Paksworld

When I was writing the first Paksenarrion books (before I knew they were books, back when I thought I was writing a rather long short story….but that’s another bit of history)  I realized early on that I needed some way to make the weather seem realistic.  Though writers get to make stuff up, if they make too much stuff up, or make stuff up the wrong way,  they end up making up what is easiest to deal with.

I don’t remember now when I first noticed this, as a reader, but I do remember somewhere, sometime, reading a book in which the moon was full whenever the writer needed more light at night.  This was our moon, not the moon of some other planet for which a different arrangement might be created.  Our very own moon was full at irregular intervals (and new at others) to suit the need for dark nights or bright nights–and the full moons only ten days apart were noticeable.  (Also, there were no clouds on nights of a full moon. )

Weather is–luckily for writers–more fickle than the moon, but even so you can’t (without risking reader annoyance–alternate blizzards and hurricanes every time you need a bit of excitement.

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