Paksworld

I’m home, after the final 30 hours on the train.    Even got a little more work done, but finally just stared out the window…all the get up and go had got up and went.   (Yes, I slept on the train.   But sitting here, I still feel the sway and vibration and even the occasional jolt.)

If anyone has a URL for a good bookplate printer, please share.  One of my tasks this coming week is arranging for some Paks-related bookplates.   My business-card software doesn’t include that possibility.

I should be a lot more coherent in 24-48 hours…

Today I went to the publisher’s office–the Random House/Bertelsman offices–in Manhattan.   It strikes humility in the heart of the writer to see the display of all the other titles–well, a very large selection of the titles–that Random House has published over its history.   The ground floor display is amazing and wonderful.

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I told my editor that you alpha readers had found problems, and that I’m working on them.

She’s glad you found them and that I’m fixing them, so she won’t have to.

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You could be forgiven for thinking “She isn’t posting; she must be goofing off while she’s traveling” but in fact I have been working when I could find a place to put the machine or open the notebook.

Some railroad tracks are smoother than others.

That being said, here’s the update.  During the Ninc conference, I took off at least an hour a day to write.  Usually more, sneaking away from program items I didn’t feel I needed.  I wrote on the trains (all the trains so far) and in the waiting rooms.

What this has produced is, so far, a much improved early section, with foreshadowing of troubles to come (alpha readers will note that their comments bore fruit–there’s foreshadowing, rather than just “Look, the roof fell in.”    Then there are revisions flowing from the new stuff into later chapters (not completely done yet) and a lot of “think tank” work on the deep logic that will inform the rest of the story.

Possible Spoilers Below

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And lo! one whole POV section has been cut, with the essential plot-moving information from it moved somewhere else.

And lo!  Alured the Black, whom you recall from Paks I, has really got a case of grandiosity on and has changed his name to suit his new stature as Duke of Immer.  This is partly due to deeper analysis of his character and motivations and partly to remove another A character name.  At least partly remove it, since people who knew him as Alured still think of him as Alured until he makes a point (pun intended) of insisting that they call him by his new name.   I’m not sure enough of  the exact form of his new name to share it yet.

Short of time, so zipping back to work.