Part 29 (2/2)

And me?

Once the final draft of this ma.n.u.script is in the hands of my publishers8, I'm heading back to the city of Angels.

Maybe, from there, it'll be a plane back to Sydney. I'll make up my mind as I go. Maybe I'll even find somewhere I like between one side of America and the other, and stop there for a while. I've bought a little Citroen, in honour of the one I destroyed on my way out of California, all those years ago. I put my typewriter in the trunk, but then thought better of it. By the time I feel like writing again, I'll probably be using a computer to do it.

Will computers of the future have biological components, maybe modified human brains? It's a nightmarish concept, and yet there must come a point at which the computer can't get any faster without also speeding up the lump of cold porridge that's trying to interface with it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is us.

Maybe the story goes like this: The princess cried out as the bull plunged into the ocean, his skin the colour of the foaming surf that surged around him.

She was terrified he would drag her beneath the waves. But instead the bull swam in powerful strokes, further and further from the sh.o.r.e, deeper and deeper into the ocean. Soon the 8 An Australian, writing an American story for British readers.

I pity the poor copy editor who has to cope with my spelling.

sh.o.r.e behind was Just a shape, then a line, and then it was lost to her.

The sea was rough, but the bull's strong swimming kept them safely afloat. Slowly the princess let go of her frightened grip on the bull's neck. She eased herself up until she was sitting, her knees holding his muscular back in an easy grasp.

Soon she was riding the bull without difficulty, her eyes fixed on the blue curve of the horizon, eager to see what would emerge from the waves.

'Well, what do you know,' said the princess. 'I was a cowboy all along.'

Acknowledgements

CHICK PETERS would like to thank his interview subjects, especially Peri, the Doctor, and Ian Mond, for giving so much of their time to talk to him.

KATE ORMAN would like to thank Nicola Bryant, Mark Bemay and Evan Doorbell, the denizens of alt.folklore.computers, Kyla Ward, Lloyd Rose, Lance Parkin, Greg McElhatton, the Infinitas writers' group, Alryssa and Tom Kelly, Mum and Dad for the loan of the loft, and Geoff Wessel for FLEX YOUR HEAD. And, as always, her busy bee Jon, without whose help this book simply could not have been written. Forgive me, all of you, for all the good advice you gave which I didn't take.

About the Author.

CHICK PETERS lives in Tiburon with his wife Sally, three kids, and two cats.

KATE ORMAN is the granddaughter of Jack Warren Orman (1916-2001), from whom she ultimately inherited a great part of her sense of humour and turn of phrase. She has written or co-written eleven Doctor Who Doctor Who novels; her short stories have appeared in novels; her short stories have appeared in Interzone Interzone and and Realms of Fantasy Realms of Fantasy. Kate lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and co-author Jonathan Blum. You can visit their home on the Internet at .au/~korman/.

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