zzambrosius_02

I haven't given y'all a Writing Update for a while.

So here goes. First, *I'KOSMAE*

I've been making slow progress, as measured by # of words written, and by where the *leading edge* of the story is. (End of Chapter Eight) That progress is an illusion, though, in a couple of ways.

First, because a lot more is written *in my head* than on the page, so I'm nearer the end than I sometimes think I am.

And second, because I have been having one satori after another about what this series is actually *about*, sub-textually. This slows me down, even as it (potentially) makes for a much better final book in the series.

Obviously, the SALTARAE series has a surface plot: an adventure story, where Mr Rothakis makes discoveries about the Multiverse and about himself, and makes comparisons between his own world and much better (and also much worse) worlds. The arc of the story leads to an existential crisis for United States Imperial Timeline #17 (or #1, depends on how you look at it).

That crisis affects many other Timelines, though, and Ambros is one of the few in Line 17/1 who realizes what's happening. By this means the reader also realizes what's happening, right?

And the story resolves in the end: revolution or reaction, chaos or community, the end of the world, the beginning of a new world, or both, or neither.

And Mr Rothakis' experiences affect him, and change him.

You'll see, if you get there.

WELL.

A few months ago I realized that the comparison between Commonwealth Prime and USIT 17/1 is a contrast between one world where the spirit of Festival infuses all of 'everyday life' (in the Situationist sense) and a world where even the most festive occasions suffer from the banes of human existence: exchange economies and the propaganda of late capitalism.

(You see why this part is sub-textual. Very few people would trouble to read a book about *THAT*.)

So I must arrange things in such a way that Ambros "gets it" without A.M. Brosius lecturing you at all.

Now, Magistri Arrenji Athenini, Phalango Iera, may lecture Mr Rothakis: because of who and what she is, and what she can do that you and I cannot, she has that Privilege. But she can't be seen to be lecturing *YOU*.

Then, as if that weren't enough, I had another capital-S-Satori about the sub-sub-textual stuff going on under my nose, that I now need to sub-sub-textually incorporate (or in some senses, merely enhance...) This came about as a result of a fortunate coincidence, reading and thinking about Persistent Non-Symbolic Experience, and also about the work of the Swiss-Polish psychologist Alice Miller...

*ANYWAY* if you got this far without shouting "EEK TMI, roughing the reader!" then you have some idea what I'm up against.

And wow, do I feel up against it, too.

I'm not at all sure I can pull this off, but I feel like it's worth the effort.

And then there's the Thirteenth Century series. I have done very little work on the two remaining books in that series lately. Just occasional "Oh, right!" moments that lead to notes jotted into their word docs. The work I'm doing now will make the last two books in that series WAY better, though.

"Thank you very much and I hope we passed the audition."---John Lennon

Gotta go, see ya!