Mr. Cornwell, Just wanted to drop you a line again to thank you for the kind advice in your last letter. The composition I’m working on is more inspired from Doug Reeman’s modern war novels (ex.”Winged Escort”) than your work. But I assumed it was best to ask your advice since you’re the master. In case you were wondering, I found two good general references on the Battle of Midway- Walter Lord’s “Incredible Victory” and Gordon Prange’s “Miracle at Midway”. I’m excited to see that you are talking about the Agincourt Novel again- hopefully you’ll get around to it soon. I just reread Juliet Barker’s “Agincourt” and was astounded at the complexity of mounting Henry V’s expedition across the Channel. It seems like the Medieval equivalent of the Lunar Landing. John Keegan said it was “a story of English moral superiority…a cherished ingredient of a fading national myth…also, a story of slaughter-yard behavior and of outright atrocity”. I’m curious to see where your book will fall between those two poles. I want to thank for introducing me to the works of George Shipway. His “Imperial Governor” was a tedious read, but I stuck with him and was rewarded by the magnificent book “Warrior In Bronze”. I was wondering if this was a favorite of yours? Stylistically, it seems like an ancestor of your Warlord and Saxon books- i.e. the first person narrative of a warrior-nobleman who is slightly “left of center” for major historical events. Also the de-mythologizing of certain stories in Shipway seemed to herald the way you handled the more whimsical touches of the Arthur Myths; grounding them in some kind of reality. To return the favor, maybe I could introduce you to the works of another forgotten master- Emilio Salgari. He is the writer of the “Sandokan” books-“The Tigers of Mompracem”, “The Pirates of Malaysia”, “The Two Tigers”, as well as “Son of the Black Corsair”. He was quite prolific in his native Italy, but sadly I haven’t been able to find many of his works translated from the Italian. He was a precursor to the type of swashbuckler books later made famous by Sabatini. I think you would enjoy him.

I wanted to ask another writing question- I hope this one is a little more practical ( I recently looked up all my old posts on your website and the consensus answer you give me seems to be “shut up kid and just write the damn book”: which believe me is very sound advice.) But I have written a book, and I am sending it around to agencies I’ve selected. So far I’m only getting rejection slips back- which I understand just takes patience to overcome- but how long did it take you to sell Eagle after you wrote it? did you keep on writing the next book while you were waiting for it to sell? How many books had you written before your first book was published? I’m far from losing hope, but I just wonder if I should throw myself into to the next book entirely or maybe take my completed manuscript and tinker with it to make it more saleable? I see from the dates of my letters to you that I have been writing you for about 2 years. In that time you managed to write 4-5 books and I have barely managed stringing together one- but I do believe in it. Anyway, I’m looking forward to Sword Song- each Saxon novel seems to trump the last. And thanks for providing me, along with so many other fortunate readers, a safe haven in all this Harry Potter mania- yuck. R. Kulb