Paksworld

Right now, I’m pouring words into the files for Book V, so I’m not keeping up with everything the Punctuation Working Group is doing….trying to check comments and email a few times a day, but not really able to concentrate on anything but stuff I can’t tell you yet.   (I should have been listening to different music…finally thought mixing Smetana’s Bartered Bride first act with Saint-Saens’ symphonies, not Beethoven.  And…it’s galloping.)   I’d forgotten the particular combination of suspense, darkness, and explosive brilliance, in that one in particular…goosebumps.  Lots and lots of goosebumps.   Just what I needed.)

Anyway, my brain’s not in pronunciation right now.   It’s in getting Book V done to “send to editor standard”.

Forgive the inattention after handing over that job, please.

Also–remember that my webmistress wants the output as a .doc, .rtf, or .txt file.  She has her own tricks for making it pretty on the website and says those are an easier starting point than others.   (Also, I can’t read docx or xcl files on my machine, so I can’t look files over before sending them on to her.)

The lights go out here and on the main site at 10 pm, Central Time in the US  (10 minutes)  but should be back on tomorrow.    Have fun.   See you then.

Brilliance, who are working on the new Paksworld audiobooks,  sent me a list of words for help with pronunciation.  And then another list.   Remembering that some time back we had a discussion here (more than one, maybe?) on pronunciation of words from Paksworld,   and other questions I’ve had, I set to work on them.    And kept the list and my attempts at making pronunciation easier on files for myself.    The list has about 140 words/names on it, but they’re not in alphabetical order (in order of appearance in the text, apparently)  and I think there are some duplicates.  Also, it’s not complete, if you go back to the first books: there are names and places and words that aren’t included.

You see where I’m going, I’ll bet.

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Webhost has warned us that things will be nonfunctional on this Friday,  March 22, starting at 10 pm Central Time in the US, and should be back to normal by 6 am Saturday.   No specifics yet on what will be down, which may mean short rolling outages, or everything.     Safer to bet on “everything” and prepare for it.

I suggest games in the extras’ break room (want to make up some interesting and appropriate games this week?)  and serious philosophical and theological and economic discussions in the stars’ private lounge, topics such as “If blue is Gird’s color, and red is Falk’s color, are Girdish more devout because more of them wear blue than Falkians wear red?” or “If making pickles represents an opportunity cost related to the shortage of cucumbers for cucumber sandwiches,  should pickles or cucumbers cost more?” or “If Writer decides to off me in the final volume, do I still get paid through the end of the month?”   Or anything else you can come up with.

Farrier’s coming at 8 am and he’s never late; must go feed horses now.

So…I went in last night to do some late work on the book after supper (which was late)  and after typing away decided it was time to quit.   Whereupon Microsoft Word said (in my phrasing)  “I feel sick and I’m quitting and what you’ve been working on may be lost when I shut down…Too bad, sucker.”

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Because LiveJournal tells me I have plenty of space to upload pictures, but the upload function appears glitched this afternoon…I’m uploading pictures here.  Apologies.   As you know, I’ve been making socks for myself.   The latest pair, of a lovely variegated blue with some purple, gave me a problem I’ve never had before, and have now solved, and I really wanted to show it off.

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Today’s work finally cleared up one nagging problem and may have also improved some other things.   Well…on second thought it cleared up a couple of nagging problems, one of which is a definite untied knot, and the other of which may create new nagging problems if I’m not careful.

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My hosting site just announced a major refurbishment (changing out servers, etc.) to begin this Friday night, March 1,  at 10 pm, and expected to last at least 4-6 hours, maybe longer.   So if you find the Paksworld site and this blog down on Friday night, do not worry.   Try it again Saturday morning and if it’s still down…be patient.  I don’t expect it will be unless gremlins attack, but we should all be sufficiently tech savvy to know that hooking new things up quite often is a gremlin magnet.

Meanwhile, back to work.    Someone has survived a fire in a warehouse; someone has had a disagreement with an adviser; someone’s expecting a baby; someone’s up to their chest in rapidly rising water and it’s raining cats, dogs, horses, and dragons.

So…now that I’m well again, and have gotten the two government reports off my desk, and finished another commitment that held on until last night (committees…not my favorite work environment, but someone has to do it sometimes.  Just not me for awhile now)…now the book is trotting briskly ahead and today threw some plot bombs at me.  Lovely ones.

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From one of my mother’s favorite joke verses…and relating to the power outage that had all my stuff offline for awhile this afternoon.    I learned to recite this as a little kid, and I still think it’s funny.

Am he gone?  Are he went? Have he left I all alone?  Us can never go to he; he can never come to we.  O cruel world, to I unkind!  Go he way and leave I hind! It cannot was.

It wasn’t in the “humor and whimsy” section of the big poetry anthology we had, so I have no idea where it came from, nor did my mother.   Online search didn’t find it (haven’t looked lately, though.)   If you do, let me know the author.  At any rate, the power up in north Texas was off, shutting down my hosting service, the wonderful SFF.net/Greyware,  and they were kind enough to post what happened on Twitter and let us know when they got back up again.

The warehouse scene continues to amuse (me, anyway)  although the transitions are still extremely rough.  They feel rough to Arvid, too.

Anyway…a little bitty snippet from today that may or may not be like this in the final version:

…………………………………………………

How many were there?  The report they’d gotten only said “a gang of men” had attacked the grange.  Arvid felt in his cloak pockets–he had only three bolts left.  He glanced behind.  Could he make it over the next roof before they got to him?  Maybe.

………………………………………………..

It has to be brief because it’s a Book V snippet and would otherwise be trailing a cloud of spoilers for Limits of Power.