Deborah J. Ross's Blog, page 142

Baycon Day 3 - World-Building and Sex in Space

Sunday was a day of panels and networking for me. The first was a schedule panel, Sex in Space. I asked to be on it because (a) sex is interesting and fun to talk about; (b) I know a little about it, having attended Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop in 2011and read various materials from NASA -- not about sex; they aren't confirming any direct knowledge -- but social psychology stuff. You can read my previous discussion here:



Sex in Space:Part One: How Do We Manage To Do It?

Sex in Space: Part Two - Things That Can Go Wrong

Sex in Space: Part Three: No Babies, Please



People Are Sexual, Even In Space



Of course, I was moderator. The panel was a challenge, given the tension between "dirty old man" prurience oh-how-hot-to-screw-in-zero-gee and plodding, overly technical scientific details about the inner-ear birth defects mice develop when gestated in a space station. I think one of the most difficult things about a panel like this is not the subject material, but how hard it is to really listen to one another. So many people are guarded in one way or another about sexuality, all too often retreating into off-color jokes or clinical detachment. Is it possible to talk about sex in space without it turning into an R-rated peep show? How do we include emotions and relationships in our discussion? And leave egos -- our need to appear hip and experienced and oh-so-suave -- aside?





I had a badly-needed break and then met various friends for dinner, including Juliette Wade. Juliette runs the world-building blog TalkToYoUniverse and various Google + Hangouts on the subject. She and I are writing buddies, and we'd each wanted to do readings, but hadn't been scheduled. So we convinced Programming to add us as a panel+reading on Worldbuilding. Despite the expected initial nervousness -- it's not in the printed program; will anyone come? -- we walked in to fine a nicely sized audience and once we started talking about world building, we took off. The thing to take away is this: there is no single right way to create your world. We discover things in different order and at different points in our writing process. Here are some examples of how we do it. (In the weeks to come, I'll be blogging about world building in The Seven-Petaled Shield and also Collaborators, so stay tuned.) Then we read. The audience was so great! It was one of those magical times when everyone feeds energy back and forth.



In the end, I offered my print-out to whoever grabbed it first, something I learned from Mike Resnick, and Juliette did the same. Happy authors, happy listeners.

Baycon 2013 Day 2 - Connections

At some conventions, I'm so heavily scheduled for panels, I don't get to actually attend any and listen to the discussions. Sometimes that's frustrating, other times, it's just the way things roll. Typically, panels and other events are an hour or an hour and a half long, wrapping up 5 minutes before closing to give everyone barely enough time to scramble to the next one. This time, Baycon scheduled 2 hours slots with 1 1/2 hour panels, which had the dual effect of ample discussion time, leisurely transitions, and far fewer panels. I think this is a worthwhile experiment. People, both pro writers/artists and fans, attend conventions for many different reasons. I doubt it's possible to create a programming schedule that fits everyone's needs, but trying different things is a good way to find the best balance.



So yesterday was mostly a schmoozing day, connecting with other members of Book View Cafe, as well as friends. I tend not to include Lists of Notable Names in my convention reports, and I won't do so now. Suffice it to say that it's a delight to meet in person fellow writers with whom I've been working with online. The internet creates its own kind of community. Well, many kinds, but mostly mediated through text -- emails, forums, groups, blogs, etc. Occasionally phone conferences and even less frequently video conferences. None of these substitute for face-to-face conversations. When the members of a community (in this case, Book View Cafe) are scattered not only across the US, but over the world, getting more than two or three of us together at the same time in the same place is nigh impossible. This is where conventions come in, because as pro writers, we often attend these anyway, so we seize upon the opportunity to "meet-up."



Despite the fact that a number of us specifically requested that we be on the panel on the Future of E-Publishing, none of us were. So a bunch of us went. The panelists included various writers, editors, and publishers, and I have no complaint about the discussion...except that BVC is on the leading edge of innovative epublishing. To the best of my knowledge, we're the first online author's cooperative, we have over 40 members, we've published work that made it to the New York Times Bestseller list, we sell our ebooks to libraries internationally, we include a wide range of genres (sf/f, Romance, historical fiction, YA, nonfiction, mystery, thriller, horror, etc.), and we are actively developing new models of cooperative publishing. Surely such a panel might make some slight reference to what we're doing?



So we made our presence known. At least, one of us went up and spoke to the moderator and got added to the panel. The usual result is that afterwards, panelists and audience members want to know more about us. Some of these conversations get as far as, How do I join? and a few of those go farther. Sometimes we as individual BVC members make contact with other groups of authors and we're still trying to figure out ways of supporting one another. BVC has an organic, consensus-based decision-making process that drives many people nuts and often results in very slow changes.



You meet people, you chat, you plant ideas on one another's minds. Maybe hearing how we do things will inspire other authors to group themselves together in ways that best serve them. Maybe some of the other seeds that are scattered bear unexpected and innovative fruit. Most will likely come to nothing other than a pleasant chat. But you never know...

Baycon - the Extremely Abbreviated Commuter's Version

Baycon is my local science fiction convention. It's in San Jose and I'm an hour's drive up in the mountains, and it always seems to be me a good (not to mention thrifty) idea to commute from home. Actually, it's an excellent idea to sleep in my own bed, surrounded by my own cats, and have time every day to get some work done. (Of course, many writers, including myself, bring laptops or netbooks to conventions -- you'll find us in odd corners or up in our rooms when everyone else is partying, pounding out our daily quota of words.)



Commuting from home has its price. It eats up 1 1/2 - 2 hours from my day, and it means a fairly firm departure time and no alcohol. (Twisty mountain roads at night are not a good setting for excessive fatigue.) I've never been much of a party-goer, being (a) a morning person; (b) happily married; (c ) not at all interested in getting drunk. There are parties and then there are parties, however. I've made some wonderful connections, mostly at publisher's parties and early enough so actual conversation was possible. By commuting, I pretty much rule those out. And most concerts, some of which I'd really like to attend.



Speaking of connections, here's a mini report of yesterday, along with The Highlight Of The Day. I had 2 panels -- Women in SF (with Ann Wilkes, Sandra Saidak and Sarah Stegall) and YA Fiction: More Than Blanking-out the Sex (with newly-published YA author Ingrid Paulson, Sarah Stegall, editor Daniel Hope, and Irene Radford). Both had lovely moments and genuine give-and-take conversation. And good moderators. The first panel asked questions like: what is a strong woman character? What is strength? Is it easier for women to be masculine than for men to be feminine? Can we envision sfnal societies without gender bias? One of the first things we did on the YA panel was to dispel the notion that you can't have sex/sexual-thoughts/sexual-feelings in a YA novel. What's the difference between a YA novel and an adult novel with a teen character or protagonist? Will you lose sales if you depict your teen characters using four-letter words? How has literature for tweens/teens/college age kids changed? What's the effect of social media on how YA readers hear about books and how have the ways they're reading changed?



Now for the highlight. After my second panel, I sat down at one of the tables in the mezzanine, where fan tables  are set up -- the area itself has tables and chairs and is a general hang-out  place. One of the people from the audience, a bright and earnest young woman, was there, and we struck up a conversation. The topic quickly switched from the panel itself to writing and then became one of those magical interactions, a chance to pay forward for all the support and advice I've received over the years. She'd taken time off from her day job to concentrate on writing; I told her how I managed to write either when I had an infant at home or when I held a full-time job as a single working mom. What writing issues she was struggling with; some different ways of looking at them; what makes a good critique group and what she needs from her beta-readers (and how to connect with good critiquers). Books and blogs that have helped me. Connecting with a fellowship of writers.



It was the High Point for me because I love teaching and the conversation was exactly the right one at the right time. Yes, it's ego-boosting to meet hordes of fans (although I have yet to experience hordes) but it's in many ways far more satisfying to have these one-on-one talks where both people are fully present, there's a give-and-take, and I walk away with the certainty that it has been meaningful to both of us. I need to remember that I too was once a beginner trying to figure out this writing business. I've made my share of mistakes, but I've figured out what works for me and I've heard a lot of stories about what works for other people, too. We don't have to re-invent the wheel if we're willing to be generous with our knowledge.



Here's a possibility. See if it works for you. I've heard it said that writing cannot be taught, but it can be learned. That learning does not have to occur in isolation. After all, when I encourage and educate a new writer, I contribute to there being more wonderful books for me to read!

Nebula Banquet thoughts

You can read all about who won what award. Robert Silverberg's comments as Toastmaster were worth the price of admission. As were my dinner companions. I Shall Not Name-Drop.



Two gems from the evening: Upon accepting the Solstice Award (to non-writers, living or dead, who have contributed to the field) for his late father, Nick Sagan quoted Carl as saying, "Our lives are made significant by the courage of our questions."



And... there is no truth to the rumor that Connie Willis plans to renounce her Grand Master Award in order to become eligible for the Solstice Award. None whatsoever.

Deborah’s Excellent Nebula Awards Weekend Adventure Continues

Saturday did not begin auspiciously. The Nebula Awards hotel
is in downtown San Jose, which is not noteworthy for the adequacy of its public
parking. After visiting one full public lot after another and having various
adventures which left the paint of my car considerably worse for wear, I
surrendered to the inevitability of having to pay a significant fraction of the
national debt in order to leave my car somewhere. However, with the sympathetic
reception of my tale of aggravation, I determined to leave that particular
episode safely ensconced in the past…at least until I have to get my car out of
hock.




As a consequence, I caught only the last part of the SFWA
Business Meeting, and I wouldn’t have been able to report on what transpired
anyway, it being SFWA-Sekrit. However, during the discussion of pirate
websites, a couple of points arose that bear repeating and are nonspecific
enough that nobody is going to track me down for indiscretion. If your
traditionally-published books appear on a pirate site, notify your publisher,
who are, after all, adversely financially affected and often have the legal
departments, etc., to deal with it. Also, some of these sites do not actually
sell pirated copies of books – they are scams for collecting credit card
numbers. This latter notion boggles the mind with its likelihood.




Fast forward through lunch and various conversations to the
panel on Writing For Young Adults (with Leah Bobet, Sarah Beth Durst, Steven
Gould, and E.C. Myers). Herewith my notes:



Don’t be boring (especially for kids). Write well if the
subject matter is difficult, and make sure every element is there for a reason.
This advice strikes me as being rue for all fiction.






E.C. and Steven were asked if they got any push-back for
being male YA authors; the common perception is that YA assumes a female
protagonist in the same way science fiction has in the past assumed a male
protagonist. Writers have been told there is “no market for boy books with
romance,” at which the audience snickered. 




Regarding how much information to convey, kids are used to
gaps in understanding and trust that eventually these gaps will be filled in.
This seems to be one of the differences between YA and adult fiction, as adults
already have an accumulation of knowledge and are less tolerant of the
unexplained. “Expository burden” is the accumulation of unexplained material
that the reader has to “carry’ through the book; before you load more on, resolve
some by Making it Clear.




If your book has something controversial, make sure it’s not
in the first few pages of the book, since these are the ones parents are apt to
scrutinize to determine whether their child may buy/read the book.




Categories (like the division between YA and adult lit)
change over time.




One of the challenges in YA is “getting the parents out of
the way” in order to give the kid protagonists agency. Healthy, intact families
are rare and hence, present both difficulties and rewards.




Notes on Writing The Other (with Saladin Ahmed, Aliette de
Bodard, Ken Liu, and Kim Stanley Robinson): Use primary sources whenever
possible; be aware of the “thickness of filter” and immediacy that are often
lacking in secondary sources. However, secondary sources can be valuable for
providing context and explanation (i.e., of elements assumed/implied in primary
sources).

If you’re writing about a literate (or oral but later
recorded) culture, seek out poetry and memoirs as especially powerful
portrayals. Find “a voice that’s not your own.”




Why is writing the other valuable – for the author? For the
reader? Ken Liu pointed out that an outsider’s perspective can illuminate that
of an insider, provided the power imbalances are not too great. Saladin Ahmed
commented on the power of stories to counteract prevailing (hateful) stereotypes
on an individual-reader, if not a broad societal level.




Aliette de Bodard discussed the dilemma of how much
information to include. Overload leads to confusion vs “watering down a culture
and selling it for parts.”




There is a tropism toward the fantastic and a desire for,
not fear of, the other.




Ken Liu mentioned that class distinctions are important in
the US but are not treated the same as race, religion, sexual orientation,
etc.  Related to the commonly held belief
that we are an upwardly-mobile society?




Age is an “otherness,” not only from other people but from
ourselves.

Nebulas, first day, afterthoughts

I didn't take a lot of notes during the panel on Shared Worlds that I was on, for which I expect to be forgiven. It seemed more important to pay attention to what everyone was saying. However, I did scribble down something Robert Silverberg said about collaborations, and it strikes me that every writer who is considering this and aims to build a professional career needs to consider it. When you sell a collaboration (to a publisher, remember this is old-school writing career model) you need to get an advance that is at least twice what you would have gotten individually.



(My own thoughts) -- There are many reasons for embarking on a collaboration (as opposed to a novel that's basically ghost-written, with the senior author's name added for sales shiny-ness). Saving time isn't one of them. A good collaboration is not half the work of a solo novel. It's at least twice.



It behooves us all to pay attention to whether we are good collaborators and if so, under what conditions. Sometimes, what makes us good writers (we're visionaries, we answer only to our inner muses, we are pig-headed and recalcitrant, much like our cats) can make it challenging to Play Nicely With Others. Others of us find inspiration and creative nourishment in the process of working together. With some people -- but not others. Pay attention. Play to your strengths.



Tomorrow, the second day (with better notes, I promise!)

Deborah Waves Hi From The Nebula Weekend

The 2013 Nebula Awards Weekend began rather spectacularly for me with a panel (typically, if you get to be on a panel at all at the Nebs, it's only one -- and it's a big deal, at least for me, because the audience is professional writers). My panel was Writing in Someone Else's Universe: What are the rules? How can you push the boundaries?



My co-panelists were (takes a deep breath) Robert Silverberg, John Scalzi, Terry Bisson, and William C. Dietz. The discussion was amazing, ranging from writing in established universes (whether literary, film, or games) to shared-worlds that are created by a group of authors to collaborations to fanfic. Silverberg shared about working with Randall Garrett in the days of John Campbell's Astounding magazine, when he (Silverberg) was a "youngster" and still a student, and with Asimov at the very end of Asimov's life. Dietz writes not only his original fiction but video game tie-ins; he talked about what it's like working with a committee of mostly very avid but very young game designers. We veered into a discussion of copyright with John Scalzi's adventure in a modern take on H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy stories (the first of which is in the public domain, but he asked for the approval of Piper's estate anyway). Terry Bisson has done an amazing range of writing, including novelizations (as opposed to tie-ins, which he has also written). One of the points that emerged over and over was the importance of your own creative vision, that some writers have the temperament and ability to Play Nicely according to a pre-set list of rules, but others will take the rules as a challenge and "do their own thing." Silverberg said that for a shared-world or sequential anthology, he preferred to write either the first story (the set-up) or the last (the wrap-up). And I held forth with my usual brilliance about both my Star Wars story and my Darkover collaborations. A great time was had by all.



After that, I entered decompression mode for lunch, attended a panel on What Happens to Your Novel After You Turn It In? which could have been about book production but kept veering into what the author can do for publicity, as several of the panelists had major chops in this area. The cool thing, for me anyway, was that this was not the "Publicity 101 For Beginners" but a serious discussion of changing role of publishers/distributors/wholesalers.



The evening's event was a mass autographing. Authors Of Note were assigned strategically-placed spots and the rest of us set up our tent cards anywhere we liked. So I hobnobbed with friends and was pleasantly surprised when a number of people brought books for me to sign. Signings, like readings, are impossible to predict. I see both as "paying my publicity dues" and a chance to meet my readers. Or reader. And in this case to also cheer the long lines for the better-known authors -- the fans waiting so patiently are buying books! and reading them!



And surely that's a good thing for everyone.



Needless to say, if you ever have a chance to attend SFWA's Nebula Awards Weekend, grab it. You don't have to be a member to attend (you just can't attend the SFWA Business Meeting, but the panels and awards ceremony are open to registered peeps).

Where's Deborah?

I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth, despite the long absences.
I've been wrestling with some physical problems that severely limit my
computer time, and here's how I've been spending that limited time:



Getting ready for the launch of Collaborators
(as Deborah Wheeler) from Dragon Moon Press, including a series of blog
posts about world-building and creating a gender fluid race. I'll post a
link once it's available, along with snippets.



Editorial revisions for Shannivar, the second book in The Seven-Petaled Shield trilogy. The first one, by that name, is coming out next month. You can pre-order the first one here.



Description: Eons
ago, a great king used a magical device—the Seven-Petaled Shield—to
defeat the forces of primal chaos, but now few remember that secret
knowledge. When an ambitious emperor conquers the city that safeguards
the Shield, the newly-widowed young Queen, guardian of the heart-stone
of the Shield, flees for her life, along with her adolescent son. And much adventure ensues...



Putting together a collection of short stories, Azkhantian Tales, which will be released from Book View Cafe June 11. These stories, originally published in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword & Sorceress formed the foundation for the world of The Seven-Petaled Shield and its cultures. There's a new Introduction about the process of exploring that world, as well as a sneak peek at The Seven-Petaled Shield.



Putting together a proposal for my agent to do magical things with. News will follow when I have it.



Working on editing 2 anthologies. News will follow as release dates approach.

GUEST BLOG: Steven Harper on Havoc In The Family

Can you keep a secret?  I totally based one of the characters from
THE HAVOC MACHINE on a real person.  Truth!



They tell you at Author School never to do that.  It results in
hurt feelings or even lawsuits.  Kathryn Stockett, author of THE
HELP, was embroiled in a legal battle over this very issue, in
fact.  But me--I'll get away with it.



The character in question is Nikolai, a boy of about nine years,
and the person he's based on is my son Maksim.



I first met Maksim at an orphanage in Ukraine nearly nine years
ago.  He was three, but looked two.  My wife and I talked to him
and played with him every day for two weeks, and he always cried
silently when it was time for us to leave.  That soundless weeping
was a dagger in my heart every time.  One of the greatest joys of
my life was when we told him he was saying good-bye to everyone
else and coming home with us.



Maksim did everything firmly.  When you asked him a yes-no
question, he nodded his head once, firmly, or shook his head once,
firmly.  He ran firmly.  He pointed firmly.  When he learned
enough English to make himself understood, he had firm ideas about
what a family should be like, and he voiced them firmly.



"We need to do a family activity," he would say.  "We have to go
to the park."  Or, "A papa is supposed to show his son how to ride
a bike," or "Brothers are supposed to help each other."


Maksim wrapped me around all ten of his fingers.  I would do
anything he said, and the slightest hint



In some ways, being a father to Maksim was easy--he was perfectly
willing to tell me exactly what he needed and when.  On the other
hand, the ferocious attachment between us complicated a number of
things.  Sometimes a parent has to say no, and a child does have
to learn independence.



Maksim has handed me a number of surprises over the years, and I
don't mean the "Guess what I found in the woods, I have it in this
box" sort of surprise.  Like many orphanage children, he turned
out to have a penchant for hoarding--including a stash of ice
cream sandwiches in his toy box.  He was violently afraid of
thunderstorms and of bathing, but swam through deep water like an
eel and learned to ride a bike in ten minutes.  He recognized the
McDonald's sign but hated french fries.  He struggled with math
for years, then suddenly tore through it like Einstein.



One of the main themes from THE HAVOC MACHINE is father-son
relationships, and how such relationships never quite turn out the
way you expect.  Thad, the protagonist, doesn't want to be a
father, but the boy Nikolai forces him into it.  Even before I
started writing about him, I knew that Nikolai would be quite a
lot like Maksim and his relationship with Thad would be firm and
filled with surprises.  And I knew that as the book progressed,
Thad would be forced to confront what it means to be a father,
whether he wanted to or not.



And Nikolai tells him what it means to be a father.  Firmly.



Maksim, now eleven, has so far shown no interest in reading my
books.  I'm wondering if, one day, he'll pick up THE HAVOC MACHINE
and say, "Wait . . . "  Or if I'll hear from his lawyer.



Don't tell him yet.





THE HAVOC MACHINE, by Steven Harper, is the fourth novel in the
Clockwork Empire series. 





In a world riddled with the destruction of men and machines alike,
Thaddeus Sharpe takes to the streets of St. Petersburg, geared
toward the hunt of his life….



Thaddeus Sharpe’s life is dedicated to the hunting and killing of
clockworkers. When a mysterious young woman named Sofiya Ekk
approaches him with a proposition from a powerful employer, he
cannot refuse. A man who calls himself Mr. Griffin seeks Thad’s
help with mad clockwork scientist Lord Havoc, who has molded a
dangerous machine. Mr. Griffin cares little if the evil Lord lives
or dies; all he desires is Havoc’s invention.



Upon Thad’s arrival at Havoc’s laboratory, he is met with a
chilling discovery. Havoc is not only concealing his precious
machine; he has been using a young child by the name of Nikolai
for cruel experiments. Locked into a clockwork web of intrigue,
Thad must decipher the dangerous truth surrounding Nikolai and the
chaos contraption before havoc reigns….





of tears sent me back to
those days in the orphanage and turned me into a helpless blob of
protoplasm.  It was hell keeping this fact from him.

Northlight: Evolving a Novel

After I submitted Jaydium, which was to become my first published novel, I began work right away on my next project. Or rather, I took a look at all the ideas and characters which were screaming inside my skull to be made into stories and tried to decide which one would cause me the most anguish if I didn't work on it first. High on my list was to rewrite the last novel I'd written before Jaydium. It had received careful attention, not to mention three single-spaced pages of critical feedback, from the editor who would later buy Jaydium.



I felt that if an editor had taken that much time and trouble with the book, there was something of value, something that perhaps I was now a good enough writer to bring out fully.



The book's working title was Weiremaster, and it was based on the world of my very first professional short story, "Imperatrix", which appeared in the debut Sword & Sorceress anthology. Weires are bipedal ape-like creatures, seven-feet tall, fanged, silver-furred, immensely powerful and receptively telepathic. In the world of "Imperatrix," they obey people of imperial blood. For the purposes of that short story, no further explanation was needed.



Now, years later, my world-building had matured. I wanted to know how these creatures had come into a human world, how the control worked, and how the dynastic characteristic had been established. I concocted an adventure which would lead my hero into the world of the Weires and back home again, changed. He would carry me -- and the reader -- along with him, a classical hero-quest. 




I began the story as Terricel, a young scholar, received word that the democratically elected ruler of his city had been killed -- shades, no doubt, of my own memories of the Kennedy assassination. "Imperatrix" had portrayed a worthy monarchy, with heavy overtones of The Divine Right of Kings. Now I shifted in my world view to a populist leader. After all kinds of political turmoil, a second main character appeared -- Kardith, a Border Ranger, looking for help in searching for her missing partner, Terricel's sister. And so the action began.



When I sat down to actually write the new version, I realized that the assassination had to happen on the page or not at all. It was simply too pivotal an event to tell second-hand. And twist them as I might, I couldn't seem to make the politics of the city anything but deadly boring. I wrote and rewrote the first 150 pages four or five times, until I was heartily sick of them. And they were still boring. The shift toward democracy had been right in tone but wrong in emphasis. This wasn't in essence a political story.



Then I asked myself, When does the story get interesting? I realized that everything up to the entrance of Kardith was preparatory. She came barging into the city -- and Terricel's staid scholarly life -- and set off the chain of events that made up the backbone of the story. Okay, I said to myself, let's chuck the preliminaries and get right to the good stuff. But what about the assassination, which plays a pivotal role in shaping future events? I moved the assassination in time to shortly after Kardith arrived in the city. And as I wrote about these events, something strange and wonderful happened.



Kardith herself started talking to me. 



I'd known she was brazen, obstinate, darkly humorous, an accomplished knife fighter.  But as her voice came clearer, I realized that she was telling me a much more powerful and moving story than I ever envisioned. Her courage and the abiding pain of her past ran like a counterpoint through the dramatic action.



You can't turn a story over to someone like Kardith and expect it to come out unchanged. By the time Kardith was done with it, there were no more Imperials and no more Weires. There was, instead, a far different world to be explored, and very human lessons to be learned.



One of the interesting questions that comes up is how much of the author is in the character. This was particularly relevant since Kardith is a knife fighter, and I used techniques from my style of kung fu (san soo, as taught by Jimmy H. Woo) in describing her fighting style. I'd never written a character who was so vivid and yet so different from me. But I never felt that Kardith was me; rather, she was someone I had something in common with. I think a writer needs the sensitivity and imagination to have empathy for the character she creates; there must be some bridge, some understanding, but the character must not be limited to the writer's own experience and taste. It was only logical that a character as colorful and determined as Kardith would shape the story in a new direction.



But the direction was not hers alone. She'd brought along Terricel and had given him a new name, Terris. In the original version, Terricel was a cipher, a place holder whose function was to take the reader along on the adventure. After Kardith was through telling her tale, I was left with a wimpy, Terricel-sized hole in the story. 



Terris turned out to be a more complex character than I'd dreamed, just as full of surprises as Kardith was, and more difficult to get a hold on. For one thing, Kardith's focus was intensely personal and emotional, whereas Terris had the ability to see a larger picture, to dream larger dreams. His gifts were those of empathy and imagination. He took Kardith -- and me -- clear across the wilderness to places and times I hadn't imagined existed. 



If Kardith was the story's heart, Terris now became its soul. With the two of them as anchors, I could now explore the political aspect of the story without turning it into a recitation of dreary details. The book acquired a new title, Northlight, which then became a metaphor for transformation. But the center of the story remained with these two characters, their dreams and passions, the web of their lives. In order to find that center, I had to be willing to let go of my preconceptions of what the story "was supposed to be" in order to discover what it could become.



Afterword: In the process of bringing out a digital version of Northlight, I refocused the cover image. Judith Tarr was kind enough to allow me the use one of her splendid horses for Karrdith's gray mare.