What's Your Ending?

Let's give thanks to the Irish

the post-Roman Irish who copied every book they could find so

ancient knowledge didn't end when the Romans imploded.

Without them, we wouldn't be writing what we write.

(Thanks to a New York Times opinion piece by Thomas Cahill for reminding me.)

  
The Read:  The ending didn't disappoint me, actually ... but Cinda Williams Chima's The Warrior Heir finished just about like I expected.  The great battle happens and the rules of the Wier change to treat the modalities -- wizards, sorcerors, enchanters, and warriors -- more equally.  The fact that the wizards killed off most of the warriors in the tournaments (the event which supplied the climax) added a little poignancy.  The MC opponent in the tournament was also telegraphed, but the writing overall carried the predictability forward to the end.

The next book in the series is The Wizard Heir, I think.  (I'm not going downstairs to check.)  I'm debating whether or not I'll read it even though the first chapter develops an intriguing character.  I have a Diana Wynn Jones waiting to be read.  Then, I discovered that Karen Marie Moning's Faefever is out in paperback.  While the series is called "delectably dark and sexy", I'm glued to the development of the MC from sunny Southern belle (a Georgia peach?) to a hero who can give the Unseelie court headaches.  As much as I admire Moning's writing, I missed this when it came out in mass paperback last year.

Blog Comments:  Discovered a wonderful resource ... for romance writers, The Passionate Pen from reading The Turning Point today.  [Jenna Petersen's website which she updates about once a month: http://www.passionatepen.com/]  Lists of publishers, lists of agents, the experiences of published writers -- what's there not to like even if you don't have a romantic bone in your body.  [Like me.]  I'm green with envy.  There may be such a site for fantasy writers, but as far as I can tell, the same info is scattered over many sites.

If you're interested in fantasy writer blogs, you can check AW Water Cooler's Fantasy and Science Fiction section for a list.  Read all the postings since people are listing their blogs there.  (Yes, they included mine, thank you.)

Progress:  I think I've muddled my way out of the first three chapters of Maren.  They've gone from an outline ... to a chapter ... to actually several chapters where I tried to decide where to start.  While I'm a "seat-of-my-pants" writer, I have to know where my characters are starting from and who they are.  All sorts of people are starting to pop out of the woodwork.  --  Some I never guessed at when Maren nagged me to get on with her story.

Biggest revelation:  I needed a reasonable way to allow Maren, as a pseudo-American teen, to travel all over the county she landed in.  Guess what?  Her guardian/foster mother decided to run for county commissioner (in a backward county).  All I have to do is not be too specific about election law, and I've got it made.  I used to be active in politics.  Don't know a pinch about police procedure, but I know something about people and the stupidities of politics.

Trivia:  It's Saint Patrick's Day, and I'm not wearing green.