Just got back from a writers’ get-together at Kris & Dean’s. Talked with folks about how to handle multiple viewpoints and subplots. Mike Moscoe recommended The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Stirling as a good example of multiple viewpoints, and The Honourable Company by John Keay for information on the English East India Company. Kris Rusch recommended The Bone Collector by Jeffry Deaver, and gave me a copy of her own first novel The White Mists of Power. She also said that the alternating timelines outline I’ve been considering, which many folks have said will be too difficult for the readers to keep straight, is worth tackling if I think it’s the best way to tell my story. “You’re a good writer,” she said, “don’t listen to anyone who tells you you can’t do something.” Also talked with Nancy Boutin, who is a doctor and recommended a friend of hers who is an infectious disease specialist as someone I might talk to about how epidemics work.