Jubal's Writing Blog

[Jubal]

Time to reboot this, I think, as I recently took a short story which I had written a while back and I've now got the following planned book to over 10,000 words. I've not finished any of the other chapters yet, but I've got chunks of Chs 2, 3 and 4 done, and I have a rough chapter plan, so I'm hopeful I can keep going with it. Not sure what to say about it this day beyond that it's a silly fantasy adventure story. But more updates to come I hope! I figured that I do regularly churn out e.g. travelogues of 5k words, and if I stack a few of those over time I could produce a book in two or three years if I put my mind to it. Maybe? We'll see?

[Jubal]

A few Work In Progress snippets from the current project These may all get changed, but it gives you a flavour of the style I'm going for...

Vescule looked as pained as Ceradan imagined he himself must have done earlier in the day. She was visibly mulling over the fact that their position was not an enviable one, but Ceradan needed that mulling to turn into ideas before.

Silence hung in the room for a few stretched out seconds, like a phantom sword above their heads.

"We can't refuse the request," she said eventually, "but we need to make a point that when paladins do things, they do them as individuals on the terms of the gods, not as. As such, we need a paladin on the job who will both get the job done, and will do it in the way least, shall we say, integrated into how someone like the Duke prefers to operate. Someone with a... limited sense of deference to worldly powers."

"Dangerous, no," said Erminegard, "if we send someone who the Duke might think makes a tit of themselves?"

"I think it works," said Ceradan. "Captain Pahtri has a point, some men would subordinate our whole order to butter their morning bread if they could. As long as the paladin comes up with the goods, the Duke won't have room to complain."

Vurwakt straightened up. "Other thing needed in plan. If fight, how? No shield-biters with us, only coal-biters."

"You mean to say our devastating charm won't make the enemies melt away in front of us?" Jeanne gave a razor-sharp wink in Vurwakt's direction, and the large man shifted his sitting position under the unfamiliar gaze.

"If you want to do the Parranese Waltz with a stone-devil or a wight or a gryphon, I'm not judging, "

"I might be judging," said Carkhit. "Just a little bit, but I might be. I thought I should be honest about that."

"What is Parranese Waltz?" said Vurwakt, slightly too loudly such that the elfin lady with the ink-blue fingers heard and looked over curiously.

"Oh, mother of song," said Jeanne. "When a man and a woman- well, or a woman and a woman, or two men, or a dwarf and another dwarf both of indeterminate gender- I mean, when two people love each other, or when they get bored-"

"The thought is a one that is known," said Vurwakt. Had he just rolled his eyes a little? "The words that are not the used words, these are unknown. The metaphor."

"When I'm bored I usually sew," said Carkhit.

Alaster pushed the long pole slowly but firmly against the bottom of the waterway, and the punt continued to glide through the reeds and sedge that were packed thick on either side. The heavy, deep booming call of a bittern could be heard somewhere out in the fens, and a heavy-winged harrier turned circles high above them, seeking prey.
"I still can't believe that you held out on us on the wife thing."

"It didn't come up! In any case, Jean-Jacques: I'm wearing a wedding ring, and have been since we met."

"I've worn wedding rings plenty of times! They were just from other people's weddings!"

"You are a dreadful thief and a scoundrel, d'Alvaratanne. You know that?"

"In this life," said Jeanne, leaning back in the punt and gesturing with an imagined wine glass at the world, "we're all scoundrels in our way. Or ruffians, or weirdos, and I know which of the three I'd rather be."

"In my professional opinion as a weirdo," Ansaler began, and Jeanne burst out laughing before he could finish the sentence.

[Jubal]

I have returned to the book! And written another couple of thousand words this weekend. At this rate, I'll complete it in a few years, which would be comforting were it not meant to be the first part of a trilogy...

[Jubal]

Hit the 20,000 word mark! Trying not to think about what that says about how far there is to go, but once again, It's Something. I'm very much dotting around just building up whatever bits of the book first come to mind, starting mostly with the earlier chapters but I'm pinning down some later elements too. Not sure how well the plot works, I've never been great with longer plots, but we'll see how it goes.

[The Seamstress]

That's quite a lot of words already. Yay!