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I do not believe he is in Etterdam. Not seeing it.
He was back for the D’Orcing and he’s in the conference room when they are discussing the Citadel.
But yes, he will be traveling with them at some point.
[quote=Ben;5311]I like the scenes as they are to be honest and think you should keep them in. I know it’s difficult with lots of characters but there’s nothing more annoying than when an author leaves a character out that someone likes.[/quote]
I know, it’s the other side of the Robert Jordan Coin. Plotlines/characters that distract you, on the one hand, plotlines characters that don’t get enough time on the other. And everyone had different tastes.
That is the advantage of single POV stories.
[quote=Iume;5314]Prior to Book 2, what was the end goal for Book 3?[/quote]
It’s not so much prior goal as in shifting in time of priorities.
Given the name, which was done by a beta reader poll, I was planning on doing a lot more with the more obvious Apostles of Doom, meaning Tal Gor and the shamans and their quest, and very specifically Fer Rog and Rupert.
However, writing a book is like an RPG, you setup the rules and the situation and the character go where they will. You can try to push them, but they are stubborn.
Now that it what it feels like, but a lot of it is “what engages me the most” and/or where is my Muse striking.
In particular for me, Talarius story really came forward faster than I expected, all natural given what happened to him, so it felt more organic to continue with his story, I saw more immediate drama there. The others were just not so close to an inflection point in their story.
And so the story became much more his story.
The Nysegard Storm Lords stuff was there because they got move forward in HH Beta, and they just fit very well with the Talarius story. Actually it was the SL story that really pushed the Talarius buttons.
However, the title still works, it’s just not what people expect based on the title/lead up and cover. It’s about Talarius becoming at least temporarily an Apostle of Doom, leading the army of Doom into battle against the Storm Lords.
Now, whether or not this is a one time thing, that’s Talarius choice that you bring up.
I don’t know that it gets answered here, but what is true and conclusive for him in this book is that his old life/way of thinking is over. Old Talarius is dead.
Who is the new Talarius? What does he stand for? I think that continues in the coming books. Even as Tom must do the same.
[quote=Iume;5316]Yeah, Book 1 I read as if it were a single POV with only intermissions being the other POV.In Book 2 is became clear it was multiple POV.[/quote]
When I really first started it, it was POV, but then I realized that I needed Jenn to tell the other side of the story, and of course Lenamare and Jehenna were just so much fun and I wanted to get their point of view.
And at this point, we are still up through the Rex scenes, I realized that what I wanted to show was that people are people and issues are more a matter of perspective and life history. That most common conflicts arrive out of fear of the other, and a misunderstanding of cultures and that no one (or very few) see themselves a evil.
So we had to see that none of these people considered themselves evil, so I was pulling back the curtain, and it just kept sort of escalating.
You can see that the POV’s start seriously spreading by the journey to Freehold and by Verigas the splintering escalated
I don’t think it would have been as shocking/abrupt if Tom hadn’t been stuck in that very boring cave for 5 days. It was only 5 days, but 5 very busy days for everyone else. And so that was a huge shock to people and took some getting used to.
[quote=Iume;5313]Tiernon’s choice is about Orcus.How Tiernon deals with Sentir Fallon will be part of his choice on how to handle Orcus.He *could* just hand Sentir over.[/quote]
Tiernon will not be handing Sentir Fallon over to Tom. Judges (hopefully) don’t turn criminals bound and gagged over to the victims.
But it would probably mean a reduction in rank, banishment, excommunication, possibly imprisonment for some time. There would be a trial and stuff would come out.
Stuff that Sentir Fallon may not want to have come out, so he may decide to simply flee.
OH, that’s something to get into the book. Sentir Fallon realizing that he is being bypassed. That’s how you know you are about to be fired, or something…
[quote=GameGraphix;5322]Although, Tom does have a handy prison that Tiernon has used before[/quote]
He does indeed, but it is not clear yet if Sentir Fallon merits that. Thankfully for his anxiety, Sentir Fallon is not aware of this, as far as we know at least.
Net knows, we don’t know what he or Aod told Sentir Fallon to get him onboard.
But you can be sure that Net is going to be concerned about this.
[quote=Burien;5318]Reggie seems to have adapted fine, I understand it is in his new nature, but that should only make Tom think about it more. It might not be a big deal in demon form, but in Edward form he should have more trouble with hormones being that he is a teenager as well. He definately needs to relax, and i can easily see in Doom telling him to get laid.
I have a hard time with Gastrope and Jenn just because he tried to kill her. His fireball hit a shield, Jehenna and Trisfelt are the only one I remember throwing up shields, and Trisfelt fried his attackers. Has Trevin given up on Gastrope? Her awkward flirting in book 2 was one of the parts i liked a bout the whole Nimbus story line. I would think he would have picked up a few admirers as well after his key part in beating the liches.
And if you think Jenn is bad, just find any teenage girl and hide her cell phone. Jenn will seem like a saint then.[/quote]
heh heh
Trevin has scaled back, mainly because things are now much more serious with the D’Orcs and Alvar, time for games to be put down for the moment.
But a good point on the other admirers. In particular there are nymphs on board. And of course, Zed, as a satyr, he is not particular about his partners gender. (I don’t see that going anywhere).
I think the really big thing with Reggie is that his accursed mistress is very different than Lenamare, so he is not seeing the slavery thing, being a demon is more like a dream come true for him. I mean he died and now he’s got access to how many virgins? As an immortal incubus, he’s going to be getting a lot more than 72 virgins.
Now of course, not of the D’Orcs he’s sleeping with are virgins, but he needs to, and wants to practice for the big league!
Tom does need to relax, but this fall I am seeing him as Kiefer Sutherland in Designated Survivor, unexpected President of Doom! With crap loads of enemies at the gates.
Although I have to say I’ve always had trouble with Kiefer Southerland the adult I still see him as the vampire in Lost Boys and I always saw that character as Lestat.
I really wanted him to play Lestat–so incredibly badly. So seeing him all grown up is disconcerting, vampires are not supposed to age!
[quote=Burien;5265]If i was the SL I would start the Interdiction during the initial assault, after the fodder heads in, but before the heavy hitters, leaving little to no reaction time; zombie shock and awe.Right now its the forces from Doom that kick the battle off, seizing the initiative almost immediateley, when the battlefield should already be in chaos when they arrive thanks to the delay.[/quote]
So, I am addressing this in the next release, already.
1) I’ve upped their attacks
2) I’ve also adjusted who arrives when to be more accurate. The SL only really start showing up en masse about the time the Interdiction starts. They are using the day time to set up camp and construct their siegecraft. They do not have sufficient resources to start pounding until later in the afternoon, and then their big push will come (as it does) with sunset because then their vampires can work as well as other daylight sensitive creatures.The big problem from a reality point is that they just showed up and start blasting, in a real siege they need to set up, and the defenders will try to stop them.
In the new stuff, the Citadel is planning on blasting the crap out of them during setup using avatars. However, the SL screw this over with the Interdiction. In the past the Citadel had always used this “setup time” to extract a heavy price.
This time the SL subverted this with Interdiction, throwing the Citadel into disarray.
Even so, I’ve amped up their attacks during the day, even as they are still getting into position.
I see that. Here are my concerns.
1) I really hate past tense catch up story telling if it’s over done, particularly in this book which is intentionally “live action” (and very different from other stuff I’ve done)
The rule is->show it, don’t tell it. Except where it really has no story other than background
2) I could simply move those chapters to Book 4 and have them happen in in the past, sort of like what I did at the beginning hereThe next step is that I’ve decided to give up on the price constraint of the paperback. That was the main limiting factor.
I can have a up to 800 pages in a trade paperback, however, more than about 575 pages forces the cost (for some distribution mechanisms) over $19.99. As it is, the most expensive channels, at that price, leave me with like $0.50/book profit. So I just have to ensure the price is such that I don’t lose money on some channels.
Given how few people buy the paperbacks, taking the price to $24.95 or similar is not that critical to me.
Also, the pages we have here do not correspond to paperback pages. The pages have a lot more words per page, so fewer pages.
So, I can leave them from a word count perspective.
However, if they are too distracting/don’t provide value? That’s a different question.Doh.
Good point.
The one things that sort of need to stay
1) Sammael basically needs to find them when/while, they are parked, if he literally chases them around the Abyss, that’s awkward.
2) Tom can’t be home when the Inferno shows up at Doom.
But…on the other hand…I do sort of want the reader to know what the status of Melissance is when Talarius vows to get her.
Also, I point out that the knights on the Inferno are coming to the same conclusion that Talarius had that their previous reactions make no sense because EM is no longer a bad influence
I’m sort of afraid that by putting the Knights recognition of this into the next book it sort of dilutes–strings out–this recognition of evil influence.
[quote=Iume;5292]However, we now have this contrast.Talarius is less zealous and knows the truth, but [b][u]per Antefalken he can’t explain it to anyone (he tentatively tried w/ the Inferno crew, but no-good) so the people aboard the Inferno are still just as zealous as before.[/u][/b][/quote]
That’s an interesting contrast. I am going to think on that, because it really does change quite a few things around. I have to sleep on it, and ponder for a few days.
That’s really the problem with doing “betas” under duress, so to speak. I have numerous issues that cropped up because of fast changes in HH that I didn’t completely get ironed out before publishing. Whereas, ITA had a bit too much time to redo, over and over and over.
Need to figure out a happy mean. One option might be smaller books each year rather than longer books every 18 months to 2 years (we are doing 15 months this time)
This is why I need to be independently wealthy (doesn’t everyone) so i can do this round the calendar rather in 3 month sprints.
The big things it changes are readers’ inside knowledge of what is going on. That is what concerns me the most. Jokes and things one character says somewhere else make less sense if you don’t have the prior context. That is something I need to evaluate that is harder to determine.
[quote=GameGraphix;5296]Why not have them turn up while TOM is in the big battle at Nysegard…..then you can progress their story from the end of bk 3 into the beginning of book 4[/quote]
I think because if they show up during Nysegard, Arg-nargoloth won’t be so relaxed and might assume it’s part of a plot to take Tom down. During Nysegard, Doom is at full battlestations, paranoid of another crippling attack.
As it is now, he sort of slaps them with the back of his hand telling them to bug off. A warning shot.
However at red alert, he might hit them with a whole bunch of gravity canons to destroy them rather than take any risks.
[quote=LCSpartan051;5297]Nah, I don’t see this working. Talarius is too busy with Nysegard and stuff, so he’s not going to have time to immediately go hunting for Mellisance.[/quote]
I think in lume’s scenario, Talarius goes hunting for Melissance in Book 4, and all the Inferno scenes happen in book 4.
Now, the problem with that is we left people with a big build up for the Inferno in book 2, and to literally ignore it for all of book 3, which takes place over twice the length of time as book 2, is going to be awkward and lose momentum.
OK, we would do the first scenes, just not the later stuff.
But if I’m already having “gap” problems with the Nimbus (and it’s been on a big gap) this is another huge gap.
One thing I am trying to do in this book is not have so many inactivity gaps for any of the storylines.
I got hit hard, understandably so, for the lack of Tom in the first half of HH, I’m trying to avoid that again with any plotline; however the Nimbus is taking a hit this time.
The problem in the first half of HH was that I literally painted Tom into a cave with a bunch of slacker demons and a newbie holding a knight hostage and having no idea what to do with a hostage. There are no “snap” answers for that, which are believable, so I sort of had to take the hit.
Trying to avoid painting myself into such corners again.
