after two yEars of time and time

It's Monday. It's a new year... two have passed, in fact, since last I posted here. Lot's of things happened between last post and this, and I won't try to update anything. This is a new post. Period. I'm just glad to be back.


Keeping in theme with my last post of two years ago, I have managed to get through the weeds of figuring out how to get my characters off the mountain, and into the new universe, and the continent and magic of Tamarast. I've been doing a lot of thinking on this and, while watching a " twilight" marathon on FX yesterday afternoon it came to me quite suddenly. The solution even allows me to avoid the whole "returning to the Consolidation" and all the plot point nightmares that would undoubtedly have gendered.


The second book in my proposed trilogy would have been the "Return to the Consolidation," and would have been boring beyond belief... to me--if I'd have had to write that block of nonsense the story I have in my head would never get finished. This new solution saves me the effort of writing something that would have ultimately been a nightmare, and save readers the time and disappointment that RttC would have been. By avoiding RttC, I'll get to keep my readers.


I've managed, as well, to figure out why my group of Muslims were so intent on destroying the project, stranding my pilgrims and them 11,000 years in the past. As it turned out the solution was quite simple. Now, I don't have to spend an entire novel in the Appalachians with Tel and Mina and the rest of my mountain community. Elias and his crew can do their damage and Tel can save his father, and the solution can be part of the whole beginning of what I've been calling "Rabbit On The Mountain". Discussed, at least, as part of setting the stage for what follows. "Rabbit on the Mountain" doesn't have to be a full length novel and "Return to the Consolidation" doesn't have to written at all.


Hooray, for me. Now I can focus solely on the getting to Tamarast and the wars that follow.

in thE [sweatshop]s of loveplay

Okay, so I've dusted off one of three novels in progress-- the one I set aside a couple of years ago. Then, I was about a quarter of the way through... I'm still there.

And it's hard going! I mean, I left all my characters hanging, and there's no telling what they've been up to since, so right now I'm trying to get everyone back where they're supposed to be [insert footage of cat herders], and gather my notes. I'm also trying clean up a few plot problems I have with the beginning. What compels Angelina to sit with Etienne, and why insist they sit in such a way as to allow neither of them a view of the other?

A very fine and particularly scarce wine.

The particulars in specifics? Why is the wine so good? Why is it scarce? And why is Angelina so initially furious at Etienne? Or could it be she's furious with herself? Can the wine be SO good as to make her sit with the man who has bought the very last case available to the public? And why the screen to prevent Etienne from seeing her? And how much exactly DID Etienne shell out for those last twelve bottles?

Most of these questions I already have worked out. The one that's truly been giving me hardships is the question of "Why" the wine is so scarce, and why the last case was available where it was.

You see, it was Angelina's intention to buy that case, but when she allowed three weeks to pass beyond the date she promised to make the purchase, someone else came in looking for the "Angel" he had seen on the fountain's edge, just one hour before, outside a small but prosperous ristorante in Venice.

When the owner's wife realized who Etienne was looking for, she offered him a glass of their best wine. So good was the wine Etienne decided to buy some, but the wife, thinking to set the two up, would only sell the wine by the case... the last remaining case... the one Angelina desired to buy.

Oh! And for those wondering about this post's title? This book I'm writing is titled In the Gardens of Loveplay... Aaaah, beginning to make sense now, isn't it? Sweatshops? Hard work?

Yes, it is.