originally posted by Myranda Rose
How many chapters are you planning? I've just realised that I keep on looking out for page and chapter counts, but have no idea how many more are expected… I feel like my blonde is coming back - I'll dye it, I'm sure thats what makes me smarter
originally posted by Auna
Actually, I was just wondering that myself after seeing chapter 12.
originally posted by HJ
JANNNYYYYYYYY!!! I haven't been here for ages and it's late and I SO WANT TO READ YOUR TEASER but I don't know where it is.
You are a cruel and mean and hard person to us pooor readers. Pout, sulk, winge.
I WILL find it tomorrow when I've got time.
PS Currently teaching 10-year-olds. I'm with you Miranda Rose and you Janny. Rules are fine, but we're constantly breaking them. I keep telling the kids to be creative and use their imaginations. Bend/break the rules and see what happens!
That's not just literacy, that's life!!
I am hoping to wrap this volume in 14 chapter sets. It's getting close!
HJ - it's one of the threads in this topic. Look toward the bottom of the list.
In my opinion, it's the adults who ALSO need to be reminded to get creative and use their imaginations…so often they forget to use the resource.
originally posted by motley
they compiled the first English dictionary back in 1600's or so to 'stop the rot of English'.
400 years later… people are still going on about how English is 'degrading'…
And then, there are more 2nd language speakers of English, than their are 1st language speakers, a significant portion of which, don't come from England. So who 'owns' English?
+ wot I find fscnatng - new txt spk. wh wrds r wrttn lk ths.
originally posted by Jo
I have to say I consider myself still young approaching 30 and I cannot text to save my life. I'm very bad at it. I know where Maddie is coming from though. I never took Egnlish any further than my school exams and I never realised there were fashions etc. I just thought there were rules of writing. I think it was drilled in to me all through school and in GB they are still going on about not using "proper punctuation"
With reference to Shakespear shocking as it is we never studied it at school. Well at least I have been educated you're never too old to learn!
An evolution of language note:
Were you aware that the origin of the term
bitter end
is nautical???
It referred to the "end" of the anchor's cable, when there was no more to attach to the "bitt" (what amounts to a big, square post, usually in pairs, mounted into the foredeck, for snubbing the anchor…when you got to the "bitter end" there was no more cable to pay out.
Interesting. Another winning bit of trivia nobody ELSE might bother with, but authors dig into everything.
Harland's book is just a godsend. (Seamanship in the Age of Sail) But - and I mean but NOTHING beats it for accuracy and depth of detail.
And no, probably in this scene, I won't be using that - not necessary to the action, here. But how fun to learn something surprising. It's just put that musing grin on for the past 24 (yeah, like being two, she amuses both easy and hard…grin)
Oh yeah, and the ominous ring to that term probably originated from the fact that, the worse the weather, (or conversely, the deeper the water) the MORE CABLE you needed to have out to keep your ship from dragging anchor…bitter end indeed…
originally posted by Derek Coventry
Jo,
Texting is easy if you use predictive text and avoid all the gimmicky abbreviations (like gr8 etc.) and I'm about to get my bus pass! and they stopped teaching English properly in England about the time they dropped the 11 plus. That's what I always told my children's teachers! I like a lively Parent-Teacher discussion. Mind you I've probably forgotten most of my grammar by now.
Love the Trivia Janny, does Harland say anything about weighing anchor?
Derek - everything, from every angle, every wind, tide, and bottom type. It's a comprehensive book. Astonishing. Even differentiates between how it was done in various country's navies, and also, how the merchant ships handled the same, from multiple experts of the times, all compiled. Helps if you have sail experience, interpreting what's on the pages, though the diagrams and line drawings are very good.
Update: 12 set is in full draft - and I haven't looked back for the page count, just yet…this is IT - into final sequence as of now.
Hope everybody's having a nice weekend. This makes it, for me!
originally posted by neil
Wow…SF nearly done…not that I'm excited about this book or anything 
I get the feeling we'll a see bit more sailing in this book.
originally posted by Miranda Bertram
Thrilled about Stormed Fortress. Ought to be out just about the time I finish my MA. Well…probably a bit later. Anyway, just a thought on Shakespeare: I don't think he should be taught to school kids - except in short extracts in the context of a drama class - until the second year of A-Levels. The language is a huge barrier to begin with and to have to struggle with that AND attempt to carry out a decent literary criticism is too much to expect of many GCSE students. It would be far better if the literary critical skills of the students were already fairly mature, so that they could focus more on getting to grips with the poetry whilst interpreting the themes and plot lines would come more easily. Having Shakespeare shoved down your throat too early can really ruin what ought to be a great experience. And I say that as someone who hated Shakespeare at school but now, after three years at university, worship him (like most english literature graduates). Many of my acquaintances who, under the English system, also studied Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet or similar at the tender age of 14, but who did not then go on to do literature degrees and therefore haven't rediscovered him flinch with disgust whenever I mention him. This insistence on children reading Shakespeare at GCSE is absurdly old-fashioned. Give them Ford if they have to have something from the Renaissance. And when they do read Shakespeare, for God's sake, don't make it The Tempest or King Lear or Hamlet. No one anywhere ever has understood these plays completely except Will himself. Give them Richard III - it's a riot - or King John - again, very funny, quite short and unusually readable - even Macbeth I'll accept, though it's one of my least favourites.
Anyway, I'll stop. This is not what the board's about. Sorrrryyyyy.
Janny, I'm uber excited about SF. Drooling with anticipation and praying nightly for dozens of scenes involving Arithon-Davien discussions.
originally posted by Maurice Peter Vialle
Have to be careful to get your facts right when criticising the mistakes, or otherwise, of others.
Tolkien knew the "correct" plural, but chose the spelling "dwarves" with a clear (and explicitly stated) intention. Read the Appendices if you want an insight into that intention.
originally posted by Nathan
Hi Janny, I haven't seen a post in this thread from you in nearly a week and just wanted to make sure that you are OK and wondered if there is anything us fans can do to help you through this final phase?
I'm so excited about the prospect of getting my hands on this volume. I know it's a way off publication but just the thought that it's nearly ready to be turned in and on it's way to the printers in the foreseable future gives me the goose bumps.
Oh please mighty world leaders, just hold off blowing us all up until I've had the chance to read 'Stormed Fortress' PLEASE! 
originally posted by Trys
The world leaders better hold off until after the last volume of Arc 5 and beyond or they'll have one angry gryphon ghost chasing their spectral arses through the dank mists of whatever forgotten corner of whatever misbefotten hell they get sent to.
Trys
originally posted by Blue
The world leaders better hold off until after the last volume of Arc 5 and beyond or they'll have one angry gryphon ghost chasing their spectral arses through the dank mists of whatever forgotten corner of whatever misbefotten hell they get sent to.
Good one, Trys!
Of course, I would be dressed up as Anne Bonney, swinging a cutlass and charging alongside you, probably arguing as to who would get the first bite/slash in.
Hi Nathan - thanks for your most personal note of concern.
I am all well and fine - and at work FOCUSED on getting the ending of this volume exactly right. Yes, it's giving me Fits, at this stage. Why?
Cause Each Time a scene plays or a character you know so very well appears, it MUST SURPRISE - as well as be logical and in line and tie in and work with the story…you have to see a new angle, an new twist, learn a new depth - there must be that "ah hah!" to each stage.
And being that inventive Every Day, this many tomes in - ending of third arc is both a rush and a trial on the imagination!
How can you hellp? You have, just by posting - caring - being excited. How can you Really Help? Let your needs, hopes loves and desires be known. Let what you feel out of the box.
Now - let's be clear - I do not "write to my audience" - I write as the story dictates BUT - sometimes something somebody wants sets off a little spark. And sometimes it jives right in to what needs to happen on the page. Sometimes there is a blessed little synchronicity to what you want and what I want too!
Example: once somebody on this board wishfully wondered what happened to Felirin the bard…well, when it came time to "split" Fugitive Prince, and I needed to ratchet the action to give that book an impetus to climactic event that was "not really scheduled" for this stage of the story - what happened to Felirin became the scenes you know so well when Arithon sang down the Light's crown examiner…that little wish just stuck there like a notecard, and there it was, waiting to explode.
I know these books backwards, forwrards, sideways. But manytimes discussions here (even wrongheaded ones!!! Especially them –) show me where readers didn't get the subtle take in the early progression - and often guide where I need to exposee the deeper landscape with more precision. So often the "was this so" that wasn't triggers a response scene where I can demonstrate the actual with better clarity.
How can you speed these books? By doing what you do best, with enthusiasm! And if you don't, no matter - the books happen anyhow.
I will post a page count when I think of it…midscene in ch 13 main had two false starts, and today, has hit massive stride. So I have the kick off, and am now digesting the bits of the false starts and weaving them into the take…standard fare, an author's day in a nutshell. It doesn't all flow like gangbusters…the trick is, knowing what's wrong when it doesn't, staying the course, and NEVER EVER letting second best stand without punching on it till it genuinely flies.
Oh - and this board is a fine place for literary discussion - I happen to agree that Shakespeare, and in fact, half the "high school reading list" is sheer idiocy - for engaging the mind at that age, alot of the "literary classics" are foolish choices that turn away more readers than anything else.
Realize: I was ALMOST A NON READER!!! due to the school curriculum…yup. Almost gave it up as a complete waste and total bore…you have Walter Farley and his Black Stallion series to thank for showing me a story could be fun enough to BOTHER learning letters…and the librarian nearly didn't let me take those books out (in second and third grade) because…"they are shelved in the teen section and you are too young!" I had to walk a mile to the public library AFTER SCHOOL and use my brothers' card to get the books…having first swiped one from my brother's bedroom to discover what the horse on the back was all about.
Go figure, schools. I'd have kids reading comic books just to GET THEM READING. Worry about content way way later.
originally posted by HJ
We've got a campaign going at the moment at our school. Every class has made a big feature of their "Reading Corner", everyone drawing the kids' attention to it and inviting them to bring in material from home (mags and comics) - we've also got a load of posters of sports stars (Rio Ferdinand at al) clutching books/mags/newspapers with the caption "Champions Read". This is in large part aimed at the lads who tend to be less enthusiastic about reading. The kids in my class are 10 and I've had some great chats with them recently about the merits of the Harry Potter/Narnia books versus the films; which they enjoyed more, why some bits of storyline were changed/added/dropped etc etc. My seven-year-old now takes a book to bed with her every night.
Reading has helped to make me who I am, has influenced me and taught me in ways nothing else could have done. I had a very modest upbringing at ordinary STATE schools smack bang in the middle of the second biggest conurbation in Britain. I owe pretty much everything I am to my love of reading - along with millions of others around the world, I'm sure.
So, I'll second that Janny! x x
(Watership Down and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe were my earliest favourites. Although they came after The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Where The Wild Things Are!)
originally posted by Robert
My 3rd and 4th grade teachers were instrumental in introducing reading as something…dare I say it?? Fun! What a concept! Even if it was choose your own adventure books. We were rewarded if we got up in class and talked about it. My reading really took off when I found the Hardy Boys. I agree with the chronicles of Narnia! Great stuff, I also read the Cycle of Fire when I was pretty young, that was the reason that I picked up the Curse of the Mistwraith in the first place. Because of my literary appreciation and my vocabulary I actually sound educated!! Who would have thought?