Paksworld

Book continues its happy gallop down the to the finish line, paying no attention to its writer.

I will say it’s interesting.   Though the newly introduced “character” has a regrettable tendency to spout infodump, I think it’s telling me, and it will be easy to prune that away so readers don’t have to deal with it.   (You think? comes the little voice in my head.  One of the little voices.)

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Make for exciting stories.

Today, when I planned to do a whole lot of other stuff, has produced, so far, 2600 words and a character I did not anticipate in any way.

In other words, another plot bomb.  A BIG plot bomb.  A big enough plot bomb that I’m questioning whether it’s really a plot bomb or maybe I’ve gone totally bonkers.  True, books do produce more plot bombs toward the end (usually, if they have any…) but this…

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Just over 155,000 words.    I have another two days and then the copy edits should be here.   The more I can get done before they arrive, the better, but it’s almost 1 am and I have to sleep…

The plot bomb is now written out; the scene I needed research for is done, and some after-scene scenes as well.   In addition, the stuff 100 pages back is done, all the ends tucked in (well, for now) and all the on-the-spot-thought processes tidied away (thanks to Mr. Delete Button.)

Incidentally, we had a record high today (well what today was in the daytime, not today-by-the-clock) and the day before, and are expected to make a record again tomorrow (today-by-the-clock.)  Yes, it’s been well over 100F and no, we don’t like it.  Nothing likes it.

Not an easy day’s work but a successful one.

Too much comment chat and not enough new posts…silly me.

Anyway…Book kept me up until after 2 am last night.  Yes, because Book wanted me to finish something before I slept.   It reads like something written in the middle of the night with burning eyes, but it’s there, and can be chipped and polished later.

I knew when I started this that many family relationships would become entangled in the plot, because the people around Paks mostly had families (even if they didn’t know it, like Kieri.)  I did not know, however, just how pervasive this would turn out to be…I keep trying to drag Book back to what I thought was its main line, and it’s sort of like the time I tried to teach my first horse Ky to ground drive.   Book is the 1200 pound really fast horse and I’m the puny 122 pound (then, not now) person who was too stupid to wear gloves when one long rein was made of braided baling twine.

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Gnomes, you may recall, are very strict interpreters of their Law and neither give nor accept “gifts”–they’re tit-for-tat and return very precisely good for good and evil for evil according to either their own valuation or (if you negotiate) their own valuation you’ve accepted contractually.

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This snippet is from a passage that will not appear in the book–my choice, not an editor’s cut, so the scene was never fully fleshed out.  You have conversation, nothing else.   However, as a snippet, I don’t mind sharing it with you.  I believe, when the book comes out, you will agree that this and the extension of it (several more pages full of spoilers) were better left out.

Location:  Verella, the Verrakai house in town.  Time: 14 days after Kieri Phelan left Verella for Lyonya

Speakers:  Duke Haron Verrakai and his brother.

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Most of the background stuff for Religions and Characters is now up at the Paksworld website.

The character list is not complete for past books (has none of the Gird/Luap characters but Gird himself, for instance)  but also…it will grow with the story.    It should, however, be useful now.

If you prefer a perfectly alphabetical list,  copy that one, yank out the division titles, and have at it…she says wickedly.

Religions

Characters

Comments are welcome, but the lists aren’t likely to be changed (added to, revised, whatever) for awhile, as both my web-guru and I are facing a very busy month.

This one’s from the second book, so heavily edited to avoid spoilers. ..and there’s no guarantee it will make it into the final book.  Arianya ( Marshal-General of Gird) and Paks are riding along together on a hot summer morning.   Arianya’s the POV.

“She may wear Falk’s ruby, but she’s not just a Falkian knight,”  Arianya said.  “You weren’t at court when she killed that man…that wasn’t a prayer to Falk.  That was magery.”

“It could be both,” Paks said.  She bit into another plum and spat the stone into her hand, then tossed it into the base of a hedge.  “Alyanya’s blessing,” she said as it landed.

Arianya glanced back, half-expecting the stone to sprout then and there, bearing flowers and fruit by summer’s end.    No, that was silly.   “I don’t see how it could be both,” she said.

100,127 words by midnight Tuesday night.

Interesting stuff, some of it, too.  Kieri is having to cope with a very difficult situation and he’s settling down and putting his strategic mind on.

Can an ancient elf-queen be wrong?   Can she, in fact, screw up in a major way?

Inquiring minds will find out, once I know all the answers.  I don’t ever know all the answers until later (which means some re-writing, where I’ve gone astray, guessed wrong.

I’d like to stay home and work on this today but it’s not possible.  Plumbers coming to rip out the toilets and put in new ones,  a guest to pick up at the airport 60 miles away, business conferences, Ash Wednesday services, choir practice…

This snippet is the first in the book (in the present version) to resonate with the title Oath of Fealty.    Location: Duke’s Stronghold, shortly after word reaches there  (finally!) that Kieri Phelan is a) the rightful heir to the throne of Lyonya and b) on his way there.    The snippet is in snatches, leaving out bits that aren’t relevant to the title issue.

Arcolin woke to the memory of yesterday’s surprises and the realization that he needed to parade the whole Company.  They had given their oaths to Kieri, who had now left them.  They must now give their oaths to him.

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