I have to apologise to those of you who read my works. There's been a lot going on recently and I haven't ben producing as much as I would wish to. Partly this is real-life distractions, like the Evil Twin grand-daughters (tm), household matters, a short-notice holiday (vacation) in Cornwall and, of course, it is just too hot!
Doing some administration around SEE and associated works I realized that the Universe Rules were the same as when I first posted them ages ago.
Since the main tale is now complete, and many more facts have been published since I wrote the original rules, I have completely revised them. They now mostly describe things that are self-evident but will still provide a useful guide for anyone else attempting to write in that universe.
Author's Commentary on Somewhere Else Entirely:
Chapters 19 to 22
In these chapters a major character gets introduced and Garia
receives a shock which underlines her new reality to her. Otherwise,
the business of introducing basic technology to Palarand continues.
There isn't too much in these chapters that required major
attention.
I seem to be almost over the Shingles attack now. I finished the anti-virals (Aciclovir) yesterday but I still have to put some ointment in my right eye, which remains slightly inflamed.
Just a quick note. I had some facial eruptions on Monday last (9th) which I thought were due to a resident Staph. infection I have. This has gotten progressively worse during the week, though curiously limited in extent. I was given antibiotics which didn't seem to help.
After severe pain early this morning I went and saw an emergency doctor with a completely different result.
Author's Commentary on Somewhere Else Entirely:
Chapters 15 to 18
I'm now into the meat of the story (or so I innocently believed,
anyway) and I am working my way through the preliminaries before the
essential action takes place - the as yet completely undetermined
journey to the north, which will resolve everything.
Well, it did and it didn't, but that is for another commentary.
For now, Garia is still establishing her place in the palace
structure.
Author's Commentary on Somewhere Else Entirely:
Chapters 7 to 10
Edits to these chapters consist mostly of corrections to spelling
and adjustments to style. There is one sequence which required
further adjustment which I will note below.
As before, these are notes which explain my thought processes and decisions while writing SEE, provided here as a service (or a warning!) to other writers.
These three chapters have only minor
adjustments in general. The usual things like Capitalization and
fixing typos. There are a few cases where I have changed "Yes"
to "Aye" but in the main it will be difficult to spot most
alterations. I have slightly changed one or two speeches but nothing
that has any major significance.
Here as promised is the first set of notes about Somewhere Else Entirely, the changes I have made to the noted chapters and what was going on in my mind when I started all this.
As you all probably know I am currently writing What Milsy Did, but along with that there are of course many other projects on the back burner, not all of which are Anmar related. In addition I have to balance writing with Real Life, Health and my recently increased family. (I'm off on Friday to help my son build two wardrobes to replace the temporary ones that the Twins have destroyed.)
Although Somewhere Else Entirely seems like a good story - good enough that I see people reading it every single day - as the author I am aware of many shortcomings and just plain goofs. Like most stories it evolved during the creation process and so various parts don't quite gel. It is my intention to slowly go through it from one end to the other correcting the worst of the problems.
Although I've managed to get the preceding chapters of What Milsy Did out in a reasonably prompt fashion, it looks like I won't be able to keep that pace up.
Various Real Life issues including but not limited to health, family and house need my attention and so there will be less time for writing.
Since completing - nominally, anyway - Somewhere Else Entirely, I've been keeping an eye on the read counts. I know that some of you like to wait until stories are complete before reading so I expected some extra traffic. I also know some of you like the story enough that you are re-reading it again. Me, too! Sometimes I still can't believe I did this.
I have noticed that the total read counts vary between ~2,000 and ~5,000 (ish) for most chapters, which is only to be expected. #1 is slightly different (12,905), but that's because a number of people have dipped in and decided it wasn't for them. Fair enough. But three chapters have read counts way greater than the normal spread and I don't know why.
So when Gary returns to Anmar he'll have an unspecified number of SDHC cards. Now, most of these won't be of immediate use but you can be sure that a specification of the interface will be available - and all those chips will act as a sure incentive to find out what's on them.
You can take it for granted that among the contents will be movies. An average movie can be from 1Gb to 5Gb depending on length and bitrate so a single chip will hold many. So, what exactly might he have taken?
I just had a look at "My Stories" and I notice that there is activity all along the line back as far as Chapter 1. So, people are still re-reading it! I admire your stamina.
I also noticed the date I posted the first chapter, 22nd December 2010. Wow, a whole five years! I swear I never intended for it to take this long!
I'm really, really near the end now. Only three chapters to go. Unfortunately, the "little deers" still have the capacity to completely derail my time and energy.
Still, at least they now all have a home they can call their own.
Regrettably, there will be an indefinite delay before I can post any more of Somewhere Else Entirely.
I know we're nearing the end but Real Life just won't be denied any longer. The Twins are coming and I'm utterly, utterly exhausted. And they haven't even arrived yet!
Some of you may remember that recently I had some unexpected news: my eldest son was (a) getting married and (b) preparing for fatherhood. We flew over for the wedding in New York and subsequently to visit our twin grand-daughters.
Since then, he has declared his intention of returning to England, so we have to prepare for the hordes...
...Doubtless some of you will think, "Deckchairs..." "Titanic...". Maybe you're right.
The more observant of you will have noticed that I have (today) moved around some of the content of Somewhere Else Entirely. If you didn't notice, that's fine; that was what is supposed to happen. There's the odd wrinkle, though...
So. New Year's Eve, and when I came to log on I found my systems wouldn't let me. A quick check and one of my servers, the important one, had died. Some belt and braces rearrangement and I carried on, just about. Then yesterday, another computer died...
So my little side-story came out before I anticipated it would, but there you go. I have this character defect where I find it difficult to sit on a story. I even managed to write another chapter of SEE.
Unfortunately, there won't be another one for a while... I'm off to that place again, you know the one, where men are men and the women seem to be mostly men as well...
So I have this massive epic to bring to an end, with plotlines and stories disappearing in all directions. I'll be flying to the US again at the end of October...
So, what do I do? Write another story, of course. This one is set on Anmar, but somewhere nearby.
So, as I mentioned in a previous blog, the other half has gone to the US to help out with son+new wife+twins. To get to Heathrow (LHR) involves a local train ride, then a bus link to the airport. The flight's at 1600: we have plenty of time to make it. What can possibly go wrong?
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
