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Short fiction continues to flow…it’s odd, this happened after I finished the Deed–the first really solid short stories I’d ever been able to write and finish. Only one of them sold–“Bargains”–and the agent I got later said the others weren’t that good (since none of them had sold in the several years before he took me on, he was probably right.) But finishing the trilogy led to an outburst of short stuff. And now that’s happening again. (Only now, I think, I write better short stuff.)
You know two stories have sold, and I’ve told you that there’s a later-on Beclan story. It looks like there’s going to be a Farin-the-cook story and a story from the distant past in Old Aare about the time the drought is really taking hold there. There’s the start of a story about Aesil M’dierra, but it might grow into a whole novel. I dunno. It may be her uncle Ilanz who’s the real story. Arcolin and Kieri’s first meeting popped up, but hasn’t gone anywhere useful…the image of Arcolin in the clothes he was wearing when he got to Valdaire…very interesting. Various Kuakkgani are wandering around in my head, but they’re hard to pin down for story purposes. They consider their rites very secret indeed. (But people KNOW, I’ve told them. They look at me and turn greenish, and walk away, humming.) Other characters surround me, some looking wistful and others jingling coins in their pockets or stroking a blade suggestively.
At any rate, steps have been taken toward putting together a collection to come out as an e-book in the fall, and another one sometime later. They might become print-on-demand hard-copy books later, but not immediately. Nothing’s hard and fast yet. Discussions were held. An email of intent has wafted thence-wards, but that’s all.
As planned, the collections–two now, with more to come later maybe–would include previously published work (both in print and online, in publisher blogs) and two completely new stories each. The idea is to collect all the Paksworld stories in one place–I know some collectors will have them all, but this way they’ll be (I hope) easily found and read, and with a little commentary to explain where they fit in the chronology and geography they’ll be suitable for readers who aren’t fully informed in the Paksworld milieu.
So that’s something to look forward to, when you’ve gnawed Crown to the bare bones and cracked them and sucked out the marrow.
Comment by jjmcgaffey — March 7, 2014 @ 11:58 pm
Yay! All the stories sound fascinating. And maybe the old ones, if you can find the time to prod them into better shape? You know the response is always going to be “More, please!”.
Comment by Judy — March 8, 2014 @ 1:15 am
“Discussions were held,” eh? That passive voice reminds me of the illustrated retelling of “The Trouble with Tribbles” after the style of Edward Gorey. If you are not familiar with it, you really should check it out online. I suppose you could call it a graphic short short story, as opposed to a graphic novel.
By the way, thanks for planning to include a little geographical and chronological info with you story anthologies. It could be useful even to those who are well-versed in the Paksworld material. I find most of the minichronology entries in Bujold’s Vorkosigan series handy to help me keep things in order, or if I’m trying to remember, “Which volume was the one when Donna Vorrutyer became Count?”
Comment by Daniel Glover — March 8, 2014 @ 7:47 am
Well, I haven’t jumped on the e-reader bandwagon yet. So I’ll just have to choose whichever one you publish to as my reader of choice. 🙂
Comment by Tuppenny — March 8, 2014 @ 11:15 am
Yay. More stories. Love the thought of the Kaukkgani, but I hope that they don’t make your desk sprout leaves. Maybe you need to have a word with them about the roots in your septic line! Beclan, Farin, Aesil … and more. Yum.
Any visions of the home of the Paladin’s horses?
Comment by Annabel — March 8, 2014 @ 1:48 pm
Yay! Can’t wait!
Comment by Gareth — March 8, 2014 @ 3:04 pm
E_reader books sound great. Finaly embraced recently as I find some print too small these days. E books very easy to adjust the font size to get comfortable and fast reading.
Comment by Kathleen — March 8, 2014 @ 3:51 pm
Sounds great!!! Since I have everything in print, I would be one of the folks wanting print. But I’m starting to get the hang of my kindle and actually finding it useful on travel to have several books with the weight and volume!
Comment by Iphinome — March 8, 2014 @ 9:00 pm
*squeeeeeee*
Comment by Linda — March 8, 2014 @ 9:27 pm
Exciting news. I do hope somewhere there’s a few Kuakkgani who have tales to tell, although it sounds as if they’re playing the elf game with you at the moment.
Maybe Kolya will entrust you with her story, as I’m curious about her involvement with those of mixed green and red blood, her past as a soldier, and evolution to an orchardist. Kuakkgani don’t sound like potential soldiers.
And what will happen to Daryan? Will his world view change as his other thumb sprouts? I have noticed that your extended casts of characters are some of the most intriguing in any fiction I’ve encountered. You’ve exceeded Tolkien in creating beings about whom I care … probably because they are less mythical/iconic and more human (even the non-humans).
Of course maybe you’ve already dealt with those things, and we only need to wait until May. Or perhaps we just have to imagine until your plot daemon taps you on the shoulder.
Comment by elizabeth — March 9, 2014 @ 3:36 pm
I wrote something that was supposed to be an answer to several comments yesterday after the birthday party. I must have hit “destroy” rather than “send. (Was trying to write with a migraine. Always a mistake.)
ANYway. Glad you’re all sounding enthusiastic. So am I. Especially since I saw two photos on Twitter today that jumped into my head at once and suggested more story stuff. No, I won’t tell you what or where. Would be spoilerish, except to mention that skeletons often spark story ideas, and Paksworld, like our world, has fossils here and there.
Farin Cook is, as you’ve noticed, a strong character and is not one to wait for her cue to run onstage and do/say something. She can be funny-tart, but she won’t do that in a story context, only offstage, sotto voce, to a bystander.
The old stories. The old stories were once printed out but that notebook still hasn’t shown up. Maybe it’s lost. Maybe that’s just as well (NOoooooooo!) Some files still exist on 25 year old 5.25 inch floppies or (maybe) on 3.5 inch floppies…in WordStar, which my present Word refuses to read as anything but gibberish. The oldest story up for inclusion (since I’m being completist) is “Bargains”, from MZB’s SWORD & SORCERESS III. I think we have to let the old stories go. (NOOOoooooooo!)
Since I think it would be really cool to have a set of FOUR Paksworld short fiction collections (hey, I never said I was humble pie) and there’s only enough for TWO, this means I need to write all the other little side-stories and notions and things into perfect glittery jewels of exquisitely crafted…oh, wait, we’re talking about MY stories. You’ll have to settle for well-crafted stories with interesting characters, OK? Or we’ll all be here until way after midnight, when the coach is back to a pumpkin and the mice have vanished into hidden recesses of the house, not even chittering in the walls.
Spring is springing here–birds singing, migratory birds stocking up for the flight north any day now, baby goats frolicking in the neighbor’s farm lot, etc.
Comment by Daniel Glover — March 9, 2014 @ 5:16 pm
Spring has sprung here in the northern lands too. Finally been above freezing during sunlight for almost a week.
I have a new appreciation for Stammel drilling recruits with pikes. Worked on getting the 1 – 1/2 feet of snow off my parents roof today while wading through knee to thigh deep snow with a 20+ foot snow roof rake. Keeping it upright is a challenge.
Comment by GinnyW — March 9, 2014 @ 5:29 pm
I am falling in love with the e-reader that I thought I didn’t want. But before I caved in, I used the (free) e-reader programs that I could load onto my computer. It worked to access books that were only available in that form, without the expense of extra hardware.
I look forward to having collections of short stories from Paksworld!
Comment by Lise — March 9, 2014 @ 6:27 pm
More stories! Yay! Spring only comes up here in sentences like “I wish it were spring.” The cold is starting to go away and some snow is melting, but the snowbanks are still head-high. I had a good hour of cross-country skying though, so I’m not complaining.
Comment by Suburbanbanshee — March 9, 2014 @ 6:34 pm
Nothing that’s on a disk is unrecoverable unless it’s really really destroyed. All you need are the right computer people and/or software.
The 1981 version of WordStar is available on archive.org, for instance. There’s also several WordStar file conversion programs available for free.
Comment by Suburbanbanshee — March 9, 2014 @ 6:36 pm
Oh, and there’s an “Office Converter Pack” for some versions of Word, which supposedly includes WordStar to Word conversion.
Comment by Suburbanbanshee — March 9, 2014 @ 8:05 pm
Ah, it seems that some versions of the Office Converter Pack don’t actually contain WordStar converters, even though they say they do.
Here’s a WordStar converter you might try.
But if worst comes to worst, keep the disks and I’m sure we can find somebody to convert them for you.
Comment by Suburbanbanshee — March 9, 2014 @ 8:16 pm
Here are some other WordStar conversion possibilities, chronicled on the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive.
PS – If you use the Osborne WordStar online emulator, it won’t let you save. I thought I’d mention that since I linked to the Osborne version and it has the emulator attached.
Comment by Richard — March 10, 2014 @ 2:13 am
#10: Elizabeth, panic over: #38 (9:53 pm, March 8) under the March 04 blog (because that is where the first two of the comments are that you were responding to).
Comment by Sharidann — March 10, 2014 @ 10:00 am
Really looking forward to them all !
Comment by Wickersham's Conscience — March 10, 2014 @ 4:19 pm
Hooray for more Paksworld stories!
I think I suggested this before, but much of the background material you’ve given us here on the blog would be an excellent appendix.
The thing about migraines is to identify the trigger and then avoid the trigger.
Comment by Nadine Barter Bowlus — March 10, 2014 @ 9:06 pm
Looking forward to more stories!
I have an odd set of questions to add to the queque. Measuring things in Paksworld. Time measures I’ve figured out. Noticed, however, that all the linear measures I can recall are comparative–longer than X, shorter than Y, etc. Then Beclan is sent out with a knotted rope to learn surveying. Hmm. What is the standard used to determine the spacing of the knots? Measures of mass are clearly there because wrong weight is the symptom of the counterfeiting in Aaraenis. But what is used for the standard weights against which one compares–as when the money changer in Brewersbridge values the old coins in Pak’s treasure based on the weight of the metal in them.
Comment by elizabeth — March 10, 2014 @ 9:42 pm
Suburbanbanshee: Thanks for the info on WordStar conversions.
Comment by elizabeth — March 10, 2014 @ 10:25 pm
Weight measures. Gird quickly devised standard measures for Girdish markets, because of his interest in fair dealing. This covered the size of containers for anything sold (you could store it in any size, but had to use a standard for sales), the weight of stuff that’s weighed, and the length of things sold by the length (such as yarn or cloth or rope.) Containers include baskets, boxes, jars, jugs, kegs, barrels. Loose items in sacks sold in public markets must be put into a standard container to determine their worth (fruits, vegetables) unless sold one by one. The market wardens and judicars enforce the standard. Every market has a standard stone, against which merchants’ weights and scales can be compared, and the same with measures of volume and length; these are displayed in the market square, and any customer who doubts a merchant’s weights may call for a comparison. Tsaia adopted Finthan measures as part of the Code of Gird after the Girdish war.
Some of this is in Surrender None, though I don’t recall where, exactly. The Guild League also has a system of regulated weights and measures, but it’s not exactly the same as in the north–though the merchants on both sides of the mountains know what the conversion is supposed to be. The measures are, like the older systems in this world, based the dimensions and weights that make sense to them in human terms. For those based on hand size, arm-length, arm-span, stride-length and the like, a visual midpoint was taken of a group of people, then a stick was cut to that length and it became the standard. In the first years of Gird’s rule, it took time for the standard to reach every town, where their particular set of measures was made to meet the traveling one. (Finally it dawned on someone–maybe Luap–that they could just replicate the measures in one place, many copies, and send the copies around.) Still, at irregular intervals, a group of Marshal-Judicars rides around carrying perfect replicas from Fin Panir and checking that the market standards are still standard.
Surveying on private land is different. It matters only that the distance between the knots be equal. As it happens, Natzlin uses the same interval that was used in the Duke’s Company, and it corresponds to an arm-span. Beclan will use the same, for the rest of his life. Some intervals are more useful than others, but any will work.
When I was a child, experienced clerks in stores that carried dry goods were all amazingly good at measuring an accurate yard “by the nose” (the old way of measuring cloth…they knew how far to turn their heads to one side and stretch one arm to the other so that the nose-to-pinched-cloth was a yard. Of course a yardstick was always screwed or glued to the table where cloth was finally measured, but it was a lot faster, pulling it off the bolt, to do it by the nose first, to avoid pulling off too much. My mother could “eye” measurements very accurately, too, and pull up a pound of nails into a poke then weigh them and only have to add or subtract one nail. I watched some guys here eyeball the angles to quickly build an 8-sided gazebo that would fit on a float for the town to take to other small town celebrations. So that’s the experience I drew on, in nudging Gird toward the measures he chose to standardize.
Comment by elizabeth — March 10, 2014 @ 10:36 pm
Wickersham’s Conscience: any specific bits of background stuff you think would be particularly appropriate for inclusion in a collection?
As for migraines: multiple possible triggers and life’s too short to avoid them all. Sudden weather changes can do it, air travel if the sinuses are already upset, stress contributes, not noticing the precursor symptoms (too busy, distracted, whatever) in time to stave the thing off. I used to have a lot more. This one had multiple reasons to show up and I was too late with the meds.
Comment by Richard — March 11, 2014 @ 4:04 am
In my scrapbook, from the blogs:
Legend I: Torre (March 18th, 2011)
Legend II: Falk’s Oath (same date)
Legend III: the Severance (March 19th)
Legend IV: Dragon Colors (March 20th)
Mikki-kekki (March 21st; plus recent comment)
comments to Jenn about what songs wandering minstrels need to know (under the blog of August 13th, 2011)
Geographic clues (May 2nd, 2012, plus comment #9); comment about Old Aare (August 27 under blog of August 8th, 2013)
Sailing, Sailing (July 11th, 2013 – extracts both about the ship Blessing and about trade patterns)
Food Basics (October 18th, 2013)
Plumbing (January 30th, 2014 and February 26th)
Politics (February 28th, 2014 and comment)
remarks on Duke Sonder Mahieran and Beclan (from spoiler space topic started October 11th 2013, #64 and #66)
remarks on Sofi Ganarrion and his daughter Kailin (under November 29th 2013’s blog, #3 and #9 – the latter comment, December 17th, I’d missed until I went back looking for bits to put in the scrapbook)
Sier Segrahlin (November 29th, 2013)
a couple of paragraphs about Falk’s Hall (June 18 from Spoiler Space started June 3rd, 2013); the two kinds of “invasion” by magelords (July 9, same Spoiler Space)
remarks on paladin horses (under, incidental to, August 17th 2013’s blog)
remarks on uniform colors and on colors in yarn (under July 27th 2013 and February 3rd 2014 blogs respectively)
Comment by Julia Coldren-Walker — March 11, 2014 @ 6:29 am
My father worked for the California Highway Department and was famous for an incident when they were out surveying a new road. He looked down the field and saw a barn about half a mile away and said the line will go about 15 inches west of the barn. Everyone laughed. But when they finished the survey the line went 14.7 inches west of the barn. He says he did not know why he said 15 inches but he refused to repeat it saying he would never get that close again.
Comment by GinnyW — March 11, 2014 @ 11:17 am
For background in a collection, I think a good map, and (if possible) a rough genealogy of the nobility from old Aare. Perhaps the Count of Andressat will whisper something about that in your ear. Just something to give a sense of where the major magelord families were and are – whether they have magery or not.
Comment by Gareth — March 11, 2014 @ 11:20 am
I wonder if any of the regulars here might be able to help organise known facts – I for one would rather Elizabeth writing rather than collating …
Just throwing the thought out that maybe there could be some volunteer helpers if Elizabeth wants them…
Comment by Marian — March 11, 2014 @ 4:41 pm
Happy birthday … belatedly 😛
Comment by Daniel Glover — March 11, 2014 @ 5:46 pm
Gareth,
Good idea. Piggy back it with the nascent pronunciation guide group.
Comment by Mette — March 12, 2014 @ 8:09 am
Just popped in to say:
YEAY! More Paks stories. And a very late happy birthday – hope you had a wonderful day.
I just recently finished reading the first three Serrano Books (not sure I’m spelling that correctly, I found myself constantly thinking of Italian Serano Ham while reading. Made me real hungry:)
It was fun to be in a different universe, which still had that unmistakeable “Elizabeth Moon Flavour”. I enjoyed it a lot, but the Paks-books are still my favourites.
Comment by Wickersham's Conscience — March 12, 2014 @ 4:51 pm
Wickersham’s Conscience bows to the awesomeness of Richard’s detailed list @ #25. And thanks, Richard.
Comment by elizabeth — March 12, 2014 @ 11:35 pm
Richard: Wow! Thank you for all of that, with the references. Yes, some of those will be perfect for the collections, either as-is or shaped somewhat for the different venue.
Comment by elizabeth — March 12, 2014 @ 11:36 pm
Wickersham’s Conscience: That was remarkable, wasn’t it. Richard appears to be perfectly qualified to be the Archivist-General of Paksworld.
Comment by Nadine Barter Bowlus — March 13, 2014 @ 8:52 am
I hereby cast my vote for Richard as Archivist- General as well.
I have measured yardage “by the nose” all my life, also yarn for long-tailed cast-on.
Comment by Katrina — March 13, 2014 @ 11:44 am
I’m looking forward to the story collections.
If you decide to try to retrieve the old stories and need help, I’d be willing to try to extract them for you. I have a couple of 5-1/4″ floppy drives in my office cabinet that could be hooked up to something for that purpose.
Comment by Eowyn — March 13, 2014 @ 4:02 pm
E-book collection? You know, that might be enough to have me buy an e-reader. Must start putting aside money for that now … or at least after I budget out the books that I’m buying this spring.
Comment by elizabeth — March 13, 2014 @ 10:49 pm
Eowyn: The good thing about an e-book collection is that it won’t go out of print…it’ll be there when you’re ready for it, whenever that is.
GinnyW: Glad you like the novella form, because Farin’s story finally stopped–in rough draft–at almost 11,000 words. On the crisis thing…we ARE proud of him, and were when the first policeman said (in calling us) how polite and pleasant he had been, and when the guy who drove him home (EMS) said he was the pleasantest person he’d dealt with in months. He had a hard time learning any social interaction, but the time put into it has paid off geometrically.
Katrina: Thank you for your offer. Much appreciated.
Nadine: Yes, I think I’ll be tensing up when the phone rings unexpectedly. Did yesterday, in fact, when it rang twice (both times in reference to a medical appointment my husband had. Kind of funny–one to change the appointment and the next to remind him of the original appointment…lack of communication within the office, but it’s straightened out.)