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The page proofs of Echoes of Betrayal arrived Friday, right after I got R- home from the hospital. I haven’t looked at them yet, but I want to read Echoes in proof and do some serious thinking about the flow from the last half of Echoes through this book and into the last one. Being a bit ahead allows me time to do that.
One thing I already know is that this book has a soft spot (like a soft spot in a potato or fruit) that will need to a) be firmed up (impossible with potatoes but quite possible with books sometimes) or b) excised. I just don’t know where it is. I hope it’s not the chapter about Mumblety, because I think that one’s going to surprise, upset, and then ultimately satisfy readers. However, my fondness for that chapter is a danger sign.
There’s a lot of time to be covered, to leave room in the last book for all that will happen there, so this book will have to compress those weeks/months/years in which plot-significant Stuff isn’t happening. Unfortunately, I don’t always (!) know what the plot-significant Stuff is, esp. when a book has been interrupted by real life Stuff.
I messed about in the Ideas file today, mostly to no avail…it was talking to myself, and also getting back into the book after almost a full week away (I did get a little writing done last week but not much.) “Let’s see, where were we…well, Arcolin is here, and Kieri is there, and Dorrin…where the heck did I leave off with Dorrin???”
For those midnight hours when the click beetles have waked me up AGAIN and I can’t sleep, I’ve been re-reading some of the Lee & Miller Liaden space operas (last night was Plan B and I Dare) because they clean my mind out–good writing, interesting characters, page-turners. I’d also been re-reading (because R- had asked for them in the hospital) Tony Hillerman’s Lt. Leaphorn and Jim Chee mysteries. Again, good quality writing but nothing at all like what I’m doing, so no fear of overlap.
Where I would make different choices (as a writer), it’s educational: why did she or he choose that approach to the technical problem? Is it something I use, but differently, or is it a new tool I can learn? This passage keeps me coming back to it…that one I skid past. Why? Is it the writing or the content? Both? The passages I want to read over and over deserve just as much careful thought as the others. This is nothing like the analysis we were taught in English lit…just as studying art history isn’t like doing art. What I’m looking for, when I stop and think about someone else’s writing, is purely technical, and of use to my writer-mind, not reader-mind. (For pure pleasure, not 3 am reading, I zip past all that and just devour the book. But if I’ve got to be awake at 3 am, then I’m going to profit by it.)
At any rate, today was a thinking day, not an actual writing day, as far as the new book was concerned. Tomorrow I’ll probably start reading the page proofs of Echoes and make notes.
Comment by Daniel Glover — August 2, 2011 @ 6:51 am
I’m hoping that the soft spot isn’t about “Mumblety” either. But I do recall someone writing about an elf trying to grow great hall harp wood and then attempting to rush it. Better to get the weak spot out and let the whole be strong. We will all like it just fine without Mumblety I’m sure.
Comment by elizabeth — August 2, 2011 @ 7:13 am
One of the tricky bits is that in a long story arc, some secondary and tertiary characters need a resolving plot as well as the main characters. Not all of them–the story has to extend beyond the boundaries of the book, so some individuals’ lines are unfinished–but some that people care about, one way or the other, have to be settled. “Mumblety” involves such a character (not the only one, certainly. There’s “Hrmumrrr” whose story is still in flux and may or may not be resolved in this group, and “Hrmuummm” whose story will be.) Given the nature of the Paksworld books, some of those whose plot arcs will be finished in this group were first seen in the earlier books, and some showed up in these books. Same with those whose plot arcs aren’t finished in this group. (A character whose plot arc is finished in one book or group of books may enter another group with a new plot arc, but it’s a starting over.)
Comment by Jenn — August 2, 2011 @ 1:47 pm
I feel I need to start the countdown to echo when I read these blog entries. There is nothing so tantalizing as reading about hmphht and ahem and mmprgh and then being told that we will be suprised and upset. Having a good acquaintance with your books my first thought is always who got the axe!!!!!!!
Comment by Kip Colegrove — August 2, 2011 @ 7:07 pm
I grinned when I read “today was a thinking day”; a comment by Major Pitak, one of my favorite minor characters from your Serrano-Suiza series, popped into my head: “Thinking is good, Suiza.”
And knowing it’s good, and when it needs to be done, is much better than apologizing for not having gotten any writing done. All honor to you, as they say in those Liaden books.
Comment by arthur Piantadosi — August 2, 2011 @ 11:18 pm
This is Arthur. I really bonded with Esmay, way more than Heris. Heris is this mature person when we meet her, and is very set in her ways. It takes a lot to change her from her habit of trusting her comrades in arms and family too much. Esmay. . . We KNOW something is REALLY wrong with her, going to the Suiza Estancia and being honored. The women of her family are just not warriors, not physically, and she this tomboy who finally faced her fear. But she did not know why she changed. She was BRUTALIZED, and hurt as a little girl. I have been hurt like that, and treated like a nothing by the school system. When Esmay asks to see the faces of her fathers regiment, and recognizes the attacker. . . She got to do what I never got to do. You are so gentle, Ms. Moon. I am crying while I write this. I remember being treated like an animal, and retreating into being an animal many times. I was never as bad as Paks at the end of Divided Allegiance, but. . . I see a gentle, strong, and loving god in your writings, and you give me the strength to face my own greedy, lustful nature head on, and wrestle it to the ground like Jacob. Many times I have despaired of the world and its casual cruelty, and there were times I just wanted to strike back unjustly. I had good and bad teachers, and my family is full of love. But we are so cruel in our fear. . . so eager to end all life. . . I fear for America, terribly. Thank you for your writings, again. You help me laugh and love and cry without monstrous false sorrow. My hyper-lexia makes me want audiobooks, and I create them to prove I can. To prove that the world is no so full of evil, only fear, and wolves that are alone when they should have mates and pack. I have believed in good shape-shifters ever since I read the Hobbit in 2nd grade.
Comment by Alaska Fan — August 3, 2011 @ 4:20 pm
First, congratulations on having your spouse home. Hospitals are no place to get well.
Second, forgive me if I have overlooked this in an earlier post (and I did look around a bit), but will the Paladin’s Legacy series four or five books? Or is that an answerable question?
Third and last, as Arthur Conan Doyle demonstrated, a character’s story arc is never “over.” (Although in some respects whoever it was that survived not falling into Riedenbach Falls doesn’t seem to have been Holmes.) Shucks, the existence of the Paladin’s Legacy books is brilliant proof enough of the principle. I’d respectfully suggest you take your characters to resolutions, not conclusions.
By the way, brilliant cover for “Echoes.”
Comment by Kristen B. — August 4, 2011 @ 11:17 am
so … you know Ghost Ship is out, right? as long as Clan Korval is fresh in your head, if you’re interested in watching them get settled on Surebleak and follow on with Theo’s “complicated” problem.
Comment by Richard — August 5, 2011 @ 3:11 pm
Hello elizabeth,
4 blogs ago (before lifestuff intervened: great news about your husband, here’s hoping your horses get some relief soon too) nobody rose to the bait you dangled when writing (about IV), “A certain teary widow … Kieri’s impressed”.
Half of me says, “oh no, not…? Not after…?”, and the other half says, don’t pull your punches, give us a character to mourn and one to grieve with, put the widow through the wringer to see what she’s made of. Both halves say, please may the widow-making itself happen in Echoes, so we know.
Comment by arthur Piantadosi — August 5, 2011 @ 3:50 pm
God I wanted to refight Hastings about 20 times! I hated the Pargunese, not realizing the Anglo-Saxon father I have. . .
My people were just like the Goths.
LOMBARDS! ! !
DAMN the FRANKS! !
CHARLEMAGNE WAS a Pol Pot! ! !