Paksworld

This post is the promised one about living with another kind of failure.  You wrote the story; you think it’s a good enough story to submit for publication; you give it one or several final polishes.   And all you get for the submission is a rejection.   Now what?

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Sometimes a story of any size starts…and then crumbles to dust, or lies down and refuses to move, or otherwise reveals itself as a failure.   I’m not talking about stories completed that never find a market (that’s another kind of failure, which I’ll talk about another time) but stories that you want to write–at least when you start.  Stories that are happy, gurgling, grinning infant stories, that may even get far enough to start crawling on their own–but develop what doctors call “failure to thrive” in spite of your best efforts.

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No better sign of a really live book than plotbombs, annoying as they are when they arrive as I’m trying to go to sleep because I have to get up early in the morning to be ready for the 8 am plumber, because R- will be somewhere between here and there picking up M from his apartment in the city to take him to the dentist in a city between here and there.  Why couldn’t the plotbombs have arrived at a decent hour, say 2 pm in the afternoon?  (I hear the plot daemon’s wicked chuckle over there behind the boiler…followed by a headshake and “Ye should be thankin’ me, lass, not complainin'”)

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…but the cleanup remains a work in progress.  MOST of  it was done (by sundown today) but the final packaging of leftovers for the freezer, not so much.  I sort of fell over in mid-afternoon and slept for two hours.  THUD.    We had wonderful guests, who brought wonderful contributions to the feast, and several of whom helped a lot in the initial cleaning up,  and good conversation, and a long walk on the land for most of us between the main meal and dessert, and then dessert and more conversation, until the light failed and people started for home.

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1. I was informed today there’s an offer on the new Vatta book.   Agent is  on it–details will be hammered out…er…peaceful negotiations will result in a contract most pleasing and desirable for all parties.

2. Kirkus Reviews picked Crown of Renewal as one of the best fantasy novels of the year.  https://www.kirkusreviews.com/issue/best-of-2014/section/fiction/?page=8

3.  In this fascinating graphic of 62 different stories of the future,  a lot of information is turned into one stunning timeline.   And one of my books is on it.   http://www.brainpickings.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/futureevents_giorgialupi_large.jpg

A  lot, actually.   Where we left off, the Mozart Requiem–it went well, even though I was beginning to feel off, and sure enough was sick the week following with a nasty sore throat.   Got better, and was able to sing one service the next Sunday.   We had a small birthday party for our son.   Everything seemed to be moving well towards Thanksgiving but this past week, we had some bad medical news.  My husband will need another cancer surgery–there’s a new tumor in his stomach.

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There’s a book in progress now (it’s over 100 pages–that makes it a book in progress) It is not (alas for Paksworld fans who don’t like my other stuff) a Paksworld book. What Robin McKinley calls her Story Council (determining what she can write next) I call my Plot Daemon. The Plot Daemon shot down several previous book starts in the past year, some Paksworld and some not, but finally got steam up in the old Inchcliffe Castle* when I quit handing him ideas and said (with all the ire of a frustrated writer) “Fine, then: What do YOU want to do for the next year?”
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With the Ebola situation that’s grabbed the attention of the country (not to mention those of us in Texas) for the past few weeks, some of you may be wondering why I didn’t throw some plagues into Paksworld. I did consider it, at one point, and as you recall there were illnesses, but a full-blown plague would have diverted the story to something else.
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Got a call today from my agent’s office, that the cover copy person is working on cover copy (the enticing description of what’s inside) for the short fiction collection. The cover design itself is “somewhere” having “something” done (I don’t know where or what yet, so the quote marks are just a hint at that.) However, this is progress. Things are moving. No schedule yet and probably won’t be until the cover’s done and approved.
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The short fiction collection has a new title:  Deeds of Honor.  Remember how I said the cover design for the short fiction collection was tentative?    It was indeed, and that design has now vanished from mortal ken (well, not exactly…) and a new rough has been shipped out for work.   You’ll see it when it’s done.   Some things will be the same, and some things won’t.   The stories are in the hands of those who will prepare them for the collection.   I am alternately working on new fiction (not ready to talk about it yet) and the head-notes for the individual stories, which I should have done in another day or so (the new title has suggested changes in the head-notes.)  Read the rest of this entry »