Today, May 19th, marks the end of Book VI, Schlock Mercenary: The Sharp End of the Stick. As is often the case, the story came about as a result of a really cool idea which I discarded almost as soon as I started writing. Chalain and Vorn may remember talking about it over Thai food last summer. Poor Vorn... he thought he was getting spoilers. He was hearing me ramble about a story I never got around to telling. Ah, the telling... I tried something very new for me, and it was quite difficult. In medias res is a narrative style in which we begin "in the middle" (that's what those latin words mean), and as the story progresses, it is told alternating between front-to-middle and middle-to-finale. A good writer can use in medias res to take a linear story that has two shallow climactic curves and turn it into two stories running in parallel whose climactic curves coincide. The result is a bigger, more exciting climax. I'm not sure whether or not I did it correctly, but as I re-read I think it feels right. Right or not, it's done, and I had a great time. I learned a lot about writing, and you learned a lot about the fictional universe that has infected my brain. I also drew far more naked people than I ever intended to, and you didn't get to see any of their naughty bits. I'd say something here about how crotchety I'm getting in my old age, but the proper context escapes me. I'm sure you guys will compensate by booby-trapping the comment area with puns. Just don't trigger the spam-trap, because I can never stay abreast of what piles up in there. (I suppose I could check it more regularly. You know... nipple the problem in the butt...) Enough of that. Sunday, May 20th, is the first day of the next book. As I wrote this blog entry I was going to promise not to drop you in the middle of the adventure this time, but then I realized that you don't yet know how Xinchub got to be King, so unless I start with a flashback (which I'm not going to do) you kind of already ARE in the middle. Oh well. You're smart people. You'll figure out what's going on soon enough...
