Thieves World 7 – The Dead of Winter by Asprin, Robert

letter about her first published works, the Silistra novels. Cousin Diana, I am

proud to say, first saw print in an anthology edited by me. And now we welcome

Cousin Robin to the strangest familial group since the Addams Family.

Right after reading Wings of Omen (same time you did: last November, just before

I wrote the story in this volume), I wrote Paxson and Bailey each a fan letter

of congratulations and thanks. Did you? Why don’t you write me, you bum!

Could those be letters to me that Bob brags about piling up by the bag in his

home?

Like your family, we work together and separately. We get along and we argue or

even fall out. When Janet Morris and I include Hanse and Tempus in each other’s

stories, we exchange manuscripts and say “OK, but (Tempus or Hanse) wouldn’t use

this word or phrase,” or “wouldn’t drink this much,” or “he is not blond.” (I

thought Zip was, and Janet fixed that in my story last time. Zip looks like that

swine who tried to murder the Pope and Hanse resembles Lee Marvin at about age

23.)

Too, Janet sent me pages and pages of lovingly machine-copied (the Xerox people

keep reminding us that “xerox” isn’t a verb, and is capitalized) research notes,

which I filed with my own Arms and Armor; Medieval Warfare; Smaller Classical

Dictionary; Approved Tactics For Attacking and Trashing Publishing Offices; and

other valuable research sources.

She and I met once, about five years ago. We must have exchanged at least thirty

words on two occasions that day. She was on her way to someplace else, both