originally posted by Ben
Bu-gg-er…
I was so looking forward to the thought of a concluding volume and then bang! Another middle one…
OK, yes, it will doubtless be very good but conclusion books tend to have more weight for me and, let's see, Alliance of Light has been being told since 1997, AND there's two more parts to go?
As you may gather, I'm wondering if we are going to ever reach the end, bittersweet though such things are, an ending does a story no end of good.
Yes, 5 parts of varying lengths, yes, a definite plan - not reckoning with pubishers' antics that is! Yes, these two facts are enough to keep me going! Just don't want the story resembling certain others that'll remain nameless.
On a different note, what was wrong with the old covers? Seems a shame to throw away such illustrations!
Ben
originally posted by Trys
Ben,
If Janny ever 'throws those illustrations away', I'll be digging through her trash to retrieve 'em. 
Trys
originally posted by Blue
Trys, you would be fighting with me for those throwaway illustrations.
I bet Janny and Don could make a small fortune selling tickets to the fights their garbage would inspire.
"It's the main event! In this corner, weighing in at [whatever] with talons newly sharpened, fighting fit, the Gryphon Trystane! In this corner, weighing in at [whatever] with a wicked case of PMS and no chocolate in sight, the mean, the unscrupulous, Blue Tornado! Let the fur and feathers begin to fly!!"
originally posted by ben
Heheh! Very true Trys! And since you have the geographical advantage, I wouldn't be able to beat you to them!
Ben
originally posted by Stefan Urlus
oooooo…
my money goes to the tornado - no matter how dragon-clawed and grave-jawed a gryphon may be - it is no match for a well-constructed case of PMS … c'arn blue!!!
All right – it's official.
I have started into the material of what will be Stormed Fortress Chapter Set I, recutting the cloth so it reads as an opening set.
No hints are possible - since it opens seconds after the finale of Traitor's Knot, NOTHING I said would be anything other than a royal mess of a spoiler.
This is going to be MUCH better than trying to cram way way too much into an ending of an already fat book.
originally posted by Jay_Jay
Go, Janny!
As for discarded artwork, my mom's oldest sister, Rita, was a professional artist, who spent most of her working life working as an illustrator for a large department store chain (Sears? Macy's? I forget…she passed away when I was finishing High School.) (Like Janny, she was also married to an artist!)
She could have made a fortune doing portraits for the rich and famous in New York. I've seen a portrait she did for someone she knew, and it's magnificent. Instead, she literally worried herself sick when forced to retire at age 65. She developed cancer, and passed away in less than 6 months. She'd been widowed many years earlier, and was afraid she would not be able to support herself.
My mom has a head and shoulders oil portrait Rita did of a model while still in art school. It's hanging in a place of honour, over the mantle in the living room.
My mom rescued that painting from the trash, over her sister's protests!
I guess if there's a message here for artists/writers, it's BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!
originally posted by Sandtiger
Go Janny! Go Janny!
Sandtiger
originally posted by Konran
Yay Janny! 
We'll be eagerly looking forward to this next book. I hope you'll put plenty of Paravian in this one. It's such a pretty language and if you weren't so busy writing and painting I'd be begging for lessons. *grin* (you're speaking to the geek who tried to teach herself Quenya…)
originally posted by Blue
Konran, I'm with you! One of these fine days, when I have some money in my pocket, and can attend a con, especially if it is one Janny is due to appear at, I'd like to ask her (after I give the poor woman writer's cramp autographing all my Wurts novels) if she would mind reciting some Paravian poetry, or even some of Arithon's songs in Paravian. I don't know if there would ever be anything quite like hearing the language from the creator herself.
Years ago, I found a tape in a comic shop called Dragon Songs, which was a compilation of many of the songs Anne McCaffrey had in her Dragonriders of Pern and Harper Hall of Pern series. Anne sang, and performed many of the instrumental pieces herself. Awesome does not begin to describe it! I wonder if we can find someone to make Janny a lyranthe and persuade her to do a recording like Ms. McCaffrey did…
originally posted by Konran
Online sound bytes perhaps, of all the Paravian phrases to date? *grin* A proununciation guide for us poor struggling fans? (I saw the language puzzle a while back. I was sad I missed that.)
Status: I have been in the process of re-tooling the existing draft of this volume so the pacing is an "opening" - not a crashing rush to climactic explosion.
I am truly glad for the chance - the book will be SO much more balanced! as a result. A large p art of the reason things stopped, back in February, was the fact I couldn't address these same angles, and the finish was not "shaping" to its right conclusion.
Yes, I am taking a leisurely pace. The spring's schedule was brutal, and WFC a major landmark, getting that whole show on the road, not to mention ourselves. And three hurricanes worth of preparation made for a rather interesting summer.
We have gorgeous cool weather, and I want to ride horses in the afternoons, something I haven't done in far t oo long!
Time now to pick up the strings of a few things I promised people, that have been left dangling, and also to renovate the last bit of this house that's still in the original shape that it came in - Dead Ugly. We'll be redesigning the masterbedro om and bath, long long overdue.
Then we have a retaining wall and the final landscaping around the studio addition to finish…something I hope can be done before the wet season comes next summer.
I will be engineering a new Paravian contest - and ther e IS already a pronounciation guide included in the glossary. If you want soundbytes, attend one of my readings. The next one will probably be at Fruitville Library in Sarasota County, this winter.
There's a new, short interview on the Voyager, HarperCol lins' site, for the UK releases. I looked it up - and found the type to be electric green, and virtually unreadable. If anyone goes there, let me know if the thing was legible…I'd be curious. ?
originally posted by ClickiV
I got it normal black on white text. Easy to read (if that's the same interview…you end it with your christmas wish list (and btw do all reading fans have the same reaction in a book store?!)).
originally posted by Trys
Janny,
The text display in that green only in old version of Netscape. I suspect non-standard HTML tags but don't know for sure. I do know the HTML document was created by using a Microsoft tool, so anything is possible.
Trys
Thanks for the cross check, Cheryl and Trys. It's a relief to know, since I put a bit of care into those answers!
originally posted by Hunter
Your bias is showing young Jeffrey…
originally posted by Trys
Me, biased… against the great and powerful company behind the curtain!? Never!! <grin>
originally posted by Beth
Living with a computer geek, I constantly hear how bad Windoze is. Not that I don't agree…but there are times when it gets bad.
There are two reasons my computer is a windows machine. 1) Quicken only runs reliably on a windows machine. 2) Most of the games I want to play won't run under a UNIX derivative. The other 5 computers my husband uses are all FreeBSD, Sun or Linux OSs.
And I absolutely hate IE and believe any site using which can only be seen with IE doesn't deserve my business.
Beth
Ah, where are we…(grin)
Adjusting the pacing of this volume's draft to kick off the close of an arc…it's taking a bit to "reset" the stage for this, as its pacing is Way too hot for an opening.
The fortunate part - this Had to Happen. Way Too much was going to get pinched, if I'd had to zip this up as the "end" of TK.
For anybody prematurely worried about the Next two arc's length - they are MUCH shorter. As Mistwraith and Ships were shorter arcs.
So I am "stepping in" the material that needed to be there all along…and its the sort of damnfool decision making (juggling with plot thread progression) that makes me nuts.
However: the lovely run of feedback (ALL of it) is helping me to see where the concepts need a bit more tweak for depth of definition so the explosive finale detonates with just the right impact. THANKS GUYS! All of your comments were time well spent.
I will post page counts, later…the "sequential" at this point is all messed up - as the old pages are being pulled apart with hand notes and postits, and the reformatting of the chapter breaks isn't set yet…the penalty of last year's decision to split coming due…though well familiar with this process from GC and PG, doesn't make it any easier.
When this book comes out, ONE DAY - I will tell y'all what you'd have missed IF I had gone on to write it from the "other perspective" - and truth to tell, it WASN'T moving for me for a darned telling reason.
Ah well - back to plot hatching…I have a few more Paravia sketches, too, once Don gets the operating system on his computer up again, (he's updating the lot) and the scanner gets the refit it needs to mesh with the new gearing. Ghod, I hate gadget retooling…straight imagination is SO much more elegant!
(Should it be Kharadmon vs the rockhead s'Brydion, this pitch? Hmmmm…)
originally posted by Walt
Kharadmon vs. s'Brydion??? Wha…? Bu…? Ack! You are a mischevious tease!!! :^) You must drive Don to distraction at Christmas! Then again, we wouldn't have you any other way!