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Post by Anthony Hilton on Jan 21, 2019 13:48:31 GMT -5
On the main page of spearfishlake.com The Next Generation doesn't have a series designation and appears between Snowplow Extra (book 2) and Busted Axle Road (book 3) of the Spearfish Lake Tales.
On the shop, the page for The Next Generation shows it as book 3 of the Spearfish Lake Tales and the page for Busted Axle Road shows that as book 4 of the Spearfish Lake Tales.
There seem to be a number of people who have minor roles in The Next Generation who feature in other books and the main character has cameo appearances elsewhere too.
Is there information anywhere showing when or why Wes moved The Next Generation from being book 3 of the Spearfish Lake Tales to being an Independent?
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Post by Not Wes on Jan 21, 2019 17:45:18 GMT -5
Anthony,
I may (that's "MAY") be able to come up with some notes from Wes in the distant past (7+ years ago?) on why he did it but I don't remember a real reason given. There could have been one. His problem could be that maybe The story didn't take place in Spearfish Lake? Was Spearfish Lake even mentioned in TNG? I simply don't remember now.
Because a very young Judith appears in Rocinante and she and other characters appear in various books onward, to me it should be in the Tales From Spearfish Lake series. If you want to play it safe, list it in that series as well as with the of independents. It is really an independent as it doesn't require any other books for support. Those other books just have other interesting tidbits of info that make Wes's writing so interesting to us all. The interconnections of all his books are fun to sort out.
Thanks, again, for doing this work.
Not Wes
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Post by Boyd Percy on Jan 21, 2019 21:41:06 GMT -5
The excerpt below comes from the SLT Wiki, Wes Boyd's Bibliography. I believe it was the only part of the Wiki that Wes updated himself.
1) The Next Generation ©1984, ©1995, ©2007
Time Frame: May 1983 to Autumn 1986
Summary: All she ever wanted was to be normal! Her mother considered Judith to be a hopeless invalid that would have to be cared for all her life -- but then she finds a boyfriend that doesn't see her that way. With his help, she learns to be a farmer's wife and a much stronger person than anyone had ever thought she could be. Note: This was once considered to be part of the Spearfish Lake Tales series but has been changed to independent status. - WB
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Post by Anthony Hilton on Jan 22, 2019 3:12:50 GMT -5
Thank you Boyd. I thought I'd seen it somewhere but hadn't looked at that page.
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Post by Not Wes on Jan 22, 2019 15:11:20 GMT -5
The book wasn't changed at all, just the listing status, which was entirely up to Wes. To me it still belongs in both, though I do agree more heavily Independent than Tales from Spearfish Lake.
Thanks,
Not Wes
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Post by Rob from Dallas. on Jan 22, 2019 16:26:52 GMT -5
The story The Next Generation is definitely in what I would call the wider "Spearfish Lake Universe" which besides the two series set in the town with the same name, also include the Dawnwalker Series, The Bradford Exiles Series and The Bullring Series.
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Post by Andrew on Feb 11, 2019 5:32:13 GMT -5
Having just done a text search on the story (and I know that's cheating): The Methodist youth group did an excursion to a river in chapter 6, that included the incident where Judy was dumped into the water and when someone else came to check if she was ok, she dumped *them* into the water. It was also where she decided playing volleyball was something she could not do. The river where all this took place was the Spearfish River, Spearfish Lake was close enough that they could have gone for a pizza there if necessary. In chapter 18 there is a reference to Phil Wine's girlfriend from Spearfish Lake having given Phil a better alternative to delivering fertilizer, that is why Ken ended up with the job.
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Post by John Robert Mead on Feb 14, 2019 1:23:55 GMT -5
No question that The Next Generation shares the same "reality" as most of the other stories Wes wrote.
I think the rational behind his yanking the Spearfish Lake Tales designation is that it doesn't involve any of the "central" Spearfish Lake families, as well as that, except for the canoe trip, nothing occurs anywhere close to Spearfish Lake proper.
After all, given that the Dawnwalker Cycle isn't grouped with the Spearfish Lake Tales or the Bradford Exiles, and the Bullring Days series isn't grouped with the Bradford Exiles, it's pretty clear that more than geographic proximity or cast of characters comes into play in how the stories are grouped.
And... a number of the "Independent" stories have a couple of communities in common, as well, but so little overlap of characters that grouping them together really doesn't make sense.
That said, I have to agree that I consider The Next Generation very tightly connected to The Spearfish Lake Tales, given the interactions of characters within it with the main Spearfish Lake crew in _other_ stories.
But in and of itself... yeah, I agree with Wes deciding to reclassify it.
It's not having been published would have had very little impact upon the other stories, provided the interactions still occurred in those stories. It's not central to the overall storyline of The Spearfish Lake Tales. Much less so than the Dawnwalker stories (especially Dawnwalker itself, which introduces Randy, Crystal, and Myleigh, after all!)
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