(Cover Kerrie Hanlon)
The Mentor No: 49 - Apr 1984
Letter
I’m sorry to hear than THE MENTOR may be going quarterly, For quite a long while I have regarded it as my safety valve, for the blowing off of steam. The enclosure - What’s in A Name? - is an example of this. I just had to get it all down on paper while it was fresh in my memory.
I don’t mind admitting that I rather like being an arrogant bastard - especially when things develop into a fight which I stand a good chance of winning. Too, regarding Saturday’s unpleasantries, there was a strong element of revenge insofar as I was concerned my hatred for "Pillar-0f-The-Establishment-Christian" - Schoolmasters goes back quite some years fifty six, to be precise.
Mind you, if it hadn't been for the machinations of that sanctimonious bastard my career would have been altogether different. Almost certainly I should never hade gone to sea and never, in the fullness of time, become an Australian. Possibly I may have become a writer - but there wouldn’t have been any Grimes.
So now you know who to blame for that never-ending Rim Worlds series.
That very definite deviation point in my life probably accounts for my fascination with the various Ifs Of History. Talking of Ifs Of History - DAW Books have bought KELLY COUNTRY. I've done a special foreword for Don Wollheim, also an afterword. In return he has promised to re-insert the Battle of Kiel sequence and to give me a much better (it could hardly be worse) cover than Penguin did. It should be published early in 1985.