Paksworld

The Paksworld website has some new material on it–some of it you’ve seen here, but it’s moved there for easier reference.  And some has been expanded.   I had to hit my Refresh button several times (OK, once for each changed page) to see it, but there are now maps (under the Places/Maps) link, more on holidays (under the People/Religion link) and cover pictures for both the US Oath of Fealty and the UK Deed of Paksenarrion (under the Fiction link.)

Enjoy!

Though Paks is not a POV character in this group of books, she’s still a catalyst and, as such, quite busy.  I don’t know everything she’s been up to, but some of it I do, and it’s been fascinating to see how she operates, as a paladin.

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Those of you who’ve read Diana Wynne Jones’  The Rough Guide to Fantasyland know that the typical food of fantasyland is stew.  Maybe with bread.  Maybe, if you’re really lucky, bread and cheese both with stew.  Or alternately.

I’m not a foodie (lack the qualifications), but I do like to eat, and when I started writing the Paks books, I didn’t know about the “stew” convention.  Even though there’s some stew, it’s because I felt it fit that location (and pocketbook) and I had great fun inventing other dishes.   Food preferences and eating styles reveal character and offer multiple thorns for plot and character and setting to attach.

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Drawing fantasy maps always brings up the question of how far is it really from here to there…from, say, Halveric Steading to Chaya, or Fiveway to  Valdaire?  Eager readers may try to figure out the scale of a fantasy map and thus determine what the real travel distances and times “should” be.

For some of you, what I’m going to talk about is familiar–you yourselves have done long hikes, ridden long distances, and so you know what goes into “a day’s travel.”  But for those who haven’t, here’s why the map is only a rough guide.

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Last night, I started playing with my map image in the computer.  What would happen if…???   Well…first of all…I got it to black on white and not black on gray.  Then…how about a nice, aged-cream background so it looks old?  And wait, wouldn’t it be nice to have it kind of smudgy, like a map that’s been used a long time?   A little airbrushing with two different colors, using a tool that let me control density and opacity brought that out nicely.  I thought of trying to add, say, a blood-stain, or a blotchy mark from spilled wine or ale, but that would take more skill than I have with the mouse as a drawing tool.  It occurred to me (but I haven’t take the time yet for this, which will require going back to pen & ink, as I would have to for the “liquid-stain” effect)  that I could “distress” the edges of this strip map, too, as if it were torn or cut from a larger map for the convenience of someone who needed only that much.

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I’ve mostly-inked the “strip” of territory that’s in Oath of Fealty.   For those familiar with the Paks books, that includes the part of Aarenis from Andressat north–east boundary roughly Cortes Cilwan, west to the Westmounts…then north over the pass at Valdaire to include Tsaia from just west of Vérella east to include Lyonya to just east of Chaya.   Because Tsaia extends  north of the Honnorgat River and Lyonya doesn’t, this means part of Pargun is also showing.

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So…the kitchen table is now covered with drafting stuff.  Three sheets of drafting vellum for a smoother surface, taped down for security.   Scanned printouts of the earlier maps in the books (one enlarged by the person who gave it to me in New Zealand last year, and whose identifying info went *poof* somewhere along the line–it’s *almost* the same scale as the Gird map) are taped to the top layer of the padding in the correct (nearly) orientation, and the working sheet is over that.  Aarenis and Fintha are now traced on.   Bits of the north coastline of Old Aare are on, tentatively.  The coastline of the north (Prealíth from the mountains to the Honnorgat, and Dzordanya north of the Honnorgat) is on (with fingers crossed that it’s not *too* different.)   Certain necessary points have been marked (Chaya, Vérella, Valdaire, Cortes Vonja (which presents the usual problem for me…which side of the river is it on???) and I’m now working on the roads.  Sort of.  Actually I’m in here posting this.

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One really good thing about train travel is terrain.  Lots and lots of terrain.  Some of it isn’t useful for these books (south Texas brush country) but some will be (desert, mountains, sandstorms, grassland…)   In a car, I have to keep the car on the road and notice terrain and plants and wildlife only very peripherally (except the wildlife driving the other cars and trucks.)   In a train…though I can’t control where we go or how fast, I also don’t have to worry about it–there are tracks, and someone up front with their hands on the controls.  (Or so I’m told.)

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Since Holy Week kept me away from writing or posting new stuff last week, it seems appropriate to share a little background material on the holidays and celebrations of the Paksworld universe.   (The main religious background material is here for those of you just joining the party.)

The biggest–recognized in all the religions though celebrated differently–are the four big astronomical markers: the Eveners (spring and fall) equivalent to our Equinoxes, and the shortest day/longest night (Midwinter) and longest day/shortest night (Midsummer.)

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I went back to the scene that was giving me such trouble days ago and saw that what was missing was the other part of what they discussed (besides having the wrong number of dead people–hate it when that happens.   If A says there were six killed, and B says four, and both were there and neither lied…the writer has had a lapse between pages.   Which is better for the plot?  Pick one and stick through it in all subsequent scenes.)

And that was magic stuff.    A doesn’t know that B has magery of the old type.  B doesn’t know that A has some elven abilities and a whopping dose of taig-sense.   B doesn’t know what taig-sense is, and A only knows oldstyle magery by repute.    These are not the same but there are overlaps, and of course similar objectives…people want power so they can accomplish something with it, and those who have power (want it or not) must learn to use it to accomplish things.

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