Given that would have been around the same time as he was starting the Paladin of Shadows, and some of the elements that were in the first couple of Council Wars, I can guess why he didn't publish it.  My understanding is that Ghost was supposed to be buried in a drawer as well, so "The Silmarillion meets The Story of O" might have been a bridge too far.

Which is EXACTLY why his wife should slip that thing over the transom.

No, this is the book he wrote before he ever tried to submit to a publisher, it actually sets a lot of the background for the Council Wars series, but he says the writing was so horrible, he'll never let anyone see it :-)



_Ghost_ he originally intended to bury, then after fans demanded more than the initial snippet he posted, he was going to publish under a pseudonym with another publisher, then Jim Baen heard about it and insisted on seeing it...  And John didn't know what the representatives for some of the major book sellers/distributors had been encouraging Jim to have John branch out more...





 

Oh, that far back?  Yeah, I can see him wanting to keep that back.  There's a *reason* Heinlein never published "For Us, The Living".   I've read about the genesis of "Ghost", but I didn't know Jim Baen was getting external encouragement as well.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Toni Weisskopf to keep doing good work.  So far I'm satisfied.

First heard about him here at ARF. Local library didn't have any of his stuff so I picked up the first book of MHI at the bookstore- loved it so I bought the rest of the series the last time I was at the bookstore. I'll be ordering the Grimnoir series either today or tomorrow. You guys also got me to check out John Ringo- I picked up Von Neuman's War so now I'll have to get more of his stuff too. You guys are costing me too much money!

Make sure you check out the Baen Free Library and The Fifth Imperium first.