Richard Raley's Blog, page 16

Minor Pre Holiday Work-a-thon

230/242
Now the only question before me is do I rewrite the ending or not...
And how, I suppose...

King Henry Tapes Quiz (No Whiners Edition)

You asked for it, so here's 20 BAMF Quality King Henry Tapes quiz challenges!  Frankly...you'll probably have to work together and search through the books to double check the answers since I don't even know all of them off the top of my head.

How many Vicky Welf Sparkle Princess Rainbow Points can you win?

1. We Start Easy (for No Whiners Level): Who gave King Henry an Elven Blade?

2. Name King Henry’s four student advisors.

3. What is King Henry’s Guild number?

4. Jethro Smith often wins this award at the Asylum.

5. What is Christmas Ward’s Fairy Name?

6. What is Heinrich Welf’s Construct called?

7. Who was King Henry’s first "girlfriend"?

8. Have you figured out King Henry's birthday?

9. This is the last known Alpha of the Wolf Nation.

10. Horatio Vega’s “majordomo” is a Vega family member, what is her name?

11. The Divine Eresha wore many shells, which one was she wearing when King Henry first met her?

12. This vampire royal was never seen but ran the San Francisco Vampire Embassy when King Henry first visited.

13. This Intra team was set to play against Class 2009 at the BI Winter War before someone intervened.

14. Mrs. Dingle keeps this type of animal in her classroom.

15. Victim Number Splat, Victim Number Yank, Victim Number Crush.

16. What is the motto of the Guild of Artificers?

17. The Winterwarden teacher at the Asylum is often mentioned by Raj Malik with awe, what is their name?

18. How many faces did Isabel wear during “The Mancy Martial Artist”?

19. Moira von Welf’s maiden name infuriates her, what is it?

20. This rival and ruler of the Jaguar Nation represents the biggest challenge to Horatio Vega for Shifter domination.

BONUS ROUND (2 Points!!!)

What is the most horrific vampire sexual position as yet conceived?

DOUBLE BONUS ROUND (3 Points!!!)

King Henry knows Tad Code 12, so should you!

Stay On Target

212/234.

And the back has had it again, need a few more days off.

Good thing season 2 of the Witcher is coming out to keep me entertained right?  And all the other TV I need to watch like Wheel of Rand's Nightmare Jumper-Sweater-Thing-That-Eats-Souls Episodes 2 through 8.  And Squid Game.  And Arcane.  And the Great.  And Succession.  And...pfft...

For as difficult as this has physically been I really have spent all of my brain juice on this edit, without doing much else besides the occasional foot-soccer-ball game or Hearthstone video...haven't even been playing Football Manager, which is like...a miracle...

You guys didn't like do some group séance dark ritual shit to cure me of my Football Manager addiction and then accidentally give me a herniated disc did you?  Cuz...dude...not cool...

Anyway, very close to done with this Longest Round and moving on to the 3rd draft, which is already 1/3 done because of the Do What You Can When You Can mindset we're working with this go around.

Though I DO think I'm going to rewrite the last scene so its different characters instead of what I have now...which could take a few extra days and might add...who knows how many pages...but I think the new plan is a lot better and will be much more fulfilling for you readers.

I'm still trying to figure out how what was supposed to be a prologue to FM7 (oh, spoiler alert, post school story wrapping up, the books are going to have prologues and epilogues from the wider world, typically of a more antagonistic nature) has turned into a 240ish page novel...a really fucking awesome 240ish page novel, but still...

My name is Richard Raley and I might have a world-building, secondary-character motivation problem...

Pretty Useless Again

Can't type a lot.  Just...FYI.  Back is fucked again and stuck in bed.

Second draft of Everchanging Dilemma is also stuck at 2/3rds finished.  Have to be able to sit to work on that last third, so no bueno.  What I have done is print out the 2/3rds I have and I'm doing the third draft on that with my trusty red pen Cart Before the Horse Style.  Once I finish that, if I still can't sit for long, I suppose I'll change things up further and hand write the last School Story again just to keep busy on the idea that eventually all of this WILL get out to you guys.

So...everything is awful.

But I'm doing what I can!

Sorry I'm getting slapped around again, trust me, I'm 10x more frustrated by it than you are.

Now I need to go lie down.

Quick Notes Pre Thankgiving Edition

1.  Fuck turkey!  That's right, I said it!  Fajitas for Thanksgiving, woohoo!

2.  After doctor + groceries/pharmacy I am beat to hell again backwise and will be struggling to sit in a chair for the next week so expect more limited progress on the edit.

3.  That said, do feel like it's shaping up nicely and we're about 1/3 of the way through it.  Actually, it's such a comprehensive edit this time around that I don't think I need my "character" edit and will be skipping it.  Also as stated before Evelyn POV does not bleed into everything as much as KH, so easier that way.  I actually find writing Miss Strange easier than either Tyson (who makes my anxiety flare) or Vicky (way way too happy, plus EVERYTHING with Welfs is like fifty layers of politics deep so every comment or line of dialogue is this massive minefield).  Maybe even Darth Eva too.  Evelyn is...done with this shit and YOUR shit and ALL the shit, especially as we find her in this novel-lite.  Which nicely matches my mood at the moment...

3.  Better second X-Ray found thoracic scoliosis with 20% curvature in my spine.  Don't know the cause yet.  Wasn't there when I was a kid.  Could just be the weight for so long.  Also had a nasty fall in the bathroom 6 to 8 years ago.  Of course there's also the Betrothal story about me falling out of the car (oh yeah, true story!) only like I said, not there in childhood so doubt it was that.  Could be the weight loss not helping, since the bones and muscles and ligaments are getting all moved about and really sensitive, but...

4.  So...MRI, CT Scan, and an Orthopedic consultation are in my near future as long as insurance agrees.  Doc is worried about possible nerve damage and the like, herniated discs and all that.  Joy!  Guess I'll keep downing Tylenol and bathing in Biofreeze for awhile yet.

5.  But at least I don't feel as crazy as I did having these symptoms no one seemed to know why I had, so that's good.

6.  3 books came out yesterday I want to read, like my To Be Read pile isn't big enough already!  Granted the one plus of not being able to use a gaming controller is that I spend a lot more time reading and AM actually finishing a book a week once again, miracle of miracles!  Granted the new Outlander novel is probably 20,000 pages so...might take longer.

7.  Finally did some movie watching.  Shang Chi was great.  Raya and the Last Dragon was...weirdly similar and worse for the comparison.  Also made for 12 year old girls who read nothing but YA novels.  Which...fine if you're a 12 year old girl, they should have things they like, but...I am not one, so...that with the comparison made Raya a pretty poor two hours of my time.

Was thinking about it and the best way to describe Shang Chi is to call it the best Star Wars since Force Awakens (which had world-building problems, but we had hope in those days, before the dark days, before the Subverted Expectations Crisis).  Anyway, family saga, mom believing in the light, father pulled toward the dark, Father vs Son, Brother and Sister reuniting, great evil that wants to be released and suck people's soul/force out...totally works as a Star Wars movie.  With some amazingly shot fight scenes.

8.  Okay, back has had enough, going to lie down and read.  Enjoy your family and friends, eat up, and dodge the Rona!

Everchanging Dilemma Mini Tease #1

“She’s not showing yet,” Eva commented. “Her belly at least, everything else…would it have been that difficult to give her some panties?”

“Well established fact that the medical community does not believe in underwear, Reti.”
Eva blinked. “For the patients...right?”

We Continue Gingerly

Not stupido but arm is dead.  Back is...well, I'm figuring out how to cope better.  Using a portable keyboard helps.  Finally have my doctor appointment for more news on Monday.  Probably need a couple days at least to recover from more waiting room chairs.  Did do some editing today, 45/186.  One forth of the way, basically.  Then we move on to the next stage and start cutting.  Then formatting.  Then copyedit and...yeah.  Should be able to do a lot of that on my Kindle in bed at least...

That's all for later though.

Now I'm going to watch Wheel of Time and probably cry over how they've mangled my absolute favorite fantasy series from when I was a teenager (I imagine if you've read Wheel of Time and the King Henry Tapes that you might have put many of the influences it has on this series together by now...).

Well...at least we got Dune!

And here's hoping its not TOO bad...if they just managed like...Witcher quality...I suppose I'd take that...

Also season 2 of The Great to watch.

Huzzah!

Update:  First episode was rough, with some questionable changes, but not unwatchable.  Rand's ?wool? sweater, however, will haunt my dreams for the rest of my days.

2nd Draft Sputters Over the Starting Line

Still really rough here in crookedbackville but I did manage to position some pillows and lean just the right way so I could type a bit while in bed and we're making slight progress killing this beast.

Well...I mean...I edited/reworked 7 pages but now the whole thing is 2 pages longer so...

*looks at calculator*

Yeah, let's hope I'm able to start getting more done.

Especially since the OTHER math means I'll be adding 50 pages to this then very-much-novel at this rate...

Stalled Out

Insurance wanted a second x-ray (full spine) before they signed off on anything more expensive, so I was in a waiting room miserable for the better part of 3 hours a few days ago and now...everything hurts.  Sitting hurts, typing hurts.  Why my back being messed up makes my left ring finger scream I'm not sure, but...it's a thing.  Has been a thing for years now apparently.  Thought I had two small problems, now have one big problem!  Knowing is half the battle, so...yay?

Do feel better today compared to the last couple, but now I'm slightly paranoid about putting in too many hours per day and might have to throttle myself going forward until the docs figure this out.  6 to 8 hours a day sitting at a computer slightly uncomfortable being preferable to a marathon followed by days in bed wanting to gnaw my own arm off as it were.  

If I am stuck in bed for prolonged periods I suppose I can put the edit down for a bit and just go back to handwriting "War to End All Wars" again, which IS progress, if not the kind that will immediately get a MancyVerse story into all of your greedy hands.

Getting to do a lot of reading of my own, I suppose and finally watching Succession...so...double yay?

Anyway, here's hoping for some more healing and a return to progress this week!

Step One Down

Okay, Prep Reading is done.   28 notes to consider for the edits.  I really hate reading my old writing.  Even novel to novel you learn so much, go back years and it's really cringe.

Really...you always see improvements, it's just a matter of time and finally letting go.  Though part of you never wants to...and if you're a billionaire you even get to force your special editions onto everyone!

On one hand the writing in the earlier part of the series is sparse and simplistic but there's also an innocence and brevity to it.  A single-minded determination to be in your face and take no prisoners.  But...everything is more complex these days, the characters, the plot, the prose, and some of the scenes I craft with the way characters go at each other and even the writer can't decide who's in the right...chef's kiss!

Part of me just misses a bit of the brevity I suppose.  Although I did just write a 170 page story that had a nice little arc and got the job done with plenty of hints and world-building added on top, so...maybe it's just King Henry that needs to shut his foul mouth!

Yeah, blame that guy, he never shuts up!

What an asshole!

Some trouble I am having with all this experience as an author, not related to "Everchanging Dilemma" but "War to End All Wars" is that King Henry has advanced so much in my head, in your hearts, etc that with respect to the double timelines the Hep King Henry really is more civilized and complex than he comes across as the graduated KH in FM1.  I have to keep reminding myself to not hold back and think...oh yeah, he'd totally be that big of an asshole!  Even though...probably still a more understanding less in-your-face KH than unadulterated FM1 stuff.  Arcing into an arc...pretty tough!  Landing might be rough!

Although perhaps there's a weaselly out to say technically FM1 adult KH is middle age KH remembering what that felt like so maybe it's good that it's not exact?

Anyway, I'll start the second draft some time this week I hope.

My back is...I can still sit a chair at least.  But not as easily as last week.  Might need to take a day in bed.  Stop getting in street fights.  Give up the orgies.  Stuff like that.

Perfect excuse to watch all of What We Do In the Shadows Season 3!  RR recommended TV series for sure!  Oh, I'd love for Annie B to meet those dipshits...