Paksworld

The comment that the Gird & Luap omnibus wasn’t available from Audible as an audiobook brought up an issue that I see a lot of in email, so I’m going to mention it here (not, by the way, as a slam at people who ask the questions, Sam in particular this time.   They’re reasonable questions to ask.)   Maybe this will help (and maybe you can boost the signal about the lesser-known ends of publishing.)

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The ensuing days have been busy, and the first essay deadline’s been met.   Though I should be working on the foreword for the 10th anniversary The Speed of Dark, Book V dragged me back (interrupted by watching the Sandy coverage and for friends’ return online after.  Also, there was this 43rd anniversary we had, and yes–we went out to dinner.)    I don’t have the final title for Book V (as you can imagine, communication with Editor has been…er…nonexistent as the whole publishing industry in Manhattan has been struggling to get back to work, along with others.)

But…a critical scene is slowly coming together.    As previously hinted, yes–certain things left hanging in Liar’s Oath will be dealt with.  How to deal with them has been a problem, and how to gauge the effect of magelords who slept through close to 500 years has been tricky.    Is it even possible for them to be wakened and brought out of Kolobia?   What if it’s not?   Will they all just die?  Or–would something kill them in place?    If so, what, and why not before now?

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This is a small bouquet of gratitude to someone on the list who–reading the snippet–found an inconsistency with Oath of Gold and emailed me privately about it overnight.  So this morning I hauled out my copy of that book, and the manuscript, and knew he was right–it was an inconsistency and it needed to be fixed, if possible.   The book’s already past copy editing, so I didn’t know if it could, but I set to work looking for the smallest possible fix that wouldn’t mess up any other previous books.

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Copy edit checking is under way.  There is muttering, mumbling, and thoughtful staring.    Marking, leaving alone, and changing.

And so on.   The copy edits were crammed into a box a little too flat and far too long,  so they were/are mussed and rumpled, but I’m smoothing and flattening and will send them back in a box that fits.

There will be a few things to talk to Editor about.   (Have I mentioned here how nice it was to meet Editor at WorldCon?  Lovely.    If I had to change Editors mid-series, and I did, I was certainly on the lucky side of the street with this one.)

Home from ChiCon7 last night, and this morning only a slight residual case of “train legs” (room still feels like it’s swaying slightly).   First load of laundry’s in the machine; second is ready to go.   And right there on the kitchen table is a big box of copy edits for me to go over.    Production has its hooks into Limits of Power now, and when I send the copy edits back, it will be on to the next stage.  But as always, there are deadlines–Production’s deadlines are hard deadlines, the kind that cause a lot of trouble if you miss them, because the next stages of the process have Limits on several other peoples’ schedules–it has a slot, and it has to fall into that slot when it’s supposed to.

Which is why, until the copy edits go back, I will be busier than ever.    Book V did make some progress while I was gone and will get some work even during copy-edit-time,  but the big deal at the moment is getting the copy edits back as quickly as possible.

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Off-topic in one way and on-topic in another, since part of a writer’s life includes keeping the writer’s body capable of functioning.  (Much as writers live in their heads,  all that creativity requires a live, breathing, heart-beating body to sustain it.)   I know that, but circumstances in the family have put the focus elsewhere for the past (mumble) years and I realized this year I’d stretched the elastic limits of this body’s ability to keep up without maintenance.

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If you’re a discovery writer, as I am,  many things appear in the course of writing a book that you didn’t expect.    I’ve talked about plot bombs before.  But there are also character appearances…I’m writing a scene, and suddenly–as if thrust up through the stage–there’s a singing, dancing, clown-faced person right there, and he or she won’t go away.  Belongs there for some reason.  (Or sometimes doesn’t. )

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August has been (on the publishing schedule I was on before) the month to charge ahead full speed and has been producing the most bang for the buck, wordage wise, usually on the back of a pretty solid production in July.   So far, as of August 2, this month is not holding up well.

I know I haven’t been around here much in the last week or so–just answering some comments–but the time has come to yank myself off other online venues as well.   It’s so much easier to post on websites and blogs and give other people advice on writing…and so much harder to do the same wordage on my own book.  But as Neil Gaiman said in his wonderful speech, the time comes when you realize you’re using up your professional time and energy and imagination…on something other than the work you’re here to do.

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Lots of stuff has already happened, but new stuff has now started happening at a decent rate.    I’m afraid one of the minor design elements in this volume so far is that which someone becomes comfortable with is what they realize is impermanent.   That wasn’t planned, by the way.   It’s just intruding itself into my awareness.    But not all that’s lost stays lost and sometimes what’s discarded or vanishes is replaced by something something else.

Limits of Power has many funny moments (I think you’ll agree when you get there) but so far Book V is being fairly unrelentingly serious.   I think it’s the outside world…the illnesses,  the suicides,  etc.   But a book without some leavening in it is a dull loaf of a door-stop, so it’s time I put my mind to it.   I’ve been re-reading Surtees’  Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour right before bedtime to raise my humor level and I think it’s working, though it’s not showing in the wordage yet.  Maybe I just need a recalcitrant horse. Either Multum in Parvo or ‘Ercules will do.

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Sometimes, in the past year, having some knitting to work on has helped me past story tangles.   (So far, writing has not helped me past knitting tangles at all.  Unfair!)   There are similarities.   To make progress on either knitting or writing requires putting one little thing after another: a knit stitch or a purl stitch, a word or a punctuation mark.   Untangling yarn from a badly wound ball (I wish yarn manufacturers would either make good balls or sell it in skeins) is like diving into a story that’s gone immobile and refuses to “come out.”  Read the rest of this entry »