rereading red rabbit

Hi All,

I've been re-reading 'Red Rabbit', hard on the heels on reading 'Red
October', and noticed a curious thing - nearing the end of Red Rabbit, we
catch Jack thinking of the adage 'Mad Dogs and Enlgishmen Go Out in the
Noonday Sun', and how it no longer holds true today...and then thinking the
same at the beginning of Red October.

I found it very interesting, given the amount of writer's time between the
two books, nearly 20 years. Although naturally Tom would remember everything
perfectly, as he wrote them. No surprises there....

Though Margeret Overbeek is a delightful thought - South African gilrs tend
to be very pretty, and I should know, having been born there and dated many
!

MJLG
Auckland,
New Zealand

On Jul 10, 3:43 am, "Martin La Grange" <Deepsh....DeleteThis@ihug.co.nz> wrote:

> I found it very interesting, given the amount of writer's time between the
> two books, nearly 20 years. Although naturally Tom would remember everything
> perfectly, as he wrote them. No surprises there....

Nothing really surprising to me. While their methods and depths may
vary, most authors who engage in long-running series with common
characters develop some method of maintaining continuity among the
books. Some maintain meticulous, sometimes lengthy, "biographies" of
major [and minor in some cases] characters and events. Others find
just rereading previous books they've written so that they're fresh in
their mind suffices. I would suspect that, at a minimum, TC reread
both PG and HfRO which "bookended," chronologically, Red Rabbit in the
Ryanverse if he isn't one of those aforemention meticulous souls.

OTOH, there are successful writers who can't maintain continuity
within a single book in a continuing series. My favorite mind-candy
writer, W.E.B. Griffin, is one of them. In one of his "The Corps"
series books, the designation of the main character's aircraft
squadron changed three times and that of the aircraft group it was in
twice. At one point in the book he was up to 8 aircraft kills, later
it was 6. His book-to-book continuity isn't much better.
Nevertheless, his latest HB in another of his series is out, co-
written again with his son, and I'll have it and be devouring it by
this time next week. What can I say - it's mind candy, but it's *my*
mind candy. ;->