Thursday Thoughts

My weekly free write happened before I could write this post, so let's discuss that briefly. The prompt was to write about a poet and an anniversary - not necessarily the poet's anniversary. Myself being perverse, I decided to write about a court poet, a seer and the anniversary of something that hadn't happened yet. All right, so I have a love affair with seers, whether the interpretation of prophecy is loose or very fatalistic.

Anyhow, in planning this, I decided to use an old world, and was stunned by the setting I stumbled across, a world of islands isolated by wild seas and sunken landbridges. How had I never used this before? It just "pops" with possibilities.

Still in the midst of pre-work for Scylla and Charybdis, but much closer to finishing. In working on character profiles, I've found myself reluctant and tetchy - so I'm not pushing it, just writing down enough so I can be consistent and keep the characters distinct.

Just started my macro pass of the Journal of the Dead manuscript. I am pleasantly surprised by the intensity of it and how casually the worldbuilding glides into the story. However, there are other pieces that gave me pause. In particular, the self-defense killing in the first chapter still doesn't escalate believably.

I am still rather worried about the fact that what would normally be the sample portion of the manuscript is entirely in third person, while the bulk is in first: the titular "journal," which the character starts writing in. Besides the POV difference itself, Rhiane's voice is rather different from the narration in the chapters. I don't want to be presenting agents with a "sample" that doesn't represent the whole ...