Merry Christmas

     I've found that trying to write between thanksgiving and new years is an exercise in futility.  I'm afraid there are just too many things to get done.  That's not to say it's a bad thing, I'll be the first to admit I love the family gathering, and all the work that Irma and I have to put in to get things ready are worth it.  So, Imperfect Hope has taken a back burner, writing wise.  I have, on the other hand, been mulling over some ideas that seem to have promise.  For example, Remy's tale (he's Cerryn's younger brother, who'll play a more important role in part two) will likely include quite a bit a action at sea as I parallel his, Cerryn's, and Randir's lives while their paths converge.  He's going to have an interesting life at sea while his big sister becomes a questor...

     Randir's tale has taken on some added complexity in my notes, I've cemented some thoughts on how I'm going to foreshadow his relational challenges with Cerryn later on in the tale, by the time he meets her, his fears (shared by most kel warriors of the k'tath) of Il'cha bond pairs ("soul-mates") and the tragedy that almost always dominates their lives make him a reluctant companion.  Cerryn's own experiences will drive her away from him for entirely different reasons based on her own misinterpretation of the life of a questor.  This despite the need for them to essentially create a synergistic team, something that the Valnar (guardian demi-gods) are trying to create by bringing them together in the first place.  Sounds like a soap opera?  Hopefully I'll find a not so blunt hammer to drive this storyline forward when I get to it in the writing stages.

     Anyway, all these thoughts have been bouncing around in my skull while hanging on a ladder 22 feet up in the air clipping christmas lights on the gutter.  In previous years, we've had a routine for setting up our lights, but this year we decided to begin phasing out the old incandescent bulbs and replace most of the outdoor lights with LED-style.  However, I realized early on that I'd have to change the pattern of string alignment, since the bulbs are closer together, strings shorter, etc.  On the other hand I can link more of them together without overloading a circuit.  With the old strings, I'd marked places on the cord where particular strings stretched across the peaks of our roof, so I could clamber across the roof with all the lights, stretch the lines out, and put them up in a short afternoon.  With the new strings, Not so easy...

     FIrst of all, I had to get new gutter clips for the different style bulbs.  Then, because I was linking the strings together differently, I had to experiment with different arrangements until I found an efficient one.  New wall clips were needed, and all this had to work with the older bulbs I was keeping (the christmas train on the side fence, draped lights along the limestone wall, and lighted wreathes beside the living room picture window).  Oh, and the sidewalk lights and crystal angels...(It sounds like a lot more than it is)  TO make a long story shorter, It took three days (2 half days after work, and one full saturday) to get to a working arrangement.  Next year it'll go more quickly.  I hope...  At least my balance is still fairly good.  If not the stamina from climbing up and down the ladder...

     It was worth it.  Our four year old grandson, Adan James practically glowed as brightly as the crystal angels when he saw it lit up last week for the first time.  Ditto his eight year old brother, Jose Antonio, and our granddaughter (also 4) Tatiana (when she saw it a couple of days later).  Oh, and Irma and I are happy with it as well (albeit with a few modifications next year to clean up the window treatments.

     Anyway, we're down to planning christmas eve dinner.  Irma will be doing the Enchilada's, Tamales, and such (the request from half of the "kids"), I'm dry aging the 8-rib rib roast (the request from the other half) even as we speak, and will hit it with the spice rub it wednesday night.  She'll put it in the oven thursday afternoon before I get home, then I'll finish with the gravy and the bearnaise sauce, roast potatoes and yorkshire pudding.  Christmas eve we'll have all of the kids and spouses, grandkids, some inlaws, and even our grand-puppy...  At last count, there'll be 22 of us for dinner. 

     After dinner, Irma and I will sit back and let the whole thing settle.  I'd have a scotch, but I have to be at work at 600 am christmas day, so I'll save that for the weekend...

     Anyway, If I don't write before then, Merry Christmas to all of you...

Clear skies...
Jim

December already?

     I gave in and wrote about stupid FAA tricks last week.  Had I only waited, I would have had much more to write about this week.  Ah well, I'll put last weeks antics in the composting bin and perhaps dig it up in a few weeks after it has finished moldering...

     Imperfect Hope has slowed somewhat, mostly due to shorter writing sessions of late as other things to deal with continue to crop up.  I did give in and do a bit of a rewrite on pieces of Randir's first scene, there were some poorly blocked out sections that just didn't mesh with what I'd written about K'tath culture.  However, in rewriting, I discovered some new questions that I mulled over this week, aspects of the k'tath culture that need detail.

     Basically, I was starting Randir's tale "in media res"  (the story has already started, and I pick up the action in mid-act) during his naming quest.  The naming quest is another aspect of the k'tath that I'd noted decades ago in Brandis' IFGS history, that Kel and Sen went on a quest early in their youth to discover their "true name".  Other than this aspect of k'tath culture existing, I'd never gone beyond "this happened, and so now...".  However, Imperfect Hope offers me a chance to show this detail much more colorfully.

     One idea that emerged from the primordial soup I call "my imagination" was that all K'tath had a childhood name that stayed with them while they were young.  When the time comes for their name quest, their krathen family performs a tiny bit of krathen magic that effectively takes the name from the younglings memory (not completely, but enough that during his journey, he'll have more and more difficulty remembering his child-name until he discovers his adult name, at which point child name is forgotten completely.  I've combined that with the coming of age aspect of the youngling learning whether he will become Krath, Kel, or Sen during the same quest, it is tied in (some as yet undecided way) to the selection/bestowment of the adult name.  In Randir's case, I'm still writing the naming quest scene, so exactly how it comes about is uncertain, I've several ideas competing for the lead right now.  At some point, one will seem to be the best fit, and it will come together.

     This is an aspect of writing that comes up with me rather often.  THough I've the plot line well outlined, event following event etc, I'll be writing, and some small aspect of the scene will take on more and more life as my imagination grabs it and runs with it.  Sometimes it'll be good, sometimes it'll flop badly, and I'll end up dumping several paragraphs during the first draft because it just doesn't fit.  A fair amount of it ends up staying just to see if I can come up with ideas that will make it fit better later. 

     In Randir's opening scene, however, I've pieced together lots of lore from the IFGS D'oril and added much more content.  I'm expounding on the concept that the guardians (Elorna and the others) have moralistic rules that prevent them from interfering directly in the affairs of their chosen people, that the dark guardians (Seta and the others) have the same rules, but are more able/willing to bend them, which tends to give them temporary advantages in the god wars that they wage/play in.  The balance expects that "the bad guys" will cheat, and that "the good guys" have to work extra hard to overcome.  That, in essence, is one of the themes of Imperfect Hope. 

     I think the concept that "the bad guys cheat, and good has to work extra hard as a result" is a hidden theme in many fantasy works.  Sometimes it's hidden under the guise of "evil takes the easier path, but in the end...", sometimes the badguys find a loophole in some natural law.  In my case, I've set up a higher authority that the guardians and dark guardians answer to, this mirrors to some degree basic human civilization.  Criminals ("evil") will bend or break the rules to get what they want, sometimes because they don't care, sometime because they assume they won't be caught, and sometimes just because they want to evoke a little chaos in the world.  Am I equating my dark guardians with criminals?  Not really.  Just pointing out some behavioral similarities.  I think.  I'll have to take half my brain out and have a dialogue with it.....

     Anyway, more to come, I'm sure. 

Clear skies,
Jim