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Back at work on Book V, which is being a sulky book right now and kicking in harness…I left it alone too long right after starting it, which it resented. So it’s presenting me with pages of….to be brutally honest…not very interesting stuff. Not even background that I need, just a sort of Bookly protest at being ignored. “You weren’t here, and this happened while you weren’t here, so you have to write it all before I’ll let you hear the good stuff.”
Having been informed by my agent today that I would need to have more swordfights and gore, and less of the everyday, if I wanted to rise higher on bestseller lists (some of his other clients have been known to sit on the #1 NYT spot and occupy several more for weeks at a time), I’m especially aware that the aftermath of a blizzard at the northern stronghold is just not that exciting. I know it’s about to be (the plot daemon has whispered in my ear) but Book V itself insists on plodding through every detail from dawk until Mmmph arrives with the important message.
Grrrmph, is my response, and Book V’s, so we’re in the uneasy part of a new book. It’s a little like a fencing match with rapiers in which Count Maurice slightly lifts a wrist and Viscount Ferdinand rotates his and shifts a foot. “I know this move–do you?” “Yes–recognize this counter position?” “Yes of course, how about–oh, you know that too, do you?” I advance a main character; Book turns a cold shoulder. Book offers a snowstorm; I suggest an immediate arrival of vital news–which a snowstorm makes difficult. I change stance to another main character; Book reminds me that this time of year would be a weak entrance for that character and hands me an arrival that leads nowhere, to someone else. I peek in on every major and minor character, in fact and Book contrives to make them look dull and lackluster.
We’ve been playing this game all week. Pages have been written. Pages have been re-read the next day with a sense of “Oh, dear.” Part of it is not just my neglect of Book V, but the lack of input from Editor on Book IV. If some things change in Book IV, then Book V will have to adapt to those changes–and I’m reluctant to dive in and then be yanked back by the restrictions placed on Book IV. But I must, because the year is ticking away and Book V needs to be on the word count. So far it’s padiddling along (technical term there) and needing to be kicked hard every morning. (Well, except my birthday. Yes, I took a whole day off. During which I turned the heels of both socks, had a voice lesson, and then choir practice.
And then there are the socks, the supposedly relaxing knitting to easy my hands. At the moment, Book V and the sock which I started the gusset on today are both in a tangle and I”m for bed.
Comment by Sherri — March 15, 2012 @ 8:46 am
Ms. Moon,
It makes me very happy indeed to read that you’re sticking to your truth, to your vision. I understand your agent’s point of view — after all, what agent doesn’t like to say, “I have so many top 10 authors in my clientele?”
But the beauty of Paks’ world is the characters and the world itself. Yes, there is violence, yes, there are battles and plots and poisonings, but the thrust of the series as a whole has to do with the characters and how they grow, live, love, and learn.
That’s why I read them.
~Sherri
Comment by SnowGator — March 15, 2012 @ 6:40 pm
Such as a slim sword with a green jewel on the hilt, or a notched black blade that makes one shudder to look at it. Oh, and a gilded battleaxe and two curved swords with runes on thick blades. Yes, we remember how you set up *that* memorable scene!
Comment by JohnS — April 3, 2012 @ 7:10 am
@Genko (36) “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” I would think reading the first couple pages of a book would be the same. Of course that means there are a lot of books I’ve slogged thru hoping that they’d end up with some redeeming value. There was one paperback I read tho, that I should’ve stopped with the first page. 🙂 I brought it home, but unlike most paperbacks there wasn’t an excerpt on the first page: it was the title page. I flipped it over, and there was text – no Chapter 1. Obviously I managed to flip a couple pages over. So I tried to separate them, finally licked my fingers and tried, then held the page(s?) up to the light. No other pages in between. Looked back and realized the usual copyrite info was on the title page. Quite off-putting! And the author kept trying to manipulate the readers the rest of the book. It’s one of the few books I did not at least force myself to skim; I finally tossed it.
But that’s the exception. Then you get artfully crafted books like Paks. Unfortunately I got it when it first came out, so had to wait and wait for more. The Deed is one of the few times I’ve bought an omnibus. I wanted the whole thing in one place so I couldn’t lose the whole story! (Zenna Henderson is another exception with The People.)
Getting back on track – Elizabeth, I read your books in spite of the violence. Usually I would consider your books to have too much gore and violence [I’ve seen too much in too many countries], but you make it necessary for the story, so I immerse myself in your worlds anyway, and wish you could publish them faster [like the little kid wanting it and wanting it now; don’t worry, I’m also well aware of the anticipation factor].
If you ever change your mind and decide to follow your agent’s opinion and try to get in the top ten, I’ll happily read that book too. Don’t be surprised if I consider it an inferior (for you) book. But knowing you, if you set your mind to do it, it wouldn’t be a lower quality book.
Comment by elizabeth — April 3, 2012 @ 8:30 am
JohnS: I’m more interested in writing the stories that come to me than trying to get in the top ten…though if that happened I sure wouldn’t turn up my nose at it. I’ve been fortunate in finding a readership that likes to read what I like to write (not all writers do, including some quite good ones.)