July 1990 Prepared from Item A. Many hand markings on this copy for corrections entered before it was sent to my agent and the publisher. THE GUNS OF TIME was published as WARTIDE.
E 5 page outline for continuing Time Raider for another dozen books or indefinitely Summer 2001 There was actually publisher interest in re-launching and continuing Daniel Samson's adventures in August 1991, so I spent one day in the library and another day speed-re-reading the books, and drafted this. The publisher decided it was too much of a gamble after all.
F Outline for proposed "Guns of Time" Written July 1990, these prints are probably later Prints have been extensively marked up. Many penciled notes about how many words to take to accomplish an event; I worked with this at my side and tried to hit or exceed word counts on every event while writing Item D. The Guns of Time was published as Wartide.
G Mixed rushes for The Way to Dusty Death Earliest, Dec. 26, 1990; last, 5/29/91 These rushes occurred off and on, mostly over Christmas break and then after grad school let out; I finished the book in early June 1991. Many duplicated pages, lots of rewriting and markings. Contemporaneous with Item L. The Way to Dusty Death was published as Battlecry.
H Mind Divided daily rushes June 14-24, 1991 Draft of the book, partly rough and partly transcribed from handwritten, done in ten days (which is practical in a short book if one pays no attention to quality). Very rough draft, each page dated on the day it was written. A Mind Divided was published as Union Fires.
I Research for Time Raider Spring 1991 There wasn't much; these were the things I kept on my desk, mostly pictures of horse tack and Civil War era weapons. In men's action adventure, you have to get the hardware right (but not much else).
J Catalog flyer for Gold Eagle 1992 Publishing Program with promotions for Time Raider November or December 1991 This is what Gold Eagle sent to bookstores, distributors, and its own sales force. You'll discover that the very unsuccessful Time Raider books had a "big brother" that suceeded brilliantly – the Deathlands saga began in the same program
K Promotional cover flats for Battlecry and Union Fires December 1991 Mint condition except for one hole punched in each. Sales and promo info on back
L 144 page green steno pad with about 45 pages of rough draft and some research notes for The Way to Dusty Death. May 1991 in the same pad there are numerous apartment hunting notes and some rough beginnings of my short story "Bang On!" The Way to Dusty Death was published as Battlecry.
M 80 page steno pad with 27 pages of handwritten first draft of The Way to Dusty Death August 1990 Also contains a bunch of notes to myself about the Intro to Theatre course I was about to start teaching at Pitt. I wrote most of this during lunches and breaks while driving from Missoula to Pittsburgh. The Way to Dusty Death was published as Battlecry.
John Barnes Date
LETTER OF PROVENANCE regarding Materials Sold as the "Timeline Wars Collection"
To whom it may concern:
On March 1, 2007, I sold to [NEW OWNER] the following items which were used in the preparation of my three book series, TIMELINE WARS:
1. Patton's Spaceship
2. Washington's Dirigible
3. Caesar's Bicycle
To the best of my knowledge, this letter enumerates what each item is, its date of creation when known or an estimate when not known, its condition on March 11, 2007, and other information which may be pertinent to scholars and collectors.
If at some future time I discover further materials which would have been included in this collection if they had been found before March 11, 2007, they will be shipped to [NEW OWNER] at my expense, and with a similar letter of provenance, plus a revised version of this full letter.
PREAMBLE: This collection is sold as a unit. It is recommended that it be kept intact rather than broken up, particularly in light of [NEW OWNER]'s obligation to assist in scholarly access to these materials. (See the LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING).
DEFINITIONS: Besides the titles listed above, the following other titles occur in this collection:
Patton's Spaceship was variously titled Crux, Crux of War, and Crux of Battle
Washington's Dirigible was at one time titled Flying Yankee
Caesar's Bicycle was titled Kill Caesar!
While the Timeline Wars series was at Harlequin, before it was re-sold to Harper Collins, it was called Chron Wars.
The fourth title in the series, which Harper Collins said they did not want, was to be Nixon's Frozen Head. (For anyone who is wondering, I have no idea how the same conceit cropped up on Futurama some years later, but strongly suspect pure coincidence. Anyway, what they did with it and what I would have done with it are utterly different).
The Timeline Wars materials also include material from a short story, "Upon Their Backs, to Bite'em," which was published in the anthology Drakas! from Baen Books.
ABOUT MISSING MATERIAL: When Harlequin paid for the books and then canceled the series in 1993, I had thought that was the end, and disposed of most of the materials (I'm surprised that Items A, B, G, I, and K survived) but thanks to my never-give-up agent, Harper Collins picked the books up in 1996 and issued them in 1997.
Harper Collins did not return my manuscripts because at the time they were experimenting with a new electronic submission system, where they accepted word files from me on disk and printed out "editable" copy edited copy which showed all the changes they had made to make it easy for me to approve or disapprove. The system worked very well, by the way. So there is no "final draft" in my typescript of any of the three books, but there is my hand correction of each of the three copy-edits, and my further hand-correction of each of the three sets of page proofs, as well as the usual mix of handwritten drafts, partially typed drafts, promo materials and so on.
TAG Short description Dating (as much as is known) Long description and commentary
A 144 page green steno pad, general notepad with several scenes from FLYING YANKEE including a rough draft of first chapter, in handwriting September through November 1993 Pad I was carrying around for general creative work. Many scribbles and ideas for other creative projects as well, some notes toward my dissertation and toward a research trip to Cologne and Paris
B Rough draft of CRUX handwritten in green 144 page steno pad First page dated 4-13, has to have been 4-13-1993 Crux was the original title of Patton's Spaceship. The draft occurs in several separate runs of pages, with numbering 1-55, 1-4, 1-2, along with about ten pages of detailed outlining. A couple of pages from (43-44) from an early typescript are folded in the notebook
C Page proofs of PATTON'S SPACESHIP, on loose 8 1/2 x 11 sheets Sept 19, 1996 (handwritten note says "Author 10/1", probably when they sent them) Perfectly normal page proofs with very few markings; this came out of copy edit and typesetting in very good shape. In excellent condition. Probably there are few markings because this was delivered simultaneously with the copy edit and most corrections were made on that rather than here.
D Page proofs of WASHINGTON'S DIRIGIBLE, on loose 8 1/2 x 11 sheets Nov 27, 1996 The pages all seem to be here but there's no markings I can find; this is in accord with the generally high quality copy edit and typesetting these books received. In excellent condition. Probably there are few markings because this was delivered simultaneously with the copy edit and most corrections were made on that rather than here.
E Page proofs of CAESAR'S BICYCLE, on loose 8 1/2 x 11 sheets April 8, 1997 More markings here than in Items D and C, but still a very clean copy. Markings in blue ball point are in my handwriting. In very good condition – somewhat more rumpling probably because it needed somewhat more work. Probably there are few markings because this was delivered simultaneously with the copy edit and most corrections were made on that rather than here.
F Book proposal for NIXON'S FROZEN HEAD May 1997 (from diary) My attempt to sell Harper Collins the fourth book in the series; obviously it didn't succeed.
G 51 page singlespaced typescript, early draft of Kill Caesar! Spring 1993 Kill Caesar! became Caesar's Bicycle. This typescript has no handwritten marks and is in excellent shape so probably it was supposed to be a carry around copy and then never got used as one
H Publicity cover flats for CRUX OF BATTLE, PATTON'S SPACESHIP, and CAESAR'S BICYCLE Late fall 1996 CRUX OF BATTLE was the title of PATTON'S SPACESHIP up to almost the very last minute; we were unable to devise two more "Crux" titles so it was decided to go with the alternate "Famous General's Name in the Possessive Case Plus Anachronistic Device" titles.
I Four handwritten steno pad pages, abortive start on CRUX OF WAR October 1992 (from surrounding notes in notebook, which mostly contained Mother of Storms material) CRUX OF WAR eventually became Patton's Spaceship. I often try out a few pages of an opening to see how the story might start to sound, or find a first-person voice; I don't think I used much from these few pages in the eventual book. There's a good chance I did this waiting in line or riding a city bus, just as an exercise.
J Copyedit of Patton's Spaceship 9/19/1996 See details above about this unusual mark-up version of a copyedit. Includes full set of copyeditor notes. Many corrections in my handwriting
K Research materials on .45 automatic July 1992 I got a lot of help from Bruce Bethke on getting the Model 1911 right; these are some articles he gave me, which I carried around in my bag while I worked on the early drafts of Patton's Spaceship.
L Final typescript of "Upon Their Backs to Bite'Em" Summer 1999 Short story for S.M. Stirling's DRAKAS! anthology, brough Mark Strang over for a visit into the Draka universe
M Copyedit of Washington's Dirigible 11/23/1996 See details above about this unusual mark-up version of a copyedit. Includes full set of copyeditor notes. Many corrections in my handwriting
John Barnes Date
LETTER OF PROVENANCE regarding Materials Sold as the "Gaudeamus Collection"
To whom it may concern:
On March 12, 2007, I sold to [NEW OWNER] the items listed below which were used in the preparation of my novel GAUDEAMUS:
To the best of my knowledge, this letter enumerates what each item is, its date of creation when known or an estimate when not known, its condition on March 12, 2007, and other information which may be pertinent to scholars and collectors.
If at some future time I discover further materials which would have been included in this collection if they had been found before March 12, 2007, they will be shipped to [NEW OWNER] at my expense, and with a similar letter of provenance, plus a revised version of this full letter.
PREAMBLE: This collection is sold as a unit. It is recommended that it be kept intact rather than broken up, particularly in light of [NEW OWNER]'s obligation to assist in scholarly access to these materials. (See the LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING).
TAG Short description Dating (as much as is known) Long description and commentary
A Large deck of 4x6 cards used for a matrix method to reorganize the novel March 2002 I've played around with various randomizing and "matrix creativity" methods for a long time; I was having a hard time getting the book to re-start (after taking more than a year out to finish some others) and was hoping this would help. Most of the cards now make no sense at all to me
B Research note cards, 3x5 December 2002 and January 2003 Prepared by my research assistant Jessica Tate, part of planning a research trip to the San Luis Valley
C Steno pad labeled Gaudeamus notebook 1 March or April 2000 first draft of what turned out to be the opening of the finished book. In the same pad, if you flip it over, there's a lot of proprietary material from the consulting business, on the flip side, because this was the only notebook I happened to carry to a conference on voting machines (I'd already entered the text, I just grabbed the wrong pad from the pile). That conference was in fall 2002, and everything about it is proprietary.
D Page proofs with my handwritten corrections of Gaudeamus June 1, 2004 Very clean proofs. Only about 35 pages have any marks, and mostly those are last minute changes of mind
E Research file on UFO sightings in the San Luis Valley September 2002 File assembled by my assistant Jes for planning further research and to get a sense of just how big the UFO thing was in the San Luis (answer, it's a major industry!)
F Tor's copyedit of GAUDEAMUS November 2003 Good copyedit. Very smart notes from copyeditor and lots of marks from both me and the c.e. In pretty rumpled shape since it spent some months bouncing back and forth in the mail and around a publishing office.
G Second draft of full version of Gaudeamus (just prior to final draft) 4/19/03 and 4/20/03 were date of printout Markings in my handwriting on many pages but mostly minor fixes because it was pretty close to done
H Rough outline drafting of GAUDEAMUS Mostly summer 1999 Several pages are duplicated; this outline/proposal got a lot of re-writing because at the time I thought it would be written while dictating/driving, as FINITY had been, and I needed a really clear outline. If this outline had been written GAUDEAMUS would have been about 4x the length it came out (and I suspect not at all funny).
I Run-up of about the first 152 pages of Gaudeamus Internal heading date is June 3, 2000. Probably this copy was printed after August 2002 and handwritten corrections probably entered before February 2003. A run-up is an edited printout that I use to get back into a book, in this case after a 2-year layover. One thing that's very noticeable is that I'm purposely very vague about much of the action in locations like Albuquerque, where I hadn't actually gone, driven the roads, explored the neighborhoods, and taken the photos yet. Corrections don't include research corrections so it was marked up sometime before the research trip in Jan/Feb 2003.
J Four page typewritten letter setting up research work for my assistant, Jes August 2002 Notes in my handwriting and hers; there was a huge amount to find and decide about, and this letter basically functioned as our checklist/communication system. Very worn from all the times it passed back and forth
K 60 min Microcassette (recorded at 1.2 ips): Gaudeamus, II February 2003 Gaudeamus II contains a note for revisions on the June 3, 2000, run-up (Item I), but it's clearly made after the January 2003 research tape, and material in it is included in the April draft. First draft of the scene where Hale tries to extract Travis from the bad situation in the hotel (up to about where Trav gets beaten up). There's only about ten minutes of this and the B side is blank
L Interview with Judy Messoline at UFO ranch recorded on 60 min microcassette (1.2 ips) January 2003 The UFO Ranch outside Hooper, Colorado, is a fascinating place; Judy still raises legacy breeds of cattle but she makes more money from UFO enthusiasts. The interview was conducted by me and my assistant Jes, who is a much better interviewer than I am (leaving me free to listen and take notes). Some material on both sides (turned tape over early to make sure we didn't lose anything, this was such a great interview). PLEASE NOTE: Judy's comments are proprietary to her and she gave the interview for the purpose of this book. Quotation beyond Fair Use would require her authorization (on the other hand, she's pretty pleasant and cooperative and not at all hard to contact)
M CD of UFO research trip photos Copy of material from Jan-Feb 2003 Not strictly part of the collection, just a copy, but likely to be of some use to scholars; pictures from the research trip down to San Luis Valley in January/February 2003, taken by me and Jes and later edited by Jes (who may be held responsible for some of the silly captions). I wrote the last 2 1/2 drafts while playing these photos in rotation on my screensaver, a different set in rotation for different parts of the book obviously. Directory/folder structure is in Mac OS X format, pictures are jpgs.
N 60 min microcassete (recorded at 1.2 ips), Gaudeamus I May 21, 2000 (established by memory+tax record) Made this tape while driving back from a research trip to Boulder (research for other purposes). First part is me doing vocal improv as Travis Bismarck. Material on pretty much all of A side and first 1/5 or so of B side. Material from this appears in the June 2000 run-up (Item I).
John Barnes Date
http://stores.ebay.com/John-Barnes-Science-Fiction-Store
I liked writing men's action adventure way too much; if it had made money for me I might have settled into it forever. Part of my problem is that it's hard for me to imagine anyone being as violent as the typical men's a/a hero, so I tend to explain them as being 1) so dumb they can't think of anything else to do except violence, or 2) so crazy they prefer violence. TIME RAIDER -- the Dan Samson books -- is the former, and basically the books are men's a/a with an overlap of New Ageish fantasy (and a link to Atlantis and the Wisdom of the East and the Matter of America and all sorts of stuff -- just not much of that in the three books that started the series, because Dan Samson didn't know much yet. Of course in a real sense Dan Samson was unlikely ever to know much).
Anyway, Harlequin liked TIME RAIDER but didn't want to continue it, so they asked for another series, "more sci fi," which they then paid for but decided not to publish because it was "too sci fi." That was TIMELINE WARS -- which was Chron Wars while it was at Harlequin -- which my agent later resold to Harper Collins. By the time he did I'd destroyed a lot of material I should've kept, so that collection is priced a little lower. Mark Strang, the TIMELINE WARS hero, used to be an art historian but now he basically goes to alternate histories and blows stuff up because he's on a vendetta against about a million timelines.
So one big amiable doofus, and one psychotic intellectual, and neither one worked out. If I ever do men's a/a again (doubtful, the field is dying), I plan to call that series PSYCHO MORON.
GAUDEAMUS is one of my Edmunds -- I got that useful term from John Boyd, who used it to refer to his wonderful THE RAKEHELLS OF HEAVEN, still my favorite sf novel. An Edmund is a book that is like Edmund in King Lear -- "a whoreson, but there was great sport in his making." I've had three Edmunds in my writing career -- One for the Morning Glory, Finity, and Gaudeamus -- and while they've distinguished themselves by a lack of sales (and a surfeit of fanmail -- as far as I can tell, everyone who does read them writes to me), I can't think of them in any way other than fondly. So I suppose whoever ends up as the Keeper of Gaudeamus should be warned -- there's a little extra piece of my heart in the box.
And now the letters of provenance --
LETTER OF PROVENANCE regarding Materials Sold as the "Time Raider (Dan Samson) Collection"
To whom it may concern:
On March 11, 2007, I sold to [NEW OWNER] the following items which were used in the preparation of my three book series, TIME RAIDER:
1. Wartide
2. Battlecry
3. Union Fires
To the best of my knowledge, this letter enumerates what each item is, its date of creation when known or an estimate when not known, its condition on March 11, 2007, and other information which may be pertinent to scholars and collectors.
If at some future time I discover further materials which would have been included in this collection if they had been found before March 11, 2007, they will be shipped to [NEW OWNER] at my expense, and with a similar letter of provenance, plus a revised version of this full letter.
PREAMBLE: This collection is sold as a unit. It is recommended that it be kept intact rather than broken up, particularly in light of [NEW OWNER]'s obligation to assist in scholarly access to these materials. (See the LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING).
DEFINITIONS: Besides the titles listed above, the following other titles occur in this collection:
Wartide was originally The Guns of Time, and in a proposal to revive the series it was suggested it be titled Soldier of Time
Battlecry was originally The Way To Dusty Death and in a proposal to revive the series it was suggested that that title should be revived
Caesar's Bicycle was originally A Mind Divided, and in a proposal to revive the series it was suggested it be titled Castle Thunder
ABOUT MISSING MATERIAL: There are no copy edits or page proofs here because Harlequin did not allow a writer to do a courtesy check of the copy edit or the page proofs. The editor did send an extensive list of line-edit type questions, to which I responded by email, and the finished books are very close to my drafts as originally turned in.
PRINT QUALITY: Except for Item E, the professionally produced publisher materials, and the research photocopies, all the drafts produced by me are "draft quality" dot matrix – i.e. gray not black, on fanfold paper. I was broke in those days and the objective was to get something I could mark up, since the books were submitted on disk anyway. They're all quite readable but not particularly pretty. Most are unburst fanfold.
TAG Short description Dating (as much as is known) Long description and commentary
A Rushes/Rough draft of the THE GUNS OF TIME July 15-July 22, 1990, inclusive First draft in eight days flat; monetary and divorce emergency caused that. First few pages (from 7-15) are hand numbered because I hadn't figured out how to make Word do page numbers yet. All other pages are dated.
B "safety copy" of A MIND DIVIDED Probably June 1991 Copy printed out as a backup, unmarked, very close to the final printed version, on one unburst fanfold.
C Photocopied research used to prepare an outline for the next three books (if the series had continued) October 1992 There's not much of this; it was used to prepare a document which is now apparently lost, but which was one of the sources of Item E about a decade later
D Second draft of THE GUNS OF TIME July 1990 Prepared from Item A. Many hand markings on this copy for corrections entered before it was sent to my agent and the publisher. THE GUNS OF TIME was published as WARTIDE.
E 5 page outline for continuing Time Raider for another dozen books or indefinitely Summer 2001 There was actually publisher interest in re-launching and continuing Daniel Samson's adventures in August 1991, so I spent one day in the library and another day speed-re-reading the books, and drafted this. The publisher decided it was too much of a gamble after all.
F Outline for proposed "Guns of Time" Written July 1990, these prints are probably later Prints have been extensively marked up. Many penciled notes about how many words to take to accomplish an event; I worked with this at my side and tried to hit or exceed word counts on every event while writing Item D. The Guns of Time was published as Wartide.
G Mixed rushes for The Way to Dusty Death Earliest, Dec. 26, 1990; last, 5/29/91 These rushes occurred off and on, mostly over Christmas break and then after grad school let out; I finished the book in early June 1991. Many duplicated pages, lots of rewriting and markings. Contemporaneous with Item L. The Way to Dusty Death was published as Battlecry.
H Mind Divided daily rushes June 14-24, 1991 Draft of the book, partly rough and partly transcribed from handwritten, done in ten days (which is practical in a short book if one pays no attention to quality). Very rough draft, each page dated on the day it was written. A Mind Divided was published as Union Fires.
I Research for Time Raider Spring 1991 There wasn't much; these were the things I kept on my desk, mostly pictures of horse tack and Civil War era weapons. In men's action adventure, you have to get the hardware right (but not much else).
J Catalog flyer for Gold Eagle 1992 Publishing Program with promotions for Time Raider November or December 1991 This is what Gold Eagle sent to bookstores, distributors, and its own sales force. You'll discover that the very unsuccessful Time Raider books had a "big brother" that suceeded brilliantly – the Deathlands saga began in the same program
K Promotional cover flats for Battlecry and Union Fires December 1991 Mint condition except for one hole punched in each. Sales and promo info on back
L 144 page green steno pad with about 45 pages of rough draft and some research notes for The Way to Dusty Death. May 1991 in the same pad there are numerous apartment hunting notes and some rough beginnings of my short story "Bang On!" The Way to Dusty Death was published as Battlecry.
M 80 page steno pad with 27 pages of handwritten first draft of The Way to Dusty Death August 1990 Also contains a bunch of notes to myself about the Intro to Theatre course I was about to start teaching at Pitt. I wrote most of this during lunches and breaks while driving from Missoula to Pittsburgh. The Way to Dusty Death was published as Battlecry.
John Barnes Date
LETTER OF PROVENANCE regarding Materials Sold as the "Timeline Wars Collection"
To whom it may concern:
On March 1, 2007, I sold to [NEW OWNER] the following items which were used in the preparation of my three book series, TIMELINE WARS:
1. Patton's Spaceship
2. Washington's Dirigible
3. Caesar's Bicycle
To the best of my knowledge, this letter enumerates what each item is, its date of creation when known or an estimate when not known, its condition on March 11, 2007, and other information which may be pertinent to scholars and collectors.
If at some future time I discover further materials which would have been included in this collection if they had been found before March 11, 2007, they will be shipped to [NEW OWNER] at my expense, and with a similar letter of provenance, plus a revised version of this full letter.
PREAMBLE: This collection is sold as a unit. It is recommended that it be kept intact rather than broken up, particularly in light of [NEW OWNER]'s obligation to assist in scholarly access to these materials. (See the LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING).
DEFINITIONS: Besides the titles listed above, the following other titles occur in this collection:
Patton's Spaceship was variously titled Crux, Crux of War, and Crux of Battle
Washington's Dirigible was at one time titled Flying Yankee
Caesar's Bicycle was titled Kill Caesar!
While the Timeline Wars series was at Harlequin, before it was re-sold to Harper Collins, it was called Chron Wars.
The fourth title in the series, which Harper Collins said they did not want, was to be Nixon's Frozen Head. (For anyone who is wondering, I have no idea how the same conceit cropped up on Futurama some years later, but strongly suspect pure coincidence. Anyway, what they did with it and what I would have done with it are utterly different).
The Timeline Wars materials also include material from a short story, "Upon Their Backs, to Bite'em," which was published in the anthology Drakas! from Baen Books.
ABOUT MISSING MATERIAL: When Harlequin paid for the books and then canceled the series in 1993, I had thought that was the end, and disposed of most of the materials (I'm surprised that Items A, B, G, I, and K survived) but thanks to my never-give-up agent, Harper Collins picked the books up in 1996 and issued them in 1997.
Harper Collins did not return my manuscripts because at the time they were experimenting with a new electronic submission system, where they accepted word files from me on disk and printed out "editable" copy edited copy which showed all the changes they had made to make it easy for me to approve or disapprove. The system worked very well, by the way. So there is no "final draft" in my typescript of any of the three books, but there is my hand correction of each of the three copy-edits, and my further hand-correction of each of the three sets of page proofs, as well as the usual mix of handwritten drafts, partially typed drafts, promo materials and so on.
TAG Short description Dating (as much as is known) Long description and commentary
A 144 page green steno pad, general notepad with several scenes from FLYING YANKEE including a rough draft of first chapter, in handwriting September through November 1993 Pad I was carrying around for general creative work. Many scribbles and ideas for other creative projects as well, some notes toward my dissertation and toward a research trip to Cologne and Paris
B Rough draft of CRUX handwritten in green 144 page steno pad First page dated 4-13, has to have been 4-13-1993 Crux was the original title of Patton's Spaceship. The draft occurs in several separate runs of pages, with numbering 1-55, 1-4, 1-2, along with about ten pages of detailed outlining. A couple of pages from (43-44) from an early typescript are folded in the notebook
C Page proofs of PATTON'S SPACESHIP, on loose 8 1/2 x 11 sheets Sept 19, 1996 (handwritten note says "Author 10/1", probably when they sent them) Perfectly normal page proofs with very few markings; this came out of copy edit and typesetting in very good shape. In excellent condition. Probably there are few markings because this was delivered simultaneously with the copy edit and most corrections were made on that rather than here.
D Page proofs of WASHINGTON'S DIRIGIBLE, on loose 8 1/2 x 11 sheets Nov 27, 1996 The pages all seem to be here but there's no markings I can find; this is in accord with the generally high quality copy edit and typesetting these books received. In excellent condition. Probably there are few markings because this was delivered simultaneously with the copy edit and most corrections were made on that rather than here.
E Page proofs of CAESAR'S BICYCLE, on loose 8 1/2 x 11 sheets April 8, 1997 More markings here than in Items D and C, but still a very clean copy. Markings in blue ball point are in my handwriting. In very good condition – somewhat more rumpling probably because it needed somewhat more work. Probably there are few markings because this was delivered simultaneously with the copy edit and most corrections were made on that rather than here.
F Book proposal for NIXON'S FROZEN HEAD May 1997 (from diary) My attempt to sell Harper Collins the fourth book in the series; obviously it didn't succeed.
G 51 page singlespaced typescript, early draft of Kill Caesar! Spring 1993 Kill Caesar! became Caesar's Bicycle. This typescript has no handwritten marks and is in excellent shape so probably it was supposed to be a carry around copy and then never got used as one
H Publicity cover flats for CRUX OF BATTLE, PATTON'S SPACESHIP, and CAESAR'S BICYCLE Late fall 1996 CRUX OF BATTLE was the title of PATTON'S SPACESHIP up to almost the very last minute; we were unable to devise two more "Crux" titles so it was decided to go with the alternate "Famous General's Name in the Possessive Case Plus Anachronistic Device" titles.
I Four handwritten steno pad pages, abortive start on CRUX OF WAR October 1992 (from surrounding notes in notebook, which mostly contained Mother of Storms material) CRUX OF WAR eventually became Patton's Spaceship. I often try out a few pages of an opening to see how the story might start to sound, or find a first-person voice; I don't think I used much from these few pages in the eventual book. There's a good chance I did this waiting in line or riding a city bus, just as an exercise.
J Copyedit of Patton's Spaceship 9/19/1996 See details above about this unusual mark-up version of a copyedit. Includes full set of copyeditor notes. Many corrections in my handwriting
K Research materials on .45 automatic July 1992 I got a lot of help from Bruce Bethke on getting the Model 1911 right; these are some articles he gave me, which I carried around in my bag while I worked on the early drafts of Patton's Spaceship.
L Final typescript of "Upon Their Backs to Bite'Em" Summer 1999 Short story for S.M. Stirling's DRAKAS! anthology, brough Mark Strang over for a visit into the Draka universe
M Copyedit of Washington's Dirigible 11/23/1996 See details above about this unusual mark-up version of a copyedit. Includes full set of copyeditor notes. Many corrections in my handwriting
John Barnes Date
LETTER OF PROVENANCE regarding Materials Sold as the "Gaudeamus Collection"
To whom it may concern:
On March 12, 2007, I sold to [NEW OWNER] the items listed below which were used in the preparation of my novel GAUDEAMUS:
To the best of my knowledge, this letter enumerates what each item is, its date of creation when known or an estimate when not known, its condition on March 12, 2007, and other information which may be pertinent to scholars and collectors.
If at some future time I discover further materials which would have been included in this collection if they had been found before March 12, 2007, they will be shipped to [NEW OWNER] at my expense, and with a similar letter of provenance, plus a revised version of this full letter.
PREAMBLE: This collection is sold as a unit. It is recommended that it be kept intact rather than broken up, particularly in light of [NEW OWNER]'s obligation to assist in scholarly access to these materials. (See the LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING).
TAG Short description Dating (as much as is known) Long description and commentary
A Large deck of 4x6 cards used for a matrix method to reorganize the novel March 2002 I've played around with various randomizing and "matrix creativity" methods for a long time; I was having a hard time getting the book to re-start (after taking more than a year out to finish some others) and was hoping this would help. Most of the cards now make no sense at all to me
B Research note cards, 3x5 December 2002 and January 2003 Prepared by my research assistant Jessica Tate, part of planning a research trip to the San Luis Valley
C Steno pad labeled Gaudeamus notebook 1 March or April 2000 first draft of what turned out to be the opening of the finished book. In the same pad, if you flip it over, there's a lot of proprietary material from the consulting business, on the flip side, because this was the only notebook I happened to carry to a conference on voting machines (I'd already entered the text, I just grabbed the wrong pad from the pile). That conference was in fall 2002, and everything about it is proprietary.
D Page proofs with my handwritten corrections of Gaudeamus June 1, 2004 Very clean proofs. Only about 35 pages have any marks, and mostly those are last minute changes of mind
E Research file on UFO sightings in the San Luis Valley September 2002 File assembled by my assistant Jes for planning further research and to get a sense of just how big the UFO thing was in the San Luis (answer, it's a major industry!)
F Tor's copyedit of GAUDEAMUS November 2003 Good copyedit. Very smart notes from copyeditor and lots of marks from both me and the c.e. In pretty rumpled shape since it spent some months bouncing back and forth in the mail and around a publishing office.
G Second draft of full version of Gaudeamus (just prior to final draft) 4/19/03 and 4/20/03 were date of printout Markings in my handwriting on many pages but mostly minor fixes because it was pretty close to done
H Rough outline drafting of GAUDEAMUS Mostly summer 1999 Several pages are duplicated; this outline/proposal got a lot of re-writing because at the time I thought it would be written while dictating/driving, as FINITY had been, and I needed a really clear outline. If this outline had been written GAUDEAMUS would have been about 4x the length it came out (and I suspect not at all funny).
I Run-up of about the first 152 pages of Gaudeamus Internal heading date is June 3, 2000. Probably this copy was printed after August 2002 and handwritten corrections probably entered before February 2003. A run-up is an edited printout that I use to get back into a book, in this case after a 2-year layover. One thing that's very noticeable is that I'm purposely very vague about much of the action in locations like Albuquerque, where I hadn't actually gone, driven the roads, explored the neighborhoods, and taken the photos yet. Corrections don't include research corrections so it was marked up sometime before the research trip in Jan/Feb 2003.
J Four page typewritten letter setting up research work for my assistant, Jes August 2002 Notes in my handwriting and hers; there was a huge amount to find and decide about, and this letter basically functioned as our checklist/communication system. Very worn from all the times it passed back and forth
K 60 min Microcassette (recorded at 1.2 ips): Gaudeamus, II February 2003 Gaudeamus II contains a note for revisions on the June 3, 2000, run-up (Item I), but it's clearly made after the January 2003 research tape, and material in it is included in the April draft. First draft of the scene where Hale tries to extract Travis from the bad situation in the hotel (up to about where Trav gets beaten up). There's only about ten minutes of this and the B side is blank
L Interview with Judy Messoline at UFO ranch recorded on 60 min microcassette (1.2 ips) January 2003 The UFO Ranch outside Hooper, Colorado, is a fascinating place; Judy still raises legacy breeds of cattle but she makes more money from UFO enthusiasts. The interview was conducted by me and my assistant Jes, who is a much better interviewer than I am (leaving me free to listen and take notes). Some material on both sides (turned tape over early to make sure we didn't lose anything, this was such a great interview). PLEASE NOTE: Judy's comments are proprietary to her and she gave the interview for the purpose of this book. Quotation beyond Fair Use would require her authorization (on the other hand, she's pretty pleasant and cooperative and not at all hard to contact)
M CD of UFO research trip photos Copy of material from Jan-Feb 2003 Not strictly part of the collection, just a copy, but likely to be of some use to scholars; pictures from the research trip down to San Luis Valley in January/February 2003, taken by me and Jes and later edited by Jes (who may be held responsible for some of the silly captions). I wrote the last 2 1/2 drafts while playing these photos in rotation on my screensaver, a different set in rotation for different parts of the book obviously. Directory/folder structure is in Mac OS X format, pictures are jpgs.
N 60 min microcassete (recorded at 1.2 ips), Gaudeamus I May 21, 2000 (established by memory+tax record) Made this tape while driving back from a research trip to Boulder (research for other purposes). First part is me doing vocal improv as Travis Bismarck. Material on pretty much all of A side and first 1/5 or so of B side. Material from this appears in the June 2000 run-up (Item I).
John Barnes Date
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Two more Letters of Provenance up -- FINITY and MOTHER OF STORMS
Each of these collections has some unusual features.
FINITY was a mostly-on-screen production so there's less stuff, but there's one feature that seems to be drawing a little collector attention, and that's that the rough draft was all done on one phenomenally long drive (to and from San Antonio from Gunnison CO) on audio tape, and all those tapes are in there.
MOTHER OF STORMS seems to be my most popular book over the long run, and there's a lot of computer modeling that went into it, but because back in those days before the Web when 20 meg was big hard drive, 10,000 cells was a huge spreadsheet, and human beings still had tails, much of the modeling had a by-hand component, so there's quite a lot of handwritten and hand-developed stuff in there.
FINITY auction closes on March 7; MOTHER OF STORMS on March 8; the urls for them are:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150097697200&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:11
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150098166042&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:11
And the letters of provenance:
LETTER OF PROVENANCE regarding Materials Sold as the "Finity Collection"
To whom it may concern:
On March 7, 2007, I sold to [NEW OWNER] the following items which were used in the preparation of my novel, FINITY. To the best of my knowledge, this letter enumerates what each item is, its date of creation when known or an estimate when not known, its condition on March 7, 2007, and other information which may be pertinent to scholars and collectors.
If at some future time I discover further materials which would have been included in this collection if they had been found before March 7, 2007, they will be shipped to [NEW OWNER] at my expense, and with a similar letter of provenance, plus a revised version of this full letter.
PREAMBLE: This collection is sold as a unit. It is recommended that it be kept intact rather than broken up, particularly in light of [NEW OWNER]'s obligation to assist in scholarly access to these materials. (See the LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING).
TAG Short description Dating (as much as is known) Long description and commentary
A Ten standard audio cassette tapes, the entire rough draft of FINITY November 1997 Taped on my way from my home in Gunnison, CO, to the ASTR meeting in San Antonio. I needed to get a book done soon so I printed out the outline in one-sentence-or-clause-to-a-page 48 point type, masking-taped successive pages to the dashboard in tear-off order, and taped each scene as I drove, tossing the outline sheets into the back seat over my shoulder. (That's why none of them appear in this collection; every time I stopped for gas or a burger I cleared out the back seat). Thus FINITY is the novel of mine that most closely follows its original outline, and the whole rough draft is on tape. Most tapes and tape sides include at least some asides on other people's driving, odd confessions and rants triggered by driving on too much coffee, discussions of which little towns in central Texas are really nice and which are not,and so on. I went out of Gunnison via the southern, Saguache road during a heavy snowstorm, so there's a certain amount of raw fear in there too.
B Original corrected copyedit of FINITY Last week of September, 1998 First few pages are various set-ups for the printer, which are interesting if you like to see how manuscripts become books. The envelope in which it's enclosed carries the date 10/00, which is the date when it was returned to me. The main body of this is the material from which the main body of Item D was copied; front material differs between the two manuscripts.
C Very rough draft of FINITY, typed while transcribing tapes from Item A November and December 1998 When I got home, I just put the tapes, one after another, into my Walkman, and typed what was on them, rewriting and modifying as I went, and sometimes filling in where I didn't notice a tape had run out
D Backup photocopy of corrected copyedit of Finity Last week of September, 1998 Contains faint but legible copy of my responses to the copyeditor queries, which Item B does not. Nice lighthanded touch by the copyeditor on this one; this is about the point where I stopped fighting wars with copyeditors and simply tried to find ones I got along with (or maybe Tor got so tired of the battles that they only allocated my books to really courteous copyeditors)
E Corrected page proofs of FINITY First week of November, 1998 The pages that were actually corrected were returned to the publisher, but in those long ago affluent days, I used to make a backup copy of them, so those are the pages on top, followed by the originals that didn't require corrections. It's really quite surprising how many things need fixing even at the page proof stage.
F About 110 pages (of 379) of a cleanup draft of Finity March 1998 This is very close to the finished version (which is in items B and D), looks like leftover pages from the clean-up of the last awkward spots, inconsistencies, and typos. Not very many markings, so probably these are the pages I did not throw out; others were probably folded and discarded as I went.
LETTER OF PROVENANCE regarding Materials Sold as the "Mother of Storms Collection"
To whom it may concern:
On March 8, 2007, I sold to [NEW OWNER] the following items which were used in the preparation of my novel, MOTHER OF STORMS. To the best of my knowledge, this letter enumerates what each item is, its date of creation when known or an estimate when not known, its condition on March 8, 2007, and other information which may be pertinent to scholars and collectors.
If at some future time I discover further materials which would have been included in this collection if they had been found before March 8, 2007, they will be shipped to [NEW OWNER] at my expense, and with a similar letter of provenance, plus a revised version of this full letter.
PREAMBLE: This collection is sold as a unit. It is recommended that it be kept intact rather than broken up, particularly in light of [NEW OWNER]'s obligation to assist in scholarly access to these materials. (See the LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING).
TAG Short description Dating (as much as is known) Long description and commentary
A Audio microcassette on which I taped rough drafts of scenes from MOTHER OF STORMS June 1993 Taped on my way from Pittsburgh to my then-fiancee's home in Minneapolis. Sound quality is very poor – I had a hard time typing from this, volume was way too low and background noise much too high
B First full rough draft of MOTHER OF STORMS in manuscript form March 9, 1993 (print date) Wandering, odd, lots of loose plot threads, and contains many scenes and subplots cut from the final book. Just under 800 pages long. Many markings by me in the early pages but then fewer and fewer, probably because I gave up on it and started another draft
C Space saving format printout of Mother of Storms April through June 1993 (most pages have print dates) I printed these pages, or reprinted them, every time I had marked up some of them so thoroughly that I was on the verge of re-reading notes. So the later dates are probably the most-rewritten scenes. A more compact manuscript I could carry in a plastic bag (in rainy Pittsburgh spring) was much better for working on in coffee houses, grad student office, etc.
D Unmarked page proofs from Mother of Storms Print Date 2/7/94 These are the page proofs that did NOT have errors, and were therefore not marked and returned to the publisher. I noted as I was packing that I missed at least two pages that I had marked, so quite possibly they correspond to typos in the final version
E Notes from my agent for revisions. Also on the back of the pink cover sheet, my own notes to myself for revisions. 9/24/93 Printed copy of a memo from my agent that we passed through CompuServe. Usual mixture of spelling errors, blocking mistakes (people being in 2 places at same time and so on) and requests for more about the technology
F First draft of shorter version of MOTHER OF STORMS, including modifications requested by Tor editors sept 24, 1993 Actually typed and entered by Melissa Gibson, who did a great job on this and was really an extra editor, while I wrote the supplementary scenes that were then folded in to make this "first complete final". Very few markings on this copy; seems to have been purely archival (the book was delivered via email, my first book to go that way).
G Tor's copyedited and reconciled printout of shorter draft of MOTHER OF STORMS (this is the one the finished book was prepared from) Early October 1993 Extensive handwritten notes from nearly everyone involved in the production process, and of course copyediting marks. Similar to Item F but includes notes made in Item E.
H 144 page steno pad, green cover, smeared label says "Mother of storms nb-1, 8/10/92" 8-10-92 to at least July 1993 This was my basic working pad for most of the first nine months or more on the book. It traveled with me in Mexico while I was trying to get caught in a hurricane and looking over the little towns where much of the action happens. There's around 40 pages of rough drafts in my handwriting, maybe another 30 pages of outlining, and about 20 pages of notes and calculations toward building the weather model. There's also some scrawled notes from theatre history class and a couple of pages with notes about my then-upcoming wedding. Loose pages at the back from some other notebook are my notes on travel in Mexico (like plane/train/bus schedules, hotels, etc.) More or less this notebook lived in my pack or under my arm for most of the time between the dates; it's quite battered but all very legible.
I Editing copy of the long version of Mother of Storms Mid august 1993 This was the version to which I applied Patrick Nielsen Hayden's editorial notes (Item ) in preparation for putting together the short version. (Long version was about 207,000 words, short version about 186,000, and Patrick was right, by the way, the 10% cut in length was a very good idea – I prefer the short version myself). Pages are in somewhat scrambled order because I was sending part of them off with Melissa Gibson to have corrections entered, and writing supplementary material (mostly bridges to cover the cuts) at home with the others. Most of the pages seem to be there but there may be a few missing. Some are very battered, having made a few too many trips in grad student backpacks, while others are in pretty good shape.
J Printout of cover art for 1st British paperback, with art director notes Early 1996 I was getting along very well with Millenium/Orion in those days, and they very nicely sent this copy for my comments. The art director had already made notes to fix everything that wasn't quite perfect. This cover was later replaced with one that showed a tornado; I always preferred this one.
`K Red steno pad, 80 pages, written on front and back of many sheets June 1993 Road pad for working on Mother of Storms on an extended consulting trip to California. Lots of editorial notes (many of which were transcribed into Item C). It had become clear that the original outlined ending to the novel – and then just as the storms subside in the northern hemisphere, they start in the southern, and everyone wearily turns to coping some more – was totally unacceptable to Tor, so I had written a draft (Items C and B) in which the highly improbable space mission turned Louis Tynan into a god and saved the Earth. I wrote the mission first and then did the calculations, in this notebook, making them work out plausibly (imagine my relief that they did). There are also some consulting notes which are proprietary and would require permission other than mine to quote, and a few scribbled notes – nothing significant – pertaining to a meeting with Buzz Aldrin, which would also require permission besides mine to quote (there's nothing written or drawn by Buzz in this item)
L Bookmark and brochure to promote the initial release of Mother of Storms May 1994 Announces the July 1994 release. Amusingly 1990s in its graphic style, and boldly proclaims that Mother of Storms will be promoted NOT JUST ONLINE BUT ON THE INTERNET!
M three pages torn from a steno pad that are the earliest notes I have about Mother of Storms Probably October 1991 The initial list was just some research that had to be done to establish feasibility, and a list of topics to be addressed. All this was prompted by NOAA having released some of its simpler weather models for general use, but there's nothing about that in these notes
N Patrick Nielsen Hayden's notes toward cutting the long draft to the short draft for Mother of Storms August 17, 1993 These may be the best set of editorial notes I ever got from anyone; detailed and very thoughtful. I worked with them at my elbow as I prepared the final, shorter draft, and in many cases scribbled notes on this copy, so that there are many marginal entries in my handwriting
O old mixed research file 1992-93 Mostly this is stuff I kept around, I think because I used it off and on – a receipt from a hotel that was fictionalized into the book (the receipt brought back memories somehow), map of the city of Oaxaca, a couple of scientific papers with bearings on seabed clathrates
P Page proofs for paperback edition of Mother of Storms January 1995 I don't see any missing pages so I guess I had no corrections; copy is unmarked
Q Cover flats for the German edition with a note from my agent In envelope postmarked 11/21/95 Eventually this did become the German cover
R Monthly planner book used to schedule the events of 2028 for Mother of Storms early summer 1993 Eventually the whole thing got so complex I just laid it out on a calendar by hand; this gives a quick summary of who is where when and doing what
S Map of the Pacific Ocean with successive daily positions of Hurricane Clem and a few daughter hurricanes penciled in January 1993 Done using the modeling output from Items T and U. This was how I kept track of the day by day events for the imaginary summer of 2028; hand plotted because I didn't have any graphics software that could do this sort of thing
T Hand pasted chart (assembled from 8 1/2 x 11 paper) giving position and strength of Hurricane Clem from model output December 1992 or January 1993 This was the master chart I used in conjunction with the map (Item S). As you can see from the picture, it's about half by-hand and about half spreadsheet calculations, all pasted together on a sheet of layout paper. Very worn – it got carried everywhere and used constantly – but mostly intact. Gives wind velocities at eyewall, and then radii at which various Beaufort scale winds occur, plus position of hurricane and various other stuff; geographic data is pencilled in
U About 15 pages of modeling output from various preliminary models November through December 1992 Numeric weather models are built like any other models, as series of modules that feed each other. My little Mac SE wasn't up to processing one big Excel spreadsheet, so I would build a preliminary model, export the data, and then put that into the next stage of the model. These models cover ocean surface temperature, wind force, and some other thermodynamic stuff.
FINITY was a mostly-on-screen production so there's less stuff, but there's one feature that seems to be drawing a little collector attention, and that's that the rough draft was all done on one phenomenally long drive (to and from San Antonio from Gunnison CO) on audio tape, and all those tapes are in there.
MOTHER OF STORMS seems to be my most popular book over the long run, and there's a lot of computer modeling that went into it, but because back in those days before the Web when 20 meg was big hard drive, 10,000 cells was a huge spreadsheet, and human beings still had tails, much of the modeling had a by-hand component, so there's quite a lot of handwritten and hand-developed stuff in there.
FINITY auction closes on March 7; MOTHER OF STORMS on March 8; the urls for them are:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150097697200&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:11
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150098166042&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:11
And the letters of provenance:
LETTER OF PROVENANCE regarding Materials Sold as the "Finity Collection"
To whom it may concern:
On March 7, 2007, I sold to [NEW OWNER] the following items which were used in the preparation of my novel, FINITY. To the best of my knowledge, this letter enumerates what each item is, its date of creation when known or an estimate when not known, its condition on March 7, 2007, and other information which may be pertinent to scholars and collectors.
If at some future time I discover further materials which would have been included in this collection if they had been found before March 7, 2007, they will be shipped to [NEW OWNER] at my expense, and with a similar letter of provenance, plus a revised version of this full letter.
PREAMBLE: This collection is sold as a unit. It is recommended that it be kept intact rather than broken up, particularly in light of [NEW OWNER]'s obligation to assist in scholarly access to these materials. (See the LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING).
TAG Short description Dating (as much as is known) Long description and commentary
A Ten standard audio cassette tapes, the entire rough draft of FINITY November 1997 Taped on my way from my home in Gunnison, CO, to the ASTR meeting in San Antonio. I needed to get a book done soon so I printed out the outline in one-sentence-or-clause-to-a-page 48 point type, masking-taped successive pages to the dashboard in tear-off order, and taped each scene as I drove, tossing the outline sheets into the back seat over my shoulder. (That's why none of them appear in this collection; every time I stopped for gas or a burger I cleared out the back seat). Thus FINITY is the novel of mine that most closely follows its original outline, and the whole rough draft is on tape. Most tapes and tape sides include at least some asides on other people's driving, odd confessions and rants triggered by driving on too much coffee, discussions of which little towns in central Texas are really nice and which are not,and so on. I went out of Gunnison via the southern, Saguache road during a heavy snowstorm, so there's a certain amount of raw fear in there too.
B Original corrected copyedit of FINITY Last week of September, 1998 First few pages are various set-ups for the printer, which are interesting if you like to see how manuscripts become books. The envelope in which it's enclosed carries the date 10/00, which is the date when it was returned to me. The main body of this is the material from which the main body of Item D was copied; front material differs between the two manuscripts.
C Very rough draft of FINITY, typed while transcribing tapes from Item A November and December 1998 When I got home, I just put the tapes, one after another, into my Walkman, and typed what was on them, rewriting and modifying as I went, and sometimes filling in where I didn't notice a tape had run out
D Backup photocopy of corrected copyedit of Finity Last week of September, 1998 Contains faint but legible copy of my responses to the copyeditor queries, which Item B does not. Nice lighthanded touch by the copyeditor on this one; this is about the point where I stopped fighting wars with copyeditors and simply tried to find ones I got along with (or maybe Tor got so tired of the battles that they only allocated my books to really courteous copyeditors)
E Corrected page proofs of FINITY First week of November, 1998 The pages that were actually corrected were returned to the publisher, but in those long ago affluent days, I used to make a backup copy of them, so those are the pages on top, followed by the originals that didn't require corrections. It's really quite surprising how many things need fixing even at the page proof stage.
F About 110 pages (of 379) of a cleanup draft of Finity March 1998 This is very close to the finished version (which is in items B and D), looks like leftover pages from the clean-up of the last awkward spots, inconsistencies, and typos. Not very many markings, so probably these are the pages I did not throw out; others were probably folded and discarded as I went.
LETTER OF PROVENANCE regarding Materials Sold as the "Mother of Storms Collection"
To whom it may concern:
On March 8, 2007, I sold to [NEW OWNER] the following items which were used in the preparation of my novel, MOTHER OF STORMS. To the best of my knowledge, this letter enumerates what each item is, its date of creation when known or an estimate when not known, its condition on March 8, 2007, and other information which may be pertinent to scholars and collectors.
If at some future time I discover further materials which would have been included in this collection if they had been found before March 8, 2007, they will be shipped to [NEW OWNER] at my expense, and with a similar letter of provenance, plus a revised version of this full letter.
PREAMBLE: This collection is sold as a unit. It is recommended that it be kept intact rather than broken up, particularly in light of [NEW OWNER]'s obligation to assist in scholarly access to these materials. (See the LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING).
TAG Short description Dating (as much as is known) Long description and commentary
A Audio microcassette on which I taped rough drafts of scenes from MOTHER OF STORMS June 1993 Taped on my way from Pittsburgh to my then-fiancee's home in Minneapolis. Sound quality is very poor – I had a hard time typing from this, volume was way too low and background noise much too high
B First full rough draft of MOTHER OF STORMS in manuscript form March 9, 1993 (print date) Wandering, odd, lots of loose plot threads, and contains many scenes and subplots cut from the final book. Just under 800 pages long. Many markings by me in the early pages but then fewer and fewer, probably because I gave up on it and started another draft
C Space saving format printout of Mother of Storms April through June 1993 (most pages have print dates) I printed these pages, or reprinted them, every time I had marked up some of them so thoroughly that I was on the verge of re-reading notes. So the later dates are probably the most-rewritten scenes. A more compact manuscript I could carry in a plastic bag (in rainy Pittsburgh spring) was much better for working on in coffee houses, grad student office, etc.
D Unmarked page proofs from Mother of Storms Print Date 2/7/94 These are the page proofs that did NOT have errors, and were therefore not marked and returned to the publisher. I noted as I was packing that I missed at least two pages that I had marked, so quite possibly they correspond to typos in the final version
E Notes from my agent for revisions. Also on the back of the pink cover sheet, my own notes to myself for revisions. 9/24/93 Printed copy of a memo from my agent that we passed through CompuServe. Usual mixture of spelling errors, blocking mistakes (people being in 2 places at same time and so on) and requests for more about the technology
F First draft of shorter version of MOTHER OF STORMS, including modifications requested by Tor editors sept 24, 1993 Actually typed and entered by Melissa Gibson, who did a great job on this and was really an extra editor, while I wrote the supplementary scenes that were then folded in to make this "first complete final". Very few markings on this copy; seems to have been purely archival (the book was delivered via email, my first book to go that way).
G Tor's copyedited and reconciled printout of shorter draft of MOTHER OF STORMS (this is the one the finished book was prepared from) Early October 1993 Extensive handwritten notes from nearly everyone involved in the production process, and of course copyediting marks. Similar to Item F but includes notes made in Item E.
H 144 page steno pad, green cover, smeared label says "Mother of storms nb-1, 8/10/92" 8-10-92 to at least July 1993 This was my basic working pad for most of the first nine months or more on the book. It traveled with me in Mexico while I was trying to get caught in a hurricane and looking over the little towns where much of the action happens. There's around 40 pages of rough drafts in my handwriting, maybe another 30 pages of outlining, and about 20 pages of notes and calculations toward building the weather model. There's also some scrawled notes from theatre history class and a couple of pages with notes about my then-upcoming wedding. Loose pages at the back from some other notebook are my notes on travel in Mexico (like plane/train/bus schedules, hotels, etc.) More or less this notebook lived in my pack or under my arm for most of the time between the dates; it's quite battered but all very legible.
I Editing copy of the long version of Mother of Storms Mid august 1993 This was the version to which I applied Patrick Nielsen Hayden's editorial notes (Item ) in preparation for putting together the short version. (Long version was about 207,000 words, short version about 186,000, and Patrick was right, by the way, the 10% cut in length was a very good idea – I prefer the short version myself). Pages are in somewhat scrambled order because I was sending part of them off with Melissa Gibson to have corrections entered, and writing supplementary material (mostly bridges to cover the cuts) at home with the others. Most of the pages seem to be there but there may be a few missing. Some are very battered, having made a few too many trips in grad student backpacks, while others are in pretty good shape.
J Printout of cover art for 1st British paperback, with art director notes Early 1996 I was getting along very well with Millenium/Orion in those days, and they very nicely sent this copy for my comments. The art director had already made notes to fix everything that wasn't quite perfect. This cover was later replaced with one that showed a tornado; I always preferred this one.
`K Red steno pad, 80 pages, written on front and back of many sheets June 1993 Road pad for working on Mother of Storms on an extended consulting trip to California. Lots of editorial notes (many of which were transcribed into Item C). It had become clear that the original outlined ending to the novel – and then just as the storms subside in the northern hemisphere, they start in the southern, and everyone wearily turns to coping some more – was totally unacceptable to Tor, so I had written a draft (Items C and B) in which the highly improbable space mission turned Louis Tynan into a god and saved the Earth. I wrote the mission first and then did the calculations, in this notebook, making them work out plausibly (imagine my relief that they did). There are also some consulting notes which are proprietary and would require permission other than mine to quote, and a few scribbled notes – nothing significant – pertaining to a meeting with Buzz Aldrin, which would also require permission besides mine to quote (there's nothing written or drawn by Buzz in this item)
L Bookmark and brochure to promote the initial release of Mother of Storms May 1994 Announces the July 1994 release. Amusingly 1990s in its graphic style, and boldly proclaims that Mother of Storms will be promoted NOT JUST ONLINE BUT ON THE INTERNET!
M three pages torn from a steno pad that are the earliest notes I have about Mother of Storms Probably October 1991 The initial list was just some research that had to be done to establish feasibility, and a list of topics to be addressed. All this was prompted by NOAA having released some of its simpler weather models for general use, but there's nothing about that in these notes
N Patrick Nielsen Hayden's notes toward cutting the long draft to the short draft for Mother of Storms August 17, 1993 These may be the best set of editorial notes I ever got from anyone; detailed and very thoughtful. I worked with them at my elbow as I prepared the final, shorter draft, and in many cases scribbled notes on this copy, so that there are many marginal entries in my handwriting
O old mixed research file 1992-93 Mostly this is stuff I kept around, I think because I used it off and on – a receipt from a hotel that was fictionalized into the book (the receipt brought back memories somehow), map of the city of Oaxaca, a couple of scientific papers with bearings on seabed clathrates
P Page proofs for paperback edition of Mother of Storms January 1995 I don't see any missing pages so I guess I had no corrections; copy is unmarked
Q Cover flats for the German edition with a note from my agent In envelope postmarked 11/21/95 Eventually this did become the German cover
R Monthly planner book used to schedule the events of 2028 for Mother of Storms early summer 1993 Eventually the whole thing got so complex I just laid it out on a calendar by hand; this gives a quick summary of who is where when and doing what
S Map of the Pacific Ocean with successive daily positions of Hurricane Clem and a few daughter hurricanes penciled in January 1993 Done using the modeling output from Items T and U. This was how I kept track of the day by day events for the imaginary summer of 2028; hand plotted because I didn't have any graphics software that could do this sort of thing
T Hand pasted chart (assembled from 8 1/2 x 11 paper) giving position and strength of Hurricane Clem from model output December 1992 or January 1993 This was the master chart I used in conjunction with the map (Item S). As you can see from the picture, it's about half by-hand and about half spreadsheet calculations, all pasted together on a sheet of layout paper. Very worn – it got carried everywhere and used constantly – but mostly intact. Gives wind velocities at eyewall, and then radii at which various Beaufort scale winds occur, plus position of hurricane and various other stuff; geographic data is pencilled in
U About 15 pages of modeling output from various preliminary models November through December 1992 Numeric weather models are built like any other models, as series of modules that feed each other. My little Mac SE wasn't up to processing one big Excel spreadsheet, so I would build a preliminary model, export the data, and then put that into the next stage of the model. These models cover ocean surface temperature, wind force, and some other thermodynamic stuff.
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