So. I can haz part-time Day Jobbe. I got a call from the former employer because they got (temporarily) overloaded with kids who needed special ed testing. As it turned out, their timing fit my timing, so for the next 2-3 months I’ll be doing some work for them as a substitute for about a week or so each month. It’s nice getting back into harness, at least for a limited taste of it, but damn. Either I’m really rusty or else the stuff does take longer to do. It also leaves me mentally tired at the end of the day, so the writing has chugged to a slower pace. I don’t think this is reflective of how things will be in the future, though. I’m already contemplating strategies so I should be able to keep writing while working.
As a result of figuring out the processes now, though, the writing of Beyond Honor has slowed down. On the other hand, this is a good thing. I’m having to think very hard about how I bring Inharise, Heinmyets, and Alicira together. Right now I’m thinking it is Inharise who takes the lead, and so I’m considering how she manifests her magic. I’m happy with how it twisted and turned up to the point where I left off due to work sucking up my brain, though, so that is good.
I’ve also been thinking about the last Netwalk Sequence book, Netwalking Space. I suspect I’m going to be using flashbacks to Sarah’s secret and how it ties into the shadows at the heart of the Gizmo. To some degree, too, I think I’m getting a better grasp of the reasoning and the thought patterns of the Freedom Army, thanks to all the sovereign citizen information coming out in the wake of Malheur. That’s the mentality I want for the Army, and some of Sarah’s past history. But I’m postulating that the Army somehow made common cause with the Gizmo, and bringing out that history will also open up some of Sarah’s past ties, as well as the nature of the Gizmo.
So one of the threads will be What does the Gizmo really want? Why is it here?
Another element is going to be Melanie faltering and Bess picking up the pieces. Even ten years after Marty’s death, Melanie’s still reacting to it. The nature of his death gnaws at her on the tenth anniversary and she still questions why. Bess is forging her own way, but what she wants is not what Melanie wants.
And wherever Bess goes, Alex goes. He’s an enigma in his own right…son of Melanie’s first lover, grandson of Sarah’s long-term lover, lost to the Freedom Army at an early age. What pieces of Sarah’s history intersect and shape the role that he plays in the events of Netwalking Space, and how does he overcome his own shadowed history? How much of what he deals with affects his brother Don? And what would the Army do to get Alex and Don back in their fold?
How do these revelations impact Bess’s cousins Rick and Chris? What role do they play in the unfolding events, and what does the Gizmo want from them? To what degree do the bonds built through involvement in a creche cohort hold them together, even though Rick and Chris’s connections are shallower than the others due to not becoming part of it until their teen years?
So yeah. Things are ticking. I also need to knock off some new short stories on spec as well as possible anthologies. I think that might take a priority after I wrap up Beyond Honor, then go on to Netwalking Space and then Challenges to Honor.
Busy times, busy times. There’s also some other stuff in the fire right now that I can’t talk about yet, not until things get further along. And now I’d better get to it. This morning I hope to have the boys busy and out of my face as I write.
