Paksworld

Today was spent mostly working on the essay for the exhibition catalog, but also, for recreation, a bit more work on Book 3.    I am learning more about the Thieves’ Guild than I ever expected to and it turns out to resemble (though different in goals)  other human organizations of like size.   You have your steady, stable, hardworking members, and your crackpots, and your enthusiasts, and your explosive personalities…it’s more like what you read about the Mafia than the rather disorganized souls who fill the cells of the county jail. Read the rest of this entry »

In case you ever wanted to see a writer doing the Dance of Nerves…well, no, it’s not on YouTube, and won’t be, but I remember thinking it would be forever until the new book came out (and some of you thought the same thing) and here it is…almost.   For me, part of what made it seem so long was not having a book out in 2009.    Read the rest of this entry »

When I did the chapter-by-chapter summary of Book 2, in order to produce a one-paragraph summary for Editor, I discovered that chapter 15 was missing.  Completely.  As if someone had cut it out.   I had a vague memory of what was in it, but it wasn’t there.  That suggested that I’d revised it separately at some point and then cut the old and failed to past in the new.  But…where was the new?   Had I lost it somewhere?  Read the rest of this entry »

Since I’m up after midnight, but finished with what I can write (the last sentences in the work file prove that I’m too tired for creative stuff) I suppose perhaps I should say something about the dragon.   (If I have already done this in some previous post–blame it on post 1 am braindeadness.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Where you have recruits, you have problems.   Some problems seem to be endemic to just about every military organization, though I suspect that some paramilitary organizations full of fervent Believers (any kind–fervent Believers are more alike than distinguished by the content of their beliefs) may avoid some of them. Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday was mostly consumed with trying to compress all of book 2 into a paragraph.  I got it down to two paragraphs.  I’m sure Editor will do better.

Today, though, was a good writing day.  Family was gone in the morning and another plot-bomb exploded, seeding my mind with shards of ideas, all smoking hot (or so it seemed.)  2768 words before I left for the city with M-, and I ended the day with a total of 3173.   Moreover, these are not just words tossed in to raise the count–these are writing-as-fast-as-I-can-to-keep-up words.  Read the rest of this entry »

Going back to book one, now Oath of Fealty, because we’re approaching the 2-months-to-pub data.   Travel times, in Paksenarrion’s world, mean that news travels very slowly indeed.    The new group overlaps the end of Oath of Gold by some days, for that reason.   People act on what they know or think they know–and they don’t act on knowledge they can’t have for another five or ten or fifteen days.

So the very first small bit of Oath of Fealty is set on the night Kieri Phelan begins his journey to the east…and the snippet you’re about to see begins the story proper, a little later–the time it takes for a courier to get from Vérella to the Duke’s Stronghold. Read the rest of this entry »

Having shipped off Book II late last night,  I’m now shifting to Book III until Editor comments on II.   The transition from the end of II to the start of III is fairly seamless, leaving aside what two certain people did for a few hours.  Imagination is your friend in the wilderness.   (It wasn’t wilderness, but oh well.)

Read the rest of this entry »

So, today,  I faced the need for another chapter.   Yes, another chapter must be included.    And I think the previous chapter needs to be split (for story-logical reasons) so that its latter part becomes the first part of the new chapter (which presently rejoices in the designation of Chap-18a.)   Some research in Oath of Gold reminded me of specific persons the right age to know the relevant bits of history who were still alive then…and thus should still be alive now and able to recall said bits. Read the rest of this entry »

First two chapters of the revised POV are done…or rather, they are done enough that they went off to two readers, with some process questions in addition.

If those chapters do what I hoped, and the answers to the process questions indicate a clear path for the next few POV chapters, I won’t need to do much to some of them…the scene is set.   Some spoilerish details follow.

Read the rest of this entry »