excerpt, and a return to writing

     "Well danced, Questor".  Nunners was tired, his breath came heavily, but he kept up his defensive stance.  In front of them, the raiders regrouped, fresh swordsmen came to the front.

     "We've done what we could, serjent."  Cerryn glanced back at Randir again, his eyes were still closed, breathing shallowly.  "If you'll gather Randir and your trainees, pull back.  I'll hold them long enough for you and your men to escape."

    Before the serjent could reply, a bell began ringing at the land side of the causeway, followed by the clatter of dozens of boots.  "Sounds like the major's arrived with help, guess I'll stick around to see the end, now."  Nunners face held a wide grin.

     I wrote the above passage last year, it's near the end of a crux scene where Randir, Cerryn, and some militia help hold out against some raiders.  It was near the end of my productive time last year, when I still seemed to have some energy, despite the chaos of the times.  Much of what followed are some of my favorite scenes, from the end of the causeway battle, to the recovery scenes at the militia outpost afterwards.  Action, dialogue, and emotion.  It came together.

     That's not to say that what came before will all be tossed out, there are some good scenes, and most of what I wrote prior to the causeway scene is story critical.  I just seemed to hit my stride with that point, a stride that I hope to pick up again with the same fervor I had earlier.

     I actually managed to get in some good time on a break at work today, though I"ll admit that switching from ATC-Brain to Writer-Brain was wrenching.  I've said it before, 20 minutes isn't enough time to be productive.  Here at home, I can find more time, but finding the muse when I"m worn from atc is another story.  Anyway, I'm back on the tracks, just have to get that boiler going.....

     I'm working on picking up where I left off, specifically, when Cerryn awakes the next day.  Randir is still a mess (shadow magic is a real pain...), and the local surgeon, though skilled, is at a loss as to how to treat him.  Cerryn will have to make a decision, go after the traitor with the shadow knife, or find a way to help her "Cha'kel".

More to come...

Clear skies,
Jim

I'm back...

     A week off.  It wasn't nearly enough, but it was sorely needed.  I hope we'll be able to take our real vacation in september, we're tentatively planning to return to Kauai.  I'm looking forward to burying my toes in warm sand.....

     California was... California.  At least we missed the worst of LA, flew in to Ontario, the airport there is about two miles from where Irma's dad lives.  It was good to see Antonio, he's doing well, and can still kick both of our butts playing Dominoes...

     I really liked the Stanley.  Estes Park was cold and windy, but that's to be expected in January.  The history of the hotel is amazing, from F.O. Stanley, who was as good as dead from tuberculosis prior to his arrival in barbaric Estes Park (little more than hunters and ranchers in 1907), who built the hotel from the ground up to celebrate his return to health (and health related exile from the wealthy high society back east), to the decay and dilapidation in the late 80's when it was essentially abandoned and occupied by homeless squatters, to the restoration that began in the late 90's.  There's still a lot of work to be done, but it was one of the most comfortable hotel rooms I'd ever stayed in.

     It wasn't just the amenities, in fact, the room was fairly basic.  However, there was a sense of welcome there that you just don't get from gleaming steel and glass super-resorts.  Being off season, the hotel was nearly empty of guests.  The restaurant, Cascades, served first class breakfast and dinner, and though I didn't sample it this time, their single malt scotch list includes some of the really really exclusive scotches.  (I think, though I can't remember right now, that they list a 50year old Macallan, along with 25yo, 18yo, and 12yo Macallans.  Knowing what a bottle of 18yo costs, I shudder to thing what the 50 year old goes for.  Perhaps I'll celebrate the completion of my first novel with a glass of 25 year old at the bar. 

     Then there are the ghostly episodes.  I know there are skeptics out there, and sometimes I'm one, but...  There were things there that I couldn't explain.  The ghost/history tour was fun, we took it the day after our first night there, and the guides explanations of things that regularly happen at the stanley certainly meshed with what we experienced the first night (which was experienced without reading any other visitors accounts prior to arrival).  Perhaps I can be persuaded to write about those experiences later...

     Back to my own writing.  I chose to leave the laptop behind on our trip so I could truly rest, I think it was a good choice, I do feel creatively refreshed.  Imperfect Hope, first draft, awaits.  And perhaps that tumbler of 18 year old Macallen scotch, to be shared with the ghost of F.O. Stanley at his hotel.  Oh, wait, he was a teetotaler.....

Clear skies,
Jim

We'll be back, right after this commercial...

Hello, all...

Mirror site seems to be up and running, Though Scribefire took a nose dive on me yesterday, so I'll be cut/pasting until I figure out what configuration setting I need to change. I'll be evaluating which blog system I prefer over the course of several weeks/months. In the meantime...

I'll be offline for a week starting tomorrow, short trip to visit Irma's dad in California, followed by a stay at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park to regrow some brain cells. I'm considering doing some writing during my down time, though images of Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" typing 'all work and no play makes jack a dull boy' over and over come to mind. We are going to take a history/ghost tour while we're there, just for grins. I'll definately write about that when I get back, sighting or no sighting.

Besides the relaxation, We'll probably do some snowshoeing while we're up there. It's been a very dry year here in Longmont, but the mountains are at or above average snowpack levels for this time of year. There's something pristine and inspiring about the mountains this time of year, in a large part because there are not very many other visitors up there on the weekdays. There'll be some D'oril inspirations found, I'm sure...

Anyway, look for more to come after next week, and keep those cards and letters (or comments and emails) coming. Clear skies,

Jim

Mirror, Mirror

     Mid January has come and gone, we've been having an unusually warm spell, reaching 70 the last couple of days.  I guess this will counter the unusually cold spell we had in December.  Looks like snow this weekend...  Maybe...

     I"m starting an experiment, a mirror blog site. This one is through wordpress, a bit more detailed than blogger in some ways.  For one, it will allow more detailed commentary from guests, and I'll be able to create multiple pages.  One thing I'm planning on is a page for each of my writing projects.  I'll use the page to write down plot lines and character notes in more detail, and hopefully get some comments on interest, and perhaps suggestions, as well as provide a reference source for me while I'm writing.  I'll also be able to "tag" my postings, something I'll explore in more detail as I figure the whole site out.  Finally,  Wordpress seems to be more capable of adding music files and/or photo's, with one of the extra pages, for example, I can post a bunch of photos from vacations, or what not.  If Wordpress seems as useful as it appears to me, perhaps I'll switch to it as primary, but mirroring right now won't be difficult because...

     I'm using a new Firefox attachment, called Scribefire.  This too is an experiment for me, it will allow me to write offline, then easily post to both blogs with three mouse clicks.  As I get better at using it, I'll be able to track my categories more easily as well.  I'll know it's working when this post gets online.

     The D'oril Wordsmith page is http://doriltales.wordpress.com/  .  Give it a try and drop me a comment here or there to let me know what you think.  I did make a couple of structural changes to the blogspot D'oriltales site, and added "Blogs I'm following" on the bottom of the page.  (This may move to the side bar after I evaluate it.)

     Clear skies,
     Jim

The workings of D'oril: Homeland Security

One of the major plotlines of the Doril tales has to do with the successful (so far) resistance of the K'tath of D'oril against the Empire of Tallux's expansion. The roots of that conflict are rather convoluted, and quite frankly, vary both depending on the "historical" era, and whose side youre listening to. For the most part, the k'tath are defensively oriented, having made no expansive moves towards anyone else, but they have, on occasion, taken offensive action to deal with a perceived threat. The empire, on the other hand, is openly expansionistic. D'oril is only one of their conflicts, at times not even that important one. But how is it that the compartively small k'tath culture has been able to withstand the huge empire for so long?

Early on in my writings, I identified the success of the k'tath as due to the single minded skill of their defenders, the kel and the foresightedness of their leaders, the Sen. In short, the Sen could to some small degree, predict what the empire (or other invaders) would do, and the Kel, given this good intel, act skillfully and forcefully to head off whatever the next problem might be. Of course, in order for there to be enjoyable stories, their actions would always smack of desperation, the chance of success right on the brink.

As I've deepened my background, I've recognized that in order for the stories to be believable, there would have to be mistakes made by kel and sen, nobody can be perfect. The Sen's prescience has to have limits, as does the kel's physical and tactical skills. Some of those mistakes or disasters have become the core of future stories.

At any rate, my early images of the kel as "super warriors" had to be tempered. Flaws were introduced, for example the concept that kel warriors, over time, become mentally worn out by the rigors of their constant vigilance on the frontier. Thus, the importance of the Krath came into play. Kel, normally very solitary folk, would after a time have to be reintegrated into the k'tath society by krath healing. Call it a stand down from duty, vacation, or mental health break. In essence, kel would return to the krath, exhausted and perhaps darkened by their experiences, and have to spend time with a krath empathic healer, perhaps weeks or months. This empathic healing became the third leg of the k'tath defense, the renewing of their defenders will and ability. This also is the core of one of my earliest saga outlines, Brandis' long journey apart from the K'tath, and his eventual redemption. It's something to work on, another day.....

More to come soon, including that promised blurb, progress reports, and... Who knows...

Clear skies,
Jim

New Year, New Hope

As always seems to be the case, the end of one year and the beginning of another tends to bring chaos into our lives. Nothing more than the usual holiday madness and holiday air traffic, loads of private jets heading to aspen and eagle airports for the holiday ski season. The ski country airports continue to run wild, but the holiday stuff has subsided...

With the new year, I've always had a tendency to look back, not just at the last year, but the many years past. There are always regrets, mostly the people I've lost touch with, or haven't talked with or written to for far too many months. Maybe I'll write about that, either fictionally, or memoir-style. But enough of that for now...

Imperfect Hope is sitting at the 66k word level. Mel White suggested that many first novels end up being around that level, but for the storyline I've plotted out, I've another 60-75k words to go, at least in rough first draft. From past experience, I know I'll knock off about 30% of my wordcount during my first rewrite. This is based on when I've rewritten short segments, though, never a full length novel, so I'm not certain that pattern will hold. I already have spotted portions that I want to expand upon. Am I writing a trilogy? That's one of the areas I'm exploring as I work on Imperfect Hope. If so, this is the middle of three.

Next time I write, I hope to blurb a new segment from Imperfect Hope. Let me know what you want to read about, in the mean time...

Clear skies,
Jim

Things to do in longmont when you're frozen...

Not much to report on the writing front today, I've done a bit more rewriting of a weak scene, and I've done a fair amount of backgrounding, such as the last couple of posts. All that background stuff is buried deep in my head, and writing it has done a lot towards helping me recraft the storyline of Imperfect Hope. I don't expect to do much writing over the next couple of weeks, though...

Holiday air traffic seems to be down from last year, with the economy the way it is, I'm not suprised. We've 5 fewer controllers in the area than last year, though (out of 53 last january, down to 48), so we're doing more. I've been grateful that the weather has been reasonably mellow so far, other than the record setting cold over the weekend.

I finally ordered the Turntable-to-digital recordplayer and the slide-to digital reader for my computer at home to start archiving all of my dad's slides, photo's, and rather extensive jazz and other record collection. I've put aside an external hard drive with 500gb space to it up on, and I plan to make cd's/dvd's as I go along to share with the family. I'm not sure where I'll start, the record collection starts in the 1940's, perhaps earlier, and the slides... whooo. Probably more than a few embarrassing shots of your's truly when I was way to little to care about the camera pointed my way. (As well as other members of the family who shall remain nameless so long as they promise regular "protection" payments to keep the pics out of the hands of his triplets... (Evil Grin). Seriously, I do intend to share some shots, in some cases I'll be seeking help in identifying places and/or people (though I don't expect Art to recognize my Aunt Whoosit) The music, who knows... If I can make the music player on the web page work seamlessly, I might upload the tune of the week... If nothing else, it'll give me something else to write about.

Anyway, drop me a line to encourage me or harangue me, or even to just say hello from the long-long ago's, either thru comment or email.

Clear skies,
Jim