Paksworld

So with one story accepted by its anthology, another now with the editor who might or might not choose it…two things remain, one of them a story.  One is an invitation to write a story for an anthology series where a Paksworld story won’t fit, and the other is the problematic Paksworld story I thought didn’t fit the second anthology invitation.   But I’m withholding that for now, because if Editor doesn’t like Story B, maybe he’ll like Story A and I was wrong about it being problematic.    It does have way more obviously-fantasy stuff in it.  Read the rest of this entry »

Without knowing anything about the plot, and just on your first reaction, which of the following titles would be most attractive to you for a story?

A) “Forethought”    B) “Mercenary’s Honor”   C)  “Meeting of Minds”   D) “Old Age and Treachery”  E) “Learning Experience”   F) None of the Above and here’s my suggestion. Read the rest of this entry »

The current story’s day or two in structural revision has made huge changes in its organization and now has it on an open track to completion as a story of approximately (after some cutting) the right length.    It’s an interesting example of the kinds of decisions writers make when something doesn’t run easily the first time.  Read the rest of this entry »

I am still not happy with the Paksworld story written for the second anthology (and the deadline daily steps closer to my nose) so I started another one.   Actually I’ve started several that didn’t work at all, either because they instantly bulged and made it clear they would be too long,  or because fitting them to the anthology requirements would warp them too badly.   But this new one has retained its potential and is cantering along briskly.  It’s too long, but that’s because I had to work out background in the course of writing it–cuts shouldn’t be too difficult.  I hope. Read the rest of this entry »

Illusion, out of Silver Enchantress  (half Pryor mountain mustang, half unknown)  by Incantator (Trakehner) was bred, imprinted, raised and trained by my friend Kathleen, who died of cancer almost exactly 13 years ago.    In the last phase of her own illness,  she left him to me,  trusting me to care for him the rest of his life.  And yesterday,  Illusion’s life ended.   He was 14 when Kathleen died,  27 when I called the vet and asked for an emergency visit. Read the rest of this entry »

My computer monitor died this afternoon, but thanks to Rancherfriend and his habit of not throwing things away, I have a replacement.  YAY!  (I call both my friends at this ranch “Rancherfriend” online.   A remarkable couple we’ve known for decades,  having met at a small church right after they’d bought the ranch and before there was a livable building on it.    They invited us out to celebrate, as they’d just had power restored to one light pole.   Plugged a crockpot into the socket on the pole (meant for power tools) and we all ate sitting on an old blanket.   E- and I loaded and moved hay a few times; we worked cattle in the chutes with them a few times;  I bought my cows from their herd and traded off calves for pasture lease until the drought.   We have enough shared experiences and shared jokes to go on with.  Good people.  Read the rest of this entry »

So…Paksworld’s northern kingdoms are more like Europe north of the Alps, in terms of what they grow and eat, and Aarenis is more like the Mediterranean countries.   But there are variations.   Paks’s family had a small amount of land under plough,  for grain and the few vegetables they grew; they also harvested field herbs, wild berries,  and some wild grains.    The nearest mill was a considerable distance away, so her family ground grain to make bread in hand mills (stone.)   Grain was also cooked into a mush, flavored with herbs and sometimes meat.   They were lucky in having good-quality hand mills that didn’t put a lot of stone dust in the meal, so they didn’t have their teeth ground down. Read the rest of this entry »

…to buy a new pot, that is.  (Two posts back…that was  Friday.)   Saturday I started a soup/stew/concoction sort of thing,  realized I needed some things that neither R- not I had picked up at the store Friday,  and that meant I needed to get to a big supermarket,  not the little town grocery.   And if I was going to do that, then…why not go deeper into the city and buy a new pot? Read the rest of this entry »

Galdon stared at the columns of figures –some taller, some shorter–and felt hopeless.    Around him, his brothers and his uncles and his father worked at similar desks, the elders with pen, the younglings with styluses on wax tablets.   Galdon had a wax tablet and a stylus and this was only the fourteenth day of what he could not imagine doing for the rest of his life. Read the rest of this entry »

And here it is.   This is the place for comments to discuss what you’ve been speculating about, so it doesn’t step on the toes of those who don’t want any spoilers.   It’s absolutely the place to discuss what’s in the various snippets that will be popping out here and there between now and Crown‘s Launch Day.

If you hate spoilers and speculation that goes a shade too far, do not read beyond the “More” and do not read the comments.    If you want to argue about what Midwinter present was just brought into the tower, here’s the place.  Have fun with it.  But keep it under wraps right here.   I will not answer questions here that would be spoilers if I did answer them.  (So don’t ask ME–take a wild guess if you must, but don’t ask me.)

Now for something off-topic: what the writer does after finishing a hard bout of copy edit checking while sick and coughing her lungs out.  Tomorrow will be a cooking day.  I have an “economy pack” of stew meat, variously colored sweet peppers, mushrooms, celery, carrots, onions, garlic and I’m considering whether (since my largest Le Creuset pot won’t be big enough) this is sufficient excuse to buy a bigger one.  Ideally this will start with a lot of sauteing and browning of meat on top of the stove, and end with everything and a quart of homemade beef stock and several large gluggles of red wine  in a big pot in the oven for hours.  And hours.  And hours.

I do have a bigger All-Clad stock pot I could use, but…although it goes in the oven…I really think the porcelain over cast iron does best for this kind of thing.   I suppose I could make a smaller batch…freeze the rest of the stew meat for another time…but the point is to make a big batch so I can freeze containers for later.   Some of the chicken stock I made earlier in the year was used up while I was sick (and it helped, so I need to make more) but with a big concert coming up, and son’s birthday,  and Thanksgiving, I need to start making the “fast dinners” now, so I can start the T-day prep by the end of the first week in November.