DAW BOOKS , March 2009

My progress reports are below.

********************

YE OLDE PROGRESS NOTES:

January 14, 2007: I've been thinking about this book since handing in A Magic of Twilight, putting things together in my head, and the urge to start the story has finally overwhelmed me. So we're off again on the long adventure of writing a novel. The first step was putting down a timeline of what happened in Nessantico in the intervening 25 years between the end of A Magic of Twilight and the start of A Magic of Nightfall. Then (because I can't stand not to have maps!) I modified a couple of the maps I produced for the first book and made the necessary changes to them for this book. Then, finally, I started writing...

February 19, 2007: Broke the 10,000 word barrier today, which also finished the first section of the novel. Still a looooooooong way to go -- I figure 10,000 words puts me at, oh, 5 - 7% of the way through the first draft, assuming this goes about the same length as the first book. But hey, it's progress!

March 29, 2007:  and the 20,000 words barrier has broken, though with my teaching schedule and other ‘distractions’ the last month or two, I haven’t made as much progress as I’d like...

May 10, 2007:  we’re now over 30,000 words.  Slowly but surely, we’re getting there!

June 2, 2007:  the novel is now officially a novel (at least by SFWA standards), as we’ve passed the 40,000 mark.  However, this being a Big Fat Fantasy, I’m actually about a fourth of the way through...  Back to work!

July 12, 2007:  200 pages of manuscript and about 50,000 words -- which puts us probably about a third of the way through this draft.  Not bad, considering that I had to write a 13,000 word WILD CARDS story in the midst of things.

August 17, 2007:  The novel’s now over 60,000 words and probably about 40% of the way through the first draft.  Onward!

October 20, 2007: Managed to claw and scape my way to 70,000 words despite having to do a heavy revision of the WILD CARDS story to make it fit into the new chronology of the book. So I'll take the slow progress, especially since this should be right around the halfway point!.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! And happy that the WILD CARDS story is finished, and that I've returned to Nessantico, and that I'm now at the 80,000 word mark...

December 19, 2007: Just hit and passed the 90,000 words mark with this morning's work. That puts me at (maybe) 65% of the first draft done. We'll see...

January 15, 2008: I've changed writing programs (now using Scrivener -- wow!), and have passed the 100,000 mark. Beginning to glimpse the end of the draft now, though there's still a ways to go.

January 25, 2008: 110,000 words. Maybe Scrivener's really helping, since that's an extraordinarily fast 10,000 for me. I'll take it!

February 7, 2008: 120,000 words. Whatever it is, Scrivener or just getting closer to the end, we're moving swiftly!

February 22, 2008: 130,000 words. I'm figuring maybe another 10,000 words to finish the first draft. Give or take a few thousand... :-)

March 7, 2008: OK, I lied. I'm now at 140,000 words, and I figure I'm still maybe 10,000 words from the end of the first draft. DAMN those big battle scenes...

March 22, 2008: DONE!! With the initial draft, anyway -- which is a solid 153,000 words! Now to start the revision process to get the submission draft.

April 26, 2008: Sheila called, and because of Penguin catalog deadlines, she need to get Todd Lockwood started on the cover for this one, so we talked about 'cover scenes' and I have send some material to Todd. I think we have a nice 'contrast' for this one to the cover for TWILIGHT.

April 29, 2008: THE SUBMISSION DRAFT IS DONE! And the novel weighs in at 175,000 words. Now the book is off to first readers and to Sheila, and I await comments for the final revision.

June 10, 2008: Sheila sent me a rough color draft of Todd Lockwood's cover. Wow! It's a very dramatic cover, and will make a great companion piece to the cover for A MAGIC OF TWILIGHT.

A Todd Lockwood cover will go here one day...

THE QUICK OVERVIEW:

It's now twenty-five years after the events of A MAGIC OF TWILIGHT. A boy king--Audric, the grandson of the legendary Kraljica Marguerite--rules Nessantico under the tutelage of Sergei ca'Rudka, but the boy is ill and there are those who are waiting impatiently for the Sun Throne to become vacant again. The continent-spanning empire of the Holdings has broken in half, with Firenzcia and neighboring countries to the east creating a rival alliance. The Concénzia Faith has also been sundered, with Archigos Ana ca'Seranta ruling in Nessantico while another in Brezno claims the same title. In Firenzcia, Allesandra ca'Vörl plots against the Holdings, and for Semini ca'Cellibrecca, the Archigos of Brezno, the acceptance of the Numetodo heretics in the Holdings makes him quake with fury. In the far west, there is war with the Tehuantin, the people of the Hellins, and that war does not go well. In Nessantico herself, in the warrens of Oldtown, agents of the Tehuantin are watching...

And quickly, with a roar of flame and unexpected death, great and terrible events are set in motion, and Nessantico must face a threat unlike any other in its long, illustrious history: a threat that will take it to the knife-edge of destruction.

FROM THE PROPOSAL FOR THE CYCLE:

THE SETTING: Imagine Renaissance Florence blended with late Imperial Rome and spiced with some of the trappings of ‘fin de siécle’ Vienna: a great city of a far-reaching empire; a city situated at the center of civilization; a city where art and music and writing flourish, where the world’s greatest minds and greatest talents come to make their reputations, while the trade of a hundred lesser nations passes through the ports and the streets. 

    That is Nessantico.

    Consider a world where magic has for centuries been linked to a central, dominating religion and secret rituals, a world where magic is an integral part of the ‘technology’ of the world, but where now some people claim to be able to create magic without the rituals, without the religion -- people those in charge consider dangerous enemies. Magic here is created through a devout faith, and can only be performed by a special few whose minds are open to it. Here, magic lights the streets and powers the engines of economy; here, magic is the great weapon of war and forms the foundation of Nessantico’s greatness as well as the chains that bind its servant nations to it. 

    Envision a world shifting and changing, where ways of life centuries old are being questioned, where the cold wind of reason and logic threatens to alter everything. This is a world that sits atop on a precipice, all unrealized, with those caught in the beauty and aura of the city unable to see the cracks and division in their society that are about to send them plummeting down into chaos and into a world they won’t recognize… 

    This is no place or time in our world, though the technology and outlook will be most akin to the Italian Renaissance, as well as having social, political, and cultural affinities with Vienna at the turn of the century. Nessantico is about to plunge into a world-embracing conflagration that is, underneath, a clash of culture and outlook. Nations are emerging and chafing under the bonds of Nessantico, new ideas are rising that threaten the old order of things, and the world is becoming smaller under the press of technology. The paradigms of the past are being questioned and tested.

    The chief religion of Nessantico -- Concénzia, after the chief deity of the pantheon, Cénzi-- will be akin to what Gnostic Christianity might have become had it not been quashed -- though this is absolutely not Christianity and will contain elements of several religions, monotheistic as well as pagan. There is no Christ myth here, nor is such a concept part of the theology…. Rather, this is a religion veiled with mysticism and secrecy in a universe where the magic truly works, where those endowed with a special mental gift can create spells after long and arduous preparation. Yes, there are other types of magic out there, but they are also bound up in the greater mythology of the world, tied to lesser gods than Cénzi and thus their magic is less, also. There are rumors, however (as this world begins to expand and find other cultures that Nessantico has not yet assimilated, especially in the Utter West) that there are gods and magics that may be greater even than Cénzi.

    This is also a religion that has used its power to insinuate itself into the political structure of the nation, as well as the wider world. Though those of the faith eschew political ambition in the oaths they take, in truth all political leaders must consider the reaction of the faith’s rulers before they act. And there are factions within factions inside the Concénzia faith as well…