I'm whacked.
I never thought, when I wrote the words:
Will Parry stands on the concourse of Waterloo Station…
only a few months ago that I would find myself here:
…on another, farther shore.
more than 100,000 words later, nor that I would have got myself so emotionally involved with this story.
Philip Pullman has said that he always intended that HIS DARK MATERIALS should end in a garden. All the way through my fumblings and gropings through the plot of this tale as it developed I think I must have been steering, though I didn't realise it for a long time, towards a vision of a sunlit beach and a small boat, blue skies and a calm sea, and a farther shore. It's been one heck of a trip for me, from Waterloo Station to Aquae Sulis via heaven knows where. I've enjoyed the journey immensely, and I hope you've enjoyed it a little bit too.
* * * *
I won't name names, except for one special name, so thank you to everyone who has read this far and especially to my faithful reviewers on FF.NET. It has been a pleasure to log on and read your comments. Sometimes I have changed the way a story has gone because of what I read there (but I'm not going to say where, or when).
The special name is, of course, that of Jopari, who stood back and let me borrow his characters simply because I asked him if I might. His stories and mine have ended up interwoven, so that you could read them in order and, I hope, end up with a more-or-less coherent narrative. If you're tempted to try this, the correct (whatever that means) order is (Jopari's stories in CAPITALS, mine in italics):
THE HISTORY TUTOR (A Midsummer's Day prologue)
THE RELIQUARY (Arthur Shire
and Mrs Coulter)
ARTHUR AND MAGGIE (Arthur goes to
Bolvangar)
Intentions
THE ADVENTURE OF THE LOST ALETHIOMETER (Lyra
meets Sherlock Holmes)
Threads
The King's Councillor
AN
EVER-ROLLING STREAM (Arthur and Adèle Starminster)
The Clockmaker's
Boy
The Queen of the Night
A Gift of Love
Time and Peter Joyce (work in progress)
Jopari's Choice (unpublished)
HIS DAY'S WORK (We say
goodbye to Arthur)
Dearer Than Eyesight
In the same spirit, I make this offer: If you would like to use any of my characters in your story, just ask me. If I think you'll treat them fairly I'll say yes. I'm well aware, for example, that there is still much more to say about the Ci'gazzeans and that I've given Judy Parry rather a raw deal.
That's all folks, except for the usual disclaimer – what's Philip Pullman's is his, and what's Jopari's is his, and the rest is mine and Copyright © Ceres Wunderkind 2002.
Farewell,
Ceres Wunderkind, July 2002 (www.geocities.com/ceres_wunderkind)
