Paksworld

Book IV now has a title:  Limits of Power.    That’s the US title; I’m hoping that my UK Editor will go with that as well, since books with different titles in the two markets cause problems…no matter how often I say that N1 is the same book as N2, someone will buy the other one thinking they’re getting a different book and then be angry.

In other news, there’s some disturbing stuff going on that we’re not ready to talk about, but which will result in gaps in posting.   Sometimes life just sucks in various ways, several of them simultaneous.

Evidently Book V is over its snit.   I did not sleep much last night (memory of the previous night’s scorpion sting meant that any noise in the house translated into “There’s a scorpion” and so did any “feeling” on my skin) but the reward for insomnia was a massive download of intuitive stuff for Book V.

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Every once in a while, the book I’m writing decides to come very alive, walk into my life, and reverse our roles.   It happened with the first Paks books (especially in one instance, when Paks took over and handled a situation for me.  I wish she’d done that more often!)

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There I was, writing away on Book V,  when something popped up that solved a mystery.   This should not be spoilerish, more like background material that we just haven’t seen yet.    It was clear all along that there were more gnome princedoms than Aldonfulk and Gnarrinfulk, but those were the only ones who had inpinged on the story so far.    My attempt to figure out where they were and who they were had foundered.   Until today.

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Ritual disclaimer: nobody gets through a long writing career without some mistakes.  You will sometimes trust the wrong research source (even if it’s someone who should have the knowledge you’re looking for–say a fire department veteran you’ve asked about a procedural point in managing a multi-alarm fire…and no, this isn’t a problem I’ve had.)    No writer knows everything, and every writer must, at some point, trust a map, or a reference book, or a person who seems to have first-hand knowledge.

But there’s a huge difference between occasionally  trusting the wrong source and not looking something up at all.   Writers should look things up in the best source they can find or beg/borrow/get via Interlibrary Loan before they plan a book or a chapter–and should let the facts dictate how the story goes, rather than ignoring the facts because they already have a fantasy-version in mind.

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Back at work on Book V, which is being a sulky book right now and kicking in harness…I left it alone too long right after starting it, which it resented.    So it’s presenting me with pages of….to be brutally honest…not very interesting stuff.  Not even background that I need,  just a sort of Bookly protest at being ignored.  “You weren’t here, and this happened while you weren’t here, so you have to write it all before I’ll let you hear the good stuff.”

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I spend the “awake but not up” portion of the very early morning thinking about an idea I had yesterday for Book V.    All along I’ve had a particular vision of what happens when Mmmph and Ummph meet.  It’s been stable through the other books, but I had a bright idea.   What if Rrrmph and Mmmph were connected?  What if Rrrmph wanted to do A and Mmmph wanted to do B, and then Ummph never met Mmmph in the same circumstances…???

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