Owner's Share

[nlowell]

I'm crossing the 100k word mark today, what surprises are you looking for? What do you hope will happen? What do you hope will not happen?

[Russell]

I keep having this idea that Ish will be sailing his ship from system to system using the transit time to grow a fresh crop of mushrooms. Or using the Chernyokova (sp?) prize money to set up his own brokerage then shipping them on the Agamemnon until he has enough creds to buy a ship.

The things that I expect to happen are Ish owning a ship something like the Bad Penny and starting his spacer family, with whom is the question. Some sort of resolution with his father, hopefully happy, and hopefully by both parties. At least one more whelkie given out. I think those are the main unresolved story arcs, but i'd have to give it more thought. What was in the Chernyokova's can? Integrated circuit's would be quite valuable.

[joshg]

Quick Thoughts off the top of my head

Expect to happen:
-Interact with his father (not necessarily positive)
-He will sort of stumble into owning his own ship (that seems to be how he does every advancement)

Want to happen:
-Some interaction or mention, even if in passing, of where his old Lois shipmates are now
-Happy ending

Don't want to happen:
-The book to end

[DanJ]

Ish gets to know his dad.

Ish actually gets in a bar fight.

Ish gets married to a spacer and has is own ship.

Ish has a kid and gets him/her a job on the Lois.

Ish becomes the commandant at the academy. (ok, that one is a bit of a stretch.

Ish retires and opens his own tailor shop. (This needs to be a LONG book.)

[11brindle]

 Would love Ish to
Meet up with Pip again, and others from Lois,
To marry and have a family,
Run own shipping firm and employ past friends.
Meet his father.

Don't want
Ish to be left on his own without family,

DEFINITELY DON'T WANT THE BOOKS TO END, CAN'T YOU THINK OF MORE ADVENTURES FOR ISH TO HAVE. PLEEAASSSEE

[Russell]

Heehee. Book 7 "Warden" The Ishmael Wang Correctional Clipper sails between the stars making all the naughty little boys and girls play nice, earn their ratings, carve their own whelkies, and make money doing it.

I think the surprise I'm most looking forward to in Owner's Share is the end. I loved the ending of Full Share, that could have been the end of the series right there, though I'm very, very glad it wasn't. So, though I know I will always want more, I confident that Nate will leave us with and ending to the series that will be on par. So I'm excited to hear what that is, then listen to it over and over and over.

Edit: Even though he is no longer a player in the series I'd like to see the return of "Pipisms". Some of them seemed to have been uniquely Pip such as "Aphrodite's flimsy nighty" among others. While some expressions like "oh my gods and garters" where in more common usage. It would be interesting to see what expressions are in use 20 years later, for they are rarely the same. There haven't been any noticeable ones used from Double Share on, and it takes just a little fun out of the universe (although Captains Share is my favorite so far).

[Zeus Legion]

-Ish gets a family -- and this time we either already know the new woman in his life (and get to re-know her after all this time) or its someone new and we get to fall for her as Ish does.
-Pip and other old friends (Brill, Bev, Diane, Cookie, Captain Giggone, etc.) show up again.
-Ish owns a ship (ok, that's a given due to the title, but I hope its a ship worthy of him).
-Ish realizes he lives in the spacefaring, high-tech future and that he is likely to live to 150 and thus 50 is the new 30 so Books 7 through 12 are doable after all.
-Ish kung fus some troublemakers in a bar fight, Matrix-style. Or at least watches someone else do it.
-Ish at least finds out, for good or ill, why his father abandoned him and his mother and never bothered to track him down over the decades. "Guilt" is too easy an out.
-Ish discovers a new clothier but is annoyed by some greenie surrounded by a trio of beautiful women. Instead of experiencing deja vu, he scowls and tells them all to get a job or to stay off his lawn.
-Ish finds a new, interesting hobby.
-Ish gives out the last of the whelkies, feels incomplete without one to hold onto anymore and opens up a whelkie store (next to the Coffee & Clothing Shack) on his ship.
-Ish goes on vacation and has a wonderful time.
-Ish revenge pranks his ex by sending her anonymous bips telling her how bad her coffee is, how unfashionable her clothes are, and how she isn't even an Ordinary Spacer.
-The Lois McKendrick returns.
-The adventures of the Golden Age continue in some fashion with friends old and new.
-Ish puts out his memoirs to much critical success among spacefaring types. "Sludge, Pirates, Coffee, Designer Clothes, Bunk Bunnies, and The Deep Dark: The Memoirs of Ishmael Wang".
-The CPJCT awards Ish with a lifetime achievement award for coming up with all those solutions (coffee, co-ops, sludge mushrooms, etc.) during his time in the Deep Dark and those ideas become pervasive throughout the universe, making the lives of Traders and spacefarers all the better and more profitable.
- A very happy ending. Having Ish's ship suddenly explode at the end or him ironically dying in a flitter crash would not be a good ending to such a great series.

[Hade]

-Ish realizes he lives in the spacefaring, high-tech future and that he is likely to live to 150 and thus 50 is the new 30 so Books 7 through 12 are doable after all.

Amen to that!

[quandmeme]

I'll stick to what I've said before that Ish is a people-relationship superhero. Years of an empty marriage notwithstanding. So it wouldn't be a "share" book for me without a people problem and a fix that involves more than classic confrontation (the final-battle of the action movie or the superficial betrayal-epiphany-then race to get them back of rom-coms).

I expect the owner-share part to not come too easily. A friend from the past in a bind and joint investment that goes from there or something more sideways than the bounty from the salvage making everything simple.

Don't think I'd be ready for Frank to be the cook of Ish's clipper. I'm wiling to be surprised, but seems too tidy. I think of that because the wife was an anchor to a home port. Nate talked about a compass always pointing back. Dad could become center again. Ish-the-dolphin would be too free with no north. He needs a kite string besides money and more money perhaps. Birth control for spacers is apparently a non-issue but I'm expecting a half-brother to be out there.

[annoyance]

What I expect to see is a devastated Ish, Waking up in an "everything you think you know is wrong" scenario.  I mean everything!   I think that this will be hard for me to take.

I hope to see at least a glimpse of the effect that knowing Ish has had on others.  Especially the powerful and influential.  and what impact, if any, that has had on the universe at large.

[RogerE]

Like you guys have already mentioned it will be interesting in Owner's share if we can see a return
from any of the earlier characters such as Pip, Diane or even Alvaraz?

If those guys do show up (i still have my fingers crossed), it would awesome if there was a scene
or 2 discovering whats happened to them and how they are going in life.

As the title suggests its obvious Ish is moving his way up with his very own ship, but has he attracted
any unwanted attention or trouble in the process?...will we see a new adversary emerge? A new Burnside maybe?

looking forward to it!

[ratz]

Let's see;

Ish's get's his ship but his life is empty. In the end Something terrible happens and he looses the ship, and he winds up as a captain of a large ship searching out the next generation of spacers and we see some of the olde gang recruited to help him out as senior staff. 

Now since 90% of that fits nicely in an afterward, the rest of the story will likely be great no matter what it is.

[Russell]

Captain Gigone finally replaces her father as Academy Commandant and Ish replaces her as the best judge of horse flesh in the galaxy. I'd like to see him send at least one candidate before the series in over. It seems to me that would be more of a full circle story than all the loose ends tied up with all the other characters, and more true to life.
The problem is that Ish finds the best in everyone and the academy only takes so many cadets per class

[d1arkstar]

not sure what is to happen
but how close are you to start recording

[nlowell]

I finished the first draft on Friday - 218k words that needs to be heavily massaged. I believe I can get it into shape by the end of the month and should start recording for an october drop. That depends on when I get the edits back from Half Share because that's supposed to be coming out in text forms in October as well and time's running down on that one as well.

crunch time seems to be looming