Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Memorial Day (Observed)

Memorial Day weekend. Big noisy movies in the cineplexes. War movies on cable, including Kelly’s Heroes and Rambo III. The 99th running of the Indianapolis 500. PBS shows the National Memorial Concert with Joe Montagne and Gary Sinise. Picnics. Beach. A day off. One whole Facebook post which showed a red poppy on a hat. 10pm Sunday night and someone has just set off some fireworks… in the rain.

This morning the Sunday Grand Rapids Press had an article about two little girls who started something in April of 1862. And there is where my story comes from.

“Memorial Day-IV”
by Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon

Friday 31 May 2943
West End Cemetery
Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA, Nordamericano, Earth (Sol III)
     Wsh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sha.  The eight o’clock superslide from Chicago 
to Detroit passed by on the elevated techcrete track.  It was already slowing 
from 450 kph for Kalamazoo.  
     The old man was eighty-five.  He didn’t move so fast these days, but 
that wasn’t stopping him.  This section of the cemetery had opened in 2880, 
the year the war with the aliens began.  He took his time, pulling the weeds 
from around the black grantex markers.  One, two, three.  He used to count 
them.  Now he just looked to see how many rows were left.
     Wsh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sha.  The nine o’clock superslide from Detroit 
to Chicago passed by accelerating to 450 kph having just left the downtown 
Kalamazoo station.  
     Number 47 was always the hardest.  PAUL J. KUYPER (2858-2883).  They’d 
gone to school together, enlisted in the Fleet Marines together and even both 
shipped out on the cruiser USFS Kalamazoo (CCH-733).  Paul was the only man 
in this cemetery he personally knew.
     Wsh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sha.  The ten o’clock superslide from Chicago was 
arriving in Kalamazoo.  
     The old man had finished the weeding and was walking back to the start.  
He gathered his pack with the flags in it, preparing to cross an American and 
a Michigan flag to the left of each marker, and a Unified flag on the right.  
But on the grantex base of the first marker were a couple of early spring 
wildflowers with their stems twisted together.  And the next.  And the next.  
Five markers in all.  They hadn’t been there before.
     He looked around, but didn’t see anyone at first.  Then he spotted the 
two girls coming from the open fields to the west, bearing whole armloads of 
flowers.
     Donna, 8, and Theresa, 11, often came to the cemetery park.  They’d ride 
bikes up and down the paved paths or wander through the fields looking for 
bugs or frogs or turtles by the pond.  They’d gathered up bouquets of 
wildflowers this morning to take back to their mom.  But when they spotted 
the old man cleaning the base of the stones, they’d shrugged their shoulders 
and started putting their flowers down.  They quickly ran out and ran back 
for more.
     They stood and watched the old man start to plant the flags.  He didn’t 
touch their flowers.  So they went and did eight more markers.  And when 
they started heading back to the field, the old man wordlessly handed them 
a cloth bag with a handle so they could carry a lot more flowers at a time.
     Wsh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sha.  The eleven o’clock superslide to Chicago 
sped up out of Kalamazoo.  
     Wsh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sha.  The noon superslide arrived in Kalamazoo.  
     The girls’ mother followed the tracking on her own bike, to get them 
to come back for lunch.  She found them quietly placing flowers while the 
old man placed flags.  No one else was about.
     The mother joined the girls in gathering more wildflowers.  The old man 
rested from his labors, waiting for them to come back so he wouldn’t get ahead.
     Wsh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sha.  They paid no attention to the one o’clock 
superslide streaking by the cemetery.
     But they kept on laying flowers and planting flags at the bases of the 
newly weeded markers.

"Memorial Day-II" for Memorial Day 2010 (DW) (LJ).

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

One thing about writing such a sprawling epic is that there are sections you're sure you've written -- this is coming home to roost in Book 1 Part B. (evil-grin) No wonder its word count was less than Book 1 Part A. And another thing is there are other sections you run across and say, Really? I don't remember this. And yet another thing is running into things you know you wrote a note for, but it didn't get transcribed into the notes sections -- so you'll either have to dig for it or re-engineer it.

The Pass 1 edit counter has jumped from 511 to 551 pages, but actually I am nearly fifty pages beyond that. I just have to go back to 551 and work my way to page 600 and make sure it's all complete. This is what happened in the other stalled sections the last couple of weeks. All that earlier big stuff worked out great. This current section moves faster in time, for reasons, and I have to make sure it works right and doesn't seem too slight or rushed. It's the end of a school year and everyone knows it goes fast. At the end of Book 1 Part B, it's off to America and university for the senior princess.

But we won't do the big Pass 1 edits on Book 2 for a while. Because I need to get into the Book 1 Pass 2 edits, where we cement in place all the people and place names, recheck a few research bits, verify dates. This SHOULD take little time, except I suck at naming characters and this time I have to integrate all the relationships, since they're all related to each other. Ack!

Book 1 Part A Edit Pass 3 is where we'll end up with the Beta reading version. It's coming, it's coming.

New Researches: Valbyparken in Copenhagen. You can usually bring your dog with Copenhagen public transport, but if it is not small enough to be carried in a bag, you need to buy a ticket for it. Discourses and Sermons for Every Sunday and the Principal Festivals of the Year (Google eBook) by James Gibbons / J. Murphy Company, 1908 - Church year sermons - 531 pages. W. Shakespeare, Henry IV, part 2: "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown". "It is no easy thing to wear a crown, Catelyn thought", GRRMartin, A Clash of Kings. As of 21 June 2014, Star Wars Episode VIII has release date of May 26, 2017. That could mean Episode IX in 2019 or 2020, but I suspect these schedules will slip. CinemaxX Copenhagen in Fisketorvet Shopping Center, which opened in October 2000 with 10 screens and 3,200 seats. A commercial IMAX screen was added in 2015. First commercial IMAX in Norway also 2015. Where the Trains Used to Go (2003). A 4½ minute IMAX film -- Norway's first 15-perf/70-mm film celebrates a 100-year old narrow-gauge railway in South Eastern Norway. The camera required a surveying theodolite for shooting along the old route, one frame as a time. V-E Day celebrated on 8 May 1945 (7 May in Commonwealth realms. 9 May in Soviet Union). 75th anniversary will be in 2020. Hitler suicided on 30 April 1945. Denmark celebrates Befrielsen (The Liberation) on 5 May. Cinco de Mayo (5 May) celebrates El Día de la Batalla de Puebla, NOT Mexican Independence Day (16 September). RentTheRunway.com was mentioned on NPR last week -- overnight shipping of designer clothes. They have a Chicago store. Letitia – means Joy or Happiness. Achsah (or Acsah) – Daughter of Caleb. When Caleb promised her to Othniel in marriage, she requested that he increased her dowry to include not only land, but springs of water as well.

Book 1 Page Edits (Pass 1)


The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.10 (05-09-15 Sa, 1332 pages)


Book 1 Part A (103,792 words, starts page 46) / Part B (83,158 words, starts page 381)


Book 1 Part B has now exceeded its 80,000 word estimate and so I'm over the revised 180,000 words for both Parts A and B. The only reason I'm not disheartened is that I expect to be a little brutal in tightening up some of the technical geeky bits which I needed when I was writing, but most readers probably won't give a flying fuck-all about. Which may allow me to trim a few thousand words or so. (yikes-grin)

I also spent a little time in Books 2 and 4 this week, though it was to get some stuff started and didn't bother totally up those books separately.

Progress!

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Another slow week. I took Saturday off to do a day trip to Penguicon, which also meant that I couldn't stay up Friday night until 4am -- seeing as I was getting up at 5:30. (grin) In addition to an Office Hours day on Thursday, Tuesday was a short "work day" as we went out to dinner and then to the Last Days in Vietnam event (DW) (LJ).

As far as the current writing effort, I also had to work my way through editing another tough section -- a couple of To Be Written Later bits, which Now Had To Be Written. And the addition of another section which required me to readjust the ordering/time of two events in order to make things work out right. This is why you have to read through carefully and see what is what.

At Penguicon I was also able to talk about some aspects of my YA novel project -- things are still going in a direction which seems realistic from both a writing/selling point of view and a story which seems to interest people.

We shall see...

New Researches: Þjóðvegur 1 or Hringvegur around the perimeter of Iceland -- 1337 km. Speed limit 90 kph. In Iceland, 9-1-1 is 1-1-2. Keflavíkurflugvöllur or Reykjavík-Keflavík Airport (KEF). It's 10,000 foot long, 200 foot wide runways were Space Shuttle rated. Range Rover Discovery. Maître d'hôtel. In 1769 Christian VII of Denmark invited the Hungarian astronomer Miksa Hell (Maximilian Hell) to Vardø. He observed the transit of Venus, and his calculations gave the most precise calculation of the Earth–Sun distance to that date (approx. 151 million kilometres). Spent much of his reign (1766-1808) being ruled by others. Queen Christian VII was the sister of England's George III. (You remember him...) She was married at 15, divorced, died at 23. French irregular verb conjugations. Miyamoto Musashi 宮本 武蔵 (c. 1584 – 13 June 1645) was a famous Japanese swordsman, believed to have been one of the most skilled swordsmen in history. He founded the Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu, or Nito Ryu style of swordsmanship and wrote Go Rin No Sho (The Book of Five Rings) a classic work on strategy, tactics, and philosophy. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Bronies. Perhaps 10 million in U.S. The Knights Templar wore a white surcoat with a red cross and a white mantle also with a red cross. Saint Thorfinn of Hamar (died 1285).

Book 1 Page Edits (Pass 1)


The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.10 (04-27-15 Mo, 1273 pages)


Book 1 Part A (103,757 words, starts page 44) / Part B (69,156 words, starts page 379)


Not a huge increase in the numbers, but forward progress nonetheless.

Onward!

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Farmers, especially in New England, are familiar with the concept of stones showing up in their fields every spring. That's why there are so many stone fences in old farms. Every year you clear out the stones and the next year, there's a whole new crop of stones to harvest before you can get any work done. Frost heaving is the technical explanation.

Writers can experience the same thing, due to what I call churning. You work on a sketchy section of rough draft and spend forever time going over the same section. Turn a series of blank lines or a single note or scrap of dialog and flesh them out into the whole scenes they were supposed to be in the first place. Writing here at A, requires tendrils to wander off to points B, C and D. Sometimes it seems you are writing new bits everywhere but on the section you are supposed to be working on. But that's how I have to end up making a story. You can't foreshadow something without having a foreground story and its shadow.

And sometimes you have to rewrite or change the order of events so that your characters learn things in the correct progression.

Yeah, I'm late in writing my weekly update -- usually they show up on Friday -- but it's been a very busy week. In-laws visiting, conference on Saturday, dinners out, doctor's appointment (foot is doing great), etc. All this and I didn't go to Kalamazoo this week due to rain -- and so spent a regular home work day doing my PowerPoints for Saturday. In fact, this is still really a weekly update since I haven't gotten too much progress done on the YA project since Friday. (grin)

A week ago I hit a big milestone, finishing the edits for:
Book 1 Part A Pass 1 Page 368 -- completed ‎04/‎03/‎2015 16:28:59

Book 1 Part B Pass 1 doesn't look so good, with the marker only at page 411 -- and Part A had ten more pages added to it -- but that's not the whole story. The current section, some thirty-forty pages, is all in play. Page 411 was the last marker where I had declared myself "done" with Pass 1. Once I finish the current bit, the marker will make a big jump. And story coherence across Parts A and B will also go up.

It's a process.

Also I had to start a new Research file, R-10A, because I'd bonked into Word's limit of redlined words again. A whole bunch of old Norse and Latin had proved too much for its itty bitty little brain. Honestly, Microsoft needed to have upped those limits a decade ago. Forget this shit about changing the deckchairs of the Start Menu or making desktop Windows look like a smartphone, Redmond, let's work on functionality. The last new "feature" I like in Word came with Word 2010's ability to create a respectable PDF file without needing a full copy of Adobe Acrobat, folks.

New Researches: Mercedes V-Class passenger van. The new Copenhagen Opera House (in Danish usually called Operaen) is the national opera house of Denmark, and among the most modern opera houses in the world. Cost half a billion (US). The Queen's Box is just past 1st Balcony Row 1 Seat 59 and is located on the side, not centered, so Her Majesty can watch what's going on in the wings. Bus Route 66 goes to the Operaen. The Bojesen at the Opera restaurant is located in the front house with a breathtaking view over Copenhagen, especially during sunset. You can have coffee, cheese and sweet courses with dinner -- or they'll save your table and wine for intermission. Carl Zeiss 3x13.5mm Teleater opera glass, made from 1907-1929. Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid is Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and turns 75 on Thursday. She is one of two queens regnant currently on the throne and is the longest serving of the Scandinavian monarchs. The official Copenhagen residence is Amalienborg Palace, directly across the harbor from the Operaen by design. CEST – Central European Summer Time -- does not follow the revised US DST2007 schedule, so Copenhagen/Oslo/Bodo were off by five hours and not six for a couple of weeks in March. Stupid DST2007. Scandinavian rune variants are also known as futhark or fuþark (derived from their first six letters of the alphabet: F, U, Þ, A, R, and K). Copenhagen Zoo (Danish: Københavns Zoo) is a zoological garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1859, it is one of the oldest zoos in Europe. Mercedes-Benz Unimog, an amazing medium duty go-anywhere truck. The name Unimog is an acronym for the German "UNIversal-MOtor-Gerät", Gerät being the German word for machine or device. How to drive a 1976 Unimog 404. Brynhildr is a shieldmaiden and a valkyrie. A cross pattée is a type of cross which has arms narrow at the centre, and often flared in a curve or straight line shape, to be broader at the perimeter.

Research is both blessing and curse -- one can lose hours of writing time trying to track down spellings, history and nature of places and objects and people. And maps. Don't get me started on maps... (sigh)

So the shiny counters display:

Book 1 Page Edits (Pass 1)


The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.10 (04-13-15 Mo, 1225 pages)


Book 1 Part A (103,743 words, starts page 42) / Part B (59,217 words, starts page 378)


Still not pleased that Book 1 Part A is over 100,000 words, because it's only going to get longer. I have now exceeded the 2x80,000 word goal for Book 1 Parts A and B. Yes, another author would aggressively pare down Part A, but there's a lot of stuff one has to understand and anyway, I covered that debacle last week. (evil-grin) I could move the goalposts, or rather the midfield, and put the division between Parts A and B in a different place, but right now we're at a powerful natural break in the story. And the current chapter counts are pretty consistent:

Book 1 Part A: 24
Book 1 Part B: 25
Book 2 Part A: 26
Book 2 Part B: 26
Book 3 : 33

Through Book 5 there are currently 153 chapters.

We continue onward!

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

I don't want to give the wrong impression that I've just spent the last ten days watching basketball games. I've had some very productive days. Sunday, in the middle of all the games, I put in 3000 words. On Wednesday, I wrote over 4000 words, but most of them went into Books 4 and 5. I've also continued on with editing Book 1.

Still have to come up with some names of minor characters. Some are written on a piece of paper which I haven't dragged out in a while, because I wanted the naming to jell.

I ended up not going to the office this week, but pounded the keyboard all week.

Of course, not all is laughs and giggles. I was looking in my Publishers subdirectory to see what I had on Lulu.com, since I've talked about printing up a couple of Beta copies of Book 1 Part A for people to read the book like a book. Anyway, I found a file "LuLu Titlescorer November 2010.doc" and you can Put your title to the test.

Enter your novel title in the field at the top of the page.
Use the drop-down menus to choose the variables which best describe the attributes of your title.
Click "Analyze my title!"

Score represents the percentage chance of its being a number one hit. Results are between 9% and 83% chance of bestseller success.

I tried three variations on my current book title. Each of them scored:

The title... has a 10.2% chance of being a bestselling title!

To put that in perspective, back in 2010 I had scored four titles:

My second massively unfinished novel scored a 
"26.3% chance of being a bestselling title!"

As did my first completed novel which needs a rewrite 
and has never been shopped.

My second completed novel, which has been shopped twice, 
had two variations in title, both of which scored:
"79.6% chance of being a bestselling title!"

Personally I like that it won't deliver either a 0% or a 100% -- the cynical part of me wonders if 10.2% is the lowest possible score, to make you feel better than getting 9%. (evil-grin)

Now... I have no problem with being told my titles suck. The title to my Analog story "The Brother on the Shelf" was written by Stanley Schmidt -- my working title was "The Johnson Boys of Ames, Iowa" and was originally part of a much larger story called "Home Front". This is what editors are needed for. Of course Lulu doesn't think much of either Stanley or me:

The title "The Brother on the Shelf" has a 10.2% chance 
of being a bestselling title!

The title "The Johnson Boys of Ames, Iowa" has a 10.2% chance 
of being a bestselling title!

So I'm not putting much stock in this, but gee, it sure woulda been fun to get a high score. (wishful-thinking-grin) This is, of course, in lieu of finishing this great project and SELLING IT.

Just for fun, I took Book 1 Part A, still in Book Antiqua 12-point and formatted it single spaced for a 6x9 Trade paperback, no Table of Contents, page breaks for each new chapter and ended up with an estimated cost of 448 pages: $7.32.

But there are still blank lines I put in for writing, so let's kill those and clean it up:

After Ctrl-H ^p^p^t ^p^t -- 335 pages
And Ctrl-H ^p*** *** -- 332 pages
Removed a blank page, added a line after each 
Chapter Title by hand... 331 pages
Manufacturing cost per 331 page book: $5.68

Formatting is everything.

Remember, this is not for sale, but only for Beta reading purposes when I get that far. I am using the same formatting I did for my Christmas and New Year's PDF stories, so the same file will also be usable as an e-book. I'm guessing it will be about a month before I start sharing Beta versions with people.

New Researches: Chef de cuisine, Sous chef, etc. Law on quoting music lyrics. Æbleskiver, traditional Danish spherical pancakes. Also Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Scottish pancakes. The first use of "katana" (gatana) as a word to describe a long sword that was different from a tachi occurs as early as the Kamakura Period (1185–1333). The holy swords of Masamune. Kanemitsu created some of the sharpest swords ever. Both 14th century. The distinctive curve of a samurai sword is created by differential heat treatment, not by bending the metal. Rattus norvegicus, the Norwegian brown rat is not Norwegian, or from Hamburg -- both victims of smear campaigns. There are very few places on Earth where the brown rat cannot live. Brudkronan, the Swedish wedding crown, a symbol of the bride's virginity, though "in some cases possible to convince the priest to overlook a premature pregnancy with a bribe or sometimes by atoning for the sin by paying for a new gilding of the crown". Sony Professional HVRZ5U HDV High Definition Handheld Camcorder. Sony HDR-CX330/B Full HD Handycam. Sámi people, previously known as Lapps or Laplanders. Quareg -- Tasselli quadrati. 2016 Acura NSX sports car. Consulate General of Denmark, Chicago, Suite 3950, Hancock Center Chicago. Currently there is a 29,008 sq.ft. office available for rent in Suite 4100. David Burke’s Primehouse – 616 North Rush at Ontario in The James Hotel Chicago. The Consulate General of Japan in Chicago is about two blocks south of the Hancock Center.

With a lot of time spent editing, not as much research is needed.

The broad shiny counters are up to:

Book 1 Page Edits (Pass 1)


The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.10 (03-27-15 Fr, 1148 pages)


And since there was a big jump in the later books:

The Lost Kingdom Fourth-Fifth Novels Version 1.10 (03-27-15 Fr, 68 pages)
Book 4 (4874 words) / Book 5 (11,573 words)


It might look like I got much less editing done this week than last, at the 222 page mark versus 138 pages, but one has to temper things -- page counts aren't story. And right now the story doesn't begin until page 40 of 520 in the Book 1 Version 1.10 file. So we are really at 98 of 448 pages lat week and 182 of 480 this, which makes for 98 pages edited last week and 84 pages edited this week -- plus a lot of writing in other sections.

Yeah, the accounting is such that I don't mind if you don't actually get down this far in the post. (sad-grin) But it looks like I might break 300,000 words in the original trilogy this next week...

Still fun!

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

There are three kinds of word counts:
-- Raw word count -- necessary to have enough bulk for a story or a novel. This is where you try to pour your brain and overactive imagination, and maybe your enthusiasm, onto the page. This is where you are given permission to write crap. Words which can be cut, drawn, quartered and sent to the four corners of the kingdom never to be spoken again. Words which are more seeds of what might come. And of course the brilliant stuff. Isn't that all everyone writes? (grin)

-- Quality word count -- this is where the grace and glory of the story comes from. Also, sometimes, your darlings you have to murder. Either way, whether it makes it to the final story, these words are most definitely not crap. They are the ones which define the story. There will be less of these than raw word count. Focus only on numbers and days of quality words can look discouraging. A good writing day, however, isn't just numbers.

-- Edit word count -- the payoff. Sometimes it's tweaking a word or two. Or stomping on those damned typos which can date back MONTHS and you've reread many times. Stupid typos. Some days you can fly through the pages. Sometimes you can spend all day working on one section. And then there inevitable I am sure I wrote this because I can see this plainly in my mind what do you mean I never actually wrote this whole scene down but just a placeholder or the opening and ending lines?

Eventually you have a completed, readable draft. And usually the process starts all over again. Another inevitability is that if this is really going to go forward, someday you have to release the story or novel to your beta readers. Or in the case of a short story, just ship it to some market and go on to the next story until you get this one back.

Until you've released the story into the wild, or least to beta, writing is just a solitary entertainment.

I've been able to take some pressure off this phase with my YA trilogy project, because I released online two chapters at Christmas and New Year's, and read from the opening to a nearly empty room at ConFusion in mid-January. Not as much feedback as I'd like, but I wasn't pelted with rotted vegetables either. And I've been keeping myself honest by obliquely talking about my progress here on these blog pages.

In the wee hours of Wednesday though, between 2 and 3am, a nagging problem suddenly earned its solution. And even better, it was in the correct context for the novel. I even dumped a quick triumphant crow about it on Facebook:

Philip Edward Kaldon
March 18 at 3:03am

Ooh, I am so thrilled. There been this issue in my YA novel which has bugged me from the start -- and tonight, when I tried to map it out for real, I discovered I didn't have to. The problem literally was written away, in the context of the story. Perfect.

In the words of Colonel Hannibal of the A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together."

Dr. Phil

It is no secret that The Lost Kingdom YA trilogy is about a secret kingdom. Nor is it a secret that it in Scandinavia -- I mean, Vikings and all those Research notes about Norway and Denmark. But from the start I've had to resolve two competing issues:

(1) The desire to make this story as "photo realistic" as I can.

(2) The need to co-opt a piece of the coast of Norway just above the Arctic Circle to locate my Lost Kingdom.

Have you ever really looked at the coast of Norway? I mean, REALLY looked at it? As in zoom in Google Maps looked at it?

"Look at me - I design coastlines ... I got an award for Norway ... I've been doing fjords all my life ... for a fleeting moment they become fashionable and I get a major award."

-- Slartibartfast (planet designer)
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy / Douglas Adams

It's not just the fjords, it's all these treacherous little rocks and islands off the coast.

I looked and looked, and there just wasn't anything like I wanted where I needed it. Either I needed to structurally change Norway -- a difficult thing to do when you are trying to write photo-realistic fiction -- or I had to radically change my precious story. NO! MY PRECIOUS!

And then it hit me.

Maps.

Ever look at ancient and old maps? You can laugh at how far they diverge from reality, yet still seem to contain some of the right features. And then there's the old cartographer's trick of deliberately mislabeling or moving minor things around, in order to establish copyright violations. Rand McNally certainly has done this. Even, as I understand it, with the atlas of the lunar surface. Don't steal from the big boys.

So what if the maps... are just wrong? The Lost Kingdom is secret. They've been protecting their secrets for 1550 years. They started out as Romans and early Vikings. You don't just walk into the kingdom without an invite and expect to get out alive. So why should they advertise where they are? The maps you see online, why hardly anyone lives there and who would notice? And if you had a whole vast chunk of miles of tiny islands and jagged rocks sticking out of the sea with strong currents -- the strongest current in the world's seas is near here in real life -- would you risk taking a boat into there? The map screams, Stay Away.

But this is March 2015. We not only have Google Maps, we have Satellite View! Gotcha there, sucker! Don't we? Uh, no. Roman conquerors, Viking raiders, 18th century pirates -- what would be your kingdom's business model in 2015? That's right. The dark net. Hackers. Satellite View has been hacked to match the fake maps. Oh sure, a few countries know from their military satellites, and Norway is rather pissed to have These People stuck like a pimple on their coastline, but otherwise, who would know?

It's a neat solution and I am very happy about it. Rather than forcing me to rewrite the story, it gives me MORE story. And that's how I know that this thing is really working and firing on all cylinders.

Wednesday I drove into my office at WMU and got my Lonely Planet guides to Norway and Denmark from Amazon. And quite frankly, the Norway guide has already paid for itself within the first five pages I looked at last night. My senior princess's college roommate is from Holland MI, which provides some nice humor between the Michigan Holland and the European Holland. And from LP Norway, there on the Nordland map is a little town on the coast of Norway near the Arctic Circle called Holand. You can't make this stuff up. (That and most of the online maps with detail, and Google Maps I'm looking at you, do NOT bother to show you where the damned Arctic Circle is. So LP Norway is very much appreciated.)

New Researches: The Chicago St. Patrick's Day parade is the Sunday before St. Patrick's Day, as needed. Always starts at noon. Erin go Bragh is an English corruption of the phrase Éirinn go Brách in the Irish language. In 1095, Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to holy places in and near Jerusalem. The canonization of Saint Udalric, Bishop of Augsburg, by Pope John XV in 993 is the first undoubted example of a papal canonization of a saint from outside Rome; some historians maintain that the first such canonization was that of Saint Swibert by Pope Leo III in 804. Pope Formosus (c. 816 – 4 April 896) was Pope from 6 October 891 to his death in 896. His brief reign as Pope was troubled, and his remains were exhumed and put on trial in the notorious Cadaver Synod. Twice. Norway employs a weak form of mandatory military service for women and men. While 63,841 men and women were called in for the examination of persons liable for military service in 2012 (mandatory for men), 9265 were conscripted. Catholic baptism and infant Communion. Odin (Old Norse Óðinn), the chief god of Norse mythology, was referred to by more than 200 names in the skaldic and Eddic traditions. Alföðr Alfodr Allfather, Father of All. In Norse mythology, Ask and Embla (from Old Norse Askr ok Embla)—male and female respectively—were the first two humans, created by the Gods. Phantom of the Opera staged at the Det Ny Theater, Copenhagen (2000–2001, 2003–2004, 2009). Sequel Love Never Dies, 2013. 2005 Mercedes S500 4MATIC AWD sedan. Noma, one of the top restaurants in the world in Copenhagen, is located in an old fish warehouse on a wharf. Twice they've closed to take their whole kitchen staff to pop up restaurants, first in London and then in Tokyo. Nasjonal sikkerhetsmyndighet is the Norwegian security agency, established in 2013. Christmastide and the Twelve Days of Christmas, liturgically. Bodø, located just north of the Arctic Circle, and Mo i Rana, just south of the Arctic Circle. The three largest communities north of the Arctic Circle are situated in Russia and Norway: Murmansk (population 307,257), Norilsk (175,365), and Tromsø (71,295). Rovaniemi (in Finland), which lies slightly south of the line, has a population of approximately 60,000, making it the largest settlement located in the immediate vicinity of the Arctic Circle. The largest North American community north of the Arctic Circle, Sisimiut (Greenland), has approximately 5,000 inhabitants. Of the Canadian and United States Arctic communities, Barrow, Alaska is the largest settlement with about 4,000 inhabitants. Greensushi in Copenhagen. Mercedes-Benz GLS 350d 7-passenger diesel SUV. Kongens Nytorv, King's New Square, is a cobble-stoned square in Copenhagen dating to 1907, containing a royal equestrian statue of Christian V. The Politiet is the Danish police agency.

Got the plot all figured out in your mind yet?

The shiny counters are up to:

Book 1 Page Edits (Pass 1)


The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.10 (03-20-15 Fr, 1108 pages)


These weekly updates get written to Dreamwidth, crossposted to LiveJournal and linked in Facebook. Most of my blog readers probably see things via Facebook. Alas, FB is notorious for deciding what things you should be allowed to see. When I made the FB post shown above, I had one of my friends from WOTF XXIV comment "I did not even know you were writing a YA! Where have I been? So cool!"

So, for all of you who need to catch up on what I'm doing:

You can follow the tags to this posting or use this handy link to The Lost Kingdom tag...

... and the first entry here. These links also include the Christmas 2016 and New Year's 2017 entries.

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

I've been on a tear with writing lately. And that's a good thing. This week, however, there were other things going on. And that's a good thing, too. Read a good book, Flex (DW). Had a doctor's appointment. A fabulous meal out on Monday night, which I need to write about. Movie and weapons grade mac & cheese yesterday (DW).

I also spent a little time, as I sometimes do, hopping through the 954 pages of my main file, finding holes, filling in details. Getting rid of more characters named Xxxx with real names. (grin) Funny thing, I see the Xxxx with the red underlining from Chrome's spellchecker and I want to check the line and figure out what the name is supposed to be. But it's supposed to be Xxxx here! (OCD-grin) What? OCD isn't in its spellchecker? Outrage! (right-click-Add-to-dictionary-grin)

One of the things I always admired about Dune were the beginning of chapter quotes. They added some depth -- as well as history both back and forward from the events going on. I already had a "quote" at the beginning of Book 1 and decided that I need to put in something for the starts of all the parts. Books 1 and 2 Parts A/B and Book 3. To that end, I had already written a first draft of the words to the kingdom's national anthem -- there's a stanza right there -- and added an Advice to Princes attributed to the kingdom's patron saint, plus the openings to the First and Third sagas. Didn't know the kingdom had sagas? Oh, they do. Come on, Vikings? Sure.

New Researches: Second generation Subaru Legacy BK flat roofed wagon (not Outback). Left-Hand Traffic and Right-Hand drive. Sunday, 3 September 1967, Swedish as Dagen H (H-Day), the 'H' being for Högertrafik or right traffic. Swedish trains did NOT change from left-side to right-side, due to costs. For the Copenhagen to Göteborg X2000 train line, I found on Google Maps satellite view the flyover-type crossover north of Malmö. Malmö is the third largest city in Sweden. Together with Copenhagen, it constitutes the transnational Øresund Region, the most densely populated area in Scandinavia. The Øresundsbroen is a double-track railway and motorway bridge across the Øresund strait between Scania (southernmost Sweden) and Denmark -- trains on the lower level. Longest combined rail/road bridge in Europe. 8 km bridge on east end, the artificial island Peberholm in the middle, 4 km Drogden Tunnel on the west end, comes out near the Copenhagen airport. Bœuf bourguignon, Julia Child's recipe. Frederiksberg Runddel ice rink in Copenhagen. Free if you bring your own skates, otherwise skate rental is 50 DKK. For 2015, open from 1 January to 1 March, so you're out of luck for this year. Café Phenix nearby. Easter eggs in Scandinavia. Polish drapanka style pysanka Easter eggs -- we did something like this growing up, using hot wax to lay down batik patterns in different colors of egg dye. Яйца Фаберже́ -- Fabergé eggs. There are seven lost imperial eggs, but only three have known photographs, including the Royal Danish egg, the largest of the Fabergé eggs. Norwegian Dawn of the Norwegian Cruise Line -- larger than RMS Titanic. Norwegian Dawn is the de facto official ship of Rosie O'Donnell's R Family Vacations, a cruise designed for gay and lesbian families. Vista Garden Villa Suite #14500 is portside -- it has a private upstairs sundeck. Accommodates 30 for parties, three staterooms. Visiting cruise ships to Copenhagen generally dock at Langelinie Pier, Norwegian Cruise Lines at Ocean Quay. Hot cross buns. Fastelavnsbolle (Danish and Norwegian) for Shrove Monday. Stollen for Christmas in Germany, Dresden Stollen (originally Striezel). Allerheiligenstriezel, a braided form of stollen. Constitution Day (Danish: Grundlovsdag), observed on 5 June, is also Father's Day. In Norway, Father's day (Farsdag), is celebrated on the second Sunday of November. Tesla Model S luxury sedan -- the top selling electric vehicle in Denmark -- optional third row with two rearward facing child seats with shoulder harnesses. The three Copenhagen seaforts -- Trekroner and Flakfortet have ferry service during summer, Middelgrundsfortet is privately owned and currently under development. Museum Maribo-Bandholm is an antique train museum in Denmark, volunteer run, with limited tourist schedules -- but you can rent the steam train for a group up to 50 for any day of the year, 5600 DKK. Optional dining car. Oseberg Viking ship in Oslo, one of three well preserved Viking ships that had been used for burial -- hence their preservation. Tharsis, western volcanic plain on Mars. The name Tharsis is the Greco-Latin transliteration of the biblical Tarshish, the land at western extremity of the known world. Ira Glass’ This American Life on Trouble, a little restaurant in San Francisco that serves four things: Coffee, cinnamon toast, coconuts and shots of grapefruit juice.

The grand total is now 263,121 words.

The shiny counters are up to:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.09 (03-07-15 Sa, 954 pages)


Book 1 Part A (78,100. words, starts page 46) / Part B (42,201 words, starts page 304)


Book 2 Part A (61,804 words, starts page 458) / Part B (44,730 words, starts page 680.)


Book 3 (starts page 845)


Hmm, exceeded the revised goal for Book 1 Parts A/B? Guess it really is going to be two books then. Up the total to 160,000...

Book 1 Part A (78,100. words, starts page 46) / Part B (42,201 words, starts page 304)


Probably going to Version 1.10 next week, so we'll restructure all the shiny counters. Still trying to decide if I want to break the main file into pieces for Books 1, 2 and 3. Maybe.

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

It has been a busy week and much writing has happened. I go to add one little thing and it blossoms into several tentacles reaching forwards and back in the story -- it is marvelous to behold.

One thing to watch out for -- my princesses may be inexperienced in the world, but they are smart and not naïve. And while bad things happen, or rather Bad Things Happen™ because... story, I refuse to advance the story of two young women on the basis of rape. There is quite enough of that out there, that I don't need to be a part of the problem. So there.

I am sure I have plenty of other issues in my novel -- especially since we're dealing with descendants of Vikings, we have a distressing number of tall white blondes. Argh! Uber default settings from Central Casting! Can't change that... well...

Hell, I don't look like these people either.

While there are dangers in doing research by Internet -- Google, Wikipedia, travel sites, business sites, etc. -- come on, I'm married to a librarian and have worked in libraries -- I am constantly amazed at what you can find. Google Maps shows you the street layouts and markers for good places you didn't know you needed to know about near the ones you do. Google Maps satellite view shows parks, turn lanes -- even the ferry terminal so your character can walk to the triangular parking lot in front. Street view shows storefronts and Google Images shows interiors of all sorts of places. Wikipedia can provide a bewildering array of leads for further research. The Copenhagen-Hamburg train used ICE TD equipment. Wikipedia reports "Starting at the end of 2007, the class 605 has been deployed on the Hamburg-Copenhagen route. This route, using the Fehmarn Belt train ferry needs diesel trains for both the railway and the ferry, as neither has an electric supply." Ferry? Look up Fehmarn Belt and discover the ferry will be replaced by an 11 mile tunnel in 2021. And on and on and on.

Besides pictures, you can find video:

Train from Denmark to Germany, boarding ferry!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVZwq498erU

German ICE Train Boards a Ferry to Denmark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX__eVq6YWU

I've been on three large ferries on the Great Lakes -- one crossing an arm of Lake Huron and both ferries which go from Michigan across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin -- and the seagoing ferry across the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki to Tallinn. The S.S. Badger was also built to handle railroad cars, though the largest thing I ever saw loaded on it was this giant machine which turned out to be a potato picker. It barely got aboard. More recently they're shipping wind turbine blades, so they don't have to go through Chicago. So I understood the different between roll-on/roll-off and single-ended ferries, and knew about ferry slips and terminals, which helps in doing the research.

New Researches: Best places in Copenhagen for coffee and smørrebrød (open-faced sandwiches). Conditori La Glace er Danmarks ældste, og nok også bedste konditori. The book "Fairy Tale cakes from La Glace" contains the recipe for French Macaroons from the fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea". Boef & Ost. 38 weeks. Nausea gravidarum. 2021-22 Northwestern University Calendar. 07:43 KOEBENHAVN H 19:00 AMSTERDAM CS 11h 17m 2 connections (Hamburg, Osnabrück) ICE Train 1st class €295.4. Includes a 50-minute crossing by train ferry between Rødby & Puttgarten, the Fugleflugtslinjen, one of the few places left in Europe (or indeed, the world) where a train physically goes onto a ship -- to be replaced by the 42 billion DKK Femern Bælt-forbindelsen tunnel in 2021. BMW i3 electric car. Hotel d’Angleterre’s restaurant Marchal. Norway invaded and Denmark occupied 9 April 1940. Netherlands invaded 10 May 1940, surrendered 15 May. Hongerwinter 1944 - discovery of the cause of Coeliac disease may also be partly attributed to the Dutch famine. Amsterdam Centraal railway station - reconstruction to end 2017, station closes 10pm weekdays. Amsterdam nightclub scene -- note trams stop at midnight. Amsterdam to Paris train 8 hours 30 mins – 8:05 AM - 4:35 PM – what? This is ridiculous, to go via Germany, Google... what were you thinking? Direct Thalys high-speed train connects Amsterdam and Paris. Patrilineality, agnatic succession, agnatic seniority, absolute primogeniture, elective monarchy. Originally, the Kings of Sweden were elected by all free men at the Mora Thing. The Scandinavian kingdoms were united under the Danish crown by Margaret I of Denmark in 1389. DFDS Seaways Copenhagen/Oslo ferry leaves at 04:30 pm (CET), crossing time is 17 hours on the Crown Seaways and Pearl Seaways -- pre-book meals to save money. MS Pearl Seaways was once the largest cruiseferry in the world. 'Lead on Macduff' is a misquote: I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!' Dates to 1855. Norway’s National Cake is called verdens beste in Norwegian. Fjordbyen is an urban renewal project for the waterfront part of the center of Oslo, Norway. Red Sea Star Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurant in Oslo.

Closing in on a quarter million words for the main file -- have exceeded that adding in two other story files chronologically before and after.

The current shiny counters, after splitting Book 1 and Book 2 into parts A and B now, and adding a big new chunk to Book 3:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.09 (02-27-15 Fr - 904 pages)


Book 1 Part A (72,582 words, starts page 44) / Part B (34,401 words, starts page 286)


Book 2 Part A (61,301 words, starts page 411) / Part B (44,381 words, starts page 632)


Book 3 (starts page 796)


* Note: the numbers for Books 1-3 don’t add up, because there is text which is in a section which hasn’t been assigned to a Book and Chapter yet.
** Note2: Page numbers are subjective. I do not write in Standard Manuscript Format, so this is Book Antiqua 12, single spaced, extra space between paragraphs, 1¼” margins for readability.
**** Note4: I officially haven’t decided to split Books 1 and 2, calling them Book 1 Part A/B and Book 2 Part A/B for now, reset to 120,000 word goals.

I've upped the total word count for the "trilogy" to 300,000 words, though I should note that yes, I can do math, that 120,000+120,000+80,000= 320,000 words.

Am I close to done? Yes. No. Maybe. I'll let you know in two weeks. I think that's when I start to really look at things and edit the first draft. Maybe three.

There's a lot of stuff to consider.

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Busy, busy, busy. Short stories going into and out of the meat grinder. (grin) And on Wednesday, the main file for my YA trilogy exceeded 200,000 words of story across the three books. Yay!

Yesterday was a good day and I wrote on my Facebook wall:

I am easily amused.

Not only can I find the finest five-star hotel ballrooms in Copenhagen, as well as brands of good champagne drunk in that city, online. But I can spell mademoiselle without having Word 2010 flag it in red. The Kindle Fire HD, on the other hand, changes that word to "marsupials". I don't think they were being invited to (the) dance, at least not at this private social function.

And of course, having the Amazon Echo unit in the house not only allows me to play my playlists -- currently with about 80 songs for some six hours of music without a repeat, yet familiar enough that it is not distracting -- but Echo can answer simple queries without have to switch windows or stop typing. "Alexa, what is the temperature in Oslo?" "Alexa, what is 239 divided by 7."

Researches include: Location of the spare tire in a 1972 Corvette. (BONUS: Got cool new Windows wallpaper from a 1972 Chevrolet Corvette brochure with the body shell lifted off the frame and drivetrain.) The Danish Monarchy can be traced back more than 1000 years. HRH = H.K.H. Hendes Kongelige Højhed Kronprinsessen. Firearms on Amtrak trains. Ash Wednesday. Sacraments vs. Sacramentals: The Catholic Church allows the placing of ashes on the forehead even if you are not baptized. Dutch tradition holds the custom to eat salted herring on Ash Wednesday to conclude the carnival in the Netherlands. The El line to Evanston is now the Purple Line. France produces 50 and 60 million hectolitres of wine per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. 1 hL = 100 L. Typical bottle is 750 mL. St. Francis de Sales Church, 13th Street, Holland MI. Liquid Air Plant I-94 west of Exit 22 / US-20 in Indiana. The boiling point of liquid air is approximately 78 K (-195 °C)(-319 F), just above that of liquid nitrogen (77 K). Basic oxygen steel making. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra lists three Clarinets, the co-principal doubles on the E♭ Clarinet. Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies solved the messiness problem by sandwiching two Naples cookies together. The milspec Cammenga Model 3H Tritium Lensatic Compass (-50°F to +150°F). The Hotel d’Angleterre (1755) in Copenhagen. The Palm Court and Louis XVI Ballrooms. Connecting doors offer the option to extend the 150 m² Royal Suite with two additional bedrooms, making it 250 m². The Copenhagen Marriott Hotel's Vesterhavet Ballroom has a gorgeous riverfront view of the city. André Roger Grande Réserve Grand Cru, 239.00 DKK per bottle, about $34 US. "As is often the case, the French believe the universe revolves around, well, France, naturally, so their terroir is unique." Holbæk is a town in Denmark halfway between Copenhagen and Kalundborg -- about 44 minutes by train. Hotel Strandparken, Holbæk. EuroCity, InterCity and EuroNight trains. "The Intercity network of the Danish State Railways consists of IC trains and their faster version, Lyntog (Lightning Train), which is identical but with less stops. Quite unusual in the world, some trains will consist of both electrically and diesel-powered units coupled together."

If you've been following along with all these Research reports, then you obviously have figured out the story. (sn*cker)

The current trilogy file has gotten unwieldy with Research notes, plus it's above 200,000 words, so it's about time to create Version 1.09. My new proposal is to try to print the Research notes as 6-ups using selective pages from all the files, rather than create a Master Research file. Plus the header with the version number so I can find things later. This does assume we can read the 9- and 10-point type I’ve been using in the Research notes at the 6-up level. We do have a new color cartridge, and the black cartridge was replaced “recently”. Amazon Prime for more supplies?

The current shiny counters before the new version are:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.08 (02-13-15 Fr -- 830 pages)


Book 1 (starts page 120)


Book 2 Part A (starts page 406) / Part B (starts page 599)


Book 3 (starts page 762)


* Note: the numbers for Books 1-3 don’t add up, because there is text which is in a section which hasn’t been assigned to a Book and Chapter yet.
** Note2: Page numbers are subjective. I do not write in Standard Manuscript Format, so this is Book Antiqua 12, single spaced, extra space between paragraphs, 1¼” margins for readability.
**** Note4: I officially haven’t decided to split Book 2, calling them Book 2 Part A and Part B for now, but it has now exceeded the 80,000 word goal. Even better, the natural split between Part A and Part B is reasonably centered at 53,200 and 44,059 words respectively. As it, too, has exceeded 80,000 words, Book 1 may be similarly split.

Although Books 1 and 2 have both exceeded their YA target lengths, they are neither finished nor whacked back for bloat, so it's hard to tell how long they really are. Dividing both Books 1 and 2 into Parts A and B does not necessarily mean that they are each now two books, just finding natural breaks in the action

As always, the princesses soldier on...

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Fantastically busy on the writing front in the past ten days. Last night I shipped a new 5000-word story. I am unusually confident that it will find a market in its first three tries -- I am realistic to know that fit with an editor is always important.

As for the YA project, last time I wrote I mentioned that I had lost a year in the chronology, which left me scrambling not only to put in the "missing" chapters, but also rearrange chapters. Also, my Interim section, consisting of fragments and stories which hadn't yet been placed in order, had gotten too large. So I've been pulling those out and putting them in place. I've been printing the Chapter Lists and the Interim section as 6-ups (six pages on a single landscape piece of paper). The old HP DeskJet 6980 is one of their professional series and it has a very fine inkjet drop which makes even these tiny letters sharp enough to read -- and it saves paper significantly over even my usual 2-up printouts for editing.

Because of the missing year, Book 2 has blossomed considerably. I've added a temporary split into Parts A and B. As a result, the combined Book 2 has now exceeded the 80,000 word goal. Even better, the natural split between Part A and Part B is almost perfectly centered at 41,824 and 42,612 words respectively. Time will tell whether Book 2 just ends up being long, or permanently split into two parts. Given how Part A ends, it might be good to have Part B also ready to go so I don't get lynched by my mythical five readers... (evil-grin)

New Researches include: Northwestern's 2017-22 academic calendars. Top Chef Season 12 Boston. The ArtPrize in Grand Rapids should have the same schedule in 2018 as it did in 2012. From Amsterdam to Copenhagen is 8h 17min (790.9 km) driving via A1 and the ferry or 8h 30min (925.4 km) the long way around via E20 and bridges. Universitetet i Oslo (UiO) offers a Master's in Peace and Conflict Studies. Easter Sunday 2019 is 21 April. The latest Easter can be is 25 April -- the next time this occurs is 2038. Mass schedule at Northwestern's Sheil Catholic Center. "Take Me Out To The Ball Game". Chicago Lyric Opera. Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss. John Hancock Tower is in Boston. John Hancock Center is in Chicago. (There is no "Willis Tower" in Chicago, BTW.) Observation venue at the Hancock Center is now 360 Chicago -- last entry at 10:30 PM daily. "TILT Outward 1,000 feet above The Magnificent Mile!" Menu for Russian Tea Time in Chicago. Sheepshead (Wisconsin card game). Regional names for soft drinks in the United States. Current NU ISP courses. Vienna: Hotel/Café Sacher, Café Demel, Café Landtmann, Café Sperl for pastries. (Thanks, Rebecca!) Schönbrunn Palace in Austria is the court bakery and "the center of the universe for Viennese apple strudel." $1,473.00 USD for 3 First-Class (2+1 seating) Amtrak Acela tickets New York to Boston RT or $245.00 each OW in 2015. (Recall that in 1972: New York to Boston $9.90 OW, TurboTrain $14.90, later $10,90 and $15.90, and New York to Washington $19.90 OW, Metroliner $29.90, and $49.90 or $59.90 Metroclub first-class 1+1 parlor car seating. Acela trains do not stop at Newark International Airport station, but you can take PATH from the Newark Airport and pick up the high-speed train in Newark or Penn Station in New York. (Newark platforms are easier and are in daylight.) Stupid Avis Rent-A-Car, website talks about convenient to Boston South Station, then gives you the airport location and not the address near Boston South Station. Apartment hunting around 2220 Sherman Avenue, Evanston IL near Noyes El station, the newer D&D Finer Foods, ISP House and the Technological Institute. $1500/mo for 1-bedroom. Model 1867 Rolling Block .45 Danish rifle.

With all that, the shiny counters stand at:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.08 (02-02-15 Mo -- 712 pages)


Book 1 (starts page 78)


Book 2 Part A (starts page 343) / Part B (starts page 492)


Book 3 (starts page 648)


The Lost Kingdom Fourth-Fifth Novels Version 1.07


* Note: the numbers for Books 1-3 don’t add up, because there is text which is in a section which hasn’t been assigned to a Book and Chapter yet.
** Note2: Page numbers are subjective. I do not write in Standard Manuscript Format, so this is Book Antiqua 12, single spaced, extra space between paragraphs, 1¼” margins for readability.
*** Note3: Decided to go ahead and insert a book between Books 3 and 4, so the extra file is technically now Books 4-5. We’ll see if I keep this configuration. The extra file version number was jumped from 1.03 to 1.07 to stay current with the main trilogy efforts.
**** Note4: I officially haven’t decided to split Book 2, calling them Book 2 Part A and Part B for now, but it has now exceeded the 80,000 word goal. Even better, the natural split between Part A and Part B is almost perfectly centered at 41,824 and 42,612 words respectively.

As they say in one of my favorite movies, Until The End Of The World, "The accounting is beginning to get very difficult."

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get my head out of the science fiction realm and back into The Lost Kingdom...

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal