It's very easy to pick my favorite scene in Hand of Isis -- it's the one that was written first! Nearly a decade ago now my friend Tanja Kinkel gave me a writing prompt, "Gaius Julius Caesar." This is the scene I wrote for her, only edited a bit as it went into the book, and it was the first one I wrote with Charmian. I think it captures something essential about both Charmian and Caesar -- Charmian's loyalty and her willingness to gamble, her faith in what she knows bone-deep. Caesar's the enigma. He gives very little away in this scene. What does he want? Does he remember? If so, how much? Charmian doesn't know and like the reader can only guess.

This scene is a very close parallel to one in The General's Mistress. These are clearly the same people still having the same conversation, though nearly two thousand years separate them, and who is calling to whom has flipped. I wrote the conversation in The General's Mistress first, however, though to the reader the one in Hand of Isis is three and a half years earlier! However, when I wrote this scene I knew what the scene in The General's Mistress was because I'd already done it. I can't wait for you guys to see the parallel scene!

( Charmian and Caesar )

It's always hard to answer the question about what my favorite thing I've written is -- I love all my books, and there are pieces in each I adore. It's easier to pick out what some of my favorite parts of each book are.

This is my favorite part of Black Ships. What's your favorite part?

( Death Walks )

A reader asks, "What are you reading right now?"

Hummm. Well, I'm always reading about ten things at a time, but this is what's on my desk.

Chronicle of the Pharaohs by Peter Clayton, as I was checking some dates.
The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Egypt, as I was checking some distances.
The photographic catalog of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The Life of Meresamun, also a catalog of an exhibit of the Oriental Institute in Chicago.

And my Kindle, the most recent book being Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamon, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter Reformation by Aidan Dodson.

A reader asks, "Why are there so many delays on the Stargate novels? What's the problem?"

As you may know, last summer MGM filed for bankruptcy and had to restructure, and then was bought out by Lions Gate Entertainment. While MGM was in bankruptcy and nobody knew whether they would exist or not, or who would own their properties like Stargate, nothing could proceed. Then, after Lions Gate bought them, everything had to be renegotiated and redone, which is still an ongoing process. In short, this caused massive delays at MGM by essentially stopping production on everything for nearly a year.

All of the Stargate novels need to be approved at several stages by MGM. When that can't happen the novels can't proceed. So basically everything was on complete hold until November, and now everything is still moving extremely slowly. Hopefully as MGM is able to resume normal operations somewhat this will improve. But this is about MGM's bankruptcy and the fluid situation at MGM, not about Fandemonium or the authors or editorial decisions. We have our fingers crossed that MGM has turned a corner and that things will get back to normal in 2012.

I thought I'd share some of my playlist for The General's Mistress -- songs that fit my own personal soundtrack!

Let's start with All She Wants to Do Is Dance! Molotov cocktail's the local drink. Mix 'em up right in the kitchen sink. And all she wants to do is dance. It's the French Revolution, and for a teenage divorcee it's freedom.

Desire is hunger, love is a banquet at which we feed. Patti Smith's Because the Night is the next song. Passion and desire are meat and drink to Elza, introduced to her by her lover, Victor Moreau.

And this is the ultimate Elza and Victor song, Bad Romance. I want your drama, the touch of your hand, I want your leather studded kiss in the scene... I want your love and I want your revenge, you and me could write a bad romance.

But there is Michel, a man she's met once for ten minutes -- Don Henley's The End of the Innocence. Don't know how long this can last. We've come so far, so fast. But somewhere back there in the dust is that same small town in each of us.... A country boy made general, a self described "half-lettered thug with a big sword" who plays the flute and writes poetry, a fencer and a killer and a devout sinner.

Elza's more than a party girl, more than one more "woman on the journey from respectability to a grave in pauper's field." She's also her male alter ego, Charles, a lethal boy who needs nothing. And this is Charles, through and through -- David Bowie covering It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City.

And lastly, Stevie Nicks Leather and Lace. You in the moonlight with your sleepy eyes... when I walked into your house, I knew I'd never want to leave....

So what do you guys think?

A couple of people have asked me about when Legacy happens, as it seems like the series isn't in "the present."

Yes, and no. TV shows tend to run in real time, ie the airdates are the dates that what is on the show "happens." Of course there are some exceptions -- a two part episode that takes place in one day, and obviously there's not a week between when the first part of the episode happens and the second part, but usually a season is a year, more or less.

Legacy was conceived as the sixth season of Stargate Atlantis, so therefore it takes place like a single season, like the season that would have aired in 2009. Therefore, the main action of Legacy takes place between July 9, 2009 (when Atlantis leaves Earth) and early December, 2009. In other words, in the amount of time it would roughly take to air twenty episodes.

However, because these are books, they're not coming out one a week, or one a month! So the 2009 season is actually taking three years to tell.

Homecoming begins in January, 2009 right after the end of Enemy at the Gate. So Woolsey in Washington and the politics that ensue are against the backdrop of the presidential inauguration and the global economic collapse. The Big Four automakers are going bankrupt, everything is in immediate turmoil, and foreclosures are skyrocketing. Arab Spring hasn't happened yet. Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal isn't yet before Congress. This is a moment in time, spring three years ago. It's a historical moment, just as every moment is, a snapshot.

The Lost begins in August, 2009 right after Rodney's kidnapping. Allegiance begins in late September. Remember September, 2009? It wasn't that long ago. But there are changes. Bin Laden hadn't been killed yet. Sam Carter might be stationed in Iraq, not aboard the Hammond. Mel Hocken doesn't think she'll ever be able to serve openly. And the IOA is meeting in the context of what's happening in Europe at that moment -- Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister, not David Cameron, and Aurelia Dixon-Smythe works for him, not Cameron. It's a historical moment, only two and a half years ago, but already seeming distant.

A reader asks, "Will there be more of Mik-el in The General's Mistress? I hope so?"

Yes, Mik-el is back. A new look for a new century, but he's definitely in the book. And here's his first scene.

( Saint Michel )

A reader asks, "I've been told lots of times, online and at cons, that you can't sell a mainstream book with LGBT main characters. I really want to know how you get by with it!" That's a very provocative question, and of course this is just my answer. Other authors may have had other experiences. But I think it boils down to several things.

1. You have to write a book with LGBT main characters. Not subtext. Not context. Not if you look at it sideways wearing slash goggles. If you mean that your main character is gay, say so. Explicitly. In the text. If you mean she's bisexual, say so. In the text. Not in roundabout implications. This is 2012, not 1975.

2. But then it won't sell, people say. The publishing industry is too homophobic! I think that is simply false. Period. It's not true. Yes, there are some editors at some presses who will not buy a book with queer main characters, but I do not think that is the case with most editors at most houses. A good agent knows perfectly well who the dinosaurs are and won't send your book with queer main characters to them. And there are plenty of other options. I have personally, in 57 rejections and 12 sales, never had anyone refuse my manuscript because of LGBT content. It does happen occasionally with some editors, but the myth of the horribly homophobic editor is blown way out of proportion.

3. But maybe you don't know that, people say. Maybe you're being rejected because they're homophobic and you don't know it. Maybe you'd have sold more books or for more money if they didn't have queer characters. Maybe. Anything is possible. Or maybe they're rejecting it for the reasons they say, it doesn't fit their line, it's not firmly in genre, it's too much of a mystery rather than a fantasy, it's too much of a romance rather than a mystery, or they just plain don't like it. But given that I've sold 12 books in 5 1/2 years, I can't imagine how many more I could reasonably expect to sell! My submission to sales ratio is actually quite good for the industry, so I have trouble believing that I'm losing sales because of queer main characters. Would something have sold for more money if there weren't queer characters? Doubtful. Possible, I suppose, but doubtful. My agent is selling the manuscripts at very reasonable prices for the industry. If she felt that an editor was offering less money because of a queer character she would certainly tell me so! I don't think that's ever happened to me.

4. As a bisexual writer who has been out for more than two decades, it's a matter of personal integrity for me. I write about the world as I know it, and that world contains people of diverse sexualities. My writing will always reflect that. And in my opinion, not writing about LGBT characters in hopes of better sales is being a weasel. Hiding behind layers of subtext if you intend a character to be queer so that you won't offend homophobic readers is being a weasel.

If you want to write about LGBT main characters, do it! Tell the story you have in you to tell. Don't listen to the naysayers who are so quick to explain why it's impossible. It isn't. That piece of advice is simply false. Ignore it.

A reader asks, "If you're allowed to move people around and get couples together in the (Legacy) books, why don't you get Jack and Sam together?"

Jack and Sam are already together. They're a canon pairing as far as we know. It seems pretty clear to all of us that they got together at the end of SG-1 season eight, in the episode Threads, and that they were an established couple when Sam came to Atlantis. After all, she had a big silver framed 8x10 of Jack in her bedroom! It's not like people keep big framed pictures of their former bosses in their bedrooms! And in the deleted scenes for SGA's fourth season episode Trio, Sam says she's dating an older guy in DC who is thinking about retiring.

We've been writing them an established couple, as that's certainly what the SGA canon suggests. I think they're reasonably quiet about their relationship for the sake of Sam's career, as it would do her a lot of harm to have her promotion chalked down to favoritism. We haven't seen much of Jack so far in the Legacy series, though there is more of him in The Avengers, and also more from Sam's point of view, so I think it's very clear in that book that they are an established couple.

I'm working on final revisions right now for The General's Mistress -- what seems like the last hundred yards of a marathon I began literally almost twenty years ago. In March it will be twenty years! And so it's time to put up the chapter titles!

Pick a chapter title and I'll tell you something about what it means and why I chose it.

The Cuckoo's Child
The World of Men
Temptations
The Runaway Bride
Moreau
A New Life
The White Queen
Winter in Paris
Among the Marvelous
Dangerous Acquaintances
Games of Passion
Temperance
Indiscretions
Ten of Swords
Auditions
Debuts
Dido's Revenge
Rene
Walpurgis Night
Nine of Swords
Grand St. Bernard
The First Consul
Fire From Heaven
Fama Volat
The Road Home
Queen of Swords
Two of Chalices
In the City of Light
Autumn
Farewells
On Campaign
Echoes of a Beating Drum
Hohenlinden
Ceasefire
Christmas in the Field