Category: Earth Arc

Feb 20 2017

WIP Update – 19 Feb 17

Guess what. More genealogy. I switched over from Cunedda to Macsen. There are fewer kiddos to deal with, but it’s still quite a tangle. I had to compress a couple generations to get everything to fit in the timeframe I have set for the story. Now, you might wonder why I do all this, other than my OCD. Well, the complex web of marriage alliances and such are critical for having a clear picture of the political landscape of the story and the more legwork I do, the better it’ll play out in the story proper.

Take, for instance, Chapter 3 where Constantine seeks to be acclaimed King of the Britons to buttress his claim to Emperor of Rome. We have appearances by Owain Finddu and Aurelius Ambrosius, but they wouldn’t be there if I hadn’t done to work to establish their relationship in the grand scheme of things. (Owain being the son of Macsen Wledig, a previous pretender to the throne of Rome, and King of the Silures and Aurelius Ambrosius being King of Gloucester and Constantine’s brother-in-law.) It’ll all pay off in the end, but I could literally devote a month or two just to squaring away the major families. Whee fun. (Oh, who am I kidding? I love this stuff.)

I had a decent start in the week, but I let the peripheral materials consume me. Necessary, yes, but it’s not going to get TSoA1 where it needs to be for launch anytime soon. Now it’s time to switch over to TBP. Stay tuned.

Feb 19 2017

WIP Update – 18 Feb 17

I didn’t figure you wanted to see another post about the convoluted family tree of Cunedda Wledig, so I spared you a further account o non-story-related work. It did motivate me to turn my focus back to the story itself and I made a little progress on Chapters 6 and 7 of TSoA1. Now, this doesn’t mean that I’m done sorting out the twisted genealogical web. Far from it. We’ll see what I can get done on both fronts before it’s time to switch over. Stay tuned.

Feb 17 2017

WIP Update – 16 Feb 17

I didn’t make any progress on the story itself, but I feel my epic grappling with the fragmented, vague and on occasion -recursive- genealogies of the major bloodlines relevant to the story deserve mention. I just wanted to flesh out the family tree of Coel Hen and I started finding these generations of 16, 18 kids and you can imagine how insane it started to get. I suppose I should be thankful for all the saints that didn’t perpetuate their bloodline as I was tracing from the 4th to the 8th Century and it’s a grand tangled mess. Anyway, maybe I can get some actual story progress done. Stay tuned.

Feb 16 2017

WIP Update – 15 Feb 17

I finished up Chapter 5 of TSoA1 and did some more work on Chapter 6, but most of my time was spent getting caught in the whirling vortex of Cunedda Wledig’s genealogy. I was working on filling out the family tree of the Coelings (which happens to be rather relevant to Chapter 6 as Cunedda was married to Coel Hen’s elder daughter Gwawl), and he has friggin’ 18 kids according to the source I’m using and then his son Ceredig had 16 kids and so on and so forth. And I’m drilling down at least to the 8th century (even though the trilogy ends mid-6th). Crazy times. I wish I had a more efficient means of charting genealogies than a Notepad file. Maybe I should look into using a database program (most of my “database” files are actually spreadsheets, you see). Well, fun for later. Stay tuned.

Feb 15 2017

WIP Update – 14 Feb 17

I got through Chapter 5 of TSoA1, save for some finishing touches, and started in on Chapter 6. Depending on how well I do this week, it may be as little as one more cycle before I’ve made enough progress to start serialization. That’d be something. Stay tuned.

Feb 14 2017

WIP Update – 13 Feb 17

I made some headway in Chapter 5 of TSoA1. Maybe I can make it through a cycle on this book where I actually make quota. We’ll see. Stay tuned.

Jan 30 2017

WIP Update – 29 Jan 17

Although I didn’t have the best track record last week, I did manage to recoup some of that shortfall by finishing Chapters 3 and 4 of TSoA1 and starting in on Chapter 5 as well. Now it’s time to switch over to TBP. Stay tuned.

Jan 27 2017

WIP Update – 26 Jan 17

My progress on Chapter 3 of TSoA1 was under par, but I was spending more time preparing the anniversary post. I’ve still got some work to go, so I need to hop to it. Stay tuned.

Jan 26 2017

WIP Update – 25 Jan 17

Well, I managed to make quota on Chapter 3 of TSoA1, but more time was spent on research and the peripheral materials. Of course, the fact that I only made about half-quota Monday and no progress at all Tuesday means I’m still in the hole. And I have yet to make arrangements for tomorrow’s anniversary. *sigh* Even though it’s the big 10-year mark, I may not exactly wow anybody with my offerings. C’est la vie. Stay tuned.

Jan 24 2017

WIP Update – 23 Jan 17

I did a little writing on Chapter 4 of TSoA1, under quota, mind you, but maybe I can turn things around. Stay tuned.