I found this thread fascinating and just wanted to weigh in on it too.  My favorite part about Collinwood's location is the shrinking amount of distance throught time between the Old House and Collinwood.  In pre-Barnabas, it's a good 20 minute walk between the two.  Later, Julia can run between the two houses and it only takes about 5 minutes.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of other references but I know there are multiple different amounts of time that it takes between the two.  I realize this is a convention of story-telling but it's amusing to me nonetheless.  There are also multiple references on the amount of time it takes between Collinwood and Collinsport.

 

After following the discussion on the board, I had to finish the Salem Branch last night.  Wow.  That's all I have to say.  Well, maybe that's not all.

The prologue and the first half of the book are quite good.  If you ignore all of the flowery language and skim-read it for the important parts, the plot is engaging and the mystery of Antoinette is a good one.  I was convinced she was Angelique a la Cassandra.

The book begins to really break down when [spoiler]Barnabas and Toni make wild mushroom love in the hippie camp (or was it acid).[/spoiler] Just typing that sentence on the board is ridiculous.  The Miranda back-story was very interesting and I went the whole first half picturing and assuming the Miranda of the original DS storyline (in other words Lara Parker/Angelique).  To then have the original storyline completely contradicted was just too much for me.  I am not into continuity and I don't care if the audios or books are official, I just like them or don't like them.  However, this was too much for me.  A dark haired, half Native American Miranda?

I don't think she knew how to end the book so she took this wild leap of [spoiler]Julia is a vampire.[/spoiler]  My "favorite" part is where Julia explains to Barnabas the plot of the book to make sure that we the readers understand it.  I hate it when authors have characters summarize the plot at the end as if we're all too stupid to get it.

Oh well, I guess a degree isn't everything 

Hi,

This is my first post as a member.  I was moved to post by the passing Anthony George.  It strikes me that we have lost two very important and dear DS actors this year.  Time is fleeting and we all need to enjoy every minute of life including cherishing the DS actors we have.  I can't wait for the festival and the opportunity to see and appreciate those who have given us so much joy.  May Don Briscoe and Anthony George feel all of our love and know the impact they have all made.