Why do the other characters sometimes refer to Eslingen as Rathe's black dog? It's comes up once in Point of Knives, twice in Point of Dreams, and six times in Fairs Point. Many different characters say it, most but not all of them connected to law enforcement. I think of a black dog as an ill omen or as something like alcoholism that follows a person relentlessly, not as something desirable. Is that part of the humor?

Title: Hands Over Heart
Author: jesse
Pairing or character(s): Nicolas Rathe/Philip Eslingen
Rating: Mature
Wordcount: ~1300
Summary: We rarely see ourselves as others see us.

Link to story at AO3:  http://archiveofourown.org/works/4598613

Just a heads-up to everyone that sign-ups for Yuletide, the small fandom gift exchange, have now opened. Points and Death by Silver are both nominated this year. (ETA: And also A Choice of Destinies.) If there are other nominated Melissa Scott fandoms that I missed, drop a comment here and I'll amend the post.

For information about how to sign up for Yuletide, check out yuletide_admin, the Yuletide community for official announcements. There's also yuletide, where non-announcement posts can be found, including such useful things as a spreadsheet with links to people's requests (so you can see what requests have been made in which fandoms).

Yuletide nearly always produces some great fic for Melissa Scott's novels. I hope some of you decide to participate.

Hope you don't mind me jumping in, but no one seems to be mentioning this anywhere, even mescott, and I know there's at least two of us who are really excited about it (thanks to jessebee for the heads-up in the first place). Fair's Point is published! It's available! It's apparently been dispatched from Amazon.com (US) on pre-order, and I've ordered it from Bookdespository (UK) and been promised it's arrival in 72 hours.

I've always found the Points books available fastest in the UK through Book Depository. The link will take you to the book, though without the cover and not coming up clearly in a search (ack - hope they fix that!). It's also available at Amazon.com (same time-delay) - though oddly I've never been able to get the new Points books through Amazon.co.uk, though the other three come up as available now (Amazon.co.uk seems to use its BookDepository outlet for them when they're first published).

Hopefully there'll be just time for a re-read of the first three books before my copy arrives. Hooray!

Less than 48 hours remain to sign up for Yuletide! Yuletide is the yearly small fandom fanfic exchange, and it nearly always produces some new stories for Points and other Melissa Scott fandoms. This year someone seems to have nominated just about every book Scott ever published, so if you've been dying for a Mighty Good Road story, this is your chance to ask for one.

Sign-ups close at 6 pm US Eastern Daylight Time on Monday. If you miss the deadline or don't want to formally sign up, you can volunteer to write a pinch hit; see yuletide_admin for details.

Two short fanfics, for your (hopefully) reading pleasure.  I've not posted here before, nor to LJ in a while, so please let me know, if something's not quite right. ;-)

Title: Still Of The Night
Author: jesse
Pairing or character(s): Nicolas Rathe/Philip Eslingen
Rating: Mature
Summary: Sleep is an uncertain thing

http://archiveofourown.org/works/651899

Title: Afternoon Respite
Author: jesse
Pairing or character(s): Nicolas Rathe/Philip Eslingen
Rating: Mature

Summary: Saying things with furniture

http://archiveofourown.org/works/659404

I was just on Amazon and they're showing a new cover for Point of Dreams and advertising a release date of March 13, 2013 for the new paperback. Kindle edition now available, sans artwork.

I could be dreaming, but I don't think this was up before Christmas.

I'm planning to nominate the Points series, Nicolas Rathe and Philip Eslingen as characters, for Yuletide. This gives me two available character slots; if anyone has preferences I'll happily add them.

Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett used to have a website specifically for the Points books; one of the things it featured was a deleted scene from the beginning of Point of Dreams in which Philip accompanies Caiazzo to the theater to see The Drowned Island. The website, alas, has gone to the great server in the sky. But with Melissa Scott's permission, I am posting the deleted scene here for everyone's enjoyment.

Just to repeat for the sake of absolute clarity: this is not fanfic. I did not write it; Scott and Barnett wrote it. Its awesomeness is their doing.

( Scene below the cut, along with Scott and Barnett's original introductory note from their website.Collapse )

Melissa Scott has just posted the cover for Point of Knives (which should be out in March!) on her LJ. It looks great.