Paksworld

The spring Orbit UK catalog is out (hurray!) and the page for Echoes of Betrayal is gorgeous…I love the cover.    There’s just one teeny-tiny problem….the phrase,  “The eagerly awaited climax…”  in the blurb.  All of you who read here know it’s not the climax–there are two books coming after Echoes–but people who don’t follow this blog, or my other online stuff, may not.

So…would you please, when you’re discussing the upcoming book, please let people know that it’s not the end of the story, but the middle, the hinge book?   Or if you’re in a bookstore and the staff say “Oh, the last of the new Paks books is coming out”, would you please let them know it’s not the last–and point them to this blog for current info?     My new contact at Orbit UK, Joanna Kramer  (remember, my editor there, the delightful Bella Pagan, left)  will be trying to get the online catalog fixed in this regard, but the print catalog is…well…printed.

Your efforts will be appreciated (though I’m afraid getting home-made goodies  to all of you just isn’t possible…)    I don’t want any readers confused about this, or unhappy that Echoes does not have the grand crashing climax/resolution that’s coming in Book V.

Thanks.

Rotten no-good cold or no rotten no-good cold, I still should finish (or nearly finish) the main draft of the new book by Oct 1, and within a week of that should have it roughly in order.  (It’s not now, because of the various medical interruptions–to keep going, I wrote in whatever part of the story cooperated that day, so it’s added branches to its trunk fairly randomly. )

So:   I will need some alpha readers who are strong on the structural side (the nit-picking comes later.)  The rough sort I’ll do to get this out to people may not be accurate.     Given my aging memory, I can’t recall who, exactly, was on the last couple of alpha-reader lists (which I’ve misplaced, you see…DUH) so if you want to trudge through 160,000 (roughly) words of  very unfinished manuscript setting a trail for revision to follow, contact me by email.   There will be the usual “makes the publisher happy” agreements not to reveal anything prematurely to deal with.

Thanks, and I’m off to get from 156,300 to 160,000+ as fast as I can.

For the fact-finders among you…I need help!    I’ve misplaced my copy of the Deed (yet again!)  and thus can’t look this up.  In the Deed (I think…may also require access to the Gird & Luap books),  two gnome princedoms are mentioned.  One is Aldonfulk.  What is the other?   A third shows up in Book III, but I’m suddenly worried that I gave it the name of the second (which is in a different location.)

I can think of a couple of places to check:  Sheepfarmer’s  Daughter, when the troop is being taken south to Aarenis, and there’s a brief explanation of the geography and mention of the gnome princedoms on the north side of the Dwarfmounts.  And in Divided Allegiance,  when Paks & Co. rescue the gnome merchants from captivity.    There may be other locations, but I can’t think of them right now.   (How I wish I hadn’t lost the old reference notebooks!!)

In Kings of the North, which only the alpha readers among you have yet read,  the POV characters leave Aarenis at the end of the campaign season, so whatever happens there between, say, a few tendays before the Autumn Evener  and Midwinter is offstage for that book.   And in that book, what happens in Aarenis isn’t relevant to that book, but it is relevant to the next…the one I’m on now.

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In case anyone has time to hunt for this…did I give the Clart Company commander a name anywhere in Sheepfarmer’s Daughter?   And did I mention whether the Clart commander died?

In the meantime, another 2500 words.

Years ago when Baen decided to put out either the omnibus Deed or the hardcover, a proofreader found an error that had skated past all previous readings by me, other proofreaders, my alpha readers, and the editor.

All I remember about it is that it was a pronoun error of some kind.   It referred to the wrong person.  I think.  At any rate,  even when the proofreader commented on it, wondering if it was the wrong pronoun, at first I didn’t get it…but it was wrong, and needed to be changed, and none of  us who had missed it could quite believe we had.

Now the UK omnibus Deed is in production, and if any of you ever spotted it and stumbled over it and thought “Oh, I must be wrong”–and know where it is and can point it out–we have a chance to prevent its survival into another edition.   I can’t find it now.  I’m not even sure where in that monster it is, but I think either Divided Allegiance or Oath of Gold, because I think the pronoun reference is someone either talking about someone at Fin Panir or someone in Fin Panir talking about someone else at a distance.   I spent a little time looking for it but can’t find it.

As I close in on having Book Two ready to send to my agent & editor,  and approaching the six-months-to-release date for Oath of Fealty, I’m seeking some help from you folks…

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