The Inheritance (short story collection)

[Mervi]

- Yes, I do think (and hope!) that we'll get at least the first Ki and Vandien story. It was reprinted in 2003 but that anthology isn't the easiest to get anymore.
- [[Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man]] has been published more times than any other of her short stories I think - not sure if that changes anything though.
- [[A Touch of Lavender]] is another story that got nominated for a Nebula and a Hugo.
- [[Cut]] is available online so it might not be included if they've chosen "hard to get" stories.
- The reason I've been talking about the possibility of [[Mother of Fey]] is that a Finnish fanzine asked last year to re-publish it and was denied (also it's a story that has never been published in English!)
- [[Grace Notes]] is still very easily available and while the anthology that contains [[The Unicorn in the Maze]] is out of print, it's not too difficult to obtain second-hand.

- That leaves us with the stories that were published in the Space and Time magazines in the 70's which are almost impossible to find now (Faunsdown Cottage, Superior Graphics, Shadow Box and The Beholder) ...
- and the story [[Strays]] from the Warrior Princesses anthology - and yes, [[The Fifth Squashed Cat]], although the paperback that contains it isn't too difficult to find either.

The next question is, how BIG is this book going to be? We have to remember there will be NEW stories too, and Robin Hobb stories as well. There's been no indication of what the number of pages is going to be, so it's difficult to estimate how many stories it can contain. Also, how did they decide which stories are going to make the cut? Those that are hard to find? Those that have got good reviews/awards/nominations? Or those that people requested at the newsgroup when Robin first mentioned that an an anthology is in the works?

Also, what are the Robin Hobb stories going to be?
- I'm pretty sure we can bet our money on [[The Inheritance]]. Not just because of the title of the anthology, but because Amazon has taken down the digital copy they were selling and its only appearance in printed paper was very limited.
- Possibly [[Homecoming]]. It's relatively new (2004) but the anthology that contained it has been been published in paperback formats already, so we can hope there won't be contractual problems.
- This might not be the case for [[Words Like Coins]]. It's only a year old, the printing was very limited and the book only contained 4 stories - I can see its "value" going down if one of them is reprinted so soon elsewhere. On the other hand, it's sold out, so its value (quite literally) only interest collectors and second-hand sellers, not the publisher I think. Still, there might be a contract that says the story can't be reprinted in x years.
- And then there's [[The Triumph]] and the upcoming "Blue Boots" which I'm postive won't be in this collection because they are so recent.

- Robin also mentioned a story called "Cat's Meat" once in her newsgroup (in a discussion about submitting the anthology's manuscript to her publisher I think). Not sure if it's in the final product or even if that's the final title (or which author wrote it. )

.... and those are my thoughts tonight.