Paksworld

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.

The copy edits have gone back to NYC on the wings of…oh, I dunno, a FedEx purple plane, probably.  They’re to be delivered Monday morning.  I made a copy for myself (hellishly expensive, but I did it last time and it makes checking the proof pages much easier–I can see if the copy edits were transferred correctly to the pages.)

And here we are, with no copy edits between us, and the long, long wait until May, and…I’ll bet you’d like a snippet.   The usual warnings apply.  All snippets contain the potential for unintentional spoilering.  If you don’t want any spoilers at all, not even the tiniest, most accidental one,  don’t read the snippet.    The snippet will be below the break, after  “more” warning.   If anyone thinks of something spoilerish that they’re pretty sure is right…please don’t post it in comments to this post.  As soon as I finish this one, I’m going to open a Speculation Space for such discussions, and all you who don’t like spoilers should stay out of it.    Is that OK?   (If not, I’ll fix it later.) Read the rest of this entry »