So I expect you all noticed that TANO became available for preorder … was that Saturday? I think Saturday. Just barely in time to hit March 1 as the release date because you have to set that at least five days in advance. Good thing I checked and rechecked the formatting days in advance because I can’t touch it now till it releases.
I’m grateful to everyone who instantly hit the preorder button, which a good number of people did. The preorders went up to fifty or so in about eight hours, which was very nice. I expect a slower trickle over the next couple days, but regardless, I hope that will do useful things to Amazon’s algorithms for the Tuyo sale that starts on the third.
There will of course be paper editions, paperback and hardcover. I hope I will get those covers today, or at least this week. I will hit publish immediately when I get those files.
Meanwhile!
Over the past week, I wrote the first scene for the Sinowa-and-Marag prequel story. It’s a quiet sort of prologue scene, set a couple months before the next scene. I like it. Then I set it aside for later and wrote the first scene plus a middle scene for the Lau story. I think I like that too, but I’m setting that aside as well, for now. I’m having some trouble with it because the story opens, at least right now, in the male lead’s point of view and his voice was not clear to me. I keep wanting to write him like Esau, which is not right. I think I have now figured out his background with enough clarity to help with that, but now –>
–> time to get back into revision! Aaargh! But I actually think my mood about this is less hostile than it was last week, so I guess it was a good idea to take a break. Possibly that will be something to keep in mind for later, as I have months of revision to go, what with No Foreign Sky followed by finishing up Tasmakat followed by probably fairly extensive revision with Invictus. Did I say Aargh? Because, Aargh.
I’ve also started putting together a Dramatis Personae kind of thing for the Tuyo series. People, places, notes about the languages, general notes about the world. I’m certainly not going to include people who are mentioned in passing in one scene, but most characters who are more important than that. I’m probably not going to do it in alphabetical order, but do the first sort by Lau/Ugaro/Lakasha/Ro-Antalet/Tarashana and the second sort by importance. I could change my mind, but it seems better to have everyone who is inGara in one place at the top of the Ugaro list rather than scattered, everyone who is in Aras’ family in one place rather than scattered, and so on.
I also started Nora Goes Off Script, a contemporary romance recommended here recently, and I like it a lot, but I’ve hit a high-tension bit where Leo disappears and despite all promises to the contrary does not return. This is making me a little reluctant to continue, though hopefully Nora will start to pull herself together soon. I do like how supportive everyone is of her and how supportive of each other she and the kids all are.
I have a strong guess about what’s going on. I’m not sure I should share that here? It’s a total guess, not like I’ve read ahead and know whether I’m right. I could be completely wrong. But I’m pretty sure. Is sharing that fair game? Tell you what, I’ll insert a pause and then tell you what I think the problem is. Don’t read the rest of this post if you don’t want to know what I think has happened. If you’ve already read the book, for heaven’s sake don’t tell me whether I’m right!
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I think Leo is being blackmailed by Naomi. Everything points to this, as far as I can tell. We have a comment made in passing, I think made by Leo to one of the children, that Naomi is mean. We have him sleeping with Naomi, but then hanging out in Nora’s house, which would make sense if he’s trying to avoid Naomi. His drinking is at least partly a response to the pressure of being forced to act opposite Naomi and take her to bed when he doesn’t want to do either. We have him resisting going home after the shoot, which totally makes sense because Naomi apparently redecorated his apartment in New York and probably invaded his life in additional ways there as well. When he cuts Nora off, what could explain that? Nothing normal. So it’s something abnormal, and that is Naomi blackmailing him to force him to ghost Nora, which she would do because she’s infuriated that he could prefer Nora to her.
What she’s blackmailing him about, I have not the slightest idea.
I don’t know that this is right, but it sure fits. Everything fits. I have therefore pretty much committed to this explanation, and if something else is going on, I will be super surprised, which I would enjoy, but I’d enjoy being right too, so either way is fine with me.
And that was my week!
The coming week, I will probably fiddle with the Dramatis Personae and also FOR SURE dig into the final revisions to No Foreign Sky.
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Wrong!!! I agree, that part is very high stress. I am very much looking forward to the Marag-Sinowa story. Does it include a young Ryo? Garroyo? I guess we will have to wait to see. I am looking forward to Tano, but because I have kindle unlimited, I can’t pre-order. But you can bet Mar 1 I will have it downloaded.
High stress books are difficult for me. Jane Harper, who writes murder mysteries, has a new book out (“Exiles”) but I haven’t picked it up Bc I’m not sure I can handle the pressure, even though one of her books (“The Dry”) may have been one of the best books I’ve read since Wolf Hall. Books like “Shine Now…” are more appealing to me. I wish there had been more.
Oh, well, I guess I’ll have to think again about what might be going on!
I went over to Amazon and looked at The Dry, but I don’t think I’m in the right place for a grim murder mystery during a terrible drought, so maybe not.
I’ve preordered and am looking forward to it. Will mention it and the Tuyo sale a few places online.
Re the Dramatis Personae list, am I supposed to know who the Ro-Antalet are? Because I don’t know who they are.
Nope, OtterB, if they were mentioned at all previously, it was just barely in passing. The Ro-Antalet are the giant lions with the heads of people. They rule the country south of the summer lands. They and the Lakashas have a complicated dual society.
I am very excited to hear about progress on the Sinowa & Marag story and on the other Lau story!!
The order you mentioned for the dramatis personae seems like a good organization scheme if you expect the main use case to be “Oh shoot, what was that character’s name again? You know, Ryo’s brother with the horses?”, whereas alphabetical would be better if you thought people were more likely to be seeing a name in the book and pausing to look them up. I guess even in the second case, sorting by where the character is from would still work – even if I can’t remember who Varoya is, I could probably guess that it’s an Ugaro name.