Happy New Year!

Well, only a day late... Lots of things happening the last couple of weeks, not many of which were connected with either writing or gardening. I got back to work somewhat today. Spent most of the morning working on illustrations for a talk I'm giving in three weeks for a SCA group on Early Medieval religion in the British Isles (500-900 CE). The later half of that range is really outside my usual area of interest, but appropriate to the audience. It's partly designed to answer the question "I want to have a pagan English / Scottish / Welsh / Irish persona, when would that have been appropriate?" The answer is more nuanced than you might think. Although Britain was officially Christian under the late Roman Empire, Saint David (for example) was still said to be converting pagans in south Wales in the mid-sixth century, which implies there was still some number of them around.

The afternoon was mostly devoted to bookselling adminstrivia: inventory, preparing bins for our SCA twelfth night event, updating spreadsheets and reconciling balances prior to tax time. The self-published writer's work is never done...

Nice and sunny today, but the temperature barely got up to freezing, so no new pictures.

-GRG

Thursday...

I've just set up a new hardcover (w/ dust jacket) version of Storyteller on Lulu. Same text except I upgraded the map in the front. I'm going to do the same thing for the other books this week. Lulu, btw, is currently running a pre-Christmas 20% off promotion on everything, good through the 14th.

Tuesday...

...and things have been busy. First off, The Druid's Son is now showing as "in stock" on amazon.com, and has three reviews from early readers. Take a look!

Saturday I spent in Cheyenne at the SCA's Hunter's Feast - great food as usual, and no snow this year. It was good to see old friends, and I had fun performing a brief extraction from the next Storyteller book in the bardic competition. All told, an enjoyable day. Sunday and yesterday went in miscellaneous activities, including book bins and updating inventory. Our next merchant event will be the SCA's Caerthe 12th Night January 5th.

I've spent some time looking at the manuscript to date of the next book, and contemplating philosophical issues, e.g. how closely to Togi's experiences have to match what Gwernin hears as stories 500 years later? Should I even try to make things match up in any detail? And what will readers of the two series think if they don't?

More pictures next time...

-GRG

Friday...

The seasons turn; with Samhain, the dark half of the year begins. Yet even while the creatures of the earth prepare for their winter rest, this writer is preparing for new work. Yes, it's time I got back to the continuing adventures of Gwernin Storyteller, and the book I laid aside last year to write The Druid's Son, now called The Fallen Stones.

Books can take a long time to germinate, but this one is at least partly written, although some of it may have to be changed a bit. However, my goal is to have it finished and out within the next year. All I will say about the story right now is that it begins with a death and ends with a birth, and much of it takes place in Ireland. Oh, and the first words are: "Taliesin sang it, so it must be true."

Autumn leaves on the apple tree last week:



-GRG

Friday...

Oh dear, another week's gone by with no new post. Well, I've been busy - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was mostly spent getting the garage ready to bring in some tender plants before the snow which arrived Wednesday night, and incidentally doing my best to evict a squirrel which was trying to take up residence there.(Yes, I eventually succeeded.) Nasty weather yesterday - several inches of wet snow before leaf-drop is not good, but fortunately no power outages, in this neighborhood, at least. Nicer today - 30's F but sunny, which has helped. Still involved with tidying up publishing loose ends for The Druid's Son - got a bulk order today. Yesterday I got the proof copy for the global distribution version and approved that, so (Gods willing) it should be on Amazon etc before Christmas. I've also set up a hardback version, available on Lulu only. All in all, no lack of things to keep me busy! -GRG

Tuesday...

It feels strange not to be writing or proofreading; I'll have to start another project soon. In the meantime, I'm looking for reviewers, and cleaning house (long overdue), and doing autumn cleanup in the garden. We've been having another run of warm weather, common this time of year, but it probably won't last much longer.

A cat picture today: Titus waiting by the cold frame for his fresh catnip (inside the wire cage you can see next to him).



-GRG

Thursday...

Still here, just busy. Weather's gone back to seasonal normal (no snow), but that's OK. I'm still doing what I hope will be the final proofreading pass on the book - hope to have the paperback available on Lulu and copies for sale locally before the end of the month.

-GRG

Monday...

It's e-published!

Thursday...

Updated the graphics and ordered the first hard-copy proof to see how they look. There will certainly be at least one more proof round after I get the rest of the proofreaders' feedback, but in the meantime this will let me see what else (if anything) I need to change. Proof copies are also useful as ARCs for reviewers, so it's not a loss.

-GRG

Tuesday...

After a couple of days off, I've been back at work on the new book. The proofreaders are busily reading, and so far only finding minor typos. Today I finalized the back cover, and have uploaded the project onto Lulu, pending final revisions of the text file. As soon as I get that, I'll order the first proof copy. Next comes the text reformatting for the e-books on smashwords and the process of feeding that through their converter - say another week, all told. If all this goes well, I should have pre-release copies for reviewers before the end of October!

New pictures next time...

=GRG

Wednesday...

The second draft is finished and has gone to the proofreaders. At this rate I should have the e-book version of The Druid's Son out by Samhain, and the hard copy available before Christmas, on Lulu if not on Amazon etc. Still a lot of work to do, though - finish the map and the other front matter (copyright page, etc), incorporate whatever changes the proofreaders find, finish the back cover design, reformat everything for the e-book version, tweak the hard copy version and get it uploaded to Lulu... etc, etc, etc! Oh, and work on finding reviewers and doing other publicity stuff.

After that I may take a brief break before starting on Gwernin's next book...

New publicity item: business card sized handout for the book:




-GRG

Friday...

Spent last weekend at the Long's Peak Scottish / Irish Festival (aka highland games) in Estes Park, Colorado. We had excellent weather for a change, too. Then Tuesday a weather system moved through and gave Denver twelve hours of much needed slow rain - I haven't needed to water for a couple of days.

I'm still working on the second draft of The Druid's Son. So far I've only found a couple of short sections which needed some rewriting, along with a large number of minor changes. The latter includes things like making sure spelling of names and capitalization of certain words is uniform, checking moon phase / time correspondences, etc. I know there are a couple of sections in the next two chapters which will need revision / expansion, and one or two minor loose ends I need to deal with, but on the whole everything is on track to go to my proofreaders by the end of the month.

Meanwhile the seasons are changing. We've started having distinctly cold nights - this morning's low by my backdoor was 40 F - and cooler days. Tuesday was particularly good in this respect, and I took advantage of the milder weather to make a small batch of chutney with some of my garden surplus (tomatoes, sweet peppers, etc.). The beans have got ahead of me, as they tend to do at this time of year, but I remember from last year that the late season mature ones make great fresh shell beans, so that's OK. Not sure how long we have before frost - probably two or three weeks, but we'll see. Time to enjoy the morning glories while they last:



-GRG

Thursday...

Behind on blogging again, but I've had some distractions. After a few days off, I've started on the second draft of The Druid's Son. Not really rewriting anything, just changing a word here or adding a phrase there. I'm also making a list as I go of things to check, change, add, explain, etc. I don't think I have any major loose ends, but there are a few threads here and there which I think need to be developed a little more or tied off more securely. So far, though, things are looking good. When I finish this draft I'll pass it on to a couple of friends who've offered to proofread it for continuity, clarity, typos, etc. While they're doing that I'll finish the map(s) and the back cover. Then it'll be time for a final draft, and a e-book friendly version to upload to smashwords. After that I'll work on getting it through Lulu and on Amazon etc. I'll also be looking for blog reviewers at that stage.

All in all, still plenty of work to do, but the e-book at least should be out before Christmas, and perhaps proof copies of the paperback as well!

Then on to the next book....

Garden picture today: pumpkin-squash hybrid (they're cross-fertile, so growing them close together results in some strange fruits sometimes).



You can see a normal dark green immature pumpkin in the background, but this fellow has been yellow from the beginning.

-GRG

Some additional discussion re: finishing the first draft, from my LibraryThing discussion thread:

 (WARNING: possible mild spoilers (by some definitions)):

 "As to whether the story worked out as expected - it depends on the time scale. The book I ended up with is a good bit different from what I expected when I started it a year ago, not so different from what I expected a few months ago. Part of the difference is due to my finding a good bit more Roman-related history in the time frame and area I'd chosen than I expected. To simplify extremely, I started with the idea "hero is born, grows up, goes to another country, has many adventures" and ended with "hero is born, grows up, goes to another country". The "many adventures" part, it seems, will eventually require another book...

"I haven't ended with any major loose ends, although I think I'll find a few places which need a little more explanation, but that's OK because although my word count is currently very close to my estimate (103,870 at the moment, with up to 1,000 more to go, vs. an original guess 6 months or so ago of 100,000) the page count is still comfortably below my maximum. On the other hand, there were certainly some bits I didn't expect along the way - as you say, characters (if they're good, well developed ones) frequently have a will of their own. This is one reason I don't write to a detailed outline - I find it more fun this way!

"The afterword, by the way, explains which characters and places are invented (almost all and only a couple, respectively), and includes most of my blog comment re: lack of information on druids in general and British and Irish ones in particular. I wouldn't want anyone to confuse any of my invented druidry with established fact, although from what I've heard about other writers' experiences, it's likely to happen anyway."

-GRG

Tuesday...

First draft of The Druid's Son is finished! Now the revising begins... -GRG

Saturday...

One more chapter to go in The Druid's Son, but the action sequences are over, and this is just the final-tying-off-of-loose-ends, so I've paused to think a little. After that, it'll be time to start on the second draft...

Still a few apples out there that the coons and squirrels didn't get...



-GRG

Monday...

Been doing too much writing in the last week to blog. I'm at 92,386 words and 17.5 chapters - 88% completion of the first draft. Not much today due to some other stuff, but full speed ahead again tomorrow. Last pieces of the plot are coming together - just have to grind it out!

Garden picture from a couple of days ago... yes, we have beans now!



And that's it for today...

-GRG

Tuesday...

Not much actual writing since Friday, but a good bit of looking at maps and reference books and thinking. Conclusions: we know very little about Britain in this period (other than what Tacitus has to say); we know even less about British Druids (i.e. they may have existed, and if so were probably on Anglesey at some point in the 1st century AD, but we have no idea what they were doing there); and we know rather less about Ireland and Irish Druids (if any). Ireland was where it is today; there was some sort of (probably complex) "Celtic" society there, speaking (probably) a Godelic language; there were probably religious / magical specialists of some kind (who may or may not have called themselves Druids) in that society at the time in question; there is a possibility (supported to some extent by archaeological discoveries of Roman material) that Agricola may have sent some sort of military expedition to Ireland, most probably in late 81 AD, with outcome unknown; if he did send such an expedition, they most probably crossed from the vicinity of Galloway (Scotland), as he was operating in that area at that time with the required manpower and naval support; Agricola (according to Tacitus) had in his entourage at that time an exiled Irish noble of some sort who could have served as a focal point for such an expedition. What any Druids (if they existed and were interested) might have had to do this is entirely conjecture.

It's a good thing I'm writing fiction.

-GRG

Friday...

84,765 words and 221 pages. Four more chapters to go. Whew - it's been a week.

Wednesday...

Almost missed blogging again today - too busy writing. Passed 80,000 words - almost 80% complete for the first draft.