Paksworld

Not that I’m jittery or anything…just because the US edition of Oath of Fealty will hit the stores in five days…but I started thinking about fives.  Five bits of wisdom about fives that I’ve accumulated over the years:

1.  Five hours of sleep a night is not enough once you’re over forty.

2. Five pennies make a nickel, but if you’re going to save coins, save bigger ones: five Susan B. Anthony dollars  is five dollars, which will actually buy something.  And it’s just as hard to lean over and pick up that penny as it is to pick up the dollar.

3.  Flowers with five petals create more different shapes than flowers with four…for no reason I can see, but they do.

4.  A musical interval of a fifth is easy to sing.  Not so a sixth.  For me, anyway.

5.   Five pages of writing usually takes me less than two hours, but the next five pages will take twice as long.

Read the rest of this entry »

I emailed the synopsis off to Editor-UK this morning, then held horses for the farrier.   Horses are trimmed.   Mac pinned his ears a couple of times but gave it up after we weren’t intimidated.   Illusion stood out in the falling mist looking pitiful until it was his turn.    So I put Mac “out” (in the main horse lot) and kept Illusion in the smaller barn lot where I can check on him easily.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m supposed to write a synopsis of Kings of the North, and since the book is essentially done (barring the revisions I’m working on) you’d think that would be easy.   Or some of you would.  Some of you may suffer from a-synopsisism, a condition in which writing synopsis is only slightly more difficult and painful than pulling off your toenails one by one.

Read the rest of this entry »

Could not resist.  Could. Not. Resist.    So what do the next ten days have in them, besides waiting for Oath of Fealty‘s release?    Not an orgy of anticipation, because Lifestuff rolls on, ignoring a writer’s desire to wallow for even one day in the joys of  authorship.    Here’s a sample:

Read the rest of this entry »

Some of you may remember the posts I did last year during the Spring Revision Season, but some of you weren’t here yet, so I’ll chatter away as if you couldn’t look up the posts by category and find them (but go ahead if you want.)   Editor-revisions are basically the same as any other revision except that Editor has more experience and more clout even than DRW and Karen S- and Ellen M-.

Read the rest of this entry »

You would be SO happy that Editor sends me these, if you knew what gets fixed before you ever see the book.   I know some of  you think you’d like the raw, untouched text better, but…no.  Seriously,  editors…and Editor in particular…make books better.  So did the alpha readers and my agent, all of whom had comments that made me rethink some things.

Read the rest of this entry »

Distractions of the usual type are things that must be done–distractions not sought out, but imposed.   For instance, official paperwork that must be filed by a given date,  business mail that must be dealt with, scheduled maintenance of human, animal, machine, repairs of human, animal, machine, house.   Then there are the everyday distractions of friends, family, online places to socialize.

But then…then come the biggies.    For me, it’s something I don’t know much about, that comes to my attention in a time and way that creates an automatic pursuit response:  facts known to exist, that I don’t know yet, are like the squeaking of a mouse to a fox, or the scent of a fox to the hounds..and these are the hardest distractions for me to resist.

Read the rest of this entry »

Editor has now read Kings of the North and says she really likes it.   I’ll be diving into revisions when she sends me her notes, but it sounds from her email that the revisions won’t conflict with anything now in Book III, which means I can push forward strongly.   Happy dance now taking place.

As this is March 1, in 15 days Oath of Fealty will hit the streets in the US.    If any of you are near Austin, Texas,  I’m doing a book signing on Tuesday, March 16, at Book People (6th and Lamar) at 7 pm.   Earlier (4 – 5 pm CST) I’ll be doing an online chat at Suvudu with John Hemry (writing as Jack Campbell, author of the Lost Fleet series) and editor Betsy Mitchell, who will try to keep John and me from taking off into the wild blue.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes a vivid imagination leads you wrong.  Sometimes trying to fix the wrong leads to a different wrong, but not a fix.  Book III again, this time with Kieri and someone you haven’t met, Sgt. Vardan of Halveric Company.

The present instance of this is a battle.  It’s not a big battle (it’s big to those in it, of course) but it needs to serve several long-plot purposes as well as a short plot purpose or three, and like many military engagements “no plan survives contact with the enemy.”  In this case, the “civilian” plan of  serving the plot isn’t working.

Read the rest of this entry »