End-of-summer AQATSA update
I'm tired after flying all the way across the country. I was half-expecting our National Security Theater to ramp up their performance in honor of 9/11, but fortunately, the flight was no more annoying than any other. (I.e., the stop-over where supposedly I would not have to switch planes had an unscheduled plane switch which naturally involved going to the far end of the terminal on the other side of the airport.)
On the plane, I was quietly defiant by reading on my ereader before the captain announced it was okay for us to use approved electronic devices! Ha, I am such a rebel.
(Sheesh, it's not a Kindle, it doesn't even have wireless.)
Anyway, I am home from my summer Secret Undisclosed Location and no longer trying to write on the shitty netbook that I had to use all summer because my Macbook took a direct hit from a cafe mocha. I might now be able to update some wizarding family trees, put together the AQATDR ebook, and hey, maybe even write some more of Alexandra Quick and the Stars Above.
Yes, I have been writing over the summer, though staring at a tiny netbook screen was so depressing that I didn't write very often. I'm at the stage in book four where the arc of the story is now outlined pretty well, but how to get from A to B to C is giving me fits, and I suspect book four might end up being... long.
Some readers have complained that you don't see enough of Alexandra's student life, and that her friends are kept too far removed from the plot. That's something I plan to redress in book four. But -- as usual, there are a whole lot of other plot elements I am trying to fit in, and Alexandra by her nature is the sort of person who runs off to do stuff on her own. It's hard to keep her friends around! She's learning to be a little less impulsive and less determined to keep everything to herself, but she's a solo sort of character, an independent heroine who has real trouble being less independent.
Also, pirates, ghosts, werewolves, Indians, Ozarkers, several out-of-Territory trips and one out-of-this-world trip, greater forces on the move in the world at large, secrets and lies and Big Reveals will not all fit into Alexandra's daily life at Charmbridge. Some stuff is going to be cut and/or pushed back to book five, or else AQATSA is going to be a big book.
I'm also in the process of writing up all my notes and backing up files somewhere so that certain people (including swissmarg) can get to them if I should ever get hit by a bus. Of course, my notes change frequently, so if anyone ever should see my incomplete plans for the series arc, just remember it's all in flux in my head at any given time. (For example, I just thought of a major change in how the series will end.)
Anyway, have some fan art below the cut.
By fpb:
Alexandra and Beatrice, from Chapter 22 of Alexandra Quick and the Lands Below.
By hogwartsbookworm at MNFF:
On the plane, I was quietly defiant by reading on my ereader before the captain announced it was okay for us to use approved electronic devices! Ha, I am such a rebel.
(Sheesh, it's not a Kindle, it doesn't even have wireless.)
Anyway, I am home from my summer Secret Undisclosed Location and no longer trying to write on the shitty netbook that I had to use all summer because my Macbook took a direct hit from a cafe mocha. I might now be able to update some wizarding family trees, put together the AQATDR ebook, and hey, maybe even write some more of Alexandra Quick and the Stars Above.
Yes, I have been writing over the summer, though staring at a tiny netbook screen was so depressing that I didn't write very often. I'm at the stage in book four where the arc of the story is now outlined pretty well, but how to get from A to B to C is giving me fits, and I suspect book four might end up being... long.
Some readers have complained that you don't see enough of Alexandra's student life, and that her friends are kept too far removed from the plot. That's something I plan to redress in book four. But -- as usual, there are a whole lot of other plot elements I am trying to fit in, and Alexandra by her nature is the sort of person who runs off to do stuff on her own. It's hard to keep her friends around! She's learning to be a little less impulsive and less determined to keep everything to herself, but she's a solo sort of character, an independent heroine who has real trouble being less independent.
Also, pirates, ghosts, werewolves, Indians, Ozarkers, several out-of-Territory trips and one out-of-this-world trip, greater forces on the move in the world at large, secrets and lies and Big Reveals will not all fit into Alexandra's daily life at Charmbridge. Some stuff is going to be cut and/or pushed back to book five, or else AQATSA is going to be a big book.
I'm also in the process of writing up all my notes and backing up files somewhere so that certain people (including swissmarg) can get to them if I should ever get hit by a bus. Of course, my notes change frequently, so if anyone ever should see my incomplete plans for the series arc, just remember it's all in flux in my head at any given time. (For example, I just thought of a major change in how the series will end.)
Anyway, have some fan art below the cut.
By fpb:
Alexandra and Beatrice, from Chapter 22 of Alexandra Quick and the Lands Below.
By hogwartsbookworm at MNFF: