"Pirates on Ice" was a story that became more complex as it went along -- I had no idea I'd be revealing as much as I did about the meta-narrative to come when I started. It sort of developed as I came to realize how useful the Pang'o'lyn might be to a larger narrative. There had been a criticism from a certain quarter (snoooore) that Hearthstone's bad guys were limited to one continent. Wrong -- someone just didn't know what they were talking about. Heh hehhhh....

Page 1 gave me a chance to show off a few of the primarily Northeastern races. We'll see a few more of them once we get to Shrike Team #7.

Attentive readers will recognize on page 8 not only the spy from Range Patrol #5, but also the Confederacy politician from Shrike Team #5. Yes, the Sk'lan have managed to insinuate themselves into every level of government in the free nations. Expect more about this once we reach stories 8-10 of the two repsective storylines. The indication of Sevrin as a Sk'lan (page 22) was a late inspiration. I didn't have this idea when I composed Range Patrol #1 originally, but it had germinated by the time I revamped RP #1 -- which is why Sheila now has that line on page 29 of RP #1 in which she says that Sevrin is as bad as one of the Sk'lan. She has no idea how right she is.

The most difficult plan was deciding how the fight scenes would shape up (starting page 12). I had multiple scenarios for allowing Annabelle to demonstrate each aspect of her powers; obviously, what you see is what won out. The idea of having one of the Sk'lan imitate Brett (page 15) was a late inspiration.

Our first look at how Hearthstone's steam plants work (page 13). Some form of peat moss as fuel had been suggested by a reader with good knowledge in this area.

That's all for now. I'll see about a new subscriber story later this year (2008).