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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

More of D'oril's inner workings

Working on Imperfect Hope has required me to look at the motivations of the antagonists with a critical eye. One way I'd done that was to detail the what/why/how/when/where of the plan. In IH's case, I needed to know why the empire was changing their tactics, in the earlier era (Sha'te Valley and IFGS times) they were driving straight at their foe in order to obtain...
The what. I hadn't detailed the reason for the Empire's aggression in Sha'te very well, I'd sufficed it to say that they wanted something in the south, and the K'tath were in the way. For writing, though, I"ve come up with a bit of a deeper reason. Wintergems... Once common in the empires lands, they were used and abused in creating control collars for dragons and demons (among other shadowy uses. The proble being, that using them in that way kills the Heart-Pine from which wintergems come. With their own supply all but gone, they found a new source, within the forests of D'oril.

In other words, the empire's aggression is a war for oil. Sort of. Anyway, one way I developed this plot line was to write the empire's history. Here's a blurb from the rough history of the empire of tallux.....

(Excerpts from History of Tallux, 2nd to 3rd empires, Gurn and Prable dynasties)

.....The series of military catastrophes that began with the debacle at the Battle of Five Passes (called Sha’te Valley by those of the eastern continent) weakened the last of the Gurn emperors. Gurn the XIVth had long relied on the competence of his generals, and following the assassinations and betrayals of his best commanders sent to conquer the wilds of D’oril while bolstering their ally, the Dar theocracy, he assumed direct command of the campaign. This proved to be his undoing, for Gurn’s control over the Demonguard, and specifically their commander Beauty became tenuous at best. The shadowgems that allowed his domination of the demonguard from afar lost their potency, and eventually failed entirely. As we later determined, Beauty eventually slipped his masters leash, dooming any further military progress in the D’oril region. All military units were ordered to return as best they could. This retreat, as well as the failure of the demonguard to maintain an actionable rearguard allowed the assassins of the northern alliance the time they needed to slip into the empire’s heart. Many of emperor Gurn’s most trusted advisors then fell to the assassins, and the replacements he chose were at best unreliable. When Beauty himself returned to the homeland with the remnants of what he now considered his own army, the changeling allied himself with the traitor Jun. The ensuing civil war lasted only 11 months, but exacerbated by the relentless attack on the empires leadership by the k’tath assassins and their allies, the fall of the Gurn dynasty became inevitable. Though the rebellion was crushed, it was nearly 30 years before an effective emperor emerged from the crowd of pretenders to take the reins of the empire of Tallux.....

.....Prable the First was vastly different from the dozen false emperors that preceded him during the time of chaos, and nearly the opposite of Gurn the 14th. He’d been educated in the temples of Seta, and throughout his long reign, he relied upon them almost exclusively for advice. It has been said that he was the first (and perhaps the only) emperor who essentially was advised directly by the demi-god himself, for he always chose the high priest of the temple as his closest advisor.

Prable’s first tasks, of course, involved pacifying the outlying regions on the western continent that remained in rebellion. The campaigns showed his prowess, both as a military strategist, ruthless foe, and diplomat. Many of the rebellious lands returned to the empire voluntarily, often following the untimely death of several of the more prominent leaders who had espoused their tentative independence. The success of his navy in suppressing the coastal raiders that sprang up during the chaos times marked the end of the rebellion, but before he could turn his attention outward, he fell ill, and died shortly thereafter.

His eldest son, Zuli (known as Prable the second) also relied heavily on the divine advice of the priests of Seta, but his adaptation of that advice was often flawed. In his early bid to gain access to the wintergems of D’oril, he plotted the course of both naval, clandestine, and diplomatic campaigns. These moves were designed to gain a foothold along the shores of the northwestern shores of the confederacy that had arisen from the loose conglomeration of merchant princes and Baronrys in the interior of the eastern continent. Zuli hoped to avoid the costly war against the k’tath that brought the fall of the Gurn dynasty by employing some complicated subterfuge within the fledgling confederacy in order to gain control of one of several ports along the rugged coast. Any one of these ports would have given Tallux a much more direct route to the forests of D’oril where the wintergems were found. However, circumstances spun wildly out of his control early in the campaign, and it became clear that Zuli’s prowess in both strategy and diplomacy would never matched his father.....

The workings of D'oril, pt 1

So I’ve bloviated on magic and healing over the last week or so, explaining in a small way how things work. There’s a lot more involved, of course, especially the ‘color’ involved in how healing works (Randir’s healing style, for example, is more than just ‘laying on the hands’) but I’ll go into that at a later date. Art recently reminded me/asked a question about ‘cha, cha’kel, and indirectly, il’cha status. So, here goes...

Back in the ifgs days, when Brandis’ character depth was fairly limited, I tossed out the stereotype statement “Elf Friend” and applied it to a couple of characters who were either close friends of his, or could be considered such in their involvement with the k’tath in the d’oril games. Early on, I was pretty vague about the differences between “elf” and K’tath, and in a spur of the moment, pirated ‘elf friend’ straight from tolkeinish literature.

Later, as I began developing my own background and depth, the K’tath became more distinct from “elf” in many ways. At first, it was cultural, I borrowed somewhat from CJ Cherryh and her Kesrith/Kutath/Shonjir (Faded Sun) series of sci/fi, specifically the three castes of the Mri culture. Though I kept the words at first, as I developed more and more depth, I diverged the cultural divisions very differently from the Faded Sun trilogy and Mri. The last remnant of that appeared briefly in Sha’te Valley, where I had the kath (now called krath) veiled in the manner of the Mri. However, the desert-born mri costuming has no similarity to the taiga residing K’tath, so I’ve dropped even that last similarity. Now, the K’tath are mine fully...

From there, I began altering most other elements, trying to create a unique character. When I came to “elf friend”, I wanted to keep the concept, that there would be a very few human and other-raced individuals who the k’tath would accept as close allies and friends, but I wanted it to have a deeper meaning. In addition, I began to see the kel groups as a core of the success of the k’tath in war, because of their incredible teamwork within a fighting unit, unparalleled in humanish culture. Thus Kel brothers and sisters, originally merely a convenient grouping and naming convention, became an almost psychically bonded group of warriors. But even within that group, there would be even tighter bonds. Thus, Cha’kel, a pair of compatible kel warriors, usually of opposite sex, who formed a synergetic, empathic bond between them that enhanced their, and the kel’s abilities.

I later used ‘cha, appended to a name, in the ifgs when Brandis first referred to Cerredwyn (A human amazon character) as Cerredwyn’cha after Shatterman Pass. In that game, then two of them had lived (and essentially died) through a series of emotionally traumatic events. Cerredwyn and Brandis had been taken unconscious by some Jepali tribesmen, and then used as hostages in an attempt to get the commander of the pass fortress to open the gates. They were healed to bare consciousness by the jepali and displayed in front of the gate of the fortress, but the jepali made the mistake of letting the two of them see each other, With unspoken understanding (mirroring the empathic link of cha’kel) of the situation, they both thrust their throats against the knives held against them, in an effort to remove the ‘live hostage’ leverage that the jepali held against the fortress defenders. (Never mind that the defenders then sallied from the gates to recover Brandis’ and Cerredwyn’s dying bodies). I chose to apply ‘cha after the momentous/miraculous healing that they received afterwards, (and as fate/ifgs would have it, the two characters spent the next two years surviving a series of dark no-co minigames, thus cementing the ‘cha name in their character histories.)

When I began transitioning from IFGS mind set to author mindset, I worked on reconciling the differences in these and many other areas. Cha’kel held a different meaning than Cerredwyn’cha, or Brandis’cha, Elf friend was implied, but unnamed. And I still needed another level of bond. Elf friend would remain un-renamed for now, but for the new level, I created Il’cha. Il’cha was something much deeper, stronger than Cha’kel, or (name)’cha, and I added a level of tragedy to it, in essence it was a spiritual bond that, at least as far as the kel were concerned, sometimes went too far. Two ‘lovers’ or partners, too deeply involved with each other, such that in the fatalistic K’tath Kel world, sooner or later, one of them would die, and the other would suffer greatly as a result, disrupting the harmony of the kel group. Il’cha bond pairs thus became stuff of kel tragic legend, something admired, and feared at the same time.

Needless to say, this complexity, though clear within my own notes, isn’t easy to immediately explain in writing. In Imperfect Hope, Cerryn and Randir have progressed to ‘cha status, but because the tale begins well after the characters had first met, I’ve little chance to “show” rather than tell. If I do a prequel (which is looking like a good idea anyway), I can do just that, but if IH is to stand alone, ‘cha, Il’cha, and cha’kel (plus ‘elf friend’) will have to be explained, or shown in some manner. It’s something to work on.....

At any rate... Looking into the bitty details of what I'm writing about has helped strengthen the continuity of what I've written, and I"m planning to do a lot more. For one, there's the whole history between the K'tath and the Empire of D'oril Why is the empire so insistant on fighting them... More to come...

TTFN,
Jim