To the surprise of absolutely no one, I fell far short of my goal of drafting 60 handwritten pages during NaNo. I managed 13. That makes this the least productive NaNo on record since I started doing it this way, but it's still nonzero progress. I will be updating all the trackers soon to reflect it.
I am pretty close to done with the freelance assignment. This is an exciting new source of financial stress, but it should mean I have more time to work on my own stuff, at least until I find something else to replace the income and the associated massive time sink.
One of the books I had to read for that project was Maps of Time by David Christian, and I would strongly recommend it for writers of second world fantasy or science fiction set on other planets. A 101 introduction to "big history", it covers everything from the big bang to the present day in lightly sketched detail, focusing more on humans after they come on the scene some five chapters in. It's a very good reference point for working out what might change in a world that is "mostly like our world but", and a great model of in what kind of depth it makes sense to build the different areas of history in your world. Because it focuses on the how and why of large scale changes, it can also be a good frame of reference for looking at how it would change things if something like the domestication of horses happened earlier, later, or not at all, or evaluating them impact of, say, readily available healing magic.
I've read a fair number of fiction books as well. Ink, by Alice Broadway, is a NaNo novel in a world where everyone in the protagonist's culture has a bunch of tattoos, some official and some chosen, laying out basically everything about their lives for the world to see. It's casually diverse, the actual premise gets an appropriate amount of use and detail, and it manages to avoid all but one of the most frustrating tropes of Dystopian YA, although just once I'd like to see a Manipulative Status Quo Mentor who's a man, and a Sincere Resistance Mentor who's a woman. (Some stories, like Flawed, do have female Manipulative Resistance Mentors, but that's not the same). It's a fast read, and the book ends with the main character just 110% burning her life down, so I'm looking forward to the sequel, which is already out, I just don't have it from the library yet.
The other book I wanted to talk about is Tempests and Slaughter, which I'm only just now getting around to, but have been looking forward to with some trepidation since I found out it was going to be a thing. It's good. I mean, it ain't Will Of the Empress, but what is? And it's not Trickster's Choice, or worse yet battle magic, which was honestly the bigger concern. Pierce doesn't have a great track record with either writing events previously alluded to or Tortall books set outside Tortall, but she does just fine with both here, and is clearly putting some effort into addressing some of the more problematic aspects of her earlier work in this setting. There's gay people and polyamory and an extremely unsubtle gifted education analogy, all of which I am here for.
Some of Arram's early side quests, including caring for a baby bird and and preparing medicine during a plague, are obvious reuse of plot elements from Circle of Magic, but the effect is more comforting familiarity than lazy formulaism. Similarly, Ozorne's dynamic with Chioké seems deliberately reminiscent of Thom's with Rodger (minus, so far, any sign of inappropriate sexual behavior), but I suspect this is an invitation for informed readers to catch some clues, and it could still totally be a red herring. For this one, I will have to wait until the next book comes out.
Thank you so much to everyone who's stuck with me through this incredibly unreliable few months. Be gay, do crimes, and read ALL the things!
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