"David Drake - RCN 04 - Glory" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

THE WAY TO GLORY

by David Drake


DEDICATION

For Gina Massel-Castater

With respect and affection

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Dan Breen continues as my first reader, I'm happy to say. He has particular merit on clerical

issues, but he's very good on matters of size as well.

I'm occasionally asked how I keep details straight while writing complex novels in several

subgenres in quick succession. The assumption tends to be that I have a cross-indexed file of names, etc,

to which I refer frequently. That would indeed be a good way to do it.

What I actually have is a retentive memory and more recently a team of continuity checkers who

do a much better job than I could if I were to concentrate on names instead of story. Dorothy Day and

Evan Ladouceur carried out this duty splendidly on The Way to Glory. The mistakes remain my

mistakes, however.

Incidentally, occasionally an error will lead to a bit of found art. When I realized that the I'd given

the Alliance vessel Moltke fewer, larger guns than a Field Marshal Class heavy cruiser should mount, I

didn't go back and change the equipment. Instead I renamed her Scheer and left her a pocket battleship,

which opens possibilities for later books in the series.
 My webmaster Karen Zimmerman both archived my daily files and provided (generally in a

matter of minutes) information which I suddenly needed. Well, wanted: was it important that I have the

real Haitian national anthem before me (in Creole and English versions) when I wrote a throw-away

scene? I guess the answer is that it was important to me. There's a lot more story background in my head

than ever gets onto the page... but if it weren't in my head, what was on the page would be thinner and

paler. I think.