Paksworld

First a thank-you to y’all for your patience.    It has been a…um…very busy time here at the old homestead.  Tonight is the night of the Messiah performance, and that will make four days in a row of driving to the city for 3+ hours of singing (and on Sunday I drove in early to sing the first service at church, then drove home to do the other stuff.)

Your reward for the patience is a snippet, after a short review of revision progress.   I have finally (FINALLY) got important two important events tied in neatly with all their threads connected.    As I near the end of a book, everything has more and more threads hanging off it (it’s connected to this, that, and the other in various ways–foreshadowings that may go back several books,  links to contemporaneous happenings, hooks set that will turn out later to be significant, etc.    The next to last book in a group is even more rife with threads for every major event, internal and external.   And every one of those little stinkers needs to be woven in, as invisibly as possible, so the pattern is unbroken.    But enough about the work in progress:  Herewith a snippet from the work to come.

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OK, it’s a tiny little spoiler to let you know this far ahead that there might be a gnomish appearance in this book, but you had a gnomish appearance in Kings, too, so…it’s something even the spoiler-aversives up with it must put.  (And a gold star to the person who recognizes where that bit of inverted language came from and how it changed the way I write.)

Beyond the break is a snippet.

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This snippet from Echoes of Betrayal comes fairly near the beginning…those familiar with Kings of the North remember that Pargun has invaded and though the scathefire may be over, the Pargunese are still around.  Some snippage may occur within the snippet.

Who:  King Kieri is POV

Where:  Between Chaya and the Honnorgat River

When:  Night.  The Lyonyan force is camped alongside a scathefire track

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Most of you may have seen the cover art elsewhere, but it’s now time to show it off here for anyone who might wander through:

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Today’s snippet of Echoes is from a sidestory that wasn’t working in the book itself–well, part of it is, but the specific conversations aren’t there.  So this is something you’ll know when you read the book  that others won’t.

And the snippet will make more sense when you have the book.   Actually this is two chunks, two different conversations.

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Things became even more crunched this week (and still are until I finish two assignments for publishers), so I haven’t answered everyone’s posts & emails.  They’re not lost, I’m just out of time and brains.  But…I did locate a new snippet for you.  It needs a bit of introduction…actually it’s two snippets, the second one, in particular, pruned extensively.

Place: Fox Company winter quarters, Valdaire

Who:  Captains Selfer and Burek, discussing a captain with a temporary contract whom Selfer hired while Burek was away in Andressat, recovering from his wound.  Harnik is an older man, and…well, you’ll see.

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At the end of Kings of the North, there’s a war just started between Pargun and Lyonya.  News has arrived in Tsaia, but not everyone’s heard it yet.  Beclan Mahieran, squire to Dorrin Duke Verrakai,  is out on patrol in the SW corner of Verrakai’s domain when Dorrin hears…commanding two tensquads of militia (some of them former Phelani soldiers.  Beclan’s proud of the fact that he is given a longer patrol route and more troops than the other squires.  He has no idea what’s coming.

………………………………………………………….

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I think–I hope–this won’t be a spoiler at all.  It’s from Book IV, not Echoes,  but it doesn’t reveal anything too…spoilerish.  I hope.  And after all, it might disappear in editing.

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Age and inactivity usually bring reflection–and reflection isn’t always pleasant.

The usual spoiler warnings apply:   Aliam Halveric is an important secondary character, and although I chose this snippet to be as little spoilerish as possible…it will seem so to some.

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Shorter, because I’m working very hard to get ready for a big Bach rehearsal tonight.    This snippet shows some of the background stuff that some of you appreciate and some, perhaps, skip over.  That’s fine…but there’s a reason for the background to show now and then.   This is as spoiler-free a snippet as I could find this far into the book (Chapter 20.)   But those who want to know nothing, not even the pattern on the wallpaper, should avoid it anyway.

The book itself is out here and there in Europe, so it’s time for another gentle reminder that everyone’s asked to observe spoiler space for those who haven’t got it yet.

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