Paksworld

In case you ever wanted to see a writer doing the Dance of Nerves…well, no, it’s not on YouTube, and won’t be, but I remember thinking it would be forever until the new book came out (and some of you thought the same thing) and here it is…almost.   For me, part of what made it seem so long was not having a book out in 2009.   

Today I got my author’s copies of the Orbit Deed of Paksenarrion, which is even thicker than the Baen omnibus.   Meanwhile I finished one of the nonfiction projects (the wildlife management report) today and started on the next (essay for the exhibition catalog at Texas A&M–the exhbition showcasing their wonderful science fiction collection.)

But I also worked in a few hours on Book 3, the new Arvid section, which is propagating Story in a lively way that I find encouraging.  Book 3 is still in its fragile early stage, with waves of progress in this POV and then in that; it hasn’t yet coalesced into one coherent line of progress.     That should happen in another 10-15K at most, but I have to get past the other deadlines first.

I think I mentioned (if not, here it is) that the necklace Arvid gave Paks in Brewersbridge shows up again in these books, with significance I didn’t know about back then.   It’s not exactly what it appeared to be.  Paks gave it to the Fellowship of  Gird when she became a paladin-candidate, and it sat in the treasury in Fin Panir for years, until, in Oath of Fealty, something happens, and in the Book 2 yet more happens.   Arvid’s fate crosses that of the necklace once again (or maybe twice again, given how things are going) and his self-definition is being challenged.

Long ago,  in an anthology that had disappeared from my hometown library when I went back to look for it, there was a story called “The Gnurrs Come From the Woodwork Out”…and I’m beginning to feel that way about gnomes, who keep showing up and becoming both obviously and mysteriously important to the story.  Why gnomes and not dwarves?  I don’t know.   So far only one dwarf…dwarves are more colorful, more fun.  Gnomes are…perhaps the legacy of my Calvinist great-grandmother.   If they’d been Christian (the gnomes, this is) they’d have been Calvinists.  At least.)

At any rate…work progresses, and I’m trying to keep my mind fixed on that, and not on the approaching release date.