That Jump Gate Twist news

A couple of days ago, I said I'd soon tell you about a cool new thing I'm doing for Jump Gate Twist. Now that I'm working on the original material for that book, I thought it was time to come clean.

I've mentioned before that the book will contain the very first Jon Moore story, "My Sister, My Self." This piece takes place when he was 16 years old and still on Pinkelponker--about 135 years before the events of One Jump Ahead. This story has been out of print for about 27 years, so I thought it would be cool to add to the book.

Of course, the book will collect the first two Jon & Lobo novels, One Jump Ahead and Slanted Jack. You knew that.

I've also written here that I would include some new non-fiction pieces, afterwords and introductions. I'm working on those now.

I like this collection of stuff. I think it will make this omnitrade volume a bargain.

I couldn't, though, quite make peace with it. It felt incomplete. I finally figured out why: its solo Jon story creates a kind of fictional imbalance, an over-weighting of Jon's end of the duo's story teeter-totter.

There was only one solution, and that's what I'm announcing here: Jump Gate Twist will contain the first solo Lobo story, an original piece that has never appeared anywhere. (I know that for a fact, because I'm going to start writing it in a day or two.)

Yes, Lobo without Jon.

Even that, though, wasn't enough for me. If I was going to wade into the strange waters of writing a story with Lobo as the protagonist, I wanted it to be something different, something no one would expect.

Then the idea hit me, and I was instantly in love with the concept: this new piece won't simply be the first solo Lobo tale. It will be a Lobo Christmas story.

Not only that, but the story will completely fit into the Jon and Lobo universe, obey all its rules, and have a natural place in the chronology of the stories.

I'm quite excited to be writing it.

I hope you enjoy reading it.