Paksworld

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.)

Read the rest of this entry »

…and I am Not Ready.  Anxious, of course.   Eager, of course.  But if “ready” is supposed to include organized, all supplies in place, wardrobe chosen and prepared, etc, etc, etc….no.  Not Ready.   And thanks to the misery that’s Daylight Savings Time (every year I scream silently at the heavens “It does not save any !**! daylight!!!”  And here in Texas we pray all summer for night to come and give us small relief from the day’s heat and glare)  it is already 9:30 in the morning when it should be 8:30.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes a vivid imagination leads you wrong.  Sometimes trying to fix the wrong leads to a different wrong, but not a fix.  Book III again, this time with Kieri and someone you haven’t met, Sgt. Vardan of Halveric Company.

The present instance of this is a battle.  It’s not a big battle (it’s big to those in it, of course) but it needs to serve several long-plot purposes as well as a short plot purpose or three, and like many military engagements “no plan survives contact with the enemy.”  In this case, the “civilian” plan of  serving the plot isn’t working.

Read the rest of this entry »

In Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, the various wanderers in the woods sort of divided into Alured the Black’s people (well-armed, cohesive group under one commander, in the southern forest of Aarenis),  a group near Czardas (may or may not have been associated with any other group, and mention of “woods-wanderers” here and there.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s fortuitous that in Book III, I’m  presently dealing with winter weather (shows how little progress I’ve made lately!) because today it snowed.  It hasn’t snowed like this here for years, and I decided that a long walk in the snow would give me more recent sensory inputs than my memory of the most recent previous snow.    Read the rest of this entry »

I haven’t talked about actually writing book three lately, what with so much else going on–sometimes answering comments used up my available time.  But work is progressing, just slowly.  I hope to speed up.  Read the rest of this entry »

As I suspected it would, Other Stuff kept me busy yesterday and today, so Chapter 2 isn’t yet up.    For your patience, here’s a snippet from it, some not-quite-connected paragraphs. Read the rest of this entry »

This close to the release date, it’s only fair to give you a snippet you’ll soon be seeing in context.   In fact, two separated by only a paragraph or two in the book itself.    They’re both about horses,  and one has Paks as seen from the outside, not as POV. Read the rest of this entry »

Had a bit of trouble getting this to post, but…here it is.   It’s been an interesting few days, in the not-fun way, as I hinted previously.   However, and in spite of nothing being settled, work is still going on. Read the rest of this entry »

Two days with no posts to this blog…o woe.   But it’s been a busy two days for me, and I offer up the following excuses.   Finishing (through several drafts) the required annual wildlife management report for the county tax appraisal district and turning it in.  (For more details, see the 80 acres blog.)    Then there was son’s first week of college, with some unexpected bits that aren’t even given on my autism-related blog or LiveJournal account.   And the essay I’m working on for the Texas A&M SF exhibition based on their large collection.   And the blog entries my publishers would like me to do on their sites.  And prep for ConDFW.    And prep for the release date of the new book. Read the rest of this entry »