Addicted to WoLaS

originally posted by Chana Rivka Schreiber

Hi Janny,
I just started WoLaS this year, and I've never read anything like it, Thank You!

p.s. You should know that I haven't slept in 3 days. I've been too busy thinking about your crazy plots! :slight_smile:

originally posted by Hunter

Sounds like the books should come with a "Warning: reading this non-stop is potentially life threatening" type label!

I suspect I'll do something similar when IT is released… :smiley:

originally posted by Sandra Jacob

I just read the 8 existing books in May/June of this year and have started rereading them. It's definitely an addiction. I would say 'dangerous to your heart', lol.

Welcome to Chana Rivka Schreiber and Sandra Jacob! What a blast to hear from you both! I am very excited to see folks discover these works for the very first time.

Welcome to Paravia - Have at the chat area, and if you happen to be members of GoodReads, there is an indepth discussion (3 chapter sets per week) started this week, with Curse of the Mistwraith, and a series discussion, going by volume (They are doing Ships).

The groups you'd want to join are Beyond Reality (for the indepth) and Fantasy Book Club (doing Ships) and Fantasy Book Club Series (resuming with Warhost in August, but folders are up for all the books).

There are many old hands on this board; and new readers just getting going at GR.

Meantime, I am polishing the finished draft of the last chapter set of Initiate's Trial. Not long to wait for the new book.

originally posted by Chana

In regard to unhealthy obsessions: I was recently at the Brooklyn Museum of Natural History. They had a giant amethyst quartz chrystal in the mineral display, which was very exciting to me. I could almost picture a senior circle of Koriathain gathered around.

They were selling small samples in the gift shop, and I had to buy one. I now have a quartz chrystal, although I haven't figured out how to use it yet :smiley:

Will you do the un-Koriathain like thing, and clear it overnight in salt water? :smiley:

Minerals: entrancing for beauty, and no question. I cannot imagine why you succumbed!

originally posted by Sleo

LOL, I want to know when you're starting the NEXT book!

originally posted by motley

just over six weeks away for the next book… glad it's going well…

originally posted by Chana

Lol!! It was a splurge too, not inexpensive.
I can tell you for sure that this particular chrystal did not originate on Athera, unlike the focus that Elaira successfully cleared. Another deterrant was the lack of salt-water and iron buckets available for my use.

Sleo - when do I start the next? THE DAY that I turn this one in, and finish up the artwork.

No moss grows on this stone, when it comes to writing.

originally posted by Sleo

Janny - Whew! Glad to hear it!

Actually, in fact, it's already in progress. I have a slew of file notes and some 40 pages of 'bit scenes' in a file called Destiny's Conflict.

Turn-in looks like THIS:
The chapter sets get dispatched to the publisher.

I sit down (with the help of one golden test reader) with a list of ALL the Paravian terms used in Initiate's Trial, based on the spell checker's list of unrecognized words.

All new terms get defined.
All terms that have appeared in other books get 'updates' -

While this glossary sweep is happening, usually the NEW book starts roaring in. I take notes, stuff the files thicker. Destiny's Conflict starts to swell.

Then I CLEAR THE DESK of all the notes from Initiate's Trial and give this office the Scour Clean from Hell.

Then out comes the fat folder called Destiny's Conflict, and all those pregnant notes.

Then I start the artwork, graphic, maps, cover, etc - while mulling over how to tinker Set 1, which is likely to take a month or more to get 'right.' Then I push into 2, 3, 4 - in various states of hair pulling to get all the balls in the air - 5 set usually sets the gas jets going (look at 5 sets - they are often eye openers). By 10 - 13 set, I am fighting what I call 'middle bits' - by now everything is dovetailing but maybe not FAST enough, or maybe I have MORE to work in before I hit the finale sets. So there could be a kick butt slowdown, here to be sure all is in place.

Then, ye finale. Draft Done.

Then I look at the "long winter' - no reading, not much fun, no new surprises - just grinding that language into final polish AND making sure all the teensy details match and measure…and that all the upcoming clues for what follows are IN LINE with the forward reach of the final books, coming.

Whew.

The 'long winter' is nearly over, and am I READY for spring!!!

originally posted by Sleo

Wow! Watching the great story teller at work!

originally posted by Neil

what can I say? I am a fan.

originally posted by Mark Stephen Kominski

As I said elsewhere, what wouldn't one give to spend an hour going thru the discarded notes, particularly those that fell victim to "the scour clean from hell" ( assumption is that they'd been tucked away in nooks and crannies, which everyone knows are more interesting than the merely pedestrian stuff found at the bottom of the paper pile on the desk… :wink: )

originally posted by Chana

Would you consider auctioning off that 'golden test reader' position?

Well, Mark Stephen, that is an INTERESTING idea.

Problem is - most of the bits are just sentence fragments.

Only two bits actually got cut - one would have been nice but it didn't serve any function, except to slow the story down…and imply something ELSE that would have been more interesting by far. Can't talk about that one because it was laced into two other bits that would spoil.

But - there was one chunk cut that ran to about 2 pages - no action, it was more like a descriptive travelogue that told ME what changes had occurred to the town of Miralt Head…it got cut out to trim page count.

I could maybe post that as 'peek from the cutting room floor' - for fun.

The most got snipped elsewhere (and rarely) - a paragraph…I write the drafts tight for content, but the language might circle, be a tad out of order, or just need trimming.

I was very nasty with the red pencil, but truly there wasn't much to chop on this one, I'd written it EXTREMELY economically knowing I want a 2 vol. arc, and determined to have the ending I wanted where I wanted it.

originally posted by Derek Coventry

Janny, I think I'm sweating for you. Industrious does not begin to describe your pursuit of our happiness.

Derek - grin.

I know I've worked way too hard on this one.

:smiley: Soon it will be all shiny.

originally posted by HJ

Hey Janny,

Other half Geoff has just read CotM. He did read it about 10 years ago but for some reason didn't get hooked in then and couldn't remember details, who knows why. He has devoured it this time! It's such a joy to be able to chat about it with him. I've been driving him mad asking "What's happening in Paravia?" and "How is Arithon today?" Now I want to go right back and read from the beginning yet again!

I don't know how much I may have influenced him with my enthusiasm over the years, but he says to me "I'm going to go and read some Arithon now." :smiley: He's also finding the same bits really special and moving that I did on first and subsequent readings. It's been really fascinating. I'm really jealous of him, so much fab new material to read in SoM and all the other books. Can't wait for him to get to Stormed Fortress, I'm having to watch what I say so I don't give away spoilers. I am living with a WoLaS virgin!!!

Keep up the good work O Masterbard!

x x H x x