Paksworld

In the gap between sending off the revisions and hearing reactions to them,  I thought I’d discuss a few more things about Paksworld and the series you’ve been reading.  Still no spoilers for Crown of Renewal, though, I hope.

As I mentioned in a comment yesterday,  the series shifted from my original plan for a long story about Kieri Phelan to a consideration of how forced change affects people in midlife.   I began it after we’d had one, and as friends had lost or  were losing their jobs (again!, and several years after they’d just begun a recovery from the previous downturn, at a lower level)  in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.   So I had a lot of direct knowledge of how forced change–even good forced change (because that happens to some)–plays out in real peoples’ lives.   But at the same time, the invented universe I now call “Paksworld”  has its own set of rules and logic–and stories do too.  Read the rest of this entry »

Well, it’s been an interesting 4 1/2 days, during which a lot of email has gone unanswered, not to mention comments on various venues.  You might think I had used the time saved to d0 useful things like reorganize, straighten up, clean…but you know me better than that.  I kept tinkering with Crown of Renewal.   After all, I couldn’t email it to Editor or Agent…so I began the nose-to-the-floor crawl for clues.

Nit-picking.  Again.    Proving once again that no matter how many times you go through a manuscript, there is always something to fix, improve, re-phrase.     On Saturday (day 3)  I drove into the city to my web-guru’s house and begged the use of her computer to email that version of Crown to my agent, with a note to send it on to Editor if I hadn’t regained internet access by Sunday night.   Which I did, but after midnight his time.    So the finicky changing of words and phrases between about 1 pm on Saturday and now will need to be sent tomorrow morning, if we have a connection then.

Also did some knitting.  The second pair of “short socks” is onto the heel flap of both.   Also did some bike riding in very hot temperatures.   Not ideal, but the mileage continues to grow as the physical therapy has reduced the pain.

I have no reason to over-trust our ISP  and though there are four little lights on our DSL modem (as there should be) now, the four cheerful estimates of time-until-repair that were missed have me a bit twitchy.    I have hundreds of emails to comb through for important business stuff, so another actual post about the book will be delayed even more.  Apologies.

This will be the last post for awhile because a) deadlines and b) medical stuff–appointments, tests, all that, all taking time out of the writing day.    So I decided to hint at some things coming up in Crown of Renewal, along with the background research that went into them.   I hope this will tide you over for a couple of weeks, while I finish the revisions and the shorter work due for an anthology. Read the rest of this entry »

I have a blog post up at Orbit UK.   It relates to some things we’ve talked about on this blog.  I wrote it awhile back, and it’s only now moved to the front of the queue, but it’s apropos to the first chapter of the next book, in spades.

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As I go through Editor’s revision letter, I realize that she’s right…without the background in the Gird/Luap books,  even readers of the Deed may be adrift in places.    (And the post I wrote about this, this morning before I headed to the city for the sports medicine doc, apparently went poof–I thought I’d posted it but it’s not here.)   Anyway, I do recommend, for those who haven’t bothered with Surrender None and Liar’s Oath…or the omnibus version (The Legacy of Gird in the US,  A Legacy of Honour in the UK)  that you find a copy.  They’re for sale (the US versions of the e-books via Baen Books’ website: here’s my author page) in both hardcopy and e-book formats.

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The first week out is the week that determines (nearly always) whether a book will reach “bestseller” status.     It’s the week that agents watch over,  checking BookScan numbers regularly, checking rankings any place they can find one and making their own calculations of raw numbers v. other books’ raw numbers.   In the first week,  LIMITS sold a few fewer hardcovers than ECHOES, and a few more e-books, to wind up with a modest increase of total hardcover/ebook sales in the US market.   So thank you, all of you who wanted to and were able to buy a copy  in the first week.    Thanks for talking about the books, and introducing others to them.   You’re the ones who keep a writer in bread & butter (and dark chocolate.  Can’t forget the dark chocolate.)    Read the rest of this entry »

First, thanks to all of you who’ve now charged into the book and are giving me some feedback in Spoiler Space.   I’m so glad it’s working for you!!   And to all those who use Spoiler Space to avoid spoilering the book for those whose copies haven’t arrived or who haven’t been able to read it yet because of Real Life.

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A:  When you get another email offering you a fantastic idea for a novel because the idea person admits to not being able to/wanting to/having time to write it, but is sure you could do it and then the two of you could split the no-doubt-substantial money.

It doesn’t work that way.   But some people still think it does…or could.  And there’s no polite way to explain (I’ve tried, with those who’ve caught me in person.)

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A listserv I’m on mentioned that a member had published a review of Game of Thrones in a major market,  so I wandered over to look.    Here’s the link: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type=&id=1543&fulltext=1&media=#article-text-cutpoint

I was impressed with the review on several counts, but the one I want to bring up here is the way other reviewers, critics, and readers talk about characterization, especially in the area of morality/ethics and spirituality.  This isn’t about GRRM’s books, per se, but about a way of looking at all books, and considering how a writer’s view of reality affects how that writer constructs characters.   Right now–in the review cited and in other writing about Game of Thrones–Martin epitomizes one particular view of reality, history, and human nature.    Tolkein is often cited as his opposite. Thus it’s important to use language appropriate to those fundamental views–which Teitelbaum does in her review,  and many others do not.

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Had a relapse in the health side of things this week and haven’t been out of the house yet.   Nothing to worry about, but another “something going around” which on top of the partly-recovered state last weekend meant…flop.   If I were a laser cannon, my energy charge would have been listed as “expended” in the Weapons Officer’s display.  I’d hoped the Tuesday blah was just the change in weather, but…no.   Husband is also down with whatever it is (at least he doesn’t have whatever I had the week before.)

I have been able to make some progress on the socks and one scene of Book V, though it’s a lot less than I’d planned for.     In that scene, Arvid…oh, wait, that’s a spoiler.  Well…sobeit.  In that scene Arvid uses talents developed in another line of work to save lives.    Arvid sneaking across roofs and into buildings is always fun to write.    I haven’t yet figured out quite how he’s going to manage what he’s going to manage, because that requires more oxygen than is currently available to my lungs on a regular basis.  But he’s in there.

I had to give him something fun to do because I decided that a long stretch of Arvid being snarkily superior to someone teaching him Girdish law was not actually that plot-relevant.  Fun, but not going anywhere.