I did a little writing on Chapter 28 of Tico3, but my main accomplishment for the day was completing my review of Tico2. There were no major changes, just some tweaks for better dialect consistency, a few cases of missing italics in the HTML and a couple other minor oversights like a missing “the” and such. Maybe I can push through Chapter 28 today and possibly even round out the book before the end of the weekend. It’s actually not quite as ambitious as it sounds. Most of the dialog is already written and it’s largely a matter of fleshing out the narrative.

Speaking of editing reviews, I didn’t mention it here, but a week or two ago I was going back over Tico3’s prologue and decided to mercifully translate the slurred speech of Clip. You’re welcome, by the way. (Certainly I wasn’t going to dispense with it entirely after I lost that big chunk of hide from my lips simulating a Shelly breathing tube for reference.) I suppose a full review of Tico3 will have to follow its completion. That’ll be fun. I’m still on the fence as to whether or not I should include an extra chapter for the Tigerhawk training and if I should turn the planned epilogue into a regular chapter and make a new epilogue that fits the pattern of the previous two books. Things to consider. Stay tuned.

I’ve pretty well finished Chapter 27 of Tico3. In the process of writing the chapter, I had to make a couple callbacks to Tico2 and noticed some inconsistencies I need to patch. Nothing major, mind you. A big part of it is Lydia’s dialect. I’d went back over Tico1 a year or two back when I was making some pitches, but I haven’t given Tico2 the same treatment, so I’m doing that. The changes are mostly minor, but I’m also catching a few errors that slipped by before. I managed to get about halfway through and hope to finish the rest in short order. Stay tuned.

I made a little more progress on Ionathas’ Chapters 4 and 5. Don’t have either finished yet, but I’m not that far off. With Chapter 3 ready for next week, I can safely switch over to Tico3 and build up my lead time there. Stay tuned.

I made a little progress on Ionathas’ Chapter 4 and did a little exploratory writing elsewhere as well.I need to think about switching gears, but I think I’ll devote one more day to TTWC1 before moving on.

I almost forgot to post this. Yesterday was a bit of a grab-bag. I played around in the peripheral materials and wrote a bit on a few different shorts here and there. Nothing particularly focused or goal-oriented. Sometimes that’s not a bad thing, though.

I did a little more writing on Ionathas’ Chapter 4 of TTWC1, but most of the time I had available for writing was spent reviewing the chronology of Darklands campaign. Had some things to sort out there.

Well, I’ve had my fill of early medieval British history for a while. There’s still plenty to sort out, but I need a break. I’ve switched over to TTWC1 and got a little writing done on Ionathas’ Chapter 4. I hope to get it and Chapter 5 done over the course of the week and then I’ll switch over to Tico3.

I need to get this week’s update out. Maybe after I get back from work. Stay tuned.

You know the drill. At this point it’s mostly cleanup and refinement. There are a lot of dates to set and with the fuzzy historical record, I have to make all the pieces fit as best I can. I take some liberties, but ever since I got a more complete record, a lot of those liberties have been scaled back. Adoptions, fosterings, co-kings, and identically named children are among my techniques to sort out the contradictions. I’ve insanely extended my timeline out to the 9th Century just because that’s around the time a lot of the kingdoms I’m working with finally fall out. (For reference, I set the Battle of Camlann at 537 and start the main narrative with Constantine III’s claim to Rome in 407.)

I believe I’m starting to lose steam, though (I say coming back from a half-hour detour chronicling the rulers of Strathclyde). Probably about time I switch over to something else for a while and recharge my batteries. We’ll see what I hop on next. Stay tuned.

I showed some restraint last night. I only stayed up till 0500. -_- There’s still a fair bit to hash out, but it’s going to have to be relegated to the side because the big mystery project has been revealed and it’s going to be a lot of work. I have places to be next weekend, so the objective is to get as much done before then as possible.

I did a major shakeup to the genealogies of my Arthurian cast based on better information I’ve acquired. You see, originally I wanted Caradoc the Elder to be a Coeling through Pellam (who I made a posthumous child of Coel Hen), the odd duck left to tend to most of Britannia while his father (in my version) Pellam retires to Listenoise with Pelles and Pellinore. However, learning about actual sons of Coel Hen and the Kings in the North, I decided to separate them out. Caradoc is now the adopted son of Ynyr, the son-in-law and heir of Vortimer, son of Vortigern, keeping him in the south. Well, I made kings like Loth and Urien sons of Caradoc who inherit their respective kingdoms after he abdicates. With Caradoc now being divorced from the north, that wasn’t going to work, so I shifted Angusel, Loth, Urien and Nentres from Caradoc’s line to that of Gwrast Lledlwn, the son of Ceneu the King in the North (one of the actual sons and successors to Coel Hen). They’re now half-brothers to Meirchion Gul of Rheged who gain their territories from Uther Pendragon after he’s named King of the Britons, a sort of consolation prize for him taking the title of King in the North from their family. (Although, in Uther’s defense, he’s a grandson of Coel Hen himself and as the son to King of the Britons Constantine II, has a strong claim as Coel Hen’s successor, but this conflict will play into the story.)

All that sound complicated and convoluted? Well, that’s just scratching the surface, but that gives you an idea of the kind of stuff I’ve been mired in. I’ve conflated Uther with King in the North Mor ap Ceneu, so I need to reconcile that line with Arthur. I may or may not choose to go the multiple Guinevere route to resolve some of it. (Some versions of the stories say he married three Guineveres in his day. It would explain why the more famous one appeared later in his reign.)

Once the genealogies and timelines are settled, I’ll probably switch back to writing on either Tico3 or TTWC1, but so long as I have the drive to advance this current work, I should capitalize on it. Stay tuned.

You know the stories, ladies and gents. Another day in which I was up to 0600 poring over lists of kings and chronicles of old battles to bulk to bolster the backdrop of my Arthurian stories. I came upon some new sources that are plugging some holes and opening others. There’s a bit of reengineering left to be done, but I’m getting there. I can’t be spending as much time on it, though. Big things coming up. We’ll see if the generous air of anxiety and unease will break out into abject terror or not. Stay tuned.