Other stuff, including writing

[pameladean]

Starting Chapter 4 is disconcertingly like beginning the book all over again. I don't mean that I have to think of a plot. I don't do that when I start a book. But Chapter 3 is from Deleon's viewpoint, and he is an old friend. Chapter 4 needs Thrae or Aelim or both. Eric thinks it should start with Thrae, looking at the events at the end of 3, and I am afraid that he is right. Aelim is just as daunting as Thrae, anyway, the creature. I had no idea how wedded I was to a single tight-third viewpoint. Well, I'm not doing it.

Also still pondering the Whim-Hills sequel. Eric just recently read "Owlswater" for the first time, and in talking with him about it I remembered "Winter and Rough Weather," which was supposed to be a novella that, with "Owlswater" and a third one, might make a kind of fixup novel about Shan. But it took terrifying life unto itself and then bogged down irretrievably. I just found the file with the manuscript in it. I was looking for my birth certificate, but never mind that. I haven't read it yet, but it is, however fragmentary, Secret Country history, and therefore probably germane to a sequel. At the moment I feel the main problem with a sequel -- well, aside from the difficulty of coming up with a plot outline -- is that I am afraid of Con.

I suppose this post needs footnotes. I'll be happy to elaborate if necessary.

We're having a warm sunny spell. Beryl chased Naomi down the basement stairs and then went to ground, which is very unfortunate, because in the basement she reverts to feral, and sometimes it is very difficult to get her to come back again. She has been better about coming back the last few times, so I am hopeful. Ari is sitting in the open sunny window of my office, complaining periodically and chittering at the house sparrows. I'm trying to decide whether to take my walk before or after giving Chumley his second feeding.

David got paid again. Whee! We had an interesting discussion about what to do with the money. It's insufficient to solve any major problems, and we are trying not to let its mere presence go to our heads.

I am feeling very hermetic. There are a bead-admiration event and a party tomorrow, but I am not sure I'm going to get to either. I already skipped a signing at Uncle Hugo's/Edgar's even though I knew one of the authors. Hrmph.

Pamela

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

How, afraid of Con?

Afraid of writing Con's POV? Would you have to? Or afraid of Con in some other way?

You're probably only thinking about it because you're stuck with your Liavek thing, but for a Whim/Hills sequel I'd walk barefoot from here to Minneapolis. (It is not possible to walk barefoot from here to places people proverbially walk barefoot to, because of the ocean.)

I'd be ever so interested in seeing Heathwill Library close up.

Couldn't you write it all Ruth POV? Or at least start it Ruth POV? Ruth POV would surely be easier.

[pameladean]

It'd be alternating Arry's POV and Ruth's, which is easy enough. I am afraid of Con's mere presence in a story. Any story. She is incalculable.

As for the sequel, in truth I am thinking about it partly because I recently had to reread the trilogy, and partly because I need the money. It would as well be very different from Liavek and so useful in that regard.

Pamela

[pameladean]

P.S. I am very sensible of the honor of the walking barefoot. I cannot help but wonder, might one take ship, sans shoes? You needn't, however.

Pamela

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I hope that this fiction-related percolating results in something useful. Cat-vacuuming from one thing by pondering another seems to be one of the best ways I have of tricking myself into productivity; hope this turns out to work in a net-productive way for you. I should certainly be intensely interested to read a Whim-Hills sequel.

[pameladean]

Indeed, nobody has yet said, "Oh, don't do that!"
This is encouraging.

Pamela

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I've just finished all the Secret Country books for the very first time, thanks to gracious lender eub, and now I must hunt up "Owlswater". (Also read them all through again straightaway, or at least Whim.) I'd be very happy to read more about Shan.

[pameladean]

As your dealer can no doubt tell you, "Owlswater" is in Xanadu, a collection edited by Jane Yolen, and published by Tor in both hardcover and some kind of paperback, I forget which.

I am always particularly pleased when somebody rereads something of mine right away. I purr.

Pamela

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

*laugh* Does re-reading your books repeatedly over the years because they're among my favorites count for anything? I was writing a YA fantasy last fall and had a dreadful moment of, "Augh! This is nothing like The Secret Country! I must fling myself in a pit and die!" and then I re-read TSC and realized that I didn't want to be writing it anyway, because somebody'd already done such a wonderful job. :)

[pameladean]

Oh, absolutely that counts.

I am utterly boggled to hold even momentarily that place in a writer's thoughts, however (I must fall into a pit and die because my work is not like X's, I mean, that place). Glad you got over it. 8-)

Pamela

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

*giggle* I got over it about halfway through the re-read of TSC, but man, I sure do love that book. Fortunately for me, what I was writing really wasn't at all like it, and it did turn out that I didn't want it to be, but oh yes. You held that place in my mind for a couple of days, anyway. You can put that on your trophy wall. *grin*

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

*laughs* In which case, purr away. The first time I encountered Tam-Lin, I read it three times in a row.

Something I actually just did again, as three of us discovered simultaneously that Eloise hadn't read it yet, and howled at her until she did.

Indeed!

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

And I had the honor of handing her my copy and sending her off to read. Not that I have much faith that she's done so yet, given the other events of her recent life.

I used to have one copy to lend and one to keep, but I think the lending copy wandered off to a new home. I should fix that.

Regarding sequels to, well, anything you've written, pameladean: my answer is, "Yes, please, where do I queue up?" Which is not to say that I wouldn't be equally pleased with something entirely in its own world, if that's what presents itself to you to be written.

I read Tam Lin at least once a semester while I was in college. The book is exactly how it was to be a college student. (No, my college didn't come with a Fairie Ride. But what do you expect from Cleveland?) Rereading it, years after graduating, it's still exactly what it felt like to be a college student. (I reread it just before forking it at Eloise.) It's a nice place to go back and visit. Thank you for writing me a door.

Re: Indeed!

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

She is, indeed, actively reading it right now. I cheated; as soon as she walked in the door with it, I told her to sit and read the first 25 pages aloud.

Then I grabbed my copy, and finished it. Twice.

My loaner copy is currently part of the Eau Claire prison library system (long story). I don't mind, but it does mean I need a new one as well...

Re: Indeed!

[pameladean]

This is all very well timed, and I thank you. I hope Eloise does not feel too much ganged up on.

Pamela

Re: Indeed!

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Not particularly ... :-> Though I *did* feel tempted, when replying to your bus post earlier, to say something along the lines of, "Oh, and I found your lj because jerusha geeked at me that Pamela Dean Has A Livejournal!, and when I said Who's Pamela Dean, she handed me Tam Lin and eyed me narrowly, almost as if I'd said I didn't like PBS."

For the record, I found myself completely untempted to reread Tam Lin immediately (but then, I rarely reread with more frequency than once per year or two - I remember books too well, and can't read them again if I remember them too well). I also had to read it in chunks, spaced around doing other things and reading magazines. It was ... very dense. I will say that it's the first time in a long time I've felt I wasn't smart enough to be allowed to read a particular book (and DEFINITELY the first book in a long time that's made me think I don't read enough books!). A disturbing feeling, as if there were fifty private jokes going on around every corner that I was too dim to get, though bright enough to notice happening.

I did like it, but it's unlike anything else I've ever read. And very dense. I really wish my college experience had been more like that (with or without faerie rides).

Re: Indeed!

[pameladean]

That's how all books seemed to me as a child, and I quite missed the experience as I got older and actually understood some of them. Hence the way I write. 8-)

Pamela

[eub.livejournal.com]

Xanadu 1 I have not found yet, drat. (Which makes me think that I would sing songs of glee if "Owlswater" were attached to the reprint, but I imagine it's far too late to have that thought.)

I also would love to read that sequel.

[darius.livejournal.com]

I happen to have a copy here:

http://accesscom.com/~darius/personal/sale.html

Not that I'm eager to part with it, but you seem to have the sort of desire that takes the sting away.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I am always particularly pleased when somebody rereads something of mine right away. I purr.

I think I've told you that I re-read Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary right away. I finished it on a beach in the evening, straining to make out the words in the failing light, utterly indignant at you. I turned directly from the last page to the first. Damn, that was a good book.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

I would greatly enjoy a Whim-Hills sequel. The Dubious Hills is still my favorite because of the disturbing way it ends. Maybe I was just in a "give me a disturbing ending" mood when I read it, or maybe I'd been waiting for an Hitchcockesque fantasy book all my adult life up to that point (or is it a Lord of the Fliesish fantasy book, with the sledgehammer surgically removed?).

Or perhaps it's that I'd like to credit the Fidonet SF echo for the unknowability among the Dubious Hills, given our Memory Like a Swiss Cheese acronym (or somesuch—yes, I'm doubtful of my recall on that point).

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to complete kitchen chores before I entirely forget them and remember something else to do.

another prod

[sdn.livejournal.com]

i'd like you to write that book, too.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Let me add my voice to the chorus of people who would love to see another book in the world of the Hidden Land.

Regarding the Liavek book: I wonder if there is a reason for Thrae's name? Preferably one that gets explained early on. If not, I fear that I would find it quite distracting all the way through the book....

[pameladean]

Um, I didn't want everything to sound Italian? She has a lot of as-yet undisclosed history, some of which might have to do with her name. But I don't know yet.

It's got to be her name, I'm afraid. Just not changeable.

Pamela

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Well (I fear this is going to sound snippy and I really don't want to, so apologies) there are lots of things that don't sound Italian and yet are not English dictionary words spelled backwards.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Thrae is an english word spelled backwards? What does *types carefully* earht spell? I mean, I can see it spells earht, but that's a word?

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

*blink*....ok, well, "th" being a single sound counts as a single letter. (If it weren't for those silly European typesetters, it *would* be a single letter -- still is in Iceland.) I have to admit that I hadn't even noticed I was chunking that.

Katie, looking over my shoulder, comments that she wouldn't find the name "Thrae" intrusive, so we have evidence that not everybody would.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't find 'Thrae' intrusive, either, and I *really* couldn't figure out what 'earht' was. *laugh* I figured you must be getting 'earth' out of it, but what with the letters being in the wrong order, I genuinely wasn't sure. :)

[(Anonymous)]

I like your work very much. I'd be delighted to see more of the Secret Country - though I can certainly understand your fear of Con. She's great from a reader's point of view. :) As a writer, I think I'd be scared of her, too. One never knows what she will do or think next.

Cath

[diony.livejournal.com]

More Deleon!

I am in raptures.