The North Wind Speaks (part 10)

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and we are all devoted

to her welfare.

And today's diagram . . .

You know how, in the wake of Dungeons & Dragons, the standard for modern fantasy became a lone adventurer slowly assembling a family about themselves? This diagram, read from top to bottom, shows the process of Caitlin becoming her own family. First Helen climbs inside her head. Then the dragon does the same. Esme and Raven become external members of the extended family (as do others). Here, I begin to look forward to the process of Caitlin's shedding of identities with the ultimate goal of becoming singular again.

In the middle, as usual, the ellipses (. . .) indicate the parts unwritten. Those that I'm trying to scry into existence with the diagram.

Ideas created by the diagram include that House Sans Merci is a majority stockholder in the Conspiracy, and the comment by one member of it, "You are representing your mother?" one asked politely.

So I haven't yet written the scene where Caitlin joins the Conspiracy under the nom de guerre Kate Gallowglass. Who becomes, come to think, yet another member of Caitlin's interior family.

I haven't said a word about sisters yet because it wasn't until very close to the end of the novel that I realized their importance to The Iron Dragon's Mother. 

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The North Wind Speaks (the story to date)

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At Marianne's request, here is the text of The North Wind Speaks to date:

The North Wind Speaks

My sister comes rustling through the birch leaves. Gentle she is, but restless, aloof, and intent on her search. What is the East Wind looking for? If only she'd tell us!

Which brings us tidily up to the  present episode.

And The North Wind Speaks (part 9) . . .

She has a thousand brothers 

(continued tomorrow)

And today's diagram . . .

A very careful diagram here of the entire novel as I then understood it. On top, the introduction of characters and major events. Those to the left are the written parts of the novel. The dotted lines below indicate events happening that neither Caitlin nor the reader know anything about yet. The events to the right are those at the end which I had figured out, more or less correctly. The arc over it represents Fingolfinrhod's life between his disappearance and reappearance.

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The North Wind Speaks (part 8)

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 If only

she'd tell us!

(continued tomorrow)


And today's diagram . . .

My first two efforts to clarify Caitlin's relationships with all six of her mothers. Each one, you'll note, crossed out as I failed to get them right.

And here's what it properly looks like... Caitlin's relationships with her mothers, Aerth, Faerie, the physical and the spiritual and of course her (adoptive, in some ways symbolic) daughter, Esme. Because to understand her mothers completely, she has to have a daughter herself. At this point, at last, the entire novel is so clear in my mind that I can encapsulate it in a single diagram.

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Tales of Old Earth E-Book! On Sale for $1.99! Wednesday Only!

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Good news for e-book readers who either like my short fiction and would like to give it a try. This Wednesday, for one day only, my collection Tales of Old Earth will be on sale for $1.99.

Here's the info that Open Road Media, my e-publisher gave me:

ISBN13	Title	Author	Promo Type	Country	Start Date	End Date	Promo Price
9781504036511	Tales of Old Earth	Swanwick, Michael	ORM - Early Bird Books NL	US	2019-10-09	2019-10-09	$1.99

Open Road will promote the feature via social media. We hope you can share the deal with your network as well. You can subscribe to the newsletters at the links below so that you will get the direct link to the deal on the day that it appears.

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Please let us know if you have any questions. We are thrilled to be part of this promotion; hope you are too!

(Michael again:) This book contains 19 stories, including some of my very best. Two ("The Very Pulse of the Machine" and "Scherzo with Tyrannosaur") won Hugos. One ("Ice Age") was animated for Love, Death, and Robots. Another ("The Dead"), almost became a TV series. And if your mother catches you reading "Midnight Express," you're in very big trouble.

All for less than two bucks. But, as I said, Wednesday only.

And only in the US. I'm sorry about that. But there are legal reasons.


And The North Wind Speaks (part 7) . . .

looking for?

(continued tomorrow)

And today's diagrams . . .

The sequence of events here is pretty much the same as in the last diagram. I've roughed out my understanding of the plot's direction and the introduction of characters in order to give myself space to throw out ideas.

And on the facing page (recto), are the thoughts thrown out. Some were used. Most were not. (A girlfriend named Pogue Mahoney? Really?) But buried in the middle is the very useful "Someone to make her fugitive status explicit to her."

Which became the reappearance of Ysault and Sibyl and once they appeared the novel turned a corner and started to resolve itself.

That's not a spoiler, incidentally. Those who have read the novel understand what I mean. Otherwise... no clue. I had no notion myself at that time.

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The North Wind Speaks (part 6)

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 What is

the East Wind

(continued tomorrow)

And today's diagram . . .

You can tell when the writing's going well because the diagrams get slapdash. Here, Caitlin's left the hobo camp, jumped a train, and is about to play a major part in the birth of a locomotive (here labeled "fire birth." Fata Narcisse still has no name--she's just "elf." So I've come to the ride onward in a luxury coach and am speculating what happens next.

So... "elf betrays her" I speculate, and then "Esme enables escape." A question mark indicates that I haven't decided whether to use those elements. Also feeding into the luxury ride is "Raven?" and an attached note "Too early?" and attached to that, "No! Raven doesn't care about Cat's well-being."

All those elements later came into play but because there was so much else going on, they got pushed into later chapters.

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The North Wind Speaks (part 5)

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and intent on

her search.

(continued tomorrow)

And today's diagram . . .

Back to the plot. Up top, the first section of the novel has been blocked out into innocence, persecution, escape, hobo camp, and train. With a great comment which, in the fact, nobody ever makes: "You've got a mother problem." 

With introduction of a new character. That might be Esme but is more likely Fata Narcisse.

I'm not sure why there's an upside-down blocking out of the first section of the novel below it.

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The North Wind Speaks (part 4)

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 but restless,

aloof, 

(continued tomorrow)


And today's diagram . . .

Here I have at last what looks to be a map of the entire novel from beginning (top) to end (bottom). The main characters are introduced in a flurry of activity. Caitlin is driven from the military. The dragon dies and disappears from the novel for most of its duration, only to reappear later [in those lines going off to the right, then down and back again to the main line]. She has encounters at the jungle and with the locomotive. Esme makes her appearance and then Raven.

BUT if you look carefully in the middle are two ellipses and in them is all the central matter of hte novel, which I don't know yet. However, as the plot has been moving forward, my understanding of how the book will end has been expanding backwards. So I know now that blood will tell, that Finn dies (or transcends), that House Sans Merci is a majority holder in the Conspiracy, have gotten a glimpse of the glass coffins and know that a great deal comes together in Ys.

So a great deal of progress is being made. All that needs to be understood is how Caitlin moves from crisis to resolution.

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