Paksworld

This week wasn’t as productive as the week before, due to Things.    However, other than two of the Things (neither of which produced any balancing good result), Things got done that needed doing.  (Not all, by any means.)

10,020 words for the five-day work week despite one day of <300 words.   22,054 for the month of August up to this moment.   Need another 20,000 by the end of the month (before Dragon*Con, that is.)

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So…page proofs are done (check) and some family LifeStuff probably/maybe resolved (half-check) and I’m back “on book”.   Yesterday, after a dietary error that kept me close to one room in the house, turned out to be a very productive writing day anyway (3001 new words, in addition to cleaning up some continuity problems I discovered while working on the proofs of Kings…no, B- did not tell his father about hmmmmmph at Autumn Court, becuase hmmmmph didn’t start until AFTER Autumn Court. when ummmm went mmmmph.  Yes, hate me.)

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In honor of Amazon having it listed for pre-order, here’s another Kings of the North snippet.  This one introduces some new characters, all young.   Location:  Verrakai House in Vérella.  Dorrin has  squires, who have just arrived to begin their service with her.     They are leaving for the country the next day.    The squires are Beclan Mahieran (the king’s cousin and younger brother of Rothlin), Gwennothlin Marrakai ( younger sister of Juris Marrakai), and Daryan Serrostin (younger brother of Rolyan Serrostin)…all dukes’ offspring, in other words.

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I knew re-entry to the book itself might be tricky, as despite brief spurts  it’s been on hold while the map got done.    The spurts, never very long, had gone well, though, and I was hoping that Book would keep in mind that it had not been locked in a closet forgotten.     However, Book has its own ideas of how long is too long, and when today I sat down to get back to work on it for a several hour stretch, it ignored me.    Hmmm, I thought, and opened this file and that (at this point, in a multi-viewpoint work, the viewpoints are separate files), trying to find a character who was awake,  coherent,  and doing more than staring into space with a mind full of vague somethings.

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…is supposed to trump youth and beauty.    But who is really old?    A half year ago, Kieri, Arcolin, and Dorrin would have said they were growing old.   Not ancient, just old.  Kieri, some of you will recall, commented to the Marshal-General (in Oath of Gold) that he was getting old and didn’t have an heir, and worried about the fate of his domain.  (He was right to worry, but for other reasons…)

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Not talking here about the obviously fantasy weddings we usually see (in pictures in the paper announcing them, for instance) between the beautiful bride and the handsome groom who might as well be made of sugar icing because they’re going to melt in the first heat of difficulty.  No, talking here about the weddings in fantasy fiction…since there’s going to be one (though not yet…don’t start making the cake now.)

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Sleep helped.   I had other things to do yesterday afternoon but slept about four hours and about seven more overnight.   Looking at my attempt to start on the last revision puzzle yesterday…I should’ve waited until after the sleep.

However, it’s a puzzle that some of you may find interesting, and I hope to keep it spoiler-free.

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The author pinches her nose and shakes her head.   Book III again.  Some people, if they get out of a bad spot with miraculous (if unpleasant) intervention, would just be grateful and resolve to be better men/women hereafter.    Some people. Read the rest of this entry »

I was actually making progress on Book Three today when a friend emailed to tell me that a plane had flown into a building that I drive past regularly, in Austin Texas.  I tried to stay glued to Arvid (who had informed me plaintively that I hadn’t provided any food for him and during his earlier misfortunes he’d been starved for two days…) and did manage to offer some coarse-ground meal (spelt, I think),  onions, and raw redroots, but reality trumped the fiction writing.  Read the rest of this entry »

This morning, Editor asked me to please write some posts for the Suvudu.com blogsite.    Sure, I said, and began fiddling, but was interrupted by a needed trip to an optician’s shop to order new glasses.  This afternoon, Editor asked me if I had any short fiction related to the new book.    Maybe something had been cut?  Maybe I could write a short-short?   Huh?  And I thought “O waily waily woe, I’m trying to write an essay (that wasn’t working well yet) and anyway I’m not good at short-shorts.”  (Yes, even experienced writers have self-defeating moments.)

And even as I thought that…up popped a notion of what might work.  Bing! Read the rest of this entry »