Meetings With Remarkable Dragons
Hello.
awkward silence, shuffling of notes
Unaccustomed as I am to public newslettering...
There is a curious, shall we say, vampiric intimacy to a newsletter. A blog is a message posted on a wall, for all the world to see and ignore as they choose. A newsletter, though - you invited me in. You asked for this. Whatever this is.
As I write, twitter is melting down. Again. If you follow me there, I'd recommend you also follow me over at mytholder@mastodon.ie.
Dragonmeet
I wasn't at Dragonmeet last year. I was supposed to go, but Omicron hit just before the convention and there was a kerfuffle about new restrictions on flights, so all the international Pelgranistas dropped out. This year was back to normal - which means Ken and Robin were over in London, as was I.
Dragonmeet's always a hectic convention; one day of intense selling and meeting, although fortunately this year "we" got in early on the friday to do trade stand setup, which took the pressure off in the morning.
(We, for values of Pelgrane not including me.)
I still got to carry boxes and sell books. I always feel uneasy at a convention until I've done something to justify my presence there, be that running a game, carrying heavy boxes, or doing a panel. Come to think of it, I also did a panel - the usual Horror Gaming Masterclass - and I think it was one of the best we've ever done.
Also a feature of this year's Dragonmeet - planning meetings. The freelancer hustle never quite stops. I can't say what that particular meeting was about yet, but I will, on a totally unrelated note, mention that the current Bundle of Holding is an excellent deal on the Heart roleplaying game.
Middle-earth
I picked up a copy of my own Ruins of the Lost Realm at Dragonmeet - my author's copy went to the wrong address. It's a beautiful book, and there's a sibling volume out soon. Meanwhile, I'm starting back down the Long Dark to Moria. One final attempt at that book... I wrote about the fate of my original Moria supplement some years ago (https://garhanrahan.com/2019/11/27/ghost-books/) and it's strange to have an opportunity to redo that project from scratch.
There's another, unannounced-I-think One Ring book in the pipeline before Moria.
Middle Book Syndrome
First, though, I need to finish Lands of the Firstborn 2. I've never actually written a conscious Book 2 before - the Black Iron Legacy is, or was intended to be, a series of more-or-less independent novels, with the action resolved in each book. Here, I'm trying to balance a satisfying conclusion with being the middle book in a trilogy, and it's proving troublesome. It doesn't help that I started this one later than I intended, as I wanted to wait until I had editorial feedback on Book 1. I still can't visualise novels the way I can anticipate the structure and content of an rpg book, so I held off on starting until Book 1 was locked down. I don't think I'll run into the same problem with Book 3, so all will be well as long as I finish Book 2 promptly.
(And, ideally, in well under 200,000 words.)
(He said, tempting fate.)
I remain suspicious of the fantasy tradition of the trilogy. It was forced on Tolkien by paper prices in the 1950s, and I don't understand why it remains the dominant structure.
Christmas
All that means that Christmas is going to be, once again, a working holiday. I'll take a few days off around the event itself. In a way, that's reassuring. It's not only at conventions that I need to remind myself of my own utility to feel comfortable.
You, though, should have a very merry break of whatever persuasion you prefer.