Paksworld

First, the excitement:   my UK publisher’s publicity person emailed to tell me that BBC-Radio wanted to contact me, inviting me to participate in a discussion of future war.   Now I’ve done future war panels at SF conventions (the funniest, to me, was the one where I arrived just in time, in costume from having done a SFWA Muskteers  fencing demo, and turned out to be the only woman and only veteran on the panel. )   But this is different because the other panelists are not other SF writers or SF fans…but people in entirely different disciplines.    Early in the morning (my time)  on May 16 I will go to the assigned studio in Austin and all those lovely electronic connections will be made–and the other panelists and I and the moderator will dig into the topic, each in our own way.

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I have, or had, lots of pictures of horses, including with me on them (and most of them I didn’t own.   Here are just three of Ky, in age ranging from 18 to 20 or 21 (not sure now).    He was bought off a ranch in New Mexico as a youngish (5 or 6 year old) horse that had a habit of jumping out of corrals, and became a show jumper in Texas before I’d ever been in a flat saddle.  We intersected in his older age (16/17) after a career-ending injury to his stifle, but he could still jump up to about 4’3″.    At that time, I was just becoming comfortable with 3′ jumps.   I leased him for about a year before buying him, and moved him to our present home when we moved here.

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Writers are fond of saying that everything is grist for the writer-mill (which suggests that writers’ minds are like big stones rotating in one place, but…any metaphor can be carried too far) or potential ingredients in the cauldron of Story (same caution applies: metaphor!)   Some things are more obviously useful right-this-minute in a story; others take a long time to find their spot in the tapestry.  But I thought you might enjoy hearing about some real-life interruptions that have (or had) obvious story potential.

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I’ve been working on the second plot-bomb section, very slowly until today because it had gone cold.  Today it warmed up and got all hot and bubbly and crispy at the edges.    And threw new surprises at me.   That was who?   Why did that other have a long split in the boot upper but no injury under it?   Why did the who that was do what he did?  Why did the other….?  Etc.

Over 2000 words today.    I ate too  much supper too late after that.  Read the rest of this entry »

Every once in a while it happens…I hit the wrong button when doing comment moderation.    Basically all I’m looking for is that the post isn’t spam…so I don’t look at the name, just the content, very briefly.   And then I hit “approve”….or…in some cases…I don’t.  After midnight, like now, I’m tired and not as accurate as I should be.

So I *think* I deleted a post I shouldn’t have, but since the deleted ones are completely gone…I can’t check.    Just in case, though…apologies now and in future to anyone whose post disappears entirely when they knew it was appropriate.  It was an accident.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both 2000+ word days, and though today is moving much slower (there was writing-related business to do this morning, which also involved a trip to town to the post office),  Book V seems to be over its “You ignored me–I’ll ignore you” snit.    I’ve written out almost all of one of early-Tuesday-morning’s plot-bombs, and have the other still to do (notes made at the time, of course.)    I think it’s not quite as “big” in terms of wordage, but that doesn’t matter.  It’s an important chunk of plot, to be sure.

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I woke up with a headache, and lay there thinking “Not a migraine today, PLEASE.”    But apparently, the headache was a plot bomb about to burst in my skull.  Two, in fact, one each for the viewpoint characters involved.     As you have heard before, I enjoy plot bombs (words flow out with less effort and at least 80% of them are going to stay.)    But I see no reason why these plot bombs had to wake me up after only three hours sleep, instead of letting me rest until daylight and dropping their contributions down my turret hatch then.

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Things I can say–background,  some characterization hints, history, and notes on craft.   What shouldn’t be said is anything that’s a “hard spoiler” for the next book or the one I’m working on.

That’s difficult for me, sometimes–I don’t always* remember which detail is in which book, because the story as a whole (minus, unfortunately, some very important bits of Book V, but they’re coming) flows together.    When, exactly, did I first mention Character R?  When, exactly, did this confrontation occur, or that one–not in time, but in which book, in what chapter of which book?

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