{"id":1690,"date":"2012-09-27T22:38:55","date_gmt":"2012-09-28T04:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=1690"},"modified":"2012-09-27T22:38:55","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T04:38:55","slug":"a-small-bouquet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=1690","title":{"rendered":"A Small Bouquet"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a small bouquet of gratitude to someone on the list who–reading the snippet–found an inconsistency with Oath of Gold<\/em> and emailed me privately about it overnight.\u00a0 So this morning I hauled out my copy of that book, and the manuscript, and knew he was right–it was an inconsistency and it needed to be fixed, if possible.\u00a0\u00a0 The book’s already past copy editing, so I didn’t know if it could, but I set to work looking for the smallest possible fix that wouldn’t mess up any other previous books.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Since he emailed me privately (which I very much appreciate, before I’ve had a chance to fix things) I don’t know if he wishes public acclaim for saving the writer from publishing yet another blooper…..so I’m not saying who, but someone here, one of your colleagues (those of you who aren’t the one.)<\/p>\n

But in all fairness, he deserves a bouquet, and so the rest of you also get to smell the roses (as it were.)\u00a0\u00a0 We’ll start with a picture of\u00a0 The Author Riding Her New Bike, or the Stripe-topped Purple Bikeflower:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are more of these pictures up at my LiveJournal<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 This is me on the way back from the Dry Woods (dark mass in the distance)\u00a0 after riding up there from near the house and nearing the ditch crossing.\u00a0\u00a0 You will notice I’m wearing a helmet and gloves and long pants and shoes…no safety violations here.\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks for all the bike advice I’ve gotten–this bike is definitely a better fit and safer than the other (which is however,\u00a0 set up on the bike trainer so I can make bad-weather use of it.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the results of my emailing a fix to the problem one of you contacted me about?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The fix is in (so to speak) and with any luck will appear correctly in the final version.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Again, many, many thanks! \u00a0 One of the best things was that the fix gave me a chance to suggest a time and place for something else–well, two somethings else.\u00a0\u00a0 And no, I can’t tell you.\u00a0\u00a0 But you can always compare the snippet as posted here with the book itself, and make some new connections.<\/p>\n

What else?\u00a0\u00a0 A snippet?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This deserves another snippet, but with the hope that it won’t generate another Oopsie on my part because eventually “Yes, we can squeeze that in”\u00a0 becomes “No, of course not, what were you thinking?”\u00a0 However, if one of you bright people spots one that’s quickly fixable…fine.\u00a0 Note that because I used a break above, there’s none here, so if you’re really spoiler-averse, don’t peek below the dotted line.\u00a0\u00a0 This is from an earlier draft, as it was easier to find than hunting through the whole big book file.<\/p>\n

Who: POV is Arcolin, in Aarenis, near Ifoss<\/p>\n

………………………………………………………………………………………..<\/p>\n

Arcolin finished the day’s report just as Burek came to his tent.<\/p>\n

“Captain, there’s a fellow out at the gate who says he knows you and must speak with you.\u00a0 From Horngard, he says.”<\/p>\n

Arcolin’s stomach lurched.\u00a0 “Horngard?\u00a0 Did he give a name?”
\n“No, captain.\u00a0 That’s why I made him wait outside the camp.\u00a0 Or I can bring him myself.\u00a0 He’s armed, but not like us.\u00a0 A short thrusting spear and a short curved blade.\u00a0 Do you think he’s one of Alured’s men?”<\/p>\n

“From Horngard?\u00a0 Unlikely.”\u00a0 Not even Siniava had attacked Horngard, though he had taken Pliuni and threatened the mountain kingdom.\u00a0 “I’ll see him,” he said.\u00a0 “Bring him here.”<\/p>\n

“Leave his weapons outside the gate, sir, or outside the command area?”<\/p>\n

“Let him retain them.”<\/p>\n

Burek gave him a startled glance then turned and went back out.\u00a0 Arcolin grimaced, then went to the back of the tent, to his private room, and opened the little casket.\u00a0 Gold gleamed in the light that came through the tent canvas.\u00a0 Arcolin put on the ring, just in case, but turned the dragon’s head inward, also just in case.\u00a0 It could not be, but…just in case.\u00a0 He left the earrings, the necklace, and the bracelet in the casket, then pulled out his dagger and stared at it a moment.\u00a0 His father’s parting gift, it bore the family crest on the hilt, hidden under the thick leather wrapping he’d put over it.<\/p>\n

Kieri had understood family troubles, estrangement, a flight in the night.\u00a0 He had never asked more than that.\u00a0 Arcolin felt sure Kieri had known there was<\/span> more than that, but in all the years he’d never asked.\u00a0 “Somewhere in the Westmounts,” he’d told Kieri, as he’d told Aliam Halveric, and that was true.\u00a0 “Some little place you’ve never heard of,” he’d told Kieri, which was not true.\u00a0 His heart twisted when he’d said that.\u00a0 It twisted now.<\/p>\n

What to do. He must see the fellow, hear what he had to say–but he was Count of the North Marches now, a vassal of Tsaia’s king, a prince of a tribe of gnomes, and–not least–commander of Fox Company under contract to Foss Council.<\/p>\n

Whatever the problem was, it could not be his problem.<\/p>\n

………………………………………………………………………………<\/p>\n

Well…maybe.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But it’s about to walk in the tent, that problem.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And there’s another visitor on the way.<\/p>\n

Arcolin’s always been an enigmatic character to his writer.\u00a0\u00a0 Very controlled, contained,\u00a0 a very good commander (as Paks realized) but she, as a private, knew nothing about his life.\u00a0\u00a0 Neither did I, except that unlike Dorrin (whose background opened to me quickly) and Kieri (about whom I wrote many thousands of words that didn’t go into the original books) Arcolin was just the tall, dark-haired, quietly competent commander from…different places different times he told others, and me, about his background.\u00a0 The little he did tell.\u00a0\u00a0 Since he wasn’t a protagonist or POV,\u00a0 it didn’t seem to matter.<\/p>\n

But in the new books, he became a POV character and I began to sense conflicts in him that had not been evident before.\u00a0\u00a0 He wasn’t a knight.\u00a0\u00a0 He claimed a background with both Halveric and the Tsaian Royal Guard.\u00a0 How did that happen?\u00a0\u00a0 He’s not Lyonyan–so Halveric must have recruited him in Aarenis…maybe?\u00a0\u00a0 Or from Tsaia and then he went back?\u00a0\u00a0 Silence from my character.\u00a0\u00a0 He’s polite, urbane, compassionate,\u00a0 but not mushy.\u00a0 He was in love with Aesil M’dierra as a young man, as I (and you) learned early in this series…and clearly they know something about each other they haven’t revealed.<\/p>\n

And as it’s getting on toward midnight, and there’s more work to be done, that’s the size of the small bouquet–small, but I hope interesting and fun for all of you, especially my helper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a small bouquet of gratitude to someone on the list who–reading the snippet–found an inconsistency with Oath of Gold and emailed me privately about it overnight.\u00a0 So this morning I hauled out my copy of that book, and the manuscript, and knew he was right–it was an inconsistency and it needed to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,97,57,115,5],"tags":[112,28,107],"class_list":["post-1690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-beyond-writing","category-limits-of-power","category-reader-help","category-snippet","category-the-writing-life","tag-life-beyond-writing","tag-snippet","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1692,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690\/revisions\/1692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}