I learned something from one of the vets I use.  This is really fascinating.  A friend of mine has a really high maintenance Irish hunter.  Fox had a tough start in life.  He was imported from Ireland by a woman who didn't have the skills to ride him.  So he stood in a stall after being in open pasture in Ireland.  He got handed around to a lot of trainers, and he got very suspicious and sour.

Lindy has done an incredible job turning around his attitude, but last March he became wild, and she's a rather timid, beginning rider.  Then he was perfect for the rest of the year.  This March -- same thing happened.

So she talked to Dr. Stewart McCall who asked, "has he started shedding his winter coat?"  Lindy said yes.  Steward explained there is an enormous hormonal release associated with shedding and some horses get really crazy."  Also chestnuts have this problem worse than other colored horses because their skin is more sensitive.

This is widely known in Europe and in fact they call it "The Time of Shedding", and some trainers just turn their horses out in March and put them back to work once the old hair is gone.  And Native-American's have a similar phrase.

So I just thought this was really cool and interesting and I wanted to pass it along.

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A little while back I wrote a very brief post apologizing to any fans about the delay between the the two Edge books, and trying to indicate that I didn't do it out of disrespect.  There was a lot more to this story, but I didn't have the heart or the energy to go into the whole damn mess. 

Books are like your children and when terrible things happen to them it's hurts.  A lot.  It also feels like an assault on _you_ because if you've done it right you've poured so much of yourself into each page.  I think it was Harlan Ellison who said that writing required you to open a vein and bleed onto each page.  (Or words to that effect).

I didn't go through this alone, however, my friend and colleague Ian Tregillis was caught up in the same perfect publishing storm, and he had the strength and courage to lay out all of the details here.

If you're interested in how publishing works (or sometimes doesn't) this post is a very detailed look behind the curtain.

I don't pretend or delude myself that my books have the kind of following of George's Song of Ice and Fire, or Pat Rothfuss, or any other highly anticipated book, but I did have a few people who seemed to find resonance in what I was trying to say with my Edge books.

The delay that kept Ian's first book off the shelves was a disaster for me because it delayed the publication of The Edge of Ruin by a year which pretty much killed any momentum.  (Who knew a book would ever be titled so prophetically.)

Because of attentive fans I discovered that the Ebook version of the first novel The Edge of Reason had fallen through the cracks and had never been issued.  The publisher is trying to fix that now, but those are sales I will never get back because it's been three years since Edge of Reason appeared.

There should be a paperback of The Edge of Ruin out right now, but that's been delayed.

This is a hard business and with the Borders bankruptcy, and the rise of Ebooks nobody exactly understands the new business model.  It just doesn't help when the system in place breaks down, and your babies are the casualties.

I'm hoping there will be some effort to reboot my Edge series -- maybe a reissue of the first two books, and a contract for the third.  I've written half the third book despite no feedback because that's what writers to -- they write because they have to.

I've got a couple of stories I want to write.  About the Paladin who enters Berlin in 1945, and one where my hero from the Edge books has to deal with a rip in reality inside a Christian campus.  (I set that one up in a story that will appear in DOWN THESE STRANGE STREETS in Oct.  The story features Cross, my homeless Jesus and it's kind of fun.)

Anyway, if you are interested in process do check out Ian's blog.  And more importantly read his book(s) because they are brilliant, and now it seems that all three are on track to be released.

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