Call me an optimist, but I'm thinking it's because he's trying to finish the book in time for publication in 2016—either in Spring at the time of the new GOT season or for Christmas 2016 when people need gifts. If he's trying to hit either of those benchmarks then there are some deadlines.

The island’s interesting because the population’s supposed to be one of the smallest viable gene pools around—the founder stock was around 15 people—roughly half and half. Interesting thing is that the pool was relatively diverse—English, Scottish, American, Italian (yeah, a couple of castaways in there). So everyone…

Not exactly true. You just have to marry one of the islanders. Doesn’t happen very often—the population’s interesting in terms of genetics because of the tiny founding stock—8 men, 7 women. There are currently 8 surnames.

The Tristanites are actually pretty sophisticated—Anglo/Scottish/American/Italian ancestry. They’re under, sort of, the rule of the UK, but their actual big connection (i.e. place they occasionally see) is South Africa.

Wrong. Their communal system means they’ve survived peacefully. Contrast this to the situation on Pitcairn Island. The “communist” arrangement you disdain here, by the way, was thought up by the local clergyman and it’s more like a village common than a centralised government.

I've started them, but haven't actually finished them. Not that I wasn't enjoying them, more like I've been sort of savoring them. The time-travel stuff is definitely Willis' best work. She can be a bit lightweight in some of her other stuff. Oh, except for *The Last of the Winnebagos* and some other short stories.

Yeah, I'm assuming that Disney's counting on the Chinese market—in which case, a Japanese actress playing Mulan will go down very badly. China is not cool with the Rape of Nanking, to put it mildly.

Fix the William story line. Always hated the way Scully gave up the only kid she'd ever be able to have. It was actually my jump-the-shark moment with the show—it just didn't seem like Scully to me to do that. Mulder's sister being an airy-fairy angel-child didn't work either.

Mostly keep, sometimes resell or donate. Sometimes "loan" to a friend with the admonition to not return it. I like some of the art done with books, but I'm incapable of intentionally hurting a book. Books are my friends, so I like having them around, except when I'm moving.

She has serious legal bills, so writing a book makes sense. And weird doesn't make you guilty. That sort of thinking is for mystery novels.

Well, the platinum looked pretty fried, so I think it was real and looked awful. Back to black was probably the way to save her hair.

Yep. I liked Tennant, but I prefer Eccleston and his lack of romantic chemistry with Rose. He was too old and weary a soul to be in love with her and that was better for the show, I think.

Oh, but having rescued a bad script makes her hot in Hollywood in a way she wouldn't have been with a good script. She delivered the goods when the thing looked like a clusterfuck of awfulness. She's now bankable.

Yes, but only if we get to watch The-making-of. I'd love to see E.L. James try to go up against Breillat.

I didn't get the sense they hated one another—more like they each wanted their own limelight instead of being coupled together all the time. Now that they've both had their successes and failures, I think they appreciate what they had a bit more.

True, but given that Native Americans probably wiped out the ones on the Channel Islands, I suspect humans will have the upper hand.

Pygmy mammoth/elephants would be seriously cute. Okay, "cute" is not a good reason to reconstruct a species, but still . . .

That's what I keep thinking about—get some biodiversity back into highly endangered species like rhinos, condors, African elephants.

Makes sense. He probably gave the basic end of the story regarding the walkers and who gets the throne, but he probably has a lot more to say about what this all means.

Yep. The screw-up of the Jaime Lannister line, the absence of various characters (though understandable) and the distortion of Tyrion's motives make me prefer the books. Also, there's less torture-porn in the books. The whole naked-woman-for-ratings shtick gets tiresome as well.