Paksworld

I got some work done on III today,  finishing a chapter that started out one way and ended up harrowing.    But now comes the time of hard deadlines…once out of my editor’s hands and into Production’s, all the deadlines are granitic.    Copy edit review must be done and CEs returned on time.   Other stuff’s supposed to go in at the same time or shortly thereafter.  copy edit crunch and the associated bits that must be done before getting back to III full time.   So what you’ll probably hear from me is all about other stuff, and some snippets, if I can remember what I posted of snippets from Kings before so I don’t bore you with repeats.  (Yes, of course I should note down what I’ve already posted.   But I haven’t.   Or not always.)   You don’t get any III snippets until later.

Right now, before I dive into the copy edits, we have a missing squire, a dead royal courier, a dead many-times-transferred Verrakai magelord, and once more people are looking at Dorrin mistrustfully.

Yesterday was a partial success (interference from gut bug, but still some production of decent story) and today, despite Book III’s attempt to lure me off to another project (at least, I’m blaming III for that, rather than the other project–a nonfiction book), I made progress on both of them.   1500 on the nonfiction,  not quite 1500 on III.

Book III would like to run smoothly, but too smoothly…I stopped it in its tracks today when it was about to have a perfectly normal conversation in a place that demanded something else.   “Wait,” I said.  “If A really started from X in the morning,  A should have reached Y by now.  And A is only halfway between.  B started from Y at noon and is halfway now, so do we see a problem?”

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1500+ words today.  Book III is out of its sulks (I hope, forever) and moving forward with some impulsion.   Apparently yesterday’s long, leisurely drive back from a speaking gig, taking little tiny back roads and navigating by sun and the lay of the land,  unkinked something…or the scribbled notes I’ve been making finally came together, or…something.

You might think that being in real spring while writing in story-winter would be confusing, but it’s not.    I can see characters’ breath smoking in the cold air, smell the woodsmoke from the kitchen, etc.    Never mind that the real woodsmoke is from someone having bulldozed every tree off a plot and started burning the debris…debris that was grass, trees, shrubs, etc…grump.  ANYway.    Story’s moving.  Just thought you’d like to know.

Book III is once more regarding me with indifference.   Book III doesn’t care that  Book I was getting its launch, and Book II needed  its editorial revisions completed…books, once out of the gate, are selfish to the nth degree and care only about themselves.  They want the writer’s full attention, thank you.  So I’m setting serious daily goals for it, and dragging it along, one difficult sentence after another.   This is the part of writing that is Not Fun–something that every writer faces sooner or later, and often repeatedly.

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Just to break the chain of really fun photos of Oath traveling the world,  I thought you might like an update on what book-related work has been going on.  I think I mentioned when the revisions went in.   I’ve also done a couple of interviews (one phone, one email) and answered a UK copy-editor’s questions about that edition of the Gird/Luap omnibus.   The map for Kings of the North is still to do.

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…and tomorrow the book’s out in the stores.  I hope you in the US are as excited as I am, and that if you pre-ordered online, your copies arrive on your doorstep (or whatever you use) on time tomorrow.    (Those of you in Europe who already have the UK version…try not to hand out too many spoilers.  At least until the end of the week, OK?)

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Some of you may remember the posts I did last year during the Spring Revision Season, but some of you weren’t here yet, so I’ll chatter away as if you couldn’t look up the posts by category and find them (but go ahead if you want.)   Editor-revisions are basically the same as any other revision except that Editor has more experience and more clout even than DRW and Karen S- and Ellen M-.

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You would be SO happy that Editor sends me these, if you knew what gets fixed before you ever see the book.   I know some of  you think you’d like the raw, untouched text better, but…no.  Seriously,  editors…and Editor in particular…make books better.  So did the alpha readers and my agent, all of whom had comments that made me rethink some things.

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As this is March 1, in 15 days Oath of Fealty will hit the streets in the US.    If any of you are near Austin, Texas,  I’m doing a book signing on Tuesday, March 16, at Book People (6th and Lamar) at 7 pm.   Earlier (4 – 5 pm CST) I’ll be doing an online chat at Suvudu with John Hemry (writing as Jack Campbell, author of the Lost Fleet series) and editor Betsy Mitchell, who will try to keep John and me from taking off into the wild blue.

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In other words, I actually held the  US hardcover in my hands today!!!  My very own first copy!!

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