Paksworld

Things became even more crunched this week (and still are until I finish two assignments for publishers), so I haven’t answered everyone’s posts & emails.  They’re not lost, I’m just out of time and brains.  But…I did locate a new snippet for you.  It needs a bit of introduction…actually it’s two snippets, the second one, in particular, pruned extensively.

Place: Fox Company winter quarters, Valdaire

Who:  Captains Selfer and Burek, discussing a captain with a temporary contract whom Selfer hired while Burek was away in Andressat, recovering from his wound.  Harnik is an older man, and…well, you’ll see.

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I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that since September 5, I’ve been involved in Terie Garrison’s “Great Invitational Word Race” again, in which writers of all experience levels set a goal and see how close they can come.  Best part (besides being pushed to write every day) is that Terie found a cool counter with a horse and rider and racetrack, and we pick horse names and so on.   She makes the counter work with our reported words written, so you can see how your horse lines up with the others.   You can see it here.

Desert Orchid and I have been partners all along (he’s an old gray gelding instead of an old gray mare, but it still fits.)

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Rotten no-good cold or no rotten no-good cold, I still should finish (or nearly finish) the main draft of the new book by Oct 1, and within a week of that should have it roughly in order.  (It’s not now, because of the various medical interruptions–to keep going, I wrote in whatever part of the story cooperated that day, so it’s added branches to its trunk fairly randomly. )

So:   I will need some alpha readers who are strong on the structural side (the nit-picking comes later.)  The rough sort I’ll do to get this out to people may not be accurate.     Given my aging memory, I can’t recall who, exactly, was on the last couple of alpha-reader lists (which I’ve misplaced, you see…DUH) so if you want to trudge through 160,000 (roughly) words of  very unfinished manuscript setting a trail for revision to follow, contact me by email.   There will be the usual “makes the publisher happy” agreements not to reveal anything prematurely to deal with.

Thanks, and I’m off to get from 156,300 to 160,000+ as fast as I can.

Unable to decide which of the suggestions was best (sorry, all) I’ve fallen back on my own inadequate store of ideas and plucked out the one on top, which bears an unfortunate resemblance in some ways to last year’s.

Pick a character.   For the purpose of this game, characters will look the same and be the same size and have the same basic personality.  Now translate that character to 2011, and put her or him in a particular location (where?) and occupation (what?) with a hobby (what?)   Pretend, for the purpose of the contest, that these books have never been written, so (for instance) Paks-in-2011 can’t have as a hobby playing Paks-in-the-books at conventions.   The juxtaposition of character, place, occupation, and hobby can be “appropriate” or “humorous.”  It’s up to you.   I think we’d all enjoy seeing how you connect the character’s personality to the new occupation and hobby–so you don’t have to limit yourself to just listing the variables.  Play.  Show off your imagination.

Because next week is going to be super busy for me, you will have until midnight Saturday, October 1 (a date easy to remember) to make your entry.  As before, all entries will be given a number and the winner drawn through a random number thingie-whopper.

In real life as in fiction,  interest picks up when things go wrong.   We enjoy (and enjoy reading a little about) when things go right…the travelers are gliding along a smooth lake, surrounded by beautiful scenery, eating delicious food, enjoying the company of delightful companions, but after awhile it feels/reads like an ad from a tour company.   Though a few pages of this can build suspense (because surely something will go wrong) too much is soon too much.   We think we want that life, but many of us–when things are going too well–start rocking our own boats.  If it’s going well, why not try this…or that…?

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At the end of Kings of the North, there’s a war just started between Pargun and Lyonya.  News has arrived in Tsaia, but not everyone’s heard it yet.  Beclan Mahieran, squire to Dorrin Duke Verrakai,  is out on patrol in the SW corner of Verrakai’s domain when Dorrin hears…commanding two tensquads of militia (some of them former Phelani soldiers.  Beclan’s proud of the fact that he is given a longer patrol route and more troops than the other squires.  He has no idea what’s coming.

………………………………………………………….

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Today Book IV reached 150,000 words.   I have twenty days left in the month to finish the first draft,  and should be able to do it with a little to spare.  Last year I reached  150,236 on September 21, so I’m eleven days ahead.  Or I would be,  if I wrote another 236 words today, but that’s not happening.  Close enough, I say.   Eleven days may not sound like much lead, but at the rate I write in the last half of a book, that’s very likely somewhere around 20,000 words.

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Just got back today.  Had two good writing days on trains (2000+ words each day) after a brief conference with Editor at the convention.     As usual, time away from a project allows more balanced contemplation of what’s already been done.     I realized, for instance, that a pivotal scene I’d been thinking about for months had never actually made it into the computer–an extreme case of “I know that, but I didn’t show that.”

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