Jane Austen Sequels and ReWrites

By Pat Gulley

I think Dear Jane’s work is about the most rewritten and sequels added to in a category other than Science Fiction. It all started in 1913 with Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil G. Brinton and has been roaring along ever since.

I’ve read a bunch of them—the sequels, not the rewrites. I don’t like rewrites, they seem too presumptuous, as if they know better than the original author. Sequels allows us to find out more about secondary or lesser characters. Some of my absolute favorites are The Lydia Bennet Story, Charlotte Collins, The Diary of Captain Wentworth, and Mercy’s Embrace—a three book series about Ann Elliott’s sister Elizabeth. Oh, you are not Janites, okay, Lydia and Charlotte are from Pride and Prejudice and Captain Wentworth, Ann and Elizabeth are from Persuasion, which is my all time favorite Austen Book.

I even have a sequel started myself. It isn’t one of my files that I open frequently due to the fact that one must be in the mood for the totally different speech patterns and spellings necessary to keep the time period right. (I’m assuming all historical writers understand this, but OTOH, I have seen some written with totally modern language. Most Janites would disapprove.

So it occurs to me that a lot of famous books might deserve sequels and I’d like to see what you think.

Without doing Jane, or Conan Doyle or Shakespeare, and not taking up the ones that already exist in SF, like Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, and not Harry Potter, what great stand alone book or famous character from fiction of any kind would you like to write a sequel to? No, we won’t demand you get to it, just a little bit of daydreaming about if you could or maybe someday should.

Shorter Fiction: Novellas and Pamphleteering

By Pat Gulley

With the success of all things ‘e’ in publishing doing so well, much has been written about the shorter novel. So, I thought I’d write a bit about old and older norms that are new again.

            Seems the 100,000 word, over 300 page book is falling by the wayside, debunking the general assumption of big publishers that one size fits all. Younger readers, and a lot of older ones with eReader are much happier with less. Short stories are a bit longer, but books are getting shorter, leading to popularity of the novella.

            Does this mean that the American reader’s attention span is shrinking? Some may say so as they deplore anything changing, but I’m not inclined to believe it. Mostly, I believe that we are all looking for a well told story and an interesting to-the-point article and we do not want a bunch of extraneous words because the publisher demands a certain word count.

            Shorter should not mean less information, but making words count and have a broader meaning. It provides writers with a flexibility not seen in some time. Like around the time of the Gutenberg Printing Press, well no, just teasing about that. Another format that hasn’t been seen for a long time is Pamphleteering (almost a century) and quite a few writers are returning to it for ePub.

            Granted some publishers have always preferred the 200 to 250 page novel, while others favored just over 300 pages. They all tend to be in a specific genre, while literary writers and publishers are appalled that you can’t write 50 pages on the beauty of your feet touching the gorgeous patina of wood while descending a 5-step staircase.

            I’m not going to ask you to make a choice, just comment on what is being expected from you as a writer by your agents, editors or fans.

I’m away today, will be home Monday and will look in then, but Cindy is minding the posts today.

Page to Screen

By Pat Gulley

Movies based on Books, and how well they are interpreted.

I once read that when she first started her Kinsey Millhone series, Sue Grafton said she would never let Hollywood get their mitts on her books. And I was split 50/50 with her on that because 1/ I assumed any sale to Hollywood meant hundreds of thousands of dollars, but 2/ I’d seen so many characters and stories slashed to ribbons on the screen that I felt she was justified.

Well, I’ve learned since that like advances for books, only a few get those big bucks for their work. And I’ve seen enough movies based on books to know that Sue had a major point in rejecting the big and little screen. I’m inclined to wonder why Hollywood buys these books, if they intend to rewrite them, change the characters and make them unrecognizable to fans of the original work, why bother?. It has been suggested that they just want to piggyback on the success of the author and her/his work, and I’m inclined to accept that.

But there are always exceptions.

I recently went to see Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the English version with that cutie pie, Daniel Craig. (I’ve always liked him ever since I first saw him in Minette Walters’ The Ice House, which by the way was a real chop job.) I say English version as I did see the Swedish version too. The Swedish version did cut the book up and just went with the mystery. If you haven’t read the book, the part that captures everyone’s attention is the character of Lisbeth Salander and her story, however it is also an excellent cold case murder mystery (with a major twist), investigated by a journalist and high tech researcher, and a family saga. The part that got the least attention was the main character and his story, Mikael Blomkvist. His story encompasses a lot of political history and corporate intrigue of Sweden, as well as how a journalist and his publication can get sued over stories, and didn’t seem to interest a lot of people. Frankly, having lived through the hippy era, and the number of people running off to that land of ‘seeming’ perfection, I found it very interesting. OTOH, I’d already read, The Laughing Policeman. (I’d also seen the movie, AND wasn’t that the most ghastly interpretation!!!!)

Oh yeah, Mikael. So was I ever pleasantly surprised to see the English version taking up his story, too. Yes, they changed a few bits, but nothing that would harm Stieg’s story. (For those of you who have read the book, no Australia—you know what I mean.) It was a long movie, it had to be to take in this much, but I didn’t find myself anything but engrossed the whole time. It did leave out Salander’s mother and father except for a few comments, but it did include her first advocate. I’m inclined to believe the makers of this film will also do the second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire and add in all of Salander’s back story.

I saw it with my Swedish American friend, Barbara, and she actually like this version more, too. We are both very fond of the whole series, and I’m sure we will be watching it again from Netflix.

I honestly believe Ronney Mara deserves every award she is or will be nominated for, as she did a fabulous job, but so did the actress, Noomi Rapace, in the Swedish version. Noomi also did a good job in the Swedish version of The Girl Who Played With Fire, but it too was much abbreviated. The Swedish movie must have been well received in Europe, because while the first movie had subtitles, the second movie was dubbed and you could have it in several languages.

If you have seen any of these, your pros and cons are most welcome. Any good examples you’d like to chime in with? By the way, I mean individual movies, not series like Lord of The Rings.

Oh, and another book coming to the screen that we all have our claws and fangs ready to extend for is One For The Money. Get Ready.

Christmas Boats

by Pat Gulley

The boats came on December 16, but my blog didn't get up. So I've rescheduled them for Christmas Eve so they will be viewable over the holidays. Happy Everything, Everyone.

Cast Your Characters

Who can play the parts of your beloved characters?
By Pat Gulley

We seem to be talking a lot about actors and the parts they play in movies made from our favorite books. Not surprising, it seems Hollywood can never get it right. Well, let’s be honest—much as I hate to take their part—how can they. There are 10 million stories in the naked city……is just another way of saying, there are 7 billion opinions in the world AND still counting!!!

So, here’s the fun part and a promo op for all authors, whether it is your novel or short story, to do a little daydreaming about when Hollywood comes calling and who you’d like to see play the lead roll in your book. Surprisingly, to some, I don’t see my book as a big screen movie. I’d prefer to see it as a made for TV drama on a station women love to watch, and may watch more than once. By the way, most of my characters are in their fifties, with two in their forties. I used:

http://www.google.com/search?q=actresses+over+50&hl=en&rlz=1G1ACGWCENUS349&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=oFnBTqO-FIayiQKT6un1Ag&ved=0CDcQsAQ&biw=1152&bih=704&sei=jFvBTs75CsepiALCnvW2Aw

to find (and make sure) they were over 50 actresses. They have other age groups sites too.

So though I’d like to see Meryl Streep or Glen Close in the roll of Prudence Peters, my protagonist, or one of my antagonists (don’t read villain) Pru’s westcoast director, Donna Makely, I also like Jessica Lang or Sela Ward for Pru. OTOH, for attitude, I’m positive Sigourney Weaver or Holly Hunter could bring the attitude and hard business woman of Donna Makely alive. Holly and British actress Anna Massey could handle the eyebrow of Harriet Beecher Merriweather. 

So let’s hear it, put on your casting director hat, drag out a casting couch, and cast your book. Well not the whole list of characters, but two or three.

Fiction vs Facts vs Do Whatever You Want

by Pat Gulley

A recent discussion about research with a bunch of writers from all genres led to an out and out argument over having correct facts in your work vs. making them up.

No, no one was hurt, it may have been an argument but there were a lot of belly laughs too. Needless to say, the science fiction and historical writers lined up on one side while fantasy and romance were on the other. I’m glad to say the mystery writers stood in the middle and jumped back and forth as we saw fit—thus all the laughing.

We had a good time at the expense of the SF writers as they wanted good sound facts and science in their work. I brought up a quote by Harlan Ellison (that led to a ‘I never heard of that” or “no it was Steve Barnes or it might have been David Brin”—whatever, it was some famous SF writer) “I going to tell you something that is impossible or unproven or not real, and I expect you to believe it while I weave this very interesting story.” And so, they gave us space travel long before Sputnik went up, and (my favorite) wormholes to get to other galaxies long before they were discovered to only be blood vessel size. The fantasy writers had a great chuckle out of that one, which gained the response that it was only a matter of time before WE (get that egomania at work) figured out how to enlarge them for space craft. And besides, they argued, that is science at work, not invention from nothing of something unheard of. Instead of sneering at the fantasy writers they rolled their eyes at the romance writers, who fought back with the reality of human interaction and more importantly LOVE.

            We mystery writers (well me) brought up the use of minimal facts, nothing long winded, to suit a story and it was the historical writers who had a fit over that one. We all agreed that it was unfair to make up things and call them facts in history or science, but if history and science are not the main ingredient of the story, say it is a romance or a mystery, then a light dusting of true facts should only be needed. Grumbling from SF and History writers, but okay, after all you are ‘only’ mystery and romance writers. (If only an evil eye could sting like a wasp.) But we got even by pointing out that historicals and science stories were far more interesting and not so dry when a bit of of mystery and/or human romantic relationships were added.

            So, as usual, nothing was accomplished except for all having a very good time. We did settle on agreeing that if you were going to write cross genre stories, you have to lead with your main genre when describing the story. A romantic/mystery is going to be about the romance or developing romance of two people and some kind of mystery revolves around this love affair. However, if you are writing a murder mystery that takes place on the moon and two people seem to be interested romantically in each other then (according to the SF and mystery writers) it has to be a SF/mystery. The romance writes demanded an explanation. And the following is a convoluted mash of what SF and mystery came up with. In the romance/mystery the reader wants to know about the developing love story and couldn’t care less about solving the mystery, doesn’t look for clues, just assumes the answer comes at the end as the marriage will. In the mystery on the moon, SF lovers will probably choose to read it because astronomy and space travel are involved, they’ll watch for accurate facts, they’ll enjoy the mystery, look for clues and won’t care a hoot about the romance between the couple as long as the two protagonists get laid.

            What can I tell you, that was what we came up with. Again, another night of agreeing not to agree while having another glass of wine. Nobody said we were geniuses, just writers. Do you worry over getting the facts, science, or history into your stories? WHY??

Oh and have a Happy, Spooky, Overeating, Good Halloween.

Traveling, Writing and Writing about Traveling

by Pat Gulley

It surprises me how many people, upon hearing that my novel is about a travel agent, wants to know what exotic destination I am writing about. No, a travel agent, not a tour escort. Sure, I know some agents escort their groups, but if it is a land tour they pick up an over all escort from the tour wholesaler or the bus driver is the guide. And even then, in places that have several interesting sites, they have a local guide come on board.

I just got back from Alaska with my kids, and couldn't help 'networking' and met a few people with a group from the Midwest. Ninety people, and yes they had a 'host' with them from the bank that put the group together. No agent, as the bank had a touring and travel department. (It raised an eyebrow for me as most of those departments in companies in my hometown were eliminated decades ago.) So, of course, I had to go meet this person with the title “host”. Took me back years. She was there to see to it that they all got on and off the ship--with luggage, to the included shore excursions, and to make sure that 'thank you cocktail party' went as planned. Needless to say, she was running around the ship a lot taking care of complaints and changes. We met in the shore excursion line, and she got waited on before me and I left her there still arranging. And she did all this while fielding calls from home concerning the next tour the bank was offering a few weeks later to Vermont. Those participants were worried about the weather. And I must admit, I wonder if that tour went considering how hard the hurricanes hit Vermont.

Now, I was on the Princess Sapphire, a huge ship, and I didn’t find one travel agent. Okay, they could have been hiding or keeping a low profile, especially if this was vacation time for them. You’d be shocked how you are questioned once someone finds out you are in the business. But I have cruised and found ‘agents’ acting as hosts.

My book, Downsized To Death, is about a working travel agent and she never leads tours or groups. So, when as I caught sight of that host throughout the rest of the cruise dealing with her ‘charges’, it occurred to me, as a mystery writer, how I could take this situation and write a murder mystery. I didn’t come up with much, I mean, it’s been done to death, all those tours and cruises and someone gets murdered and someone or the escort dives in and discovers the killer. And I don’t even read those things because they inevitably annoy me to no end with all the incorrect things they put in as procedure. I know, most readers don’t know or care about these things, but I do! I once read a story about a shop keeper who booked all the rooms in a small hotel for a group and said she didn’t have to pay until they checked out. ?????? So, even though it was pleasurable thinking about murdering some of those ‘charges’ that the ‘hard working’ host had to deal with, it’s a bust idea, because, as I’ve said, it has been done to death.

PS: all puns intended.

Book Collecting

My Agatha Christie Collection
By Pat Gulley

Do you collect books? No, I don’t mean just buying tons of books and saving them in boxes—or if you are fortunate enough to have a lot of room in your house---put them up on bookshelves you are constantly buying or building. No, I mean a certain kind of book. Collecting for the sake of collecting, checking out older and older editions if you collect an author who has passed on, or collecting All editions if the author is published by different publishers in different countries, and especially if the titles have been changed.

Me, I have a huge collection of Agatha Christie. (I’ve also now started on Jane Austen; books written about her, and sequels written to continue on with the characters she had created.)

But back to Dame Agatha. I do not have every book she’s written. Some I’ve had and now find I don’t, so I scour book stores for the older editions and look for the British and Australian editions, and double that if there was a title change.

And how ‘bout those title changes? It really does make collecting Agatha’s books interesting, even though one wonders why. For some reason back in the 50s and 60s American publishers felt they had to change the titles. I don’t know if it was for legal reasons, probably not, but for some reason they didn’t think Americans would like the British titles. What’s the difference between Murder On The Calais Coach and Murder On The Orient Express? No possibility that Americans would know where Calais is? Wouldn’t Orient Express give the false impression that the train was in Asia???? Or did they think, for some reason, that the Orient Express Train, which had already been discontinued, was famous enough? I do understand And Then There Were None for Ten Little N---ers, which eventually became Ten Little Indians. But why did The Patriotic Murders become One, Two, Buckle My Shoe and Overdose Of Death? Too weird!

And when I say older editions, I do not mean collector or antique editions that could cost in the hundreds of dollars. No, I just look for the oldest edition date I can find. I definitely do not like the brand new ones because too often, the wording has been changed to reflect modern usage. A daydream of mine is to be garage sailing and come across a 1920 edition of The Mysterious Affair At Styles.

The ones that are giving me a heck of a time are her short story collections, because even though there are some that she put together herself, the fact is that her publishers worldwide also put together her short stories and gave these collections---yes, you guessed it—new titles. So, I’ve just gone to having a list of the short stories and making sure I’ve got them all and not caring about a collection that may only have stories I already own. (Have you assumed by now, I’m not bothering with short stories too much? What a headache.) Oh, but then we have to move on to her plays and their collection into book form.

My treasured books of Agatha’s are the odd ones like The Mysterious Mr. Quin and Mr. Parker Pyne, two characters that did not become popular like Poirot. And I do have a copy of The Big Four, an attempt at master-criminal-of-the-world sort of thing, which is not very good.

I keep track of this with my copy of An Agatha Christie Chronology by Nancy Blue Wynne--a book I wish I’d had the ability to research and write. It is in taters, but I couldn’t face buying a new one because it is annotated up the wazzzzzooooo. Thank heavens for paper clips and rubberbands! Also, http://agathachristie.com/ is a very interesting site for information on Christie and especially all the sidekicks. Frankly, I think the sidekicks are great stories all on their own. But that’s another blog.

So do you collect books? Yes, let’s stick to books here, because I know what ‘collect anything’ can lead to, just in my own house alone! What books do you collect?

Mystery Series from Acorn Media

by Pat Gulley

Not so long ago I wrote a blog about the Murdoch Mysteries; a Canadian TV series that takes place in the late 1890s in Toronto. I rented the series from Netflix and watched two seasons and thought that was it. Well, there’s a third season, and I’ve got it ordered from Netflix. This series, like Rosemary & Thyme, are both excellent and I’ve always wondered why some network hasn’t picked them up. Friends have told me that R&T did play on their local PBS, but both Murdochs, the 2004 and 2008, hadn’t played in the USA at all.

            What alerted me to the 3^rd season of Murdoch was an ad on a Midsomer Murder episode I was watching on Netflix that had a whole list of TV productions done by Acorn Media. I suddenly realized just how many mystery series (and many other things) Acorn has done that I absolutely love! As-a-matter-of-fact, when I finally found a complete list, I wondered if they did 90% of British TV. I’m sure they don’t, but they sure have done a lot of stuff I’ve watched, and loved, over the years, many not mysteries. I also found myself going to Netflix to search some of these shows out, only to find more and more suggestions until I had to quit, worrying that I’d spend days pulling up show and doing nothing but watching old shows forever. (Author opinion: Ain’t that the way of research???)

            I digress. So, here’s a list of “I’m thankful” for, and to tell you that if you are a purchaser of mystery series, then Acorn Media’s website is a treasure. Otherwise, Netflix does have most of them. One, however, was not. The Agatha Christie Hour, featuring classic tales of her lesser know sleuths, was missing and though I’m sure Tommy & Tuppence was on it, I wonder if Mr. Parker Pine was? No way to know without buying, but I’m not a buyer of movies or series.

            Here’s my nostalgic list of “wow, I love that show”. Midsomer Murders (18 discs—seems there are more), Murdoch Mysteries (3 seasons) Miss Marple with Geraldine McEwan, Blue Murder (with Caroline Quentin—remember her in Jonathan Creek? They have it too.) Doc Martin (I know not mystery, but come on!) Hetty Wainthropp, Mrs. Bradley Mysteries, Sherlock Holmes w/Jeremy Brett, Sherlock (the new one about when he was young) Inspector Lewis, Morse, Cracker, A Touch of Frost, The Last Detective, Cadfael, Life on Mars (the British version and the best), Rumpole of the Bailey, Foyle’s War, Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Ruth Rendell Mysteries and Wallander. Wire In The Blood and Raising The Dead too, but not sure who did them.

            One I found but don’t remember is Oliver’s Travels. There were five episodes. Netflix does have it. Oh gosh, and another one: George Gently, better go order.

            Are you a fan of British Mysteries? What did I miss?

Left Coast Crime-A Personal Experience.

By
Patricia Gulley

                                                     

What a good trip. We flew Southwest to Albuquerque, and I really worried about that no seat assignment thing, however it seems they have these posts that are lettered and numbered that you stand between and the boarding was easy-peasy. The shuttle to Santa Fe was right there and on time. Santa Fe is a very pretty place. They have these rules about building height--no more that three stories (a government building has 5, but two are underground) and they all have to be adobe brown--fake or real.

I think I was a bit nervous about the panels, especially the one I moderated, but that one went VERY well. Creating Characters Before Your Eyes required audience participation. Rob Kresge, the panel was his idea, bought the little baskets and small note papers that the audience would fill out, and while they were doing that we four panelists spoke briefly about ourselves and our books. Three slips of paper were filled out, Pink-for sex and age, Blue-occupation, Yellow-a character trait. They passed them all forward and each panelist took a handful from each basket, separated the slips by color, and using one of each created a character that would interact with the other panelists’ creation. As the moderator, I then had to select which was the protagonist, killer, victim and either love interest or sidekick. Then we'd throw it out to the audience to recommend titles. It was a hoot, got lots of laughs (we did try for funny) and Daryl Gerber Wood, (Avery Aames) shot back some of the funniest titles. They really got laughs too. The other panelists were Kaye George, Kay Stewart and Robert Kresge.

For the second panel, Publishing Today and Tomorrow, I was just a panelist and I managed to sound like I knew something about being published by an ePress. The other 4 panelists all have multiple books to their name, so I was the real newbie with only one book. I suggested the next possible gadget reader after Kindle and Nook, and Denise Dietz patted me on the back and said she assumed I'd written some SF. Not only did we discuss eBooks, but Audio books too. Denise just had her book, Footprints in the Butter, published by Siren Audio Studio as a scripted audio book. This is really different as a cast is hired to read the book unlike most audios, which are narrated by one person. A very interesting panel moderated by Judith Van Gieson and included Harlen Campbell, Denise Dietz, Carolyn J. Rose, and L J Sellers.

They had a breakfast for authors who published their first book within the last year, and we all had our own tables. It was very well attended and moderated by Mike Befeler. He gave us a nice introduction and we stood up and gave a one minute speech about ourselves and our book.

                                         

I attended two interviews. Martin Cruz Smith had bronchitis and was hard to understand at times, but what I heard was interesting and sometimes humorous. Margaret Coel’s interview was also very interesting, made so because she was interviewed by a long time friend of hers, author Craig Johnson.

Something of interest mention later on two lists and now several other blogs is the new subgenre title: THRILLZIE. More thriller elements for a cozy mystery, many authors who write this way are very excited to have the new classification.

My 'basket' for the auction got several nice compliments, had several bids and sold for $65. I was happy, and the proceeds went to a group that promotes literacy in New Mexico, Read West Inc.

We took a one and a half hour tour of Santa Fe in an open sided van. There are over or close to 100 galleries in Santa Fe. We drove down the street they were mostly on and sidetracked for a few others. Lots of wonderful art and could take up a whole week for art browsers to see it all. But it was very cold. When we got to the top of museum hill, it really was freezing, and even though the driver had provided blankets we were still very cold. One passenger had only worn a t-shirt and shorts. Burr. But that blue, blue sky and bright sunshine was perfect, especially since we left and returned home to rain. That 40 days and 40 nights thing has nothing on Portland OR. The famous square was loaded with jewelry stores at very high prices, but when you went in to look they always had a marked down price. Along one side of the square the Native Americans set up their tables and a lot of people shopped there--especially the ones who'd been to Santa Fe before and knew the difference in quality. I purchased an embroidered hoody that I thought was made locally, but it was made in Nepal!!! I know, I know, I should have checked. Oh well, I like the Nepalese and feel a bit sorry for them, but I should have checked. If I'd have gotten it home and found Made in China I'd have been royally P----d off!!!!

Hotel, La Fonda was right on the square, very old (“400 years of gracious hospitality”), it has an American Historical Hotel designation. Great art work in all the public rooms, many done by Ernest Martinez, and many of his pieces were shown in the program book by permission. Posters from the many festivals and art shows like the corridors that led to the rooms. It had two nice restaurants belonging to the hotel, and a back door into a crepe restaurant that was great for breakfast and lunch though it didn’t take credit cards. Nice shops, too, it had a shoe store to knock your socks off. Boy was I tempted.

Kaye George hosted a table at the banquet and we sat with her. She did sweet little gift bags that contained a peeler. I had to stare at it for a few seconds as I can’t remember the last time I bought anything that needed peeling. The woman sitting next to me was surprised as she peeled every day. I ask you, what is bagged produce for??? Oh well, the magnet clip for the refrigerator was perfect.

The return flight was just as efficient and on time as the outbound. Totally Bewildering! Should I rethink my preferred airlines??? Nah!

OMG, I forgot the one ordeal of the trip. I decided to drive instead of calling the shuttle owing to my pedestrian gates were broken and I had a coupon for a free day at a lot near the airport. Well! It was spring break, so when I got to the parking lot--IT WAS FULL, reservations only and begging got me nowhere. (Just when does that pathetic old lady thing kick in and get you stuff?) I had to FIND long term! I'VE NEVER PARKED IN THE AIRPORT LT LOTS BEFORE! Driving wildly, trying to find signs, I ran a red light and made a whole bunch of drivers (one on his cell phone-illegal in OR) very angry. (Yes, tried the old lady thing again, to no avail.) Well I found it, and had to drive and drive and drive (I felt like I was heading to the other side of the state) to find a spot. I had to drag the giant suitcase several rows to get to the kiosk only to find a sign that added insult to injury: Spring break rates were $14 a day instead of $10. UGH!!!!!!!!! However, when I returned (oh yeah, I couldn’t find my car--looked for 15 minutes) I was only charged $10 per day. Then I had to worry about finding my way back to my normal route home, but it was really a very quiet, late afternoon Sunday so I crossed lanes with impunity and got back to my familiar route with NO problems.

After years (and years) of listening to client reports of their trips, this isn’t the most straight forward report you’ve ever seen about a convention. So, I sorry everything.