Maybe…We Have Ignition

This is a tentatively-hopeful statement that the third Vatta’s Peace book may actually be alive.  I can’t answer questions about it, and please do not, at this point, make suggestions (suggestions killed another book I thought was really coming alive), but I have a question for the Vatta fans.  Of the military survivors of the crash in Cold Welcome,  who were in Into the Fire, which few (2-4, maybe one more) would you like to see in the next book?  If it lives?  I’m at the point where someone should be coming to the door, but what’s said and how will depend on who it is.  And right now…I’m not “seeing” that.

At present (and this is only the earliest stage of a first draft) the book starts the day Ky leaves the Academy.  It took longer than she hoped for the government (which has had a major election in the meantime) to choose her successor.  So her plan is for a few weeks of actual vacation, catching up with the other parts of her life.  That’s not, of course, what happens between the Academy and where she thought she was going, but…what’s there now may not be “real” either.

What else is going on?  The newest horse is not settling as well as I hoped, but I still believe he will, in time.  I have at the moment a very sore, and possibly infected, toe.  Health problems continue in the family, including one we thought we were done with.  It’s quite serious, so if it flares I need to be ready to drive someone to the hospital quickly.  Which means I should not be away for more than 12 hours, but…I already have commitments to be elsewhere for much longer than that.  Which means finding backups.  It’s been August for 23 days, which means hot and dry  to VERY HOT and VERY DRY.  Longing for October.

 

18 thoughts on “Maybe…We Have Ignition

  1. I am a new fan. I heard you mentioned on an NPR summer reading show, and I picked up a book at random at my local bookstore. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess) it was Into the Fire. Within the first page I was clear that this was an established universe, and I was obliged (and ultimately delighted) to start reading from the beginning.

    I have just finished Into the Fire (in the correct order now) and am thrilled that you are feeling enough better to be writing again. As far as characters to bring forward into the next book. I am fond of both Inyatta and Gurton, but I know I’ll love whoever you end up choosing.

  2. I second Inyatta – she’s done enough in both books to earn her place.

    Several deserve off-stage mentions at least, so we know that they are doing OK – but for story movers, who has changed or developed most as a result of their adventures?

    How about Kamat? Highly qualified space drive techie, from a traditionally tech-minded civilian family (“What’s a pretty girl like you doing going into the military?”), engineering degree and all without an implant because (as we learnt only at the start of the second book) she is Miznarii. And now she and her family have to cope with the aftermath of her, rendered helpless to resist or object, having being given an implant meant to control her.

  3. I also support Inyatta, and think Kamat is a great suggestion. How about Gossin as well? Interesting aside about breathing/circulation techniques learned from her grandmother (p. 279 ITF) – makes me think of American Indians. Does she mention this in her lengthy debrief? Any male rescued that has now 2 possible episodes of PTSD to cope with? Seargent Chok who struggled to answer examiners correctly and was ridiculed. Then what about young Tech First Class Betenge (p, 199, caring for his young siblings, but twice prevented from doing so.
    I’d like to hear more about Rafe, as he struggles to adapt to a new role, Ky’s lover, companion in arms, but under her command, having proved his competence as CEO of ISC in times of danger and hostile takeover.
    Meanwhile having read through Into the Fire again, I’m going back to Cold Welcome for more ideas.

    1. Thanks for these suggestions. I need to find out what they’ve been doing for several years, what future plans they still had. Betange, I’m pretty sure, is separated from the military and caring for his siblings; I doubt he’s interested in further adventures. I don’t know how their having been imprisoned by the bad side will affect their reputation in the military…will the ones who were most ambitious and hoped for a long career find that there are obstacles in their way? Inyatta, after all, has relatives who are in the services, and could either say “Hon, you’re not going to get your promotions on time…you might want to consider something else” or “We’re behind you, you have influences, go for it.”

      Rafe and Ky will have to work out their relationship on the go…he was a CEO for only a few years, didn’t much enjoy it, and it’s not that hard to give up. What IS hard to give up is his years of being completely independent (but with a stipend) and free to go and do whatever amused him. How long it will amuse him to have Ky running things is…hard to guess. He’s got a very quirky sense of humor and could be easier with it than many others. But they’ve already shown they can work together and side-by-side. Stella may even suggest that they consider running a Vatta ship, bringing Ky back into the business.

  4. Besides the survivors mentions I would like to put in a vote for Corporal Hector Mata in transportation. Even Sergeant Major Morrison thought he might need protection at the time he provided the information about the vehicle requisition.

    1. Daniel: Mata is a good guy, for sure, but he very much wants to stay in the military, and his colonel and Ky had a little talk in the story years between Into the Fire and this book, so I think he will stay where he is.

  5. “Inyatta, after all, has relatives who are in the services” – you mean Gossin, surely?

    (Staff Sergeant Elena Maria Gossin, according to Sergeant Major Morrison, who’d known her before their respective most recent promotions. The clerk filling in the fake transport forms found lots of Gossins in the database. Back on Mikslund, when we first get to know those survivors who’d been in the second raft, Ky asked Gossin if she was staying in the military:

    “Absolutely. This is my life and what I want. Not going to complicate things things with marriage or family; if I don’t screw up I could make sergeant major. Maybe. At any rate, I’m in for the duration.”

    Those were her plans. Plans change. Or not.

    Corporal Benazir Inyatta’s plan, that she told us on first introduction, was not to spend the rest of her life with chickens – despite her farmer family’s decision, by the time she was seven, that that was her gift. It was her relatives or their friends who helped the rescue operation by blocking a road with loose cattle.

    You see I have reread both books. Well, skimmed them, so may have missed some clues. Found two names in “Into the Fire” that I’d missed before. Who else spotted them? One: someone in the military, with the same family name as one of the survivors (NOT Yamini) – are they related? How closely?

    Two (off-stage mention only): someone with a namesake somewhere and somewhen else. Something that just popped out from name daemon, Elizabeth, or a deliberate Easter egg for us fans?

    1. Richard: The connection goes back to the first Vatta books, unless I”m totally confused. I thought there was a Yamini AND an Inyatta in those somewhere whom Ky had met. If not, I’ll clean out the mistake. I have, in the mess of the last few years, lost the longer descriptions of the survivors and have only a very brief list…I never copied the long descriptions into the computer. (GRRR at self.) Because of my so-called “process” I don’t create deliberate Easter eggs, but I do throw things around the landscape that I might use later, on the grounds of creating a more complex and layered background. So I guess the name daemon is responsible.

  6. Besides all those mentioned, what about Bennie? where does he stand now the “Organization” has lost it’s head, we know he has loved Stella all his life ( maybe in secret, but still).

    1. Chris: Because the previous book I tried to start (the horse mystery) died quickly after I shared too much, too early, and started getting too much specific feedback, I’m not going to share much at all about this one until I’m sure it’s got enough inertia that it won’t die. The feedback on the mystery wasn’t bad–in fact it made sense–but the underlying storyline wasn’t strong enough yet to do a flying change of leads and stay on its legs. So your curiosity about Bennie will have to stay unsatisfied for now. I’m also intrigued by him, but if he becomes a real part of this particular book, he’ll show up later. He’s been mentioned by other characters so I suspect he will, but maybe he’ll be offstage for a book.

  7. If it’s not too late to add a ‘vote’ on this, I liked Gossin’s point of view and sense of responsibility, so would vote for her too.

    I’m so glad that the story has come alive for you. Fingers crossed. 🙂

  8. Sorry Elizabeth, if you need to reconstruct what was in your longer notes on your characters, we can only help with what made it out into the books.

    Inyatta told us her immediate family are farmers, and one lot of relatives are farmers. I found nothing to say she had any military connection before enlisting, and nothing to say she didn’t. By the way, Staff Sergeant Kurin said Inyatta and she “served together on Myseni Reef, so I know her by sight, but we weren’t in the same assignments.”

    What the transportation clerk found in the military database doesn’t restrict you, because Inyatta’s name presumably wasn’t on the list for the faked form.

    Major Yamini I remember from the Vatta’s War group of books. I don’t remember nor (cursory look in some likely parts only) have I found anyone there called Inyatta. Anyone else help?

    Gossin: lots of her relatives in the military, that’s certain, but no mention if any of them are officers.

    The coincidence I found within “Into the Fire” is a second Kamat. Our first one (Durga Kamat) did say, when she introduced herself on the life raft, that her family are NEARLY all civilians – loophole there, Elizabeth.

    By the way, in case that note also got lost, Sergeant Major Morrison did say she’d be retiring in a year or so (conversation with her dog-vet friends, p122 UK edition).

  9. I agree with the suggestions of who I’d like to see more of 🙂

    One thing I noticed – having just reread (finished yesterday!) is that in Cold Welcome, Ky sweeps a whole pile of Miksland journals going back 200+ years into a duffel bag… and then in Into the Fire, only the most recent Greyhaus is metioned.

    As for whether Inyatta is in the first set of Vatta books or not – I have them on Kindle, did a quick search, and came up with nothing.

    I’m glad you’re working on the next book 🙂 Hope the pony settles in ok and best wishes for various and sundry health issues.

  10. HI – write what you want and what your publisher thinks can sell. You have to do the work so you call the shots. In any case I know it will be well written and worth reading.

    No rush, the publication date was last july – maniacle laughter.

    Jonathan up here in rainy New Hampshire

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