Paksworld

At the end of Kings of the North, there’s a war just started between Pargun and Lyonya.  News has arrived in Tsaia, but not everyone’s heard it yet.  Beclan Mahieran, squire to Dorrin Duke Verrakai,  is out on patrol in the SW corner of Verrakai’s domain when Dorrin hears…commanding two tensquads of militia (some of them former Phelani soldiers.  Beclan’s proud of the fact that he is given a longer patrol route and more troops than the other squires.  He has no idea what’s coming.

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Today Book IV reached 150,000 words.   I have twenty days left in the month to finish the first draft,  and should be able to do it with a little to spare.  Last year I reached  150,236 on September 21, so I’m eleven days ahead.  Or I would be,  if I wrote another 236 words today, but that’s not happening.  Close enough, I say.   Eleven days may not sound like much lead, but at the rate I write in the last half of a book, that’s very likely somewhere around 20,000 words.

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Just got back today.  Had two good writing days on trains (2000+ words each day) after a brief conference with Editor at the convention.     As usual, time away from a project allows more balanced contemplation of what’s already been done.     I realized, for instance, that a pivotal scene I’d been thinking about for months had never actually made it into the computer–an extreme case of “I know that, but I didn’t show that.”

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And another milestone number:  Book IV is now over 140,000 words.   This was one intermediate goal–to hit this or more before leaving for DragonCon.   Glad to be here a couple of days ahead, as it means I can visit ArmadilloCon this weekend.  Can’t spend long there, what with the packing and also the resting-up I need to do, but I can at least drop by and visit friends I otherwise don’t see between the conventions.   Next year I’ll be going to WorldCon in  Chicago, which gives me an extra day (assuming ‘DilloCon’s in the same relation, time-wise, to Labor Day weekend) and I should be able to actually *attend* it again.

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Yes, there will be a contest for an ARC of Echoes of Betrayal.   I haven’t decided just what it will be, but it will be.   I enjoyed last year’s “invite a character to dinner” contest and hope you did, too.   I won’t have a contest topic until after the next trip, so this is just a heads-up.

Husband is recovering well enough that I’m definitely heading for DragonCon week after next…by train, which means leaving on Monday the 29th.    (This is because the Sunset Limited–the train I’ll take from San Antonio to New Orleans, runs each direction on alternate days.  However, this gives me a chance to have a quiet morning in Atlanta before Registration opens Thursday afternoon.)

I will be meeting Editor there for a working breakfast, and also Former Editors (both Baen and Del Rey)  on a panel, so it should be productive.  I hope to meet some of you there, though I know some of you were unable to come.   Next year I’ll miss  DragonCon as I definitely plan to attend WorldCon in Chicago and it’s on the same weekend.    (Well, yeah, I could charter a jet and take one day off Chicon to fly to Atlanta and back…if I won the lottery…but practically speaking….no.)  The advantage of Chicon 7 is that I don’t have to change trains (large smile here.)

At any rate…suggestions for contests are welcome, though I won’t promise to use any.   (Isn’t that just like a writer!?)

Another batch of chocolate chip cookies and Saint Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”)   pulled me out of the slump and past the next milestone:  130,000 words.    The problems aren’t all solved, but I squeezed out a nearly shut door and went off somewhere with Kieri to look at progress along the river.

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Book faced me today with two of the most daunting scenes in the series…not the kind that twist your emotional core into a wad and then set it on fire, but technically daunting as in “How the dickens do I even approach writing this?”

One answer is “First make chocolate chip cookies and pick your music.”

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Along with finding a major blooper in Book IV when I went back to it after page proofs….I’m now at 125,000+ words.    As mentioned back when (Oath or Kings, can’t now recall which) at some point Arcolin has to consider his succession.   The other dukes strongly prefer that he marry and get an heir, and that quickly; they never liked Kieri’s plan of not marrying again and letting the domain lapse.   The king feels the same way–he wants things settled.

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Page proofs are done and should be shipped off today if I make it to the city.  Otherwise, another day (not due yet, so no screaming rush.)

As to Book IV, I had an interesting chat with a writer-friend last night, complaining that something I wrote way back at the beginning of this, and had been trying to find the right place for, really needs to go in Book IV–but I’m not sure where or how.   He had an idea, which I’m thinking about.   I like what I’ve written as I’ve written it, and it would have to be changed (in tone, in detail) to do what he’s suggested (essentially, moving from a mysterious but suggestive scene to a dream sequence.)

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I’m presently one-third of the way through the page proofs for Echoes of Betrayal and have found few (but as usual, in page proofs, puzzling) errors.  Page proofs are the last chance to fix things.  This time (probably because of the error in the Kings map) I got a proof of the corrected map, which has Lyonya on it this time.  Yay!

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