The gorgeous but unpredictable little mare who bucked me off and kicked my husband (same maneuver; she probably didn’t intend to hit him) in mid-February finally sold to someone in California, hurray, hurray. Until she’s transported, she’ll be out of that barn and into another site to gain weight for the trip (she’s not bony, Read More…
Tag: Vatta
Copy Edits!
Copy edits arrived this morning. The work space is set up now, with dictionary and Chicago Manual of Style at hand, and several sharp pencils. This is the *next to last* step for me (checking page proofs is the last) and one that’s very important. Even so, if you find a typo in the final Read More…
And Four To Go
Four days to COLD WELCOME’s release, that is. But let’s get on with the story (my hands are hurting so this may be a short segment, and following the POVs may be a bit rough.) There may be other foursomes or fours in hand or other fours around in this Interlude story. You never know, Read More…
And a Reviewer said…
From Booklist‘s review: “Moon returns to hard sf after nearly eight years, visiting familiar characters from the Vatta’s War series. Though it is intended as an alternate entry in the series, readers need not have read the previous books to enjoy this one; Moon provides enough backstory to fill in any blanks. A gripping page-turner Read More…
More Zeros, More Progress
There’ve been some hitches in the work on the book lately, but some reworking of sections this week seems to have unkinked things again. Tonight I hit 110,000 words, and today’s words feel like good words rather than just “I have to make the wordage if it means writing I can’t think, I don’t know, Read More…
Still going…and going…
And not a pink rabbit in sight, let alone banging a drum. No, the new book is now at 68,000+ words, despite a real solid computer scare Sunday/Monday (now resolved, and no files lost.) It demanded that I do my daily words Monday after getting home from the computer fixit place and reconnecting everything and Read More…
An “Interquel” for Cold Welcome
What, you ask, is an interquel? I made it up, for a segment that isn’t exactly a story but fits between earlier and later books. I was trying to use this as the end of a short story, where it did not fit. The location in “Story-timeline” is right, but it’s not a good ending Read More…
“May I see some identification, sir/madam?”
Anyone who’s traveled from one country to another has been faced with a country’s filter department–Immigration & Customs. Where you can go, under what rules, varies with place and time and the country in question. People get refused entry for all sorts of reasons. They get deported for all sorts of reasons. They may need Read More…
And on, and on, and on….
I’m being bold and saying this is like old times. Not in the total wordage possible in a day, but in the way the story is unrolling before me, complete with sensory detail, character backgrounds, every scene offering attachment points for PlotStuff. It will run into trouble, somewhere in the next 30,000-40,000 words, if it Read More…
Backing Up a Little
Cold Welcome is not the first book in the Vatta Universe, so the new book has under it the foundation built by Vatta’s War. Yet it needs to be understandable to new readers without their having to buy the first five books. This is not meant to discourage anyone from buying the first five books Read More…