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MARY'S PRESENT:I was dissatisfied with JAKE'S GIFT , since there were some long term effects of Jake's invention that were not discussed. I wrote Mary's Present to describe some of these effects. In this story I described my first sailboat, a Wesort, in some detail. This is a twelve foot wooden boat that weighs about one hundred pounds and has about 120 square feet of sail (main and jib). It is exciting to sail, but tips over very easily when the wind shifts suddenly.
I received some favorable comments from biologists about the accuracy of the descriptions of vegetation that populates the edges of the bay in this story. I did a lot of research on that feature and, when I heard that I got it right, I was very pleased. Most of the story's place names are fictitious, but have an affinity to actual locations.
A third installment of the story, tentatively named "Simple Gifts," was being written when my computer was stolen in 1995 and I didn't have the heart to recreate it. Fortuitously, as I was moving in 1996, I discovered the outline and an earlier fragment in my files. I am now considering writing it to complete the Jake and Mary story.
"Mary's Present" was reviewed in both LOCUS and TANGENT, neither of whom liked it particularly well, probably because they didn't understand that it was a sequel.