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In honor of Amazon having it listed for pre-order, here’s another Kings of the North snippet. This one introduces some new characters, all young. Location: Verrakai House in Vérella. Dorrin has squires, who have just arrived to begin their service with her. They are leaving for the country the next day. The squires are Beclan Mahieran (the king’s cousin and younger brother of Rothlin), Gwennothlin Marrakai ( younger sister of Juris Marrakai), and Daryan Serrostin (younger brother of Rolyan Serrostin)…all dukes’ offspring, in other words.
“My father’s sending along two pack mules,” Beclan said. “With the rest of my clothes, weapons, and so on.”
“And mine,” Gwennothlin said. “But only one mule.” She shot a quick glance at Dorrin, as if for approval.
“I thought girls had more baggage,” Beclan said.
“I thought boys had less,” Gwennothlin said.
“Are your fathers sending someone to tend the mules, or will you be doing that?” Dorrin asked, interrupting what promised to become a quarrel.
“I’ll ask,” Beclan said. He took a step toward the door, then paused. “That is, my lord, if I have your permission.”
“How many mules altogether?” Dorrin asked, looking at Daryan this time. “And how many spare horses?”
“My father’s sending a lot of clothes because he thinks I’ll be growing a lot this year,” Daryan said. “He said it wasn’t fair to make you supply so many sizes.” His pale skin flushed an unbecoming red.
“My mother wanted to send two mules,” Gwennothlin said. “But I said I didn’t need all that.”
“Two mules each, then,” Dorrin said. “There’s no rank among squires of the same year. And two horses each, I’m presuming?”
They nodded.
“So one of your families needs to provide a muleteer. I will send one of you to all three families to make clear that I expect two mules, packed and ready, to be here for each of you tomorrow morning one-half glass past dawn. They can argue about who provides the muleteer.” They all looked eager for this errand, but Dorrin had a plan. “Daryan, you know where everyone lives, right?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Then you go. You may ride, since we have a busy day ahead of us, and I want you back quickly.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Now, Beclan, let’s see how you do organizing provisions for our journey. Take inventory of the available supplies; in a glass I want a list of what you think we need to purchase today. Gwenno, with this many animals in the train, we will need supplies for them as well. See to it that all the horses are in good shape–get them shod if necessary–and check all the tack in the stable. I expect a report within a glass.” That should keep them both busy while she herself dealt with the new house staff.
…….
Dorrin has dealt with squires, including squires of noble blood, in the Duke’s Company; Kieri sometimes assigned his squires to one of his captains. So she is familiar with youngsters (mostly younger than recruits to the Company, who must be 18) and with the Attitudes. But they’ve never been her sole responsibility. And Kieri never had a female squire–very few Tsaian girls of rank have the chance to be squires, as very few of the nobles want the responsibility of someone else’s teenage girl.
Because noble families tend to have several children of both sexes, there are always more candidates for squire than places for them. It’s particularly difficult for the dukes, as counts and barons will often say that no, they don’t think they can do justice to a duke’s son and anyway, they’re full up with the sons of other counts and barons. Naturally, the other dukes didn’t want their kids in the custody of the former Verrakaien, but Dorrin’s different. They hope.
Comment by Marty M — July 20, 2010 @ 6:38 am
Wait just keeps getting longer for the book to come out.
Comment by elizabeth — July 20, 2010 @ 7:00 am
Well…I could refrain from posting snippets…or I could cheerfully admit to being a wicked tease.
Comment by Kerry (aka Trouble) — July 20, 2010 @ 7:07 am
Thank you! The snippets are what’s keeping me sane during the wait (nibbling the chocolate!)
Comment by elizabeth — July 20, 2010 @ 7:28 am
There will be more, yes. But not today. Today is a) work on book, b) farrier visit to trim the horses’ toenails, and c) work on page proofs.
Comment by Adam Baker — July 20, 2010 @ 9:16 am
Thanks! Its always great to get the sneak peaks.
And when I get paid next week I will definitely get my pre-order in.
Comment by Dave Ring — July 20, 2010 @ 10:39 am
How much influence do preorders have on a publisher’s decisions about adding more volumes to a contract? I have preferred to wait and buy books from my favorite bricks and mortar booksellers, but I could preorder thru them if it increased the likelihood of a fourth volume or a follow-on PaksWorld trilogy.
Comment by elizabeth — July 20, 2010 @ 11:32 am
Dave, I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t know if Amazon shares pre-order information with them…if it ‘counts’ until it’s shipped, for instance. By all means support your favorite brick-and-mortar stores and keep that good relationship going. If I find out more from Editor, I’ll let you know.
Comment by elizabeth — July 20, 2010 @ 11:44 am
Quick note on farrier visit. Horse #1 (the big palomino, a retired half-warmblood dressage horse who belonged to my friend) was reasonably good for such a hot day. He was very well trained by Kathleen, and though he was reluctant about one hoof, he gave in with a big sigh. He has Trakhener brain occasionally, compounded by his episode of liver failure, and blows up, but then stands there with a sort of surprised expression: “Oh–did I do that? Sorry.”
Horse #2 (one of my mistakes in horse hunting) was sulky from the get-go, and made several wrong choices, ending with a threat-kick at my farrier. Mac is always on the game, testing, but this was more than usual. So we had a little “No, humans are ALWAYS alpha, ALL the time” session, after which, when I took his halter off, he tried to move in on me for sympathy. This horse crowds people unless firmly handled (been working on this for years–he won’t generalize to other situations and other people) so I put the iron in my voice. He looked pitiful (he’s got a pretty face with the right shape to do lots of expression) and then took another step. So we had another “Back means BACK!” session and he trailed out to the pasture a few minutes later giving me a sorrowful look…”I’m SO misunderstood, and you’re SO MEAN.” He should be an actor; he’s definitely a drama queen equine.
And now, back to Book III & the page proofs of KINGS. I have another 1000 words to write on the book, a chunk of pages to proof (though thanks be, I have a generous deadline on the proofs), and I need to go hang out the wash that finished just as the farrier arrived.
Comment by Margaret — July 20, 2010 @ 4:16 pm
I went to Amazon to see what’s there. Good looking cover; if you have posted it here I missed it. I am guessing the male is Kieri and perhaps the female his bride??
By the way, since he is, now, a king, how shall we respectfully refer to him? King Kieri? Seems a bit informal… I don’t remember all of his pre-abduction royal name except for Artfielan (I think). He is not listed in the Dramatis Personae other than as the heading for his mercenary company. Of course, he’s more practical than pompous so maybe King Kieri is a good and proper fit.
Comment by Margaret — July 20, 2010 @ 4:22 pm
I see that Kerry and Dave have avatars. How do you do that?
Comment by elizabeth — July 20, 2010 @ 4:34 pm
I haven’t posted the cover here because when I asked earlier if I could, I was told “Wait” and then never got the go-ahead. Editor’s headed for ComicCon so I’m not going to bug her this week. But I WANT to put it up here (and on the website) so that will happen.
Kieri’s full name: Falkieri Artfielan Amrothlin. He never uses it except in formal situations (signing official documents.) He’s been Kieri through his life as he remembers it.
Avatars…I dunno. You notice I don’t have one either…I do elsewhere, but not here. However, I have the Sekrit Decoder Ring to let me do things in Site Admin, so I figure I don’t need no stinkin’ avatar. (That will end when those of you who have them explain how you got them to work here…)
Comment by Kip Colegrove — July 20, 2010 @ 5:39 pm
Nice shift on the cover, from cool tone (Oath of Fealty) to warm tone (Kings of the North), keeping the same design parameters. You certainly got a winner in the cover design department. The overall bright, elegant effect on both covers makes for great face-out marketing.
Comment by elizabeth — July 20, 2010 @ 8:05 pm
Thanks, Kip. I like it a lot, though I was kind of thinking with the title they might stay to cool colors, perhaps green, and save the warm tones for what’s coming (though of course the artist has no idea what’s coming. It will be Very Interesting to see what the artist makes of some of the contents of Book III.)
But the covers of both are flat gorgeous, in my opinion.
Comment by Matthew Walker — July 21, 2010 @ 11:47 am
Easy answer on avatars: http://en.gravatar.com/
Set an account up there for the email you use for your posts here, and it will Just Work. 🙂 (It will also start showing up anywhere that uses Gravatar and where you use the same email.)
Comment by elizabeth — July 21, 2010 @ 12:33 pm
OK…but what if I don’t want the same avatar everywhere–like at LJ and here, for instance. Will it impose its avatar on sites where I’ve loaded a different one?
Comment by Matthew Walker — July 21, 2010 @ 1:05 pm
It shouldn’t. Most sites that allow you to load your own avatar will let that one take priority. And if you want other gravatar sites to use a different image, set up extra emails in your gravatar account with alternate pictures, and use them for those sites.
Also, Re: Livejournal – I’m not even sure if there’s a way to use Gravatar with them. I know my account there doesn’t use my gravatar.
Comment by Matthew Walker — July 21, 2010 @ 1:13 pm
I just checked, and to use Gravatar with LJ, you’d have to paste the URL for your Gravatar into the URL field of the Manage Userpics page. So no, this won’t automatically change your icon there. Or on Facebook or Twitter, for that matter.
Comment by PamelaL — July 21, 2010 @ 2:07 pm
Love the sneak peeks. The house must be under much better control if Dorrin is letting squires come. It’ll be interesting to watch them grow.
Gravatar is pretty easy to deal with. Takes just few clicks to change the avatar. I thought it was interesting that when I changed the pic from my puppy to my senior dog all the icons on the page changed even the ones on the older messages.
Comment by Kerry (aka Trouble) — July 21, 2010 @ 9:09 pm
Mine is a gravatar. It is NOT the same one I use on LJ or FaceBook, but it shows up when I post to a Blogspot or WordPress blog.
Comment by elizabeth — July 21, 2010 @ 9:17 pm
On one “marketing for writers” blog entry, the recommendation was to use your book cover as the avatar. Didn’t say what to do if you had a bunch of them (books, not avatars.) And they’re pretty much all square, and book covers aren’t square. Hmmmm…
Comment by Margaret — July 22, 2010 @ 8:53 pm
thanks for those who passed on the info about Gravatar. I see it has gone back and added mine to all my older posts.
Comment by FrancisT — July 23, 2010 @ 2:20 am
Since I really like the font used for the title etc. in these books I think you could do a nice avatar with just an extract of a cover that shows “Elizabeth Moon” on it. Possibly photoshopped a bit so that it fits.
Going back to the snippet. I’m just re-reading Oath now and this snippet echoes something I find amusing about both Duke Dorrin and King Kieri. Because they’ve been used to field campaigning, poverty etc. they really don’t seem to think that their now exalted position entitles them to anything special. So I can imagine one or the other accidentally greatly insulting some worthy because he’s been met in the kitchen (or stable or…) by the King or Duke instead of in some proper audience chamber.
I can see this rubbing even the otherwise “good” fellow aristocrats the wrong way.
Comment by Lisa Dawn — January 20, 2011 @ 4:02 pm
I’m new here. But I’ve just pre-ordered Kings fo the North. I can hardly wait. I remember seeing Oath of Fealty on the shelves at Barnes and Nobles and almost fell over in surprise. I just loved that book and am eagerly waiting the rest of the series. Thank you for continuing the story.
Comment by Lisa Dawn — January 20, 2011 @ 4:03 pm
The would be Kings OF the North. Shoot.
Comment by elizabeth — January 20, 2011 @ 4:07 pm
Thanks, Lisa. Do feel free to jump in to the discussions, explore the Paksworld website, etc.
Comment by elizabeth — January 20, 2011 @ 4:08 pm
No sweat. If I didn’t make lots of typos, I might be a secretary instead of a writer… (yes, I actually went to a business college, where I fulfilled the test scores from high school that said I was lousy at clerical speed and accuracy.)