Paksworld

4800 words so far today.

164,800-something for the book.

And two pages into the next chapter, I realized I had written the end, at the end of the previous chapter.  It may grow or shrink some, but the skeleton and most of the flesh are there.

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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.

A small plot bomb exploded today and showered plot-fragments all over this end of the book.

I’m not through writing out the whole plot-bomb, but it’s definitely lively.   (This plot bomb came with a research assignment…”Check with D about the performance of this weapon…”)

There was a good guy and a bad guy.

The second book has now crossed the 150,000 word mark, with all but one (shortish, probably not useful) outlier chapter braided into it.

At this point, that means I should be shaping for the ending of this volume, and that’s about right.  I expect it to swell out over the length I’ve set (equal to the first volume) and then shrink back down during editing (mine and the editor’s.)  It will be easier to see what really belongs to it and what doesn’t when the kitchen sink and all are piled in there together.

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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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The power outage shifted part of my work day from writing to drawing–though with the clouds we had, it was not easy to find light enough to draw unti the power came back on.  However, the power outage hit (with the loud BANG! of a blown transformer fuse and a fried dove)  just at a critical point psychologically, when the gnome prince is interrogating his guests and important information is passed unwittingly.

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2594 words so far today.  I was asking it for at least 1000–getting this much more indicates that I’m on the right trail, not just any trail.   Book is grinning.

Gnomes appeared.  I didn’t know before this that they consider the road through their lands closed in winter.    So late travelers have been accosted, and this will have Consequences.  Sure, everything has consequences, but this is upper-case-C Consequences.  The question now is whether certain persons made it across the pass before the gnomes started their winter warding.  I don’t know yet, but I know I’ll be finding out.

The total page count at this point means little, but for those who gloat over page counts,  the ms. just hit 600 and is about to lop over into 601.  But my hands are hurting, so I have to quit for a bit.  (Gee, I could do laundry, clean the bathroom, put sheets on the bed, straighten up….you can stop sniggering now.  I do sometimes do housework, just not often enough.)