Paksworld

Husband was told late this afternoon that he could come home tomorrow–today he was allowed first clear liquids and then up to soft foods and throughput occurred.    Also, the biopsies came back negative–so the final big concern is relieved.  So.   I’m off to pick up our son in the city (other direction from the city with the hospital)  tonight so I’m not trying to drive 100 miles round trip in one direction and then 50 miles round trip in the other direction with horse chores included in there somewhere.

Thanking you all for your patience, your good thoughts & prayers, and your support.

Today I had no internet connection until just a bit ago…but did accomplish quite a lot of knitting while at the hospital.    The patient is not feeling patient, and is quite uncomfortable, but when the pain meds gave relief, he napped awhile, sleeping deeply enough to snore a little.  I was not moved to complain about it…  The doctor had not been there when I got there, and didn’t get there before I left some hours later, so we don’t know any more details than we did.

The horses regard me with annoyance because I can’t make it cool or make it rain.  Just bringing them feed and checking their water and picking up their mess and hauling it to the manure pile  is not enough.

Anyway, if there’s a long stretch of no posts, blame it on the internet connection going out again.   Friends lost theirs for most of the day yesterday.

The hospital called to tell me that my husband come through surgery OK and is now up in a room doing fine.   We still have concerns to be dealt with (the biopsy, for instance) but so far so good.

Thank you all so much for being a supportive community.    I’ll be even scarcer, as doing the outdoor chores here and running up to the hospital every day between the morning and evening chores will eat up writing or internet time, so…response will be slow.

I was determined to keep on schedule as much as possible before husband’s surgery, so my goal for this week was to make it to 120,000 words.  Which I did.   Today I went back to an unfinished chapter (it had stopped in a sort of lurch awhile back) and it took off a bit.    A certain teary widow has pulled up her socks and had an idea I certainly had not anticipated when I quit on that chapter.    I’m impressed.  Kieri’s impressed.

Read the rest of this entry »

This may not make it into the final Book IV,  but even if it doesn’t this isn’t a huge spoiler.  I don’t think.    But imagine you’re Dorrin Verrakai, and a Personage (one of several in the book) comes to visit–a Personage whose attitude to magery is not exactly positive.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some of you may have read the long article on epic fantasy at Clarkesworld built on interviews with fantasy writers, editors, etc.   Robin McKinley, whose blog is my just-before-bedtime reading, was one of those interviewed and she referenced the article in her blog last night.

I threw a comment out on her discussion board, as I didn’t exactly agree with everything everyone interviewed had said, and she asked if she could use it–perhaps expanded a bit–as a guest-post on her blog.  Uh…(scraping jaw off the floor)…certainly.  Absolutely.   Honored & delighted.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thousand, that is, words a day.   Ritual disclaimer:  what works for one writer is wrong for another.   Writing every day (or at least five days a week) works better than writing “when I feel the urge” but aside from that, writers’ clocks keep time right side up, sideways, upside down, and face down under the bed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Back on the 2000 words/day schedule for as long as I can hold it (planning for less wordage when husband’s in the hospital and I’m driving back and forth, feeding horses, checking the wildlife guzzlers, etc.)   Saturday was productive with 2160.

Current wordage is ~103,200; end of day should top 104,000.    A certain Personage has finally shown up onstage (I knew Personage existed and would be plot-critical, but Personage came in Personage’s own sweet time) and this is helping untangle a previously difficult tangle.

Back to work.   The nose on the grindstone is thickening its callus.

Made it to 100,010 words…just now.   (OK, five minutes ago, time in between spent shaking out fingers.  Call it 11:15 pm.)   Today’s production was about 1500 words.

At this time last year,  I was only about 52,000.    Hence the difficulties of last fall and winter.   I don’t think I can hit my usual full-steam-ahead production rate of 2000 words day right now, what with LifeStuff, but I’m not in the bind I was in last year as long as I don’t take off a month to lie in a hammock.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some people like to write villains, just as some gamers really like to play evil characters.     For writers who like to write villains, writing non-villains can be a challenge.  And the same is true for writers who don’t like to write villains.

Before we can talk about this, a few caveats.   Characters are not the writer.  All competent writers can create characters very unlike themselves (and not just taller, stronger, more physically attractive, either!)  Much of a writer’s research is “people-watching”–observing people of all walks of life, in different settings.    So someone who’s never been a doctor or a helicopter pilot can–with research–write believable doctors or helicopter pilots.   Similarly,  writers who are not nasty themselves can write nasty characters, and writers who aren’t saints can write good characters.

Read the rest of this entry »