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Face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 and open star cluster NGC 6939 share
Odd day. Wrote +/-1850 words after throwing out the words I wrote yesterday, which, yes, sounds like a waste, but in fact was not because if I hadn’t written those words, I wouldn’t have known they were the wrong ones, and forced the boys in the basement to Do Better. What I need to do now is piecing so I can see the Big Picture, so to speak. I’m not unhappy with what I’ve done so far, and very glad I had a whole day to bear down. Today’s labors brings the total WIP to +/-47,760 words.
I’m pretty tired from all that bearing down, so no more new words today, and honestly? I may leave the piecing til tomorrow, too.
In Writing Adjacent News, I’ve applied for a place as an author in the Bangor Book Fair, in December. I have very little chance of being accepted, but, yanno, none if I don’t fill out the form.
I see that the credit union is replacing my credit card with a Whole Nother credit card (not just a renewal of the existing card), come August, which means I need to move the things I have on auto-pay somewhere else. What fun. Also, it looks like I need to find if I have any so-called “rewards” on the existing card and, if so, clean them out, as the new card will not have rewards, but it will have a very respectable 9.9% interest rate.
I also have some mail to answer, but I keep losing the list until I’m too tired to write a coherent letter. Maybe if I put it under my tea mug, I’ll see it first thing tomorrow. It’s a plan.
I had a turkey burger and baked beans for lunch, and I have discovered that turkey burgers are limp and hard to manage, and also don’t taste that great. I still have three of the dern things, but I figure they can be broken into pieces, since they want to do that anyway, mixed in with other things and thereby made to taste better. I mean, I do know that you can’t have chicken and mushroom dumplings every day, but I had expected a little better from the turkey burgers.
It’s been a cool(er) and breezy, so I have the windows in my office open, and I’ve been enjoying the company of all four cats most of the day.
. . . and that’s the report from the Confusion Factory.
Hope everyone’s had a nice Friday and/or holiday.
Friday Census and Proof of Life:
Ninety years after her grandmother's family was stalked by a witch, international student Minerva Contrera's studies land her in a similar position.
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
An extra poem this week …
Carl Sandburg
*
Many ways to spell good night.
Fireworks at a pier on the Fourth of July
spell it with red wheels and yellow spokes.
They fizz in the air, touch the water and quit.
Rockets make a trajectory of gold-and-blue
and then go out.
Railroad trains at night spell with a smokestack
mushrooming a white pillar.
Steamboats turn a curve in the Mississippi crying
in a baritone that crosses lowland cottonfields
to a razorback hill.
It is easy to spell good night.
Many ways to spell good night.
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The post Happy 4th of July appeared first on Rachel Neumeier.
From Writer Unboxed: Epigraphs: A Fun Writing Tool
Beats me what they mean by “tool.” I do think epigraphs are fun, and I also think honestly, they are more appropriate for contemporary fiction or fiction set in a contemporary-ish world. I feel strange about using lines from real books as epigraphs for secondary-world fiction, and … I think that’s just me, probably, and I should get over it and start using epigraphs now and then, because they really are fun.
Piranesi begins with an epigram from The Magician’s Nephew: “I am the great scholar, the magician, the adept, who is doing the experiment. Of course I need subjects to do it on.”
Clarke also uses a quote from one of the characters in the story, and this is how I would be inclined to do it if I were using an “epigraph” in secondary-world fantasy or far-future SF. The quote is:
People call me a philosopher or a scientist or an anthropologist. I am none of those things. I am an anamnesiologist. I study what has been forgotten. I divine what has disappeared utterly. I work with absences, with silences, with curious gaps between things. I am really more of a magician than I am anything else.” — Laurence Arne-Sayles
The linked post focuses on chapter epigraphs, which I enjoy very much, especially fictional ones.
I utilize chapter epigraphs throughout my trilogy. This is hardly an original or rare storytelling element, particularly for my genre of epic fantasy. Some of the biggest names of the genre utilize them, including Robin Hobb, Brandon Sanderson, R. Scott Bakker, and Steven Erikson, to name a few.
Do they? Good for them.
All right, Amazon, show me a book by R Scott Bakker (whose books I’ve never read, by the way.) The Prince of Darkness, Book I — is this grimdark? Never mind, show me a sample and let’s take a look at the epigraph for chapter one …
If it is only after that we understand what has come before, then we understand nothing. Thus we shall define the soul as follows: that which precedes everything. — Ajencis, The Third Analytic of Men.
Evocative!
Here, from the linked post, are the suggested uses or advantages of using epigraphs:
- Provide omniscient narration—Being a separate voice in our stories, we can use epigraphs much as Greek tragedies utilized the Chorus—to set the scene, introduce new characters, or to provide essential exposition for the upcoming scene.
- Infuse atmosphere—Being a separate voice, epigraphs can incorporate a completely different style, in some cases adding a taste of something bolder than the voice of the main body of the story.
- Enhance world-building or insert lore—It’s amazing how much backstory or peripheral information can be added in a brief epigraph when it need not be designed to “flow” into he narrative.
- Act as story guideposts—Big sprawling stories can be complicated. Consistent chapter epigraphs can keep readers on course, like a throughline in a forest.
- Provide foreshadowing, corollary information, or clues to thematic undertones–The epigraph can bring needed or useful insight to the reader without breaking the fictive trance offered by following the tight POV of a character.
- Offer a contrary position, or enlighten through hindsight—The narrative voice from the epigraph can offer a counterpoint to what the characters believe to be true.
- Inject a completely different form than prose—Many authors choose to use alternative forms of the written word for their epigraphs, such as poetry, song lyrics, proverbs or adages.
Click through to read the full entries; the above are abbreviated.
I will probably never do actual chapter epigraphs, which, like actual chapter titles —
TAKE TOO LONG
And I am thinking here of Robert Asprin, who said that by the end of his Myth Adventures series, coming up with those damn chapter titles took as long as writing the book. Which I have absolutely no trouble believing. ONE epigraph at the front of the entire book, yes. Chapter epigraphs, no. I suspect authors who try this more than once probably also have a knack for titles, log-lines, one-sentence pitches, and all the other short forms that give the rest of us absolute fits. More power to them, but I’m not one of them.
I do like them, though!
The author of the linked post adds: One of the things I’m proudest of in regard to my epigraphs is the overarching story within them. In a meta way, the main body of the tale and the story within the epigraphs are entwined, hopefully adding meaning and emotional impact by The End.
This sounds very snazzy! I’m still not going to do it, but I’m a bit jealous of this author’s ability to do it. This is Vaughn Roycroft, who has written … looks like a fantasy trilogy with a historical feel.
Meanwhile, here’s Reactor’s post: Always Read the Epigraph
I’m going to talk to you now about two particular fantasy novels—Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and Kate Griffin’s A Madness of Angels—that I think illustrate the value of epigraphs. Why these two? Because they demonstrate two opposite but equally effective ways in which an epigraph or two can really spice up a story. Just as a warning: because I’m going to discuss how these epigraphs connect to the stories that follow them, there may well be some spoilers to come, even though I start by just looking at the first page of each book.
Book Riot: Best Epigraphs of 2020
I like this one:
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
“We die with the dying:
See, they depart, and we go with them.
We are born with the dead:
See, they return, and bring us with them.”
—T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding,” The Four Quartets
Oh, here’s one from Kill Zone Blog: The How and Why of Epigraphs
GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn
Love is the world’s infinite mutability; lies, hatred, murder even, are all knit up in it; it is the inevitable blossoming of its opposites, a magnificent rose smelling faintly of blood. — Tony Kushner, THE ILLUSION
Very useful epigraph! It whispers: Would Not Like, Do Not Read.
Honestly, I do really love epigraphs. I truly should think of using them now and then.
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The post Epigraphs appeared first on Rachel Neumeier.
If you know where to look, you can see a thermonuclear explosion from a white dwarf star.
I embrace new tools. In Fabula Ultima, for example, the order in which characters go in combat varies. I found it hard to keep track of who'd gone, so I went out and got poker chips and little round labels. Now, I can just toss the chips representing characters into a bowl once they've gone. Order!
OK, except it turns out I can't tell blue from green under the ceiling light in the room where I DM and the names on the labels need to be bigger.
OK, except it turns out I can't tell blue from green under the ceiling light in the room where I DM and the names on the labels need to be bigger.
BUSINESS FIRST: The Uncle wishes everyone to know that there are still signed copies of Diviner’s Bow available from his website. Signed books make wonderful gifts!
The preview is showing Fair Trade because the link takes you to a catalog page where all signed Lee-and-Miller editions are gathered into one happy place.
Here’s the link.
#
Wrote +/-1060 very drafty words, which I am not adding to the Official Count until the scene is finished. Which it ain’t.
So, questions on Tali’s preferred brush. It’s called a Safari brush, and is a soft, two-sided rubber brush. There are Tricks to using it. I use the brush, then I take a towel and just smooth it over the cat to get the last of the loose fur out. Tali likes both the brush and the toweling, which are both very gentle operations.
What’s so special about dumplings? someone asks. No, not Bisquick dumplings. Chinese steamed dumplings, stuffed with chicken, or pork, or veggies, or combinations thereof. There are also sweet fillings available, but today I went with the savory — chicken and mushroom. Very good; I expect I’ll be a return customer.
The food truck court is right around the corner from a house that Steve and I seriously considered buying, Some Time Back. We decided that a house that had three steps between the kitchen and the dining room, and three steps from the living room to the bedroom, one step from the bedroom to the bathroom, and two steps down to the sunroom, might not be so good if one of us got sick. Nice house in many ways, including having a separate office wing, and an attached garage, but the stairs were a deal-breaker. But, man, what a location, twelve years down the road.
In more personal news, Ashley has left me; she has discovered that she’s allergic to cats. This means I’ll be doing my own housework (poor writer; like she hasn’t been doing her own housework for 50 years), which isn’t necessarily a Completely Bad Thing. I’d been looking for stuff to hang a Schedule on, after all.
Also! I will be taking a Social Media Free Day tomorrow in order to Concentrate on the WIP. For those who worry about me not having enough fun, I do have turkey burgers, and buns, and baked beans, so that I can be appropriately festive.
Everybody stay safe; those who are picnicking or otherwise celebrating — have fun!
Let’s check in with each other on Saturday.
What went before: Did some handwritten work; tomorrow I’ll be typing. I still haven’t figured out who XX are, but I’m sure they’ll tell me bye-n-bye.
Coon Cat Happy Hour has been served up; I’ve got a couple more things to do, then I’ll be pouring a glass of wine.
Everybody have a good evening; stay safe. I ‘ll see you tomorrow.
Oh. For some reason, this got kicked up by the photo program — this would be me on my 61st birthday at The Lindsey House B&B in Rockland Maine. FWIW.
#
Thursday. Sunny and warm. Thunderstorms called for, later, with hail.
Breakfast was cream cheese on an English muffin with grapes on the side. I am back from the chiropractor, and thought I was in for the weekend, but! There’s a Dumpling Truck at the KMD Food Truck Court today, and — it just might be that I’ll have to go out again in a few. We’ll see. I mean; it’s not like I don’t have food. OTOH — dumplings.
Today, I do intend to devote most of my time to writing, dumplings or no dumplings. Tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday will be more of the same. I know what I’m doing first off, so — all good there.
I spent some time with my Garmin Watch this morning, and to hear it tell the tale, I live a Very Stressful Life. Which I’m supposing is not impossible, Given Everything. It’s worth noting that the days when I’m, err, less stressed, are days when I’m writing, so — I’m going with that.
Tali’s fan club will be happy to know that I’ve finally found a brush that Tali likes; she was purring the whole time, and even turned over for me, so I could brush her belly.
In other news, I’m listening to Faking It by Jennifer Crusie. I’m having an OK time with it, but something about the narration itches at me. Maybe some books just aren’t meant to be read aloud? Though Steve read it to me when I was being bathed in the energy of one thousand angry suns every day. OTOH — I found Steve’s voice soothing.
My reading is A Gentleman of Questionable Judgment, the 9th Lord Julian novel, which I had somehow missed, so now catching up.
. . . and, yeah; I’m for dumplings. I was going to have stir-fry chicken and veggies for lunch, anyhow. Dumplings will go great. And it’s not like they can’t be steamed and heated up for later.
See me convince myself?
So — who has a long weekend coming up? Plans?
Sometime Later: The chicken and mushroom dumplings are to die for.
And the lavender honey latte is good, too.
Yeah, I went crazy.
It’s summer. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Here’s a picture of Tali, post-brushing, and the boys, Judging me:
Our weather has been very pleasant for the past couple of days. Warm, but not too hot and with a cool breeze from the west. There is more rain forecast for the weekend, but I don't mind a mixture. It's when it gets stuck on one type of weather for too long that I start to moan. So we had perfect weather today for a walk to the coast. As usual we drove to the tiny car park by the Mawddach Trail and set out to walk to the seaside.
We know from experience that if the tide is high here, then you need to take the inland route to Fairbourne rather than following the track that runs beside the estuary along the base of the cliff. Today it was safe to take the coastal route.
We followed the footpath sign to the right. The bridleway is the track that leads to the whimsical sentry boxes and then onwards to join the path to Fairbourne. ( More photos here... )
We didn't walk all the way to Fairbourne because I'm trying not to eat snacks so I declined G's suggestion of buying ice creams. As it was, the walk out and back was 5½ miles and if we weren't going to buy anything, the extra distance along the sea front was pointless. We had reached the sea and enjoyed the pollen-free sea breeze.
We know from experience that if the tide is high here, then you need to take the inland route to Fairbourne rather than following the track that runs beside the estuary along the base of the cliff. Today it was safe to take the coastal route.
We followed the footpath sign to the right. The bridleway is the track that leads to the whimsical sentry boxes and then onwards to join the path to Fairbourne. ( More photos here... )
We didn't walk all the way to Fairbourne because I'm trying not to eat snacks so I declined G's suggestion of buying ice creams. As it was, the walk out and back was 5½ miles and if we weren't going to buy anything, the extra distance along the sea front was pointless. We had reached the sea and enjoyed the pollen-free sea breeze.
FINE, having been reluctantly persuaded that Thirteen Petals is not necessarily consonant enough with the metaphysics of the world — just envision me being hauled away from that title, kicking and screaming all the way — I’m now thinking most seriously of —
Nine Steps from Dawn to Midnight
Other possibilities:
Thirteenfold World (Elaine’s Teen — this one is sort of growing on me a bit.)
The Dragon Cameo (Mona — to me it seems almost too mundane or … not sure that’s the word … too generic? Not sure.)
Gates of Air and Shadow (do not particularly like this one personally; don’t know why.)
Saffron Sky (this is not an important characteristic of the world, so it doesn’t actually have a lot going for it other than alliteration.)
None of these has a SE Asia vibe the way that (to me) Thirteen Petals did. In combination with the right sort of dragon on the cover, The Dragon Cameo could pick up that kind of vibe. I suppose that technically any cover picks up vibe from the cover.
Tiger Soul (Doesn’t that sound too much like Tiger Mom?)
***
I don’t hate Nine Steps from Dawn to Midnight, and I’m leaning toward that. I believe the cover artist is about ready to begin the cover. Sometime between now and the time he roughs out the cover, I guess I will have to decide, even if “decide” in this case means “close my eyes and throw a dart.”
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The post World of Tiers (Not Its Real Title) appeared first on Rachel Neumeier.
Director of the nation formerly known as Canada Quinn Atherton is determined to deliver much mass murder as it takes to achieve peace, order, good government. Why do so many ingrates object?
Blight(Sleep of Reason, volume 2) by Rachel A. Rosen
Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson, quite a mouthful of a name! was born in 1875.
Poetry Foundation says: A writer of short stories, essays, and poems, Dunbar-Nelson was comfortable in many genres but was best known for her prose. One of the few female African American diarists of the early 20th century, she portrays the complicated reality of African American women and intellectuals
Here’s one of her poems I like, and think is especially suitable for midsummer, when it’s too hot to actually do anything.
The Idler
An idle lingerer on the wayside’s road,
He gathers up his work and yawns away;
A little longer, ere the tiresome load
Shall be reduced to ashes or to clay.
No matter if the world has marched along,
And scorned his slowness as it quickly passed;
No matter, if amid the busy throng,
He greets some face, infantile at the last.
His mission? Well, there is but one,
And if it is a mission he knows it, nay,
To be a happy idler, to lounge and sun,
And dreaming, pass his long-drawn days away.
So dreams he on, his happy life to pass
Content, without ambitions painful sighs,
Until the sands run down into the glass;
He smiles—content—unmoved and dies
And yet, with all the pity that you feel
For this poor mothling of that flame, the world;
Are you the better for your desperate deal,
When you, like him, into infinitude are hurled?
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The post Poetry Thursday: Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson appeared first on Rachel Neumeier.
Does the Milky Way always rise between these two rocks?
The inspiration being the 1999 Mummy movie is not without problematic elements.
Imagine an Egyptian film company wanting to make a movie about idiots waking a horror in Canada that only the Egyptian lead can resolve.
( Read more... )
Imagine an Egyptian film company wanting to make a movie about idiots waking a horror in Canada that only the Egyptian lead can resolve.
( Read more... )
Sometimes the smallest change can alter one's whole perspective, shift one's paradigm, or open up all kinds of options. Here are just three from over the years, all connected with our house.
After about a year of marriage, I got house fever. We were initially hunting for two bathrooms, looked all over various parts of the Atlanta metro area, and came up empty. Then I said, why not look for one bathroom? We soon had an all-brick ranch with 3 [tiny] bedrooms and one bathroom. My dad the contractor was eventually able to turn the water heater room into a small en suite. [note: it was on the south side of town, with lower taxes. Even with his student loans and them not counting my temp income, it was what we could afford.]
I have very routinized food choices. There was one Michaelina's entree I ate several times a week for over two decades [until they quit making it]. Most of that time, I stored them in the freezer door, front to back. After a decade or two, I finally figured out, I could store half again as many in the door, if I stacked them side-to-side, like books on a shelf. [Ironic that it took me so long to figure out, given the hundreds of feet of mostly double-rowed books in the house.]
The main bedroom, kitchen, and living room of our house all came with ceiling fans. The computer room, in the corner that catches full afternoon sun and is thus the warmest room in the house, has no ceiling fan. [My dad said there wasn't enough structure in the ceiling to support one.]
My spouse went to his first SABR [baseball] convention last week - right during the big heat wave. I run hot anyway [like Granny] and spend most of my time reading on the computer. Even with the lovely insulation [airport and bookshelves], not a fun time. I'm short, & the ceiling fans are nearly a foot overhead. Nevertheless, it was warm enough, I lunged, and turned on the living room fan. Leaving it on all the week kept the whole house amazingly cool [nearly 20 degrees cooler than outside].
How did it take me 3+ decades to discover this delightful fact? Normally, I'd feel all kinds of doofy, but am too busy being rather chill about the whole thing.
;)
After about a year of marriage, I got house fever. We were initially hunting for two bathrooms, looked all over various parts of the Atlanta metro area, and came up empty. Then I said, why not look for one bathroom? We soon had an all-brick ranch with 3 [tiny] bedrooms and one bathroom. My dad the contractor was eventually able to turn the water heater room into a small en suite. [note: it was on the south side of town, with lower taxes. Even with his student loans and them not counting my temp income, it was what we could afford.]
I have very routinized food choices. There was one Michaelina's entree I ate several times a week for over two decades [until they quit making it]. Most of that time, I stored them in the freezer door, front to back. After a decade or two, I finally figured out, I could store half again as many in the door, if I stacked them side-to-side, like books on a shelf. [Ironic that it took me so long to figure out, given the hundreds of feet of mostly double-rowed books in the house.]
The main bedroom, kitchen, and living room of our house all came with ceiling fans. The computer room, in the corner that catches full afternoon sun and is thus the warmest room in the house, has no ceiling fan. [My dad said there wasn't enough structure in the ceiling to support one.]
My spouse went to his first SABR [baseball] convention last week - right during the big heat wave. I run hot anyway [like Granny] and spend most of my time reading on the computer. Even with the lovely insulation [airport and bookshelves], not a fun time. I'm short, & the ceiling fans are nearly a foot overhead. Nevertheless, it was warm enough, I lunged, and turned on the living room fan. Leaving it on all the week kept the whole house amazingly cool [nearly 20 degrees cooler than outside].
How did it take me 3+ decades to discover this delightful fact? Normally, I'd feel all kinds of doofy, but am too busy being rather chill about the whole thing.
;)
The June 2023 Dark Eye Megabundle featuring the English-language edition from Ulisses Spiele of the leading German tabletop roleplaying game of heroic fantasy, The Dark Eye.
Bundle of Holding: The Dark Eye MEGA (from 2023)
What went before: Oof.
I wasn’t feeling 100 percent when I got up this morning, late but not rested after a very mixed sleep. My knee hurt, my back hurt, my hands hurt, yada, yada, poor writer.
Anyhoots, I thought I’d shake it off, and went, slightly groggy, about my business, including going to the grocery store, and getting gas, and visiting the local pet store. Came home, put everything away, made something — oh, veggie stir fry — for lunch, and still felt lousy.
So, I picked up Rookie, who happened to be on my lap, and carried him with me to the bedroom, where we had a lovely and refreshing two hour hap.
I cannot praise Rookie’s nursing skills enough. He immediately donned his professional aspect, walked around the top of the bed, laid down on my stomach to make sure I was flat to the mattress, then came ’round and snuggled into the side of my neck, purring until I went to sleep.
I feel less achy, and I’ve done the dishes and other chores, so the plan is to go to the needlework group, come home, serve up happy hour and my own supper, go to bed early, and see if I can’t do some writing tomorrow.
How’s Tuesday treating everybody?
#
Wednesday. Cloudy and going to be warm. Feeling much better today.
Breakfast was half an anything bagel with cream cheese and a side of grapes. Drinking my first cup of tea. Lunch will be something to do with chicken breasts.
The only hard thing on the schedule is a visit with the chiropractor in about an hour. Nothing after that until… Monday? And of course Tuesday is the Gala Celebration of Rookie’s Gotcha Day.
In theory, therefore, I have four-and-a-half days to write. That sounds promising, even — exciting. I have a couple scenes, as yet unconnected, that I want to sketch in, and also a continue on the narrative as it stands. This book could be more complicated. OTOH, this is more or less how Salvage Right went together, so the nut hasn’t fallen far from the tree.
I’ve thinking off and on about the conversations I’ve had recently about colleagues who have resorted to reading genre romance in order to up the romance in their sf/f novel, or! to figure out What Women Want, in terms of a hero — and why that makes me … uneasy.
And, I think I’ve finally figured that out. The problem is that genre romance has its Conventions, as does sf/f. One of those is: The Relationship Drives The Plot. The characters may have other problems, other friends, and, yanno, A Life, but the primary problem that must be solved is how are the lovers going to (1) get together and (2) go forward. You don’t, mind, have to SEE them go forward, but it has to be implicit in the HEA that commitment has been achieved and the partners will be going forward together.
A romance writer who is doing her job, therefore, makes certain that the Love Scenes (be they hot or be they sweet) move the characters toward their HEA. They are not only tied to the plot, they are drivers, and there’s a reason they unfold as they do.
SF/F has a long-held Convention that states the Big Problem must be solved at all costs: love and life not being exempt. Love scenes still ought to happen For A Reason, as all scenes no matter the genre ought to happen For A Reason, but the romance and the resolution of the relationship are very, very seldom the primary problem, and the relationship is often used to make more poignant the victory. And because the pacing of sf/f novels and romance novels are so VERY different, the inclusion of Love scenes is also different.
(At some point, someone is going to ask me how they’re different, and I’m going to tell them to go read a swath of Romance and another swath of SF and get back to me. So just be aware.)
Then there’s the vexed question of What Women Want in a (Male) SF Hero. The answer to this has been answered many times in sf/f. I offer the Liaden books as one example, and because they’re handy — but there are many, many others.
In quick sum-up: Men who are strong, but emotionally available; who protect kittens, but who also realize that kittens have claws for a reason, and to deny them the opportunity to use their close is to damage the kitten’s nature. Men who laugh, and who cry, and who aren’t afraid to say, “I don’t know.” Men who are willing to learn, and to teach, and to play. Men who are people, I would say, though I’ve been accused of meaning when I do say that, “Men who act like women.”
So. Long-Winded Auctorial Ramblings R Us.
What’s everybody having for lunch today?
Youko and Airi meet a new friend and encounter Chekov's Volcano.
Touring After the Apocalypse, volume 5 by Sakae Saito
I was startled at my reaction recently when an early reader of Hedesa said something like, “I wasn’t that interested in most of Tarashana characters.”
Here was my instant reaction: Of course not! There aren’t any Tarashana characters in Hedesa.
Then I thought, Hmm, that’s an interesting reaction.
Saying “There aren’t any Tarashana characters in Hedesa” is misleading. Hedesaveriel is in fact a character, though a minor one. Ijesele might be a character, though a very minor one. The other Tarashana characters certainly aren’t characters: they are part of the setting and part of the plot.
But why do I say that? What makes me feel that way? They aren’t all just part of a crowd of unnamed characters (though in fact that does describe MOST of the Tarashana we see). We have three named Tarashana who appear repeatedly and get lines of dialogue: Jesarian, Ledaleuthial, and Inhetariel. I’m sure you notice that this isn’t very many considering that we are in the starlit lands for 350 pages (or so) and see a whopping lot of Tarashana people at a distance.
If you think back to Tasmakat, that worked the same way. The back third of the book — about 350 pages, give or take — featured lots and lots of Lakasha and a scattering of Ro-Antelet. How many of them were part of the setting and plot? A lot. How many of the named Lakasha or Ro-Antelet characters were really characters? A handful. Important characters? A tiny handful: Tasmakat herself and arguably Bakharot, the Ro with the feet, and offhand I would say that’s it. A few others got a handful of lines and were minor characters. The Ro child was so cute that to me she seems like a real character, but very minor, of course. She’s so minor she could be described as part of the scenery. (A cute part.)
***
It is impossible to find characters who are truly scenery as interesting as characters who are really characters. What makes the difference?
Relationships.
If and only if the secondary character is in a relationship with the protagonist, the character becomes a real character. That’s what I think, and this would be an interesting thing to discuss at a convention because I can imagine different authors and readers taking other positions. But to me, it looks like this:
Nameless people in a crowd — pure scenery.
Person who barely opens his mouth but plays a pivotal role in the plot — element of the plot.
Person who conveys information — element of the plot.
People whom the protagonist notices exist, but doesn’t really notice as people — scenery or elements of the plot.
People with whom the protagonist has a minor, unimportant relationship — minor characters.
People with whom the protagonist has an emotionally important relationship — now you’re talking. These are real secondary characters. These are the characters the protagonist cares about as people, and therefore the characters the author and readers also care about at people. There are a lot of characters in Hedesa. In order of their importance to Tano, they are:
Raga … … … Tokowa … … … Gedes, Kelleos, Parra … … … … the pony, Hedesaveriel, Nagaro, Barano, Varorda … … … … … everyone else back here somewhere.
The pony is possibly up a bit closer to the front. Regardless, the reader is not likely to care all that much about characters that are lost in the clutter at the back, although if I did it right, the reader ought to care enough to notice various events involving some of those characters. But almost everr reader is probably going to care a lot more about characters closer to the front. It’s closeness to or importance to Tano that moves the character from the back to the front, and I would argue that this is always, always, always what makes the character important to the reader as well. I mean emotionally important, which is totally different from important to the plot because the character does something.
And there aren’t any Tarashana characters who are important to Tano except Hedesaveriel, who isn’t THAT important.
The NEXT book will be different, because I’m going to ditch most of the characters, THANK GOD — this is probably going to take longer than I hope and making it happen will probably therefore add length and I will be rolling my eyes about that, but eventually, I hope fairly near the beginning, an event or two will occur that will make this happen. [No mass death, just putting that out there; a lot of characters will move offstage, not die.]
[I bet it really happens at about the 50% mark — ed.]
No matter when that happens, at that point, for the rest of the book, the characters who will be on stage will be more important to Tano, or else scenery, those two basic categories. If a Tarashana (or Saa’arii) character is on stage at that point, they will be a real character and I trust you will find them engaging as well as interesting. They will also enable us to learn a whole lot more about their people(s).
I do know exactly (relatively speaking) how some of this will work. But I’m not sure how much I want to say about where the story is going, because spoilers.
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