Once upon a time, I said in an interview that there was only a single word that I wanted to change in the whole of the nearly 700,000 words of the Stone Dance. How things change. For the Second Edition I have reduced the books by at least a quarter. As a more mature writer, it seemed to me that we could do without some of the excesses of my youth. More importantly, I took the time to sort out all kinds of problems that I have been aware of for some time. Among many changes, Fern has become Blue—as he was always meant to be. I have broken the Stone Dance into seven rather than three parts. There are practical reasons for this, but it is the artistic reasons that were the clincher. I have had to write new material, most specifically the four new ‘hinge chapters’ that were required: if the First Edition was a triptych, the Second is a heptaptych. (more)