Stormed Fortress: Status Updates

originally posted by Auna

Um, dunno about Don, but my hubby knows not to cross me (I tell him my marriage ring is the One Ring of Power!) if he wants to live happily ever after :wink:

originally posted by Hunter

Marriage is a partnership of equals… some are more equal than others… :smiley:

originally posted by Annettevk

Actually there is a quote from one of my other favourite authors, Elizabeth Peters, that says (and I hope that this is exact but couldn't swear to it)that "Marriage should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries." Which I think is perfect. That is why the S'Brydion marriages are so great because the women are a match (and sometimes more than a match) for their ornery hubbies.

Chapter set 9 - last bit into draft, with one liners to do today, and a bit of tinkering refinement. Be glad to have this bit behind me!

And ah, Chapter 10 starts the zing toward - yup - the build up of the ending sequence!!!

originally posted by Blue

:smiley:

originally posted by Jo

Janny I am so looking forward to Stormed Fortress I can't wait. Just been reading thru all the other books again. Just finished Fugitive Prince.
This series has me hooked.

Questions for anyone who can help as I don't think I fully understand everything I am reading.

1. In FP I am sure one of the F7 says the Princes are expendible if so why did they have Arithon make a blood oath (could have misread that though)

2. If the Korani know how compassionate Arithon is why do they wish him dead or is it just because The Prime M has seen her death. Cause as I read it Lysaer poses more of a threat to them by eradicating all sorcery. Mind you he's getting on my nerves a bit. Thinks far too much of himself, someone needs to slap him down a bit if they don't get burnt in the process.

3. Everyone seems to forget what evil he has done i.e Tal Q. and setting his crew on fire whith Lirenda watching and why is the gift of his light not seen as sorcery.


I know we are all reading the same books but I think people seem to understand it better than I.

So many questions sorry hope someone can help. ALso thank you to those people who answered my other question not in that page so sorry can't name you. Cleared up a few things for me though. Back to reading on to Perils Gate i believe.

originally posted by Jo

Sorry next up Grand C need to get my facts right

originally posted by Trys

I'll take a shot at some of the questions. :smiley:

2. Morriel is looking for a lever to use to break the Compact and reassert humankind's 'proper' position on Athera. She sees Arithon as that lever. I would suggest that she needs glasses.

3. My question on this one is, who is everyone? Firstly, I suspect most of the people don't know what he did and secondly, the telling of the events has been 'spun' to blame the Spinner of Darkness.

Trys

originally posted by Hunter

Jo,

I guess the "simple" way to answer some of your questions is to put yourself in the shoes of the multitude of characters in this series and then imagine what you see from there.

For many of those on Athera, they've never seen the Fellowship, Paravians or Arithon or have any real knowledge of them. All reference they have are either myth, legend, children's tale or mostly the "truth" according to Lysaer, his Alliance supporters and the townborn who started the rebellion in the first place.

The Koriani have been shackled by 5,500 years of Fellowship oppression (as they see it) and wish to re-establish whatever position they held (for good or bad) prior to the waste laid by the great weapon.

You may need to proffer your definition of sorcery to allow a judgement on whether Lysaer's Light is sorcery. :smiley:

One of the great strengths of this series is Janny's ability to change the tone and viewpoint of the narrative for the characters in question. For Arithon or the clans, their continued subjugation and headhunters are a crime beyond humanity and the real threat of extinction. For Lysaer and the townborn, his righteous pursuit of a confirmed criminal, enslavement and execution of clan collaborators, and persecution of anyone who would impede him are the proper and natural actions of a just leader, and the prose reflects his particular opinions and views of the world.

There are sections in the later novels where I feel I need to shower after reading them as they read like some type of extreme right wing propaganda beguiling and seducing you to their point of view. Which is of course the whole idea of the prose - if you didn't know any better (like most of Athera) and in the absence of any countering information (the Fellowship, Aths' Adepts and the clans aren't very good at positive publicity - which is where Arithon's Masterbard status is key) the lies and falsehoods looks perfectly reasonable to accept as "fact" and for uninformed, ignorant individuals to assume that they are now considered informed and knowledgeable based on this rather dubious platform.

Lysaer is still considered across four kingdoms as the sole protector of humanity from the sorcery of Darkness - clearly not "Everyone" knows his evil deeds…

originally posted by Jo

Thanks for that, I think because I am so drawn in to the books I forget that the people close to Lysaer and the towns people don't actually know that Lysaer is, what I perceive to be a big lying pain in the rear end. I am biased though I like Arithon's character and can't stand Lysaers holier than thou character.

originally posted by Trys

Jo,

How much like his father do you think Lysaer has become?

Trys

Status update: chapter set 9 is completed…official manuscript draft page count: 621

I kick off the last stage build up, now…and IF I can project with accuracy - (hah!) - aim to see finish at 14 chapter sets. Let's see…

I will post a little something to tweak your excitement in celebration. There are two little possibilities that won't spoil - what's your vote?

Dakar and Fionn Areth OR Talvish and Mearn?

originally posted by Hunter

I'd vote for Talvish and Mearn… :smiley:

originally posted by Blue

I'll second Talvish and Mearn. I just can't get enough of the Melhallan boys!

originally posted by Hannah

Oh, it's got to be "Talvish and Mearn"!! If I lied and said it was my birthday would that sway the vote. Because I have precious little moral compunction when it comes to weasling sneak peeks!! And those are two of my fav characters, it msut be said.

Hannah

originally posted by Dorothy

I'm so glad I was able to grab some time to visit.I would like to vote for Talvish and Mearn, too.

originally posted by Nathan

Dakar and Fionn please! Fionn may be a stubborn pain in the rear but Dakar always makes me laugh.

originally posted by neil

Fionn is still alive so Dakar and Fionn for me :wink:

originally posted by Wendy Collett

Janny, I know how much you like to tease us all with where you are going, but I'm wondering how much we are actually seeing into the books that aren't there, as well as how much we are missing.

What I mean is, this is obviously going to be a 10 year or so project for you to write this to conclusion… or something like that.

We (your poor readers) are combing through all the books to date trying to find the clues of where you might be going, so that when the last book of the last arc comes along we can say - AH HA! I SAW that might be going to happen back in PG, SoM, TK etc… (or more like madly re-reading back those books again to find the hints that were there all along, slapping our foreheads and groaning 'How did I miss it?').

So - I'm re-reading Mistwraith again at the moment. I think I'm seeing new clues in the first 600 pages that we haven't even thought about or mentioned before on the site as far as I know.

As creator, writer and wordsmith, at the start of such a long labour of love, where you able to craft such discrete clues in Mistwraith as to resemble a cryptic treasure hunt lasting 500 years?

I see it in some of your books for at least the course of the arc. I don't know how you manage to do it (admiration) if you are constantly doing it - it would seem a huge undertaking, but the real question is -

Were you also being that crypticly-specific back in Mistwraith as well so that the clues in it will kick us in another 2 arc's time?

(sorry, read the Da Vince Code, and look where it's got me, looking for the obvious oddness we are oblivios to in real life.)

Thanks, Wendy

Wendy - You Asked.

The plot planning for these volumes goes back for a very huge number of years. It began with a pretty simple "seed" - two half brothers, opposites, one "light" one "shadow" who are cursed by fight by a mistwaith, and the one who is dark will NOT represent the traditional view - black = evil.

From there, it grew limbs in all directions…as you've seen. I actually did 17 drafts of the "start" of Mistwaith - some beginning the generation previous, some starting even later, before arriving at the mix you see today.

The depth and complexity, I think, were always there. Once the idea "woke up" - it defined itself. Often enough, in the early stages, something odd would "crop in" and I'd say "what in heck is THAT?" and That would immediately start to unravel, conceptually, and plunge its thread into the rest of the whole ball of string…these sorts of multi layered epiphanies are what creativity is all about. They Happen - by inspiration - and I think, on some level, we all know our stories inside out. We just have to sit here and bring them in, bit by bit, linearly. Yet their origins cannot be linear. They leap and bound into being.

For Vol. I, by the time I'd sifted down to knowing what this story was about, I had to make a LOT of compromises in what could be shown all at once. Obviously such complexity would have been boggling if, say, you were presented with the Fellowship's purpose and philosophy all at once - or any of the other factons' agendas, for that matter.

Therefore: I had to set the beginning "off world" so you could discover thru the characters' own eyes - learn of Athera with them. I also had to "ground" the first bits of the tale in presumed backdrop - so as not to overwhelm readers. I lent the "illusion" of a normal fantasy type world with the "usual" medeval heirarchy - since that was what was "expected" it freed readers to concentrate on the interrelationships between the characters, Foremost.

But I knew these balloon presumptions would get blasted, bigtime, later. Therefore I made SURE to tell the tale as it WAS GOING TO BE. Leaving in those bits that let you, later, see through the cracks in the "facade" I allowed at the start.

Therefore as you go back, the wiser, you will see what was really in front of your face the whole time.

I've said: everything IS in volume one. You just aren't yet aware enough to view widely or deeply enough into it. Yes, you should continue to see stuff emerge in Vol I, throughout the rest of the sequence. All five arcs.

Working with a huge idea takes blindfold courage - not to denigrate your nice words of admiration - but really, it's about Trusting. Leaping into the unknown with your muse, and trusting your inner creativity to work it all out far BETTER than logic and calculation ever could.

So it has been, with Athera.

And - ACK! - I expect to be done well before ten years!!! For one thing, I've got an impressive number of projects lined up, waiting. :smiley: