Gods of Talera

Well, I intended to get a post up about Gods of Talera sooner but then final exams came in and everything else went out the window. So I’m finally getting around to it.

As most of you know, the fourth and fifth books in the Talera series are finally out, just in time for the holiday season. I posted a bit about Wraith of Talera last blog. Gods and Wraith make a duology, a grouping of two books that complete a single story. 

Gods also marks a kind of ending for the series. The story line of Ruenn Maclang, which began in Book 1, Swords of Talera, reaches a logical conclusion. I don’t, at current, have any plans for further books about this particular group of characters, although I am interested in exploring some other aspects of the planet of Talera, perhaps through some novellas.

Gods also provides a final reveal on some of the questions that have been troubling Ruenn Maclang throughout the series. Namely, who actually created the planet, what happened to them, and what do they have to do with the Asadhie, the group of sorcerers that Ruenn has been in conflict with throughout the series. I had fun writing that part.

The Talera series started as a labor of love, and has ended that way. The Barsoom books of Edgar Rice Burroughs were a huge part of my formative years and for as long as I can remember I wanted to tell Sword and Planet stories in the ERB tradition.  I’m proud of this series. I hope many readers will feel the same way. 

Gods of Talera Progress

I'm working on the fifth book in the Talera series at present. The title is Gods of Talera, and it will bring to conclusion a number of threads that have been running throughout the previous books. Mid-summer, from mid-June through mid-July were a highly productive time for me. During about five weeks, I wrote over 25,000 words on the project. 

Then in late July the real world came back to intrude in a big way and my production dropped way off. Week-long plumbing problems, the AC going out, Lana's surgery, blood tests for me, more AC issues, taking back chairship of the research IRB committee at work, and then getting ready for the fall return to school, brought my writing to a near standstill. I've managed only a few thousand words since that all started. 

Nevertheless, the book is still moving forward and I'm at 58,000 words on it now. I can largely see my way through to the end, although exact details are still a bit hazy. I had originally hoped to have a strong rough draft done by the time school started, but now I'm pushing my schedule back and plan to have the final work done by Christmas. We'll see.

 A lot will depend on how heavy the school year  is. When I was younger I could work an 8 or 9 hour day at school and then come home and still write another couple of hours. That's really not happening for me much these days. Much of that is physical. By the end of a day my legs often ache and throb so badly that I can hardly sit in a chair. Plus, my emotional state is not as responsive as it once was. It takes me longer to recover from emotional shocks and I'm not as able to lose myself in writing in response to emotional upset as I once was. 

The secret, of course, is to find workarounds for those things that throw me off. I've always been able to do so before and probably will now as well. The main thing it takes is will. 

-----

-----

Gods of Talera and Buying Books

Well, I've passed 50,000 words on Gods of Talera. I've also written the last chapter, so I know basically where I'm going. For much of June and July I made outstanding progress. Now, unfortunately, real life has intruded to cause a slow down. Tuesday all our toilets stopped flushing. We had a plumber out and he found out that it was the pipe running from the septic tank that was clogged, most likely with tree roots from all the trees around us.

Now we have to have a new pipe put in and the people who do that had to get digging clearance and won’t be able to start until Monday.  That means showering at the “Y” and bathrooming wherever we can.

While the plumber was here, he noticed that it’s nice and cool under the house, probably because some of our AC piping is leaking or broken. So, we’ve called an AC guy too. We had been doing very well this month on bills after cancelling most of our TV cable and cutting back on our cell phones and on satellite radio, and after poking a new hole in our belts so we could tighten them further. But now that cushion is so far gone that I can’t even see where it was. And it has been like that for month after month for a while now.

We’ve been running in the red for so many months now that I’ve lost track. I believe it’s around 11 or 12 in a row. It’s a good thing I had quite a bit of savings before the run started. One of the worst things for me is not having money to spend on books. I see so many new books I’d like but I’m just forcing myself not to buy them. I’ve bought one .99 cent book for my kindle in the last two months. I’ve also picked up a number of Kindle free deals, of course, and I have years of collected unread works so I’m not in danger of running out of reading material.

But I see new work by friends and colleagues and writers I admire, and I’d love to buy copies of their works to support them, as so many have supported my writing. Unfortunately, it’s not in the cards at the moment. As soon as the cash river regains some flow I’ll be buying some books. I’ve got a big wish list!

As for Gods of Talera, in between phone calls and dealing with all the minutia of getting any house repair done, I've got to try and keep making progress. It's very hard, though. I tend to be a writer who thrives on routine, and I don't write particularly well when emotionally and physically upset. Reckon I need to get over that, given that life seems to be all about constant emotional and physical upset.

----

----

Gods of Talera

The fifth book in the Talera series, Gods of Talera, is now underway. This is a direct sequel to Wraith of Talera, which I wrote last year and which should be published some time in 2014. I don't know if I'll be able to write "Gods" straight through since it is likely that I'll have other projects intervening on occasion. Still, I want to get as much done on the project as I can before any interruptions occur. Below is a brief snippet from the story. Hope you enjoy.

-----

The tocsins still roared, louder here in the open. Beyond the roof where we stood stretched a city of white buildings with broad streets and many open courtyards between them. Above that city, curving down through the emerald sky, came huge airships with the golden bulk of the moon, Tisiminna, looming behind them. These were sailed vessels—battleships not unlike my own warship, Khiang, but half again as large. There were six of them, each painted a dark purple, and with flags flying from their masts bearing an image I could not make out at this distance.

Soon the ships began landing between the white buildings, disgorging warriors who wore glittering bronze breastplates and helms. Sunlight flashed from the swords and axes they carried. I could not tell their race but they were big. And there were many of them.

----

----

Losing Time and the Giveaway Results

How does the time get away? It feels like I just posted the Star Trek post but that's already six days in the rear view mirror.

Patti Abbott won my giveaway for a copy of "Cut Short," by Leigh Russell. This is the first in her Geraldine Steel series. Patti, if you will send me your snail mail address to kainja at hotmail dot com, I'll get it in the mail to you pretty quickly.

Going into the dentist today to get my permanent crown put in to replace the temporary one. I sure hope that's the last dental stuff I need to do for a few years.

I finished my last read through of Wraith of Talera, then decided it wasn't the 'last' read through. I'm letting it sit a few days and will give it one more going over. I want it done and sent off so I can get into the next one, Gods of Talera. I've got a couple of short stories to do first, and an article on C. L. Moore.

The last couple of days I've been taking a needed break and just playing Skyrim and reading.

All right, enough. I promise a more substantial post in a couple of days.

-----
-----