wellinghall | New Miles Vorkosigan book

"It has been brought to my attention that some people would like an update on the progress of the new Miles book. Now, to my way of thinking, a book has only two states, not finished and finished; it's like a bridge that way; if it's not all the way done it has the same utility as if not done at all. But anyway.

As of the tail end of April, here, the new Miles book -- still no title, note -- is now up to Chapter 16. I'm thinking I may cross the border out of the miserable middle and into the endward slide fairly soon, within the next few chapters. Which puts me maybe two-thirds done with the story, but I caution that does not have a very direct relationship with the page or chapter count. Production time is also malleable; I can have one-chapter months or four-chapter months, or things in between, or months where nothing gets written at all.

For those who haven't heard earlier comments or net gossip from my public readings from the first few chapters: the tale is of an Auditorial investigation, on a new world we haven't seen before. Miles is 39. There are three alternating viewpoints: Miles, Armsman Roic, and a local boy named Jin. The general mode is mystery.

I was looking back over some of my old e-mail last night, where I found I was whining in the exact same tone of voice in December about only being up to Chapter 9, so I guess things are progressing more steadily than it feels like. For curiosity, I just looked up the start date of Chapter One, which to my surprise was April 18, 2008; it felt longer ago than that, but there were several months of pre-writing and idea development (and de-selection) before the first scene formed up and made ready to march."

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