P.C. Hodgell's Blog, page 25

tagmeth @ 2009-07-08T16:22:00

This is after the library release party, which went very well. About 19-20 people showed up, more than I was expecting. And I found that I could speak. That sounds strange, but since I stopped teaching and became a virtual hermit, I've become pretty inarticulate. Not that I've ever been very good at small talk, but it's nice to know that I can still talk about what matters.

Anyway, below if the first bit of Novel 7, as helped by your comments. What do you think?

Chapter I: Winter Solstice...

tagmeth @ 2009-07-03T16:50:00

Thanks for all of your input on the tree problem. I think, as a result, that I'm going to use a modified version of the Japanese Onbashira log riding festival, which gets away from a lot of the mentioned problems and introduces new possibilities. Hopefully this peculiar event won't be too familiar to readers -- well, it shouldn't be when I get done with it. Will post the segment when I've polished it. Again, thanks for helping me think this through.

tagmeth @ 2009-07-03T09:36:00

Thanks for all the answers. You can see why I was confused. The trunks have it six to five with Simon casting the deciding vote. The situation in the story is that Chingetai has cut a big tree to burn to hasten the coming of spring. It's sliding downhill straight toward the village like a battering ram. I was going to say that he had messed up (again) and cut it on the wrong side so that it's coming down much too fast. Ponies are roped to it, trying to brake it, but they haven't enough ...

tagmeth @ 2009-07-02T17:09:00

Here's a technical question for you: if a cut fir tree slides down a mountain side, will it go faster top first or butt first? Also, it's dead.