David Drake

A bookseller asked if I’d sign bookplates for her; sure, I said. (I always say that.) But this time instead of using a commercial product, she wanted to create personalized bookplates with Photoshop. She asked if I still had the pictures I took of my Damascus-steel dagger for Gary Ruddell when he painted the cover of Dagger. I didn’t, but I had the dagger and a camera with a timer. It was cold and windy, so I put on my motorcycle jacket (normally I’d have been wearing a ratty nylon bomber jacket under a photographer’s vest; but then, normally I wouldn’t have been holding a long custom dagger).

Baen Books has now officially moved to North Carolina. Jo and I had dinner Christmas Eve with Jim at his house/office. The place is gorgeous, and it’s in an even nicer setting including five-acre pond.

Jim Baen at his e-mail computer

Jim in the office portion of the building holding the Gary Ruddell cover for THE TIDE OF VICTORY, the fifth book in the Belisarius series which Eric Flint is writing from my outlines.

Jim was invited to our family and friends Thanksgiving dinner (fifteen people, and a great time was had by all) but had to cancel at the last moment because his car wouldn't start.

He did, however, make it to dinner of pretty much the same group the next night at a family-style BBQ place in Durham, another tradition in our crowd. Everybody pigged out happily again. The shots here are from that event, not Thanksgiving; but maybe next year.