Charlinder's Walk (57 page)
The end-of-summer festival which the Yu'pik community holds during Charlinder's visit, also, is not based on any real-life customs that I'm aware of. It is a fictional celebration that I invented for a post-Plague community, as I thought it would make sense to have a bit of fun while there was still daylight and warmth.
When Charlinder visits the Hyatts' mini-dictatorship in the western North American territory (this could be on either side of the current U.S./Canada border, in the vicinity of Montana and Alberta), the minority group show certain visible signs of inbreeding, which I wrote without any concern for biological accuracy. I selected these undesirable traits because they impair mobility and thus make an especially dangerous venture of leaving the community. Because the purpose of the storyline was metaphorical rather than a literal warning about the dangers of inbreeding, I was concerned less with biological realism and more with creating a situation without impairing the affected individuals' communication skills or intellectual capacities.
There are some other bases I could, theoretically, try and cover before the book is closed, but I’ve already been working on Charlinder for over five years and attempting to pre-empt every potential question is the way madness lies. For more background information on the post-Plague world and its inhabitants, I have set up a website for this book:
http://www.redsresources.com/charlinder/index.html
, where any further questions will be addressed.
Charlinder has finished his walk. Thank you for coming along.
Table of Contents
Chapter One - Spinners' Square
Chapter Thirteen - Mississippi
Chapter Fourteen - Susan and Eileen
Chapter Twenty-One - Subcontinent
Chapter Twenty-Two - Afghanistan
Chapter Twenty-Three - Adriatic
Chapter Twenty-Four - Impossible
Chapter Twenty-Five - Conversation
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Questions
Chapter Twenty-Nine - Surprise
Chapter Thirty-Two - Calais and Dover
Chapter Thirty-Three - Britain