pameladean

Well, I hope so,anyway.

Below the cut you will find a brief report on my progress with Abiding Reflection, the one-volume redaction of what was originally called Going North. ("You certainly can't call it Going North now," remarked Raphael. "There's no going left in it.")

I am trying to be vague enough to avoid major spoilers, but if you are particularly sensitive to them, you may wish not to look.

I have finished Arry's first chapter. At the moment I am not planning to write her a separate prologue. Since she now arrives on her own and has to explain herself, rather than being vouched for by family, she has to make an account of herself, and I think that this provides enough explanation to go on with.

The majority of this chapter is new. I was writing between 600 and 1000 words a day on it. This is faster than I usually write. Of course, one of the benefits of having to shrink the book down this way is that it is, in fact, already written. I know who is on the Council of Heathwill and what they look like. I know what Arry has decided to do later on. I know who will teach her, where she will end up living in the absence of family, what Heathwill looks like.

A few fractures in the relations of some of the characters showed up unexpectedly, but I think that is probably all to the good. Also, since Arry has no other company, the cats are taking a larger part in things than they did. I'm having fun with that; I guess we'll see if that, too, is all to the good.

Next, I'll write Ruth's first proper chapter. I am hoping that most of this will be manageable with cutting and pasting, but there will be a lot of new transitions to smooth over, and I don't even know yet what is going to change in the light of the new prologue and Arry's first chapter.

I hope your work is going well, whatever it may be.

Pamela