XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien, alt.fan.harry-potter   
   From: Roel.Pieper@philips.nl   
      
      
   >   
   > Of course, she had two advantages:   
   > 1) She had a defined end-point, that is, she knew the entire story   
   > (please note that I do not say in how much detail she knew it, as it   
   > may have been just an outline) before she started writing.   
   > 2) She lived long enough to finish it.   
   >   
   > In the first case, I doubt that Herbert had such an outline before he   
   > wrote /Dune/, and Zelazny's first Amber series was completed, it is   
   > the second series that just ends, and which may or may not have had an   
   > overall plot before it was started.   
   >   
   > In the second case, IIRC, both Herbert and Zelazny died before they   
   > could get the next book out. Which might or might not have been the   
   > book that wrapped up the series.   
   >   
   > And, in the case of Herbert, Washington State had discovered that it   
   > was home to a /very/ popular and successful author, who had not   
   > bothered to pay his B&O tax for several years. This gave Herbert a   
   > financial incentive to spin the tale out as long as possible. So he   
   > may or may not have ever actually wrapped it up. Yes, I know, his   
   > heirs have put out a pair of novels purportedly based on Herbert's   
   > plot outline for the end of the series, but if the publicity value of   
   > that assertion is considered, the possibility that it was no such   
   > thing must also be considered. Especially if they still had back B&O   
   > taxes to pay.   
   >   
   > Note: B&O taxes are an amazing invention by which the State of   
   > Washington extracts, from each business, a percentage of its income --   
   > which, as I understand it, includes any monies provided for startup! A   
   > business can be paying B&O taxes on the money it gets from investors   
   > for years before actually starting business operations, if it happens   
   > to be the sort of business that takes a few years to start up. To be   
   > fair, there is a lower limit below which the tax need not be paid, so   
   > very small and not particularly successful business just have to file   
   > a return to show that they don't owe the tax.   
   > --   
      
      
   Thanks for the reply! Apreciate it! Didn;t know about the tax-Herbert story.   
   But even in the first series of Zelazny I found book 5 kind of disappointed.   
   The story was so ultimate Epic that the solution to let Random be king was   
   ultimately disappointing. In series II Zelazny tried different writing   
   styles (James Joyce anyone?) and that didn;t work. I absolutely love Dune,   
   read Children of Dune and scanned the rest and threw it away. Same with the   
   Merlin-Zelazny story... Rowling on the other hand.. .I *read*, while she was   
   loaded, she continued...   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)