Update: Progress!
Okay, so the power went off again Saturday — we had six inches of snow on Friday, don’t know why the power didn’t fail until dawn Saturday, but whatever, some tree gave up, I suppose. Several, as there were scattered outages around and about. However, there weren’t as many power outages in the county and the weather wasn’t (nearly) as bad for the people fixing the lines, so the power came back on in seven hours.
Complete loss of the morning, though. I mean, as writing time. Overall, I suppose I’d be thirty or forty pages farther along if the power had stayed on the whole time, but in the grand scheme of things, I guess it doesn’t matter.
We’ve ordered a brand! new! state-of-the-art generator that should be much better than our old generators, even if they were working, which they aren’t. It’s a propane generator, so we’ll need a tank of propane to go with it. The whole thing will be installed in about a month, but not earlier, because for some reason it turns out the company is booked up with people wanting generators. In the meantime, we’ve also ordered a propane heater, which should suffice to avoid everyone freezing to death if the power goes off again. It couldn’t be delivered last week because the roads were so terrible, but I expect by next week sometime, we’ll have that. I’m not crazy about a propane heater in the house, actually, but I’m a lot less keen on watching the temperature gradually fall way below freezing.
Winter pictures in a later post because wow, very beautiful and also some weird ice phenomena.
Meanwhile!
Yes, I’ve been working on Tano’s next book. No, I haven’t finished “Midwinter.” Which I should stop putting in quotes and start italicizing, since it’s going to be about 180 pp minimum and that’s about novel length. Anyway, I know what I’m doing with it, I just set it aside for the present. I have lots of newsletter material, that’s for sure. I think I’ll finish it whenever, edit it, proof it, get or make a cover for it, and perhaps release it just before Christmas 2025. I realize that’s a long time away, but that means I don’t have to worry about it just at the moment, and it is very much a Christmas story, so it would seem strange to release it in the middle of summer.
The point is, though, that I’ve been moving ahead with Tano’s story. This story begins shortly after Tasmakat ends, because for various reasons that is the ideal time to begin the story. You’ll see why when you read it. Then we move through the winter country to the high north. I realize we have journeyed through the winter country many times. We don’t need to see it again, certainly not in detail. At the same time, you can’t build the characters without building the characters, so just saying, “forty days later, we came to the foot of the northern mountains” doesn’t work. That would be fine if we knew all the characters already, but we don’t, so I can’t do that. In fact, I’m doing less with some characters than I really want to and may find myself going back and forth through this section to add subplots.
That’s where I am now, in the middle of that journey. I have at least three important scenes before we get to the starlit lands. Not sure how much longer this part is going to take. I will probably wind up cutting and trimming and tweaking to get this part to be shorter while keeping everything important. That, sigh, is just part of the process for these longer books. Which this one will be longer, because I’m at 70,000 words and, as I say, not yet in the starlit lands.
Anyway, then we get to the starlit lands. Almost at once, an important, dramatic event happens — two events — during which Tano gets to think fast in an emergency, which as you know is where he really shines. That won’t be the first time he shows that ability either, not by a long shot, but I know just how that scene works.
Then we move through the starlit lands, north toward the sunless sea, and this part is vague because we’re not there yet and I have only a vague notion what we see and do for a lot of that part. I will just add that this is exactly like moving into the country of sand; I didn’t know what we were going to see there either, though I did know broadly what was going to happen. Same thing here. I don’t know what we’re going to see or exactly what anybody is going to do, but I do know broadly what is going to happen.
We meet the Saa’arii. Things happen (this is vague). Things happen with the Tarashana (less vague). A dramatic thing happens. Some sort of actual resolution happens connected to that dramatic thing. We’re set up for the next book. Ideally, this current book is totally self-contained, though strongly leading toward the next book. I don’t want any kind of cliffhanger. That’s my goal. But the overall arc is more clear to me than the separate resolution. Lots to figure out along the way and when I get there. I do think the more difficult plot element may not need to happen until the next book, which would be nice.
So … right now, here we are, traveling through the winter country. Empahsis on character, not a lot of time saying “Look, snow. Lots of snow.” I want to move briskly here, not so briskly as to lose any sense of place, but briskly.
The coming week should be much easier in one way, as we’re not expecting more ice (as far as I know). But, the semester starts today, so argh, a lot less time to write in the mornings unless I start setting my alarm for four in the morning again, which I suppose I will do. Shockingly, I have been getting up at five thirty some mornings! Ridiculously late, I know, but that won’t do now that classes have started.
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