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update from RFC

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update from RFC
Post by Dauntless   » Mon Aug 15, 2022 9:19 am

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This was posted on facebook yesterday. it deals mainly with multiverse but does also cover other projects.


The biggest roadblock to getting these done in a timely fashion is scheduling them from MY end. The next biggest roadblock is the . . . complexity of the setting.

I face-planted into a concrete floor in Atlanta some years ago and broke my nose, damaged one cheekbone, put (I think) fourteen stitches into my mouth, and (most grievously) gave me a significant concussion which really sidelined me as a writer for r a couple of years. Then I got over it, got up to something approaching my normal speed again, and got 4 books (which I personally think are pretty good) done: UNCOMPROMISING HONOR (solo); and INTO THE LIGHT (with Chris Kennedy), THE GORDIAN PROTOCOL (with Jacob holo), and GOVERNOR (with Richard Fox).

Then I got Covid and spent 10 days in the hospital (starting New Year's Day of 2021: yaaaay!) and I've been dealing with long-duration Covid issues (that have also affected my ability to concentrate) since then. In the middle of that, I DID manage to get TO END IN FIRE completed with Eric Flint (and I think it was a really good book), but we were looking at a huge amount of deadline pressure and I . . . overdid it, frankly. It knocked me off of my normal production rate for months afterward.

In the last couple of months, I am actually getting back to something like a normal writing pace for me, and I've been pleased with both the production rate and the quality of what I've been doing, but I'm in a hole when it comes to catching up with scheduled books. And THAT means that I'm having to figure out how to budget/allocate time between projects. More so than usual, I mean.

So, I am just now really starting to pick up and go. Chris Kennedy and I just handed in the next collaboration in the Out Of the Dark series (from Tor Books); my current project is finishing up a short (for me) "mainstream" Honorverse novel for Baen; and my next project after that is the multiverse (known to some as the Hells Gate series). And I think the next one after that is REBEL with Richard Fox (the second novel in what I think of as the Murphyverse; the Fury prequels).

That's why timing is an issue where I'm concerned.
The other problem is that the Multiverse is undoubtedly the most "complicated" literary universe I (and Joelle) have going. Think about it. We have three completely separate universes: two of them actually written about and the third as the "base reference" for our readers. All of them are located on the same planet, everybody who lives in each of those universes has his/her own name for every single geographical feature and nation (none of whose boundaries exist in any of the OTHER) on identical planets, and we have to be certain we aren't introducing continuity errors, which means maintaining a complete index with all three universes cross-referenced and cross indexed in it. And not just where geographical and political features are concerned.

Writing one of these books takes about two and a half times, maybe even more, as long as writing a book of the same length in a less complex literary setting. And when working with a collaborator, it makes problems for both of us because we have to keep checking back and forth with each other to be certain that our indexes are kept up-to-date and free of contradictions.
So, especially when my writing schedule concertinas on me, I find myself forced to push this series towards the back of the bus while I put out the forest fires I can extinguish more quickly.

The good news is that Joelle is a dynamite collaborator and that she helps not only with the writing but with keeping me focused.
So, that's why these books seem to be coming slowly.
On the bright side, Joelle and I have a very clear notion of where we want to GO with the series. The problem is simply navigating the underbrush to get there.
Last edited by Dauntless on Tue Aug 16, 2022 9:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: update from RFC
Post by tlb   » Mon Aug 15, 2022 9:45 am

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my current project is finishing up a short (for me) "mainstream" Honorverse novel for Baen;

Do we think that this is about the marine career of Alfred Harrington, which he said at one point would a project?

PS: very good to hear that he is getting back to "a normal writing pace for me".
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Re: update from RFC
Post by phillies   » Mon Aug 15, 2022 12:05 pm

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tlb wrote:
my current project is finishing up a short (for me) "mainstream" Honorverse novel for Baen;

Do we think that this is about the marine career of Alfred Harrington, which he said at one point would a project?

PS: very good to hear that he is getting back to "a normal writing pace for me".


Sympathies on your medical catastrophes. Happy to hear that you are recovering.

You have undoubtedly been buried in messages suggesting that cloud-based computing, so that you and your co-author have only one index between you that you both use and modify, might be an assist.

Until the cloud goes down, anyhow. Recall the computer geniuses in California whose doorlocks used passcodes stored in the cloud, had no mechanical overrides, and then one day the cloud went down and they were locked out of their own homes.
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Re: update from RFC
Post by kzt   » Mon Aug 15, 2022 12:18 pm

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phillies wrote:Until the cloud goes down, anyhow. Recall the computer geniuses in California whose doorlocks used passcodes stored in the cloud, had no mechanical overrides, and then one day the cloud went down and they were locked out of their own homes.

We had to have the maintenance folks sawzall a hole in a wall into a remote data center. The cooling system failed and when we went there to see what the alarm was we couldn't get into the office complex. It turns out that the access control computer didn't like being 140 degrees. And we had keys, but the system used maglocks on all the doors. We found the maglocks they used on the doors really are strong, we had two big guys on prybars to pop the locks to the outer office. The actual data center doors were too tight to get enough leverage, so out came the sawzall.
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Re: update from RFC
Post by ThinksMarkedly   » Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:51 pm

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phillies wrote:Until the cloud goes down, anyhow. Recall the computer geniuses in California whose doorlocks used passcodes stored in the cloud, had no mechanical overrides, and then one day the cloud went down and they were locked out of their own homes.


George R. R. Martin once mentioned he still writes his books on Wordstar on a non-networked computer. He says it's because he doesn't want the spellchecker getting in the way of typing "Petyr" or "Daenerys."
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Re: update from RFC
Post by kzt   » Mon Aug 15, 2022 7:12 pm

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ThinksMarkedly wrote:George R. R. Martin once mentioned he still writes his books

That's very funny.

Do one on David Gerrold next.
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Re: update from RFC
Post by ThinksMarkedly   » Mon Aug 15, 2022 7:16 pm

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ThinksMarkedly wrote:George R. R. Martin once mentioned he still writes his books

kzt wrote:That's very funny.


He still writes books... just not the one everyone is waiting for him to finish.
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Re: update from RFC
Post by Henry Brown   » Mon Aug 15, 2022 7:38 pm

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tlb wrote:
my current project is finishing up a short (for me) "mainstream" Honorverse novel for Baen;

Do we think that this is about the marine career of Alfred Harrington, which he said at one point would a project?

PS: very good to hear that he is getting back to "a normal writing pace for me".

Since he said it was a mainstream book, I doubt it will be the Alfred book. Although I have been wrong before!
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Re: update from RFC
Post by tlb   » Mon Aug 15, 2022 7:52 pm

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my current project is finishing up a short (for me) "mainstream" Honorverse novel for Baen;

tlb wrote:Do we think that this is about the marine career of Alfred Harrington, which he said at one point would a project?

Henry Brown wrote:Since he said it was a mainstream book, I doubt it will be the Alfred book. Although I have been wrong before!

I wonder what else can be both "mainstream" and "short"?
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Re: update from RFC
Post by ThinksMarkedly   » Mon Aug 15, 2022 8:05 pm

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tlb wrote:
my current project is finishing up a short (for me) "mainstream" Honorverse novel for Baen;

I wonder what else can be both "mainstream" and "short"?


I thought that too, but the "for me" qualification comes to mind. That means it's not a 200k-word volume. But how short it "short (for me)"... I guess we'll have to wait and see.
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