Notes

         Welcome to another cultural holiday in the United States. Are you ready for it, orndorff?

         What a strange way to begin, Amorella. I think Halloween is a bit overdone, but mostly it’s an excuse for festivity, not that there is anything wrong with it, as Seinfeld might say. People like parties, and much of the U.S. loses its leaves about now, and Winter is close at hand, so along with Thanksgiving and Christmas there are three months of various family and friend gatherings. Then the long wait until March when Winter loses its grip and it is time for Spring rituals and celebrations in this country. I realize my stories are about the returning of the Dead to the setting of the Living – I guess, therefore, that the Merlyn series is a Halloween setting. And, the humor that one day after I am gone from this setting myself anyone who reads my books will be reading a dead man’s tale in six books. Very funny from my perspective. One of the small joys of living. I need a nap and it is not yet ten o’clock.

         Leaning towards mid-afternoon and you are heading out for errands and a treat before getting the front porch ready for Halloweeners this evening six to eight.

         Twenty-ten hours and the Halloweeners are gone for another year and you are warming up as the weather is in the lower fifties. You and Carol watch your television shows but are wearing down on enthusiasm except for “Holmes” which you are going to copy but not watch this evening.

         Mostly it is copy-cat and mix plots, some good writing, but we also watch the PBS Perot, Inspector Morse and Inspector Lewis – the writing and acting is consistently better on PBS/BBC productions. Besides, we love the London, Kent, and Oxfordshire regions, probably because we have been there. We both read some of the Sherlock Holmes, Agathia Christie, Mary Stewart and Daphne Du Maurier mysteries growing up, probably sixth through tenth grade, at least for me. We were still reading them when we lived and traveled in Latin America in our late twenties. We love period pieces – books, plays, films and TV productions. Carol still reads at least a mystery a month, mostly British and American authors. I can’t remember the last mystery I read. I don’t read fiction like I used to. Not a good sign I suppose.

         You rarely read for entertainment purposes, old man, ever. Always a personal purpose or interest behind the readings – you wanted to learn something along the way and usually you did.

         That used to surprise some of my students, especially their parents who were avid readers of fiction. I think I am pretty much burned out for tonight. I am not sure why, but I am.

         Post, and that’s it for today. – Amorella.

Notes & more on scene ten

         Another former student, Gary Porter, recently sent you a link to “Wink of an Eye” a third season original Star Trek episode in which the crew confronts invisible ‘time-accelerated’ aliens. Captain Kirk and others have to be sped-up time-wise to match the aliens physical existence. And you see this as a good example of a dimensional warp and want to tap the concept into thought/entanglement one way or another.

         Brother. How embarrassing. Yesterday I wanted to ‘copyright’ the concept of thought/entanglement and today I find myself wanting to borrow from an earlier Star Trek concept. Alas, am I going to rue the day I began all this honesty in experimental (subconscious/unconscious) writing back in the 1980’s?

         You need to constantly acknowledge who you are, orndorff. This is not just for honesty’s sake. I cannot work unless your mind remains loose and free.

         This is sometimes a bit humiliating, Amorella.

         Too bad, boy. You want something enough, you pay the piper for it just like everyone else. Post for good measure. – Amorella. 

            Almost twenty-one hundred hours. A two hour nap in the afternoon, errands, then a stop at Graeter’s for oatmeal raisin cookies and on to McD’s for coffee and hot chocolate. Papa John’s (with coupon) large half works, half veggie, halved for dinner and the other half for lunch or supper tomorrow night with Trick or Treat tomorrow night as well as Masterpiece Theatre’s “Holmes” precisely twenty-four hours from now.

         You are wondering about scene ten. Here is your addition.

Scene Ten

         Early evening of the eighth day; supper at The Mikroikia. Salamon, Mario and Sophia walk into the local eatery for communal flavor, taste and conversation. Each has an agenda for discussion and once seated towards the public back wall and each with a cup of semi-sweet white wine at hand, Sophia begins with Athena lying as a gray shadow underneath the table. Strapped as a muddled though golden mouthpiece, a trumpet, is sheathed flat out at her starred waist looking a bit from the café’s floor as small ordered Orion’s belt. If one were of another culture she may appear as the smoothed arch-angelic figure, Michael. Not here though, not in Elysium. Truly, this slight shade under-tabled, is the highest of Betweeners below the Supervisor or so some culturally biased readers may think. A beam of light may be what it is, but prismed by pre-supposed human thought becomes conceptually a finely constrained and variegated word choice that ultimately appears less than heranhis actual reasoning would have it.

         Salamon is the first to speak. “We need to build the bridge as far onto the Styx as we can. It is a show of solidarity among us.”

         Sophia silently acknowledges him and glances to Mario.

         “I agree, Salamon, but we may have a problem with the older Dead. Takis already speaks with the other Dead, the Egyptian Dead, for instance, and those of other earth cultures also. I have witnessed this first hand. He knew we were building the bridge but did nothing to encourage us, or Mother either I would imagine.”

         “I assume Takis has his reasons,” responded Sophia quietly.

         “We assume all of our Dead are with us on this mission to return to Earth but there is more than one method, I am sure of it. The methods for the Rebellion are going to divide the ranks. No question that we are all equally dead. Our spiritual stuffing allows our consciousness in this air along the bank of the Styx.”

         “Dignity,” says Sophia quietly. “We must maintain our human dignity.”

         “That’s how we exist at all, isn’t it?” asked Salamon rhetorically.

         “I am sure Takis and Mother would agree,” noted Mario, “but even so there is going to be division.” He almost added, ‘among the troops.’

         The three sat silently at the table as if thought had melted from their minds. The predispositioned thoughts of Sophia, Mario and Salamon dripped from the heart of their spineless minds into the mouth of Athena for her further suckling.

         Division there will be, recognized the mighty Betweener goddess under table. Their methods will be the mark of division, not the goal. Nearly one hundred and eight more generations of Dead before this Rebellion will be resolved by a second.

***

         I cannot believe this. Just above: "Their methods will be the mark of division," I could not for the life of me remember the title of the fifth book, but it is written somewhere in the mass of notes. 


         It is not the title of the fifth book, it is the sixth. I found it in Chapter Four of the third book, Merlyn’s Mind. It is in the first selection, “The Brothers” and the twin brothers, Richard and Robert, in present time are talking. Here is the dialogue from book three:

***

“You have Braided Dreams, Running Through, and now Merlyn’s Mind by Richard. And three more in this series.” [says twin brother, Robert to Richard Graystone]

“Everyone knows my last name is Graystone, so why make a big deal out of it?”

“I suppose, but it seems a bit peculiar to me.” [says Robert]

“Why? I rather like it. Any reader will know Richard Graystone is the writer by definition. I state that I am. It is a fact.”

“You haven’t sold many books.” [says Robert]

“Do you think adding Graystone would sell more?”

Robert laughed. “You have a point. The books must sell themselves.”

“Or not. I could care less.”

“I know. It is just like you. I could care less? too.” Both laugh. Then Robert added, “You suggest that the Soki is a Betweener who will carry through in the next three books.”

“True. I do. [says Richard] I even have the titles: The Rebellion, The Roost, and The Mark.”

From: Merlyn’s Mind, Chapter Four, “The Brothers” segment.

***

        

         I was wrong the title is for book six, not five. Now the title has some sense to it. What can I say? This is the first it has made any sense as a title. I had no idea. Book five is titled The Roost. What an odd title. I have yet to see any connection, at least none I can remember. - rho

         This is another one of those points where your mind is boggled by these writings. You want to say “Amazing!” but realize it is overused. At least you did right, boy, by putting these last twenty years down in notes as well as novels. They are ‘facts’ as you see them and that is all that is important in these exercises because you wanted to write as if when dead, an Angel might say, “Who are you?” and you can stand straight and respond, “I wrote my heartansoulanmind out, go to Earth if you want to read it, or if you give me the memory of my once fingers I will recite it for you Here, every last word.”

         Sounds dramatic, Amorella, but once dead I don’t imagine I’ll have much memory. This is all words from my mind. Most everyone has words in their mind everyday and every night. I have nothing to do, so I write them down. I don’t expect to remember any of this. I cannot remember the first three books to much account let alone the notes. Once I have written anything down there is no reason to remember, that’s how I see it. – rho

         Post, boy. – Amorella.

         Again, it is embarrassing, but I am not sure why.

         Post, and let it go. More scenes and more books to go, boy. – Amorella.

Notes & first reference to 'T/E' in ch. six

         Another former student, recently sent you a link to “Wink of an Eye” a third season original Star Trek episode in which the crew confronts invisible ‘time-accelerated’ aliens. Captain Kirk and others have to be sped-up time-wise to match the aliens physical existence. And you see this as a good example of a dimensional warp and want to tap the concept into thought/entanglement one way or another.

         Brother. How embarrassing. Yesterday I wanted to ‘copyright’ the concept of thought/entanglement and today I find myself wanting to borrow from an earlier Star Trek concept. Alas, am I going to rue the day I began all this honesty in experimental (subconscious/unconscious) writing back in the 1980’s?

         You need to constantly acknowledge who you are, orndorff. This is not just for honesty’s sake. I cannot work unless your mind remains loose and free.

         This is sometimes a bit humiliating, Amorella.

         Too bad, boy. You want something enough, you pay the piper for it just like everyone else. Post for good measure. – Amorella. 

Notes & first reference to 'T/E' in ch. six

           Up before light, breakfast and the paper. Lunch at China City Buffet today with Rich G. Later, out running errands with Carol then mowing the rest of the yard and spending time cleaning up the mower and engine/filter because of the dust, now almost time for supper.

Yesterday a former student, Natalie Hinkel., working on her doctorate in astrophysics at Arizona, sent you the following on Facebook as a response to the question below her response:

Natalie Hinkel.: “Hey Mr. O - so it seems like you are putting together the physics of light (which deals with radiation) and quantum mechanics (which looks at matter). however, with QM, the matter is seen to have both particle- and wave-like behavior. for example, the Heisenberg principle states that you cannot know the exact position and the exact momentum of a quantum particle at the same time. but i think that while original concepts could not be particles in and of themselves (because they do not interact with anything other than themselves), it's a great metaphor.”

Your question is as follows: “Could it be possible that 'original' concepts (Platonic-like Forms) are as elementary particles (either multi-dimensional 'waves' or 'point particles')? That these concepts are quantum in nature and subject to 'entanglement'? I keep wanting to connect 'thought concepts' and mind "energy?" to the physics of light. Your thoughts may be helpful. Thank you, rho.”

         Natalie thinks original concepts could not be particles because there is no interaction it could still be useful, you are hoping that if you could show concepts as point particles but we can go with wave-like behavior and leave the particle aspect alone letting the reader speculate the possible connection with point particles. You think ‘thought/entanglement’ allows for a broad brush for communications just as Asimov came up with hyperspace to allow people to cross vast tracks of space within the Foundation’s galactic empire.

        

         You are afraid someone else will use the concept before book four is published but unless someone can show proof sheorhe thought up and used the concept in a published story first – well, I don’t know what the legalities are. – Amorella

        

         I don’t care in the general sense. Most everyone into science fiction knows Asimov coined the word, hyperspace. I just want a fair shake on the originality of thought/entanglement of the stories. I’m not after a monetary reward here. Some day some may find they enjoy these books, that’s all, and I want to make sure you and I get the credit for writing them and those who helped also get some credit, that’s all. I'll check through Google tonight and see if someone already has coined the term, if so, then I'll have to conjure up some other communication 'system'. 

         You have made the copyright credit clear on the left side margin of the blog. Don’t worry about it. Besides, you have witnesses, readers.

         I need to establish how this concept of thought/entanglement communication among the Dead works in this chapter six, and it needs to work for the marsupial humanoids also, for their Living and Dead.

         I will work it in orndorff. > You found the words "thought entanglement" used in a definition of telepathy but no reference to a system of communication among the Dead. All for tonight. Post. – Amorella.

Notes & focus on dignity

        You were uptown running an errand, paying a bill actually, and you remembered how it was as a kid when your Grandmother Orndorff used to take you Uptown Westerville and you would run in and pay three bills, the electric and gas was in one building, the bank deposit in another, and the grocery bill in another. Usually it was a cash exchange and you felt like a bigger more responsible kid to carry money from the car into places. Now, you see you were being used by grandma, but you used to do somewhat the same thing with Kim when some errands had to be run.

         Children have lots of energy and many don’t mind doing errands to show their worth, their dignity from my perspective. Human dignity is of greater value than individual freedom in my book. The Dead have an unwritten (of course) social contract. (This, by the way, is the concept you were trying to recall last night.) You are suddenly remembering B. F. Skinner’s Beyond Freedom and Dignity and thinking you need to review it, but no need here. This is the theme, if you will, of scene ten.

         I remember writing a poem about Skinner’s book, I think it was published along with students’ works at Escola Graduada. Perhaps not.

         As your curiosity is aroused go check it out. – Amorella.

         First, now I remember what triggered the original thought yesterday – the political yard signs to “vote no” on the Mason school levy issue. It seems to me that voting for schools that are doing their jobs, is a given. I have no children in school but I feel I have a personal social contract to vote for these and other humanitarian levies when they are on the ballot unless extreme circumstances would force me not to, i.e. known corruption or gross misused of funds. A social contract is of utmost importance in local, state, national and international politics. It is the thread that binds the individual to the state of the world. Human dignity for all, children included, is written between the lines of such a social contract in my mind. Opinion, but it is my own, and as legal author of these Merlyn books I want to make sure this is included within them. Merlyn’s dreams are a part of this social contract in my head. I don’t believe I ever recognized this as such before, or if I did, I had forgotten its greater importance in the stories. – rho

         I could not find the poem on Skinner’s work but I did find the paperback which I bought 21 September 1972 which means I may have written the poem later (although I may have read the hardbound while overseas as I had an access to newly published books in English). What I did find is a poem I wrote on 20 March 1975 which is based on the “Knowledge or Certainty” episode of Joseph Bronowski’s 1970’s PBS Series, Ascent of Man.

In Memory of Dr. Bronowski

         The ascent of man

                  requires that I step

         shoe deep

                  into a silent pool of strained humanity

         so that I may stoop and tug

                  at the muddy ashes and past conceptions

         of photo-gray and living men.

         The ascent of man

                  requires that I, the scientist and artist,

         become a limitless hollow one –

                  living in a bent lit universe of infinite quantum waves,

         built on cell thoughts and multi-meated truths;

         built on the strained, sweaty ashes of past living men.

         The ascent of man

                  requires that I weep and measure in a metric of tears;

         the  ascent of man

                  requires that I also lend an unseen hand

         with blinded fingers, square sensitive to the touch –

                  fingers dripping the blood of muddy and slippery ash.

        

         The ascent of man

                  requires me to care for a spring of human ashes;

         aware of the touch:

                  a silent mental pool within

                           cries out in waves,

         and the sides of my rounded brain splash with morbid echoes;

                  O my God.                  O my God.                  O my God.

         You wrote this after witnessing a concluding scene of Dr. Jacob Bronowski where he stood formally dressed with newly polished shoes standing in a two to three inch rain puddle on the muddy grounds of the Auschwitz concentration/extermination camps. You were and still are stunned and impressed by his show of human dignity in that scene.

         It brings me to weep on thinking on Dr. Bronowski, Amorella. I am amazed the scene struck so deep to last so long. I shall never forget that most dignified scene in the Ascent of Man series.

         Post, boy. Amorella.


         I want to include a photograph of the man.


         Do so, but show the man, not his gravestone in Highgate Cemetery, London. 

         You would like to add some words here, but you have said enough. Post. - Amorella.

You checked for a video of  “Knowledge or Certainty" and found it on YouTube for anyone who is interested. The scene you wrote the poem on was in the final five minutes of the film.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8703061764104921754#

         I re-watched this scene for the first time in thirty-five years. Strange, it does not have the same visual impact for me today. It is not the visual that my emotions of the event rise, it is from deep down in my heartansoul from where I first witnessed this and wrote the poem. It is interesting that our physical senses are not so important as the dynamics of the human heartansoulanmind. With my heartansoulanmind I was there witnessing his wading into the rain puddle and lifting up the mud that may have held a segment of ash from his own immediate ancestors. I was as there when it counted the most to me, to my self, to my consciousness. Who says we cannot be two places at once. I have been there and did not realize it. – rho

         Displacement, orndorff of what is real inwardly and what is real outwardly. It is not entanglement as in quantum physics, but it is a natural phenomenon when it comes to being human. Post. – Amorella.

Notes

        Clear blue skies after yesterday’s storm in which you had one and a half to two inches of much needed rain. The newest Newsweek has an article about the boiling mud areas outside of Naples and the threat of earthquakes or eruption of a volcano between Naples and the island of Capri and the havoc this would cause. The focus is on whether scientists should interfere – which may cause rather than delay the havoc.

         I hope nothing terrible happens. I love Italy and I am glad to have lived long enough to visit regions of it.

         After twenty-one hundred hours and there was something on my mind twice earlier today that seemed important for this scene ten. Now I cannot remember it.. If it pops into mind before bed I’ll ask Amorella about whatever it is.

         Yes, it no doubt is something useful. Meanwhile, add the note you sent Doug about thoughts and his response. It is good to keep such (book oriented) records here where it is easier to find them.

**

Sent: Wed, Oct 27, 2010 12:42 pm

Subject: Good article on solar shield for transformers

Hi, Doug!

Question: 

I wonder if thoughts are waves or particles, that is, if they can stand alone -- in real life it seems, sometimes, that people can read other peoples' thoughts -- that it is possible.

Plato spoke of 'Forms'. I wonder if a thought can be a 'form' in itself. I suppose this is ridiculous. Brain waves are one thing -- thoughts within the brain are produced by electrical leaps. So, can I make a case for a thought to be similar to a series of point particles such as light?  

Dick

**

Return Sent: Wed, Oct 27, 2010 2:00c pm

Dick,

. . . A thought has form and meaning which implies knowledge. Knowledge can not be destroyed according to our current thinking. The knowledge does not seem to need to be true.  Where it goes I do not know. If a thought is indivisible then it is the same as a point thought. It occupies no space and has no volume.  A thought seems to me more like a piece of s/w code that the brain creates and can read and recall.

Doug

**

         You agree with Doug that a thought is as a piece of code that the brain creates and reads and may recall. But you think first, before it is a thought it is a concept and that the mind’s original concept of the thought is as a Platonic ‘Form’ or formulation. This concept may be mentally pictured but un-worded at first. Presently, for instance, you are attempting to ‘recall’ not the words, but rather the concept you cannot remember from twice earlier today. Your mind is searching for a concept ‘key word’ as a trigger because you cannot picture the earlier original trigger of the concept into your mind today. What you really are searching for is an analogous base in which you can build a communication of thought between other cultures of human Dead. You need to keep in mind that the shamans have already exploited the communication through a different method. And what you are searching for should parallel that inter-communication by the shamans in some way.

         Thank you, Amorella. Writing this out makes the process easier for me to understand and to keep in focus.

         Post. Later, dude. – Amoella.

Notes

         This morning, one of your former students, Kris, thanked you for ‘the challenge’, and you wonder what it is not to be challenged. You also wondered how to respond. More to the point, you asked me for help because word choices are complicated from your perspective. How to express yourself, with sincerity, in the fewest words possible, that is a challenge in itself.

         Doug and I love to challenge our minds and while we have similar interests we have dissimilar abilities. People are attracted by such things and friendships develop. If while challenging myself I challenge others with like interests too, all the better from my perspective. Getting the blood to flow through the brain is a good thing, but too much questioning appears to me, to invite anarchy on my personal level. There is a good line from the philosopher Eric Fromm in the conclusion of CSI’s “House of Hoarders” last Thursday night.

The reference from Fromm is that human beings have two different orientations, having and being. The ‘having’ orientated people need to possess things or people while the ‘being’ orientated people focus on the experience, on meaning and exchanging in sharing with other people. The dialogue goes on to further focus on modern culture in relationship to ‘hoarding’ which helps create a deeper, more introspective story for the viewers. Immediately I see Facebook and its ability to both the Having and the Being people. And, as I see Facebook as somewhat analogous with the ‘HeavenOrHellBothOrNeither in the books I am more closely attracted to the human dynamics of the Dead in the story.

You are at a loss as to how you stumbled onto your last statement in that you were thinking about how ‘challenging yourself’ is a part of the life of most every human being. This is where you need to stop and let the thought go. It serves no further purpose. The next time you are on the keyboard let’s go directly to scene ten and give it a work out. Post. – Amorella.

You wrote one sentence that reflected the above point of “Letting the thought go”.

I need to return to the reality of the characters not quantum theory. I spent more time on particles and waves and Jim P. suggested the Sufi “99 Names for God.” I found the names but I do not see their similarities with quantum physics. Earlier in the day Doug sent me more quantum oriented material which reflects his own questions which, while surely valid, are beyond me also. Perhaps I am attempting to do too much, to rewrite the Bible, as one of my dearest Otterbein teachers, Dr. John Coulter, once suggested. Broad stroke thinking leads to lots of blotches.

Conscious thought though is the vehicle of communication among the Dead.

Unconscious thought also, orndorff. Remember in the three books it is already established that the Dead have a switch of consciousness and that first they must deal with their unwilled  unconscious thoughts to put themselves in a proper order to meet their fellow human Dead as well as a (culturally induced angelic-like) Betweener or two.

You are presently concerned with how quantum physics uses concepts of light and gravity in singularity through point particles while ‘waves’ returns to blight your mind with light. Waves are easier for you to comprehend. Sound and fury but no proof either way.

Back to a wave or a point particle, a singularity in a solidified universe, something perhaps more suited for the twenty thousand year advancement of marsupial humanoid species than present earthling. Certainly more than the dead earthlings of 700 or so years before the common era. Still, the gamut of the Merlyn series covers a lot of territorial and cultural time as far as both species are concerned. These concepts have to remain constant through both species for book six to conclude the series not just the second rebellion of the Dead which began in the mid-twentieth century and lasts, I assume, until the mid-twenty-first century.

The second rebellion last until you finish book six, orndorff. Be real, boy. – Amorella.

Of course. I didn’t mean literally. I am thinking though that there will have to be an Afterword to generalize how the rebellion of the Dead of both the Marsupial-humanoids and the humans alters the modern cultures of both species, much I suppose as the Classical Age of Greece (coming on the heels of the first rebellion) altered the human culture of the Living at the time of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle – a renaissance of thought reverberating from the Dead to the Living.

Although, now that I have written this, I see it appears foolish and unthought through. All I have is the original thesis of book four: “This rebellion was/is a matter of consciousness first. This is what rebellions are always about. Who am I? And, how do I wish to exist within myself and within my relationship to others of my species.”

These are the only journal notes I have on books five and six.

Notes for Book Five

30 October 07 > Reference below to Karen Ralls book, The Knights Templar Encyclopedia

The library didn’t have the book, but as I feel it will be valuable for reasons unknown to you presently, you are going to buy it at Barnes and Noble later today or tomorrow. I feel it will be helpful in this book [book three] as well as in book five. You see, Richard, the people that are in this book in Grandma’s Stories will also be seen again as characters in book four.   **[Note: nothing so far in book four relates to any of the characters in Grandma's Stories]

 How can you do that Amorella. You used the Dead once, and you want to use them again? It doesn’t seem fair. I don’t want to be seen as exploiting the Dead even if they are fiction. - rho

 Boy, you exploited the Dead your entire professional career. Who are you fooling with here?

 There were tools for students learning about what a human being is, that’s the way I looked at it.

 In here, the Dead and the Living are both tools.

 Yes. Ma’am.

 Do you think the Dead revolted so you could write a fictional book about it?

  I would  not assume so in a billion years. I just didn’t want to exploit the Dead out of respect.

  Would you exploit me boy?

  No, Ma’am/Sir. To be honest here, I don’t think it is possible for me to exploit you. I think I would be exploiting my own imagination, my own humanity for power. It would be too tempting. I could be corrupted too easily. I am corrupted enough as is. This is very complicated. I would just as soon be left alone and not bother anyone. I like to avoid conflicts because they take up too much time and energy. Conflicts are not economical, but their are exceptions. Conflicts as learning tools seem reasonable enough for instance. Besides, in between the lines of the notes and the books is an implied built in arrogance and audacity that is scary (to me) in its own sort of way. -rho

You may know what arrogance is boy but you haven’t seen audacity like you can read in the so called histories of the world. You want to see some human audacity? I’ll give it back to you in books four, five and six.

**

You think ‘something is out there’ and one day we will have to talk about that, but let’s save it for book five, shall we? Nothing more today. – Amorella.  (11 July 07)

Notes for Book Six:

This is all very simple in context. Everyone is waiting for someone else to do something. Many of the religious Living expect G---D to do something. Only the Dead wait for the Living to do something.

20 nov. 07 What would be the point? The end game is how it ends. Black resigns. In this case the Black represents the dark humor.

 How can this be?

 This book [book three] ends on a happy note. It will make sense within itself in context, that is the three books come together in an end rhyme. The dark humor returns in the next [last] three books. I mean, you can’t have the Dead win can you?

 The Living have to have a sense of hope and rebound, to raise their fists and say, “Enough of this bullshit, it is time to move on.” That is in the last paragraph of the last book [book six]. Someone says it, it might as well be you.

  Such very, very, very dark humor. - rho

  “I think so.” – Amorella.

**

26 jan. 08 > I like working on this part, but it is sad that once these two chapters are done there will be no more marsupials  [reference to book three]

They [the marsupials] will be referenced and alluded to in book six, particularly to 1947. Later.

**

The above are reminders from earlier notes.

The only thing these notes show is that I am writing a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in terms of the connection of these six books. I can look at these every so often and put in what I need to put in when the time comes. For instance, first, since I have seen the reference to Grandma's characters in book four I can now go back and insert them; and second, I will be sure to have the dialogue: “Enough of this bull, it is time to move on,” in the last paragraph of the last book. It sounds like one of the characters is disgusted with the whole Merlyn series to me. No doubt my words utter through some poor character’s mouth. And, it is not very polite either, but no doubt an honest and authentic thought at the time yet to be.

Sometimes you get hung up on the gallows humor, orndorff. Post. Let’s be done for today. – Amorella.