originally posted by Roisin O'Connor
Revelations? Retrospectives? Can't wait, as ever! Haven't begun a reread, and have a year of university to complete, so it'll just be in time.
I hope you know we're all like friendly ghosts, hovering over you as you write … no more threatening keyboards with flames! We're with ya…
originally posted by Gillian Bonnell
Having bought The Curse… in 1994 and read each subsequent book as they came out there was so much I had forgotten. Now after a mammoth reread I understand so much more and can appreciate the difficulties you must be having Janny. Your comments about subplots and the characters' POVs made me realise the problems an enormous series like this creates for the author.
Thanks for the updates just one little plea - I will be seventy soon could I please read the last book before I have to leave this planet?
originally posted by Sleo
LOL, I'm 71, so am right there with you, Gillian. 
Gillian & Sleo - working on it every single day!
originally posted by Julie
Hi Sleo and Gillian:
Thought I was the oldest reader/fan! A preemptive happy birthday Gillian.
originally posted by Sleo
LOL, clearly that's my honor, Julie.
originally posted by Jacqueline Moore
Eagerly awaiting the new book Janny. No spoilers please I've got all the different divergences going through my mind from the books and can't wait to see what you've done with them and which ones you've concentrated on.
It's at times like this I wish you were a speed writer, lol but then anticipating what is going to happen is half the fun…
originally posted by Raelene Monahan
So, it's been a while since we had a page update. How about a game? Guess the current number of pages in the draft. Rules: guess a number and then Janny lets us know if the actual count is higher or lower and we keep guessing until someone gets the correct count.
The last update had the page count at 355. So to be overly optimistic, and give a wide range to play with… I will start the guessing at 600 pages.
originally posted by Annette
While I think Janny might be having fun finally putting down on paper what she has been thinking about for so long, I will be less optimistic, but still wildly hopeful.
490 pages
originally posted by tony
I'm going to go with 435 . . .I know Janny writes carefully, and that she likes to get a section done right before moving on . . .
originally posted by Sleo
Oh, I don't know. There's a lot to wrap up. I'm going to go with 700.
originally posted by Walt
I'm thinking with all the distractions of summer… I'm going with 462… and having a Dakar crisis to boot! Nobody messes up the flow of continuity like our favorite drunken prophet…
originally posted by Paige Madison
I'm going to go with 430 based on average page count of about 70 per month for the summer so far.
originally posted by Annette
Janny will probably be busy with Dragon Con for the next week, so we might not get an update till she returns. Janny has a reading scheduled for Saturday afternoon if anyone is going to Dragon Con.
Now more guesses might get us a snippet as well as an update. The mass market version of Initiate's Trial is out in the UK, mine eventually managed to swim out to Australia and find me.
originally posted by Mark Stephen Kominski
*Re-appears after long absence*
Loved IT, Janny, especially the crofters and Daliana (the tidbit peak we had at her beforehand didn't steal any of her character's thunder).
Before moving on to Destiny, however, did I miss a short story or something that details Arithon's capture, imprisonment and freeing of the wraithes? Well-versed from here and the books about the centuries that have passed; guessing that some of the "backward" motion in DC has to touch on this, no?
"Spiders here: do not get squashed, they eat the pests (like the FL sized roaches, for one thing). If they are not seen, they are left alone - if they choose to parade across the floor and flaunt their little selves where a guest might see them and freak out, they get trapped under a clear cup, a bit of cardboard is slipped underneath, and they are tossed OUT, alive and unharmed."
Clear-Glass Spider Relocation is my modus operandi, too, although it's yet to be tested with a brown recluse or black widow.
originally posted by Annette
No short story gave the pertinent details still missing, Janny is saving Arithon's past capture and imprisonment for Destiny's Conflict. Give us all the heartbreaking bits in one book. I am not really expecting the offworld wraiths to get much of a mention in the next book, but you never know.
There is also a bit of history with Sulfin Evend and Lysaer still missing.
Mark Stephen Kominski!!! yes, longtime no see! Great to have you back.
You missed Nothing - and Annette is right. 
You'll find out when the character remembers, and it will be a flashpoint of dramatic denouement.
Teaser: heh - SOME of you were at the reading at DragonCon - No Telling, but I will say they are probably gloating with big grins and shut jaws.
originally posted by Mark Stephen Kominski
Ah, good. I thought not, but surety is a good thing sometimes (unless one is the Mouth of Sauron, but I digress…).
I hope to make it to DragonCon one day.
I am working on Set 5, past the 350 mark…evidently three convention appearances this summer and work to get the shift in US distribution into motion took time/there are guest blogs to write to publicize the new release - more, the complexity of each chapter (as the full convergency moves into place for a Huge unveiling, about to begin) requires a lot of care.
I recall working this degree of complexity at the start of the series - figuring what to show, how deeply, when…that was not 'visible' because I did not put the books on the market until I had written vol 1 in final form, and had (in depth) drafted most of the major action up to Peril's Gate.
There is a degree of on page invention you readers (and me) demand of this series; no way am I letting the quality drop off. And the finish HAS TO top everything else.
I found everybody's over optimistic estimates very (crushingly? embarrassingly?) humbling.
So set 5 progresses, every single day. And just you wait, you have No Idea…!!! (Well, the folks who attended the reading at DragonCon have a wee clue, just a peek at the opening salvo)
originally posted by Gill
Boo Hoo. Living in England I have no idea what DragonCon is, (Con = convention?) so no hope of attending. Hence have missed out on the 'wee clue'.
Section 5 sounds promising so we will soon have the joy of reading Destiny…
Could it come out as a e-book too please Janny? A kindle fits into my handbag more easily than a hard back book.