Paksworld

Lots of stuff has already happened, but new stuff has now started happening at a decent rate.    I’m afraid one of the minor design elements in this volume so far is that which someone becomes comfortable with is what they realize is impermanent.   That wasn’t planned, by the way.   It’s just intruding itself into my awareness.    But not all that’s lost stays lost and sometimes what’s discarded or vanishes is replaced by something something else.

Limits of Power has many funny moments (I think you’ll agree when you get there) but so far Book V is being fairly unrelentingly serious.   I think it’s the outside world…the illnesses,  the suicides,  etc.   But a book without some leavening in it is a dull loaf of a door-stop, so it’s time I put my mind to it.   I’ve been re-reading Surtees’  Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour right before bedtime to raise my humor level and I think it’s working, though it’s not showing in the wordage yet.  Maybe I just need a recalcitrant horse. Either Multum in Parvo or ‘Ercules will do.

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Help, please!  I need someone with time on their hands and a copy of the books so far to hunt up a few things for me, if you would be so kind.

1> In which book (and which year of the current series–considering year one started with Oath and Kieri’s coronation)  did Dorrin take on squires?

2> Did the passage talking about that say anything about the length of the squire contract?   (I’m guessing two years, but am not sure.  If it was tied to ending at a specific age, then it’s different for each.)

3> Somewhere, in some book, I mentioned the squires’ actual ages (or some of their actual ages) and how much the age difference was.  I know Beclan is eldest, but cannot remember how much, and I need to know all three.  Again, which book, and what year of the current story.

Apologies for asking y’all to work, but I’m deep in something that needs to keep rolling and if I stop to look I’ll lose the momentum.  Am leaving square bracket spaces to fill in later.  Thanks!

Sometimes, in the past year, having some knitting to work on has helped me past story tangles.   (So far, writing has not helped me past knitting tangles at all.  Unfair!)   There are similarities.   To make progress on either knitting or writing requires putting one little thing after another: a knit stitch or a purl stitch, a word or a punctuation mark.   Untangling yarn from a badly wound ball (I wish yarn manufacturers would either make good balls or sell it in skeins) is like diving into a story that’s gone immobile and refuses to “come out.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Progress today was less than hoped, but more than feared, but unexpected in its content.   I’m fairly sure this scene won’t survive until the end.   Road-building?  Really?   Nobody’s attacked the road crew or the visitor to the road crew (yet, I say with a trickle of hope that something more interesting will happen.)   No wild animals.  No earthquakes, landslides, broken axles on the wagons, broken bones from accidents.  Nothing but sweat and dirt.    It’s not too hot, not too cold, and no storms are looming.  Yet.

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Some persons will be getting emails shortly.

Kindly hold all comments until the Author announces end of Pause.

If you’re not involved, don’t get involved.

If you are involved, you’ll know it.   The flaming owl will drop one on your head.

That is all until later.

Echoes of Betrayal has a new cover for the paperback edition coming early next year.    I liked the hardcover art, but this is a very strong cover that will show up better on the smaller format.

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Limits of Power passed Editor’s approval (my reworking of her comments)  and heads for the copy editor on Monday.   I don’t know what the CE’s schedule is.   Since Editor did a line edit,  and has approved the variations, one would hope CE keeps sticky fingers off the dialogue, but you never know.   At any rate, I should have the copy edited pages to review sometime between the convention I’m going to on the last weekend in July (ArmadilloCon, for those of you in the Austin area), and WorldCon at the end of August.

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Yesterday Jim’s friends gathered to remember his life and spread some of his ashes on a meadow in central Texas.    Jim was a multi-talented man with many interests, generous with his time and skills in helping others, including me.   Jim solved computer glitches.  Jim helped my husband finish building Cloud Pavilion, one of our rain barns that collects water for wildlife on our (dry) property.   Jim designed jigs to help New World Arbalest produce better bolts for their crossbows.   And I heard of many more things Jim did to help others, in the years that I knew him.

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