27 September 2008

Letter 3.47

Part of the Xerox machine -- the human part -- seems to be non-functioning these days. Since that means nothing is getting sent to either friend or publisher, I'm trying a remote repair, like with space satellites (except that it's the satellite that's sending out repair-instructions to ground control); but it may be all the thought and typing I've put into marketing may be for naught. A pretty depressing thought after a year's work. So I won't think about it for both of us.

I'm about 100 pages ahead of you having a hard time working out a plausible sequence for the Big Scene -- i.e. when Khalid and the army and everybody confront each other just before the cremation. It's complicated. Motivations -- both the characters' and mine -- seem a bit forced. Fortunately, I can soon start killing then off wholesale (if they don't get me first) and thereby simplify all future action. Your min-autobiography of Mohel -- M by M (M²) -- received, which marvellous piece seems to have just tripped off your fingers in one sitting. I don't even see you chewing the end of a pencil . How do you do it?

(Thanks, too, for Freedom at Midnight -- loved it, especially the raja with the toy trains that ran amok. I think anyone who has read this would be saddened at the killing of Lord Mountbatten. Shed a tear for your Sufi saint, too. Khalid just killed Bab Khatmo.)

V.

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