Young Warriors Fishing
Sep. 24th, 2012 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madwriterI'd been wary about mentioning this before over the last few months, superstitious writer that I can be, but I'll go ahead and say it now that the project is mailed off to the editor: Titan Books is doing a reprint of Philip Jose Farmer's The Wind Whales of Ishmael, his science fiction sequel to Moby Dick, and they asked me to write the afterword for it. I sent it out today, so I feel slightly less wary of talking about it.
And it was fun to write, after all.
At any rate, they've done a fantastic job with their previous reprints of his books, and I'm looking forward to getting this one when they release it next March.
In the meantime, I'm going to try to ramp up my writing pace on Arizona--some circumstances have changed that may seriously reduce my writing time yet again just a few weeks after I stopped needing to work overtime. I'm coming up on the one year anniversary of writing Arizona in just a few days, and I hate the thought of reducing the work to a continental drift pace again.
PROGRESS REPORT
New Words: 800 on chapter 7 ("The Scalphunters") of Arizona. The serious young warrior Cochise becomes the unwilling but dutiful guide to the American trappers trying to negotiate peaceful trades with various bands of Apache--primarily Chief Mahko of the Bedonkohe band, grandfather of a just-introduced four-year-old boy who will be best known later by his nickname, Geronimo.
Total Words: 178900.
Reason For Stopping: Delivering a car.
Book Year: 1833.
Mammalian Assistance: Vegas volunteered for his standard duty.
Exercise: Walked Tucker around the neighborhood.
Stimulants: Dr. Pepper.
Today's Opening Passage: The villa wasn’t totally free of Apache raids after the parlay. But the Chiricahua bands were numerous and peace with them held, on the condition that the American trappers traded with them first. When Finn and Kicking Horse, Thompson and the others ventured north again at the onset of winter, they fulfilled their end of the bargain by meeting with Cochise and other Chiricahua warriors at the base of the Dragoon Mountains due east of the villa. The trappers carried trade goods of every variety except alcohol — including rifles, to Finn’s concerned disgust.
Darling Du Jour: Here was a land of almost impassibly high grass and thick forests, but the Gila was exuberant where it was surrounded by the mountains, and teemed with fish. That night Finn asked Cochise for permission to fish. Permission was granted. By the time the moon crept around to the west and illuminated them from opposite the mountainsides, Finn realized what a strange sight this group must make: American trappers, Cochise and his Chiricahua, Spaniards and Pima and Papago, all strung along the riverbank fishing deep into the night. The Indians of each tribe watched with open amusement at the outsiders who hung strings from sticks; the Americans and Spaniards watched with open amazement as the Indians snatched fish with their bare hands.
Non-Research / Review Books In Progress: Kelton; Brown; The Last Human by Esteban E. Sarmiento.
And it was fun to write, after all.
At any rate, they've done a fantastic job with their previous reprints of his books, and I'm looking forward to getting this one when they release it next March.
In the meantime, I'm going to try to ramp up my writing pace on Arizona--some circumstances have changed that may seriously reduce my writing time yet again just a few weeks after I stopped needing to work overtime. I'm coming up on the one year anniversary of writing Arizona in just a few days, and I hate the thought of reducing the work to a continental drift pace again.
New Words: 800 on chapter 7 ("The Scalphunters") of Arizona. The serious young warrior Cochise becomes the unwilling but dutiful guide to the American trappers trying to negotiate peaceful trades with various bands of Apache--primarily Chief Mahko of the Bedonkohe band, grandfather of a just-introduced four-year-old boy who will be best known later by his nickname, Geronimo.
Total Words: 178900.
Reason For Stopping: Delivering a car.
Book Year: 1833.
Mammalian Assistance: Vegas volunteered for his standard duty.
Exercise: Walked Tucker around the neighborhood.
Stimulants: Dr. Pepper.
Today's Opening Passage: The villa wasn’t totally free of Apache raids after the parlay. But the Chiricahua bands were numerous and peace with them held, on the condition that the American trappers traded with them first. When Finn and Kicking Horse, Thompson and the others ventured north again at the onset of winter, they fulfilled their end of the bargain by meeting with Cochise and other Chiricahua warriors at the base of the Dragoon Mountains due east of the villa. The trappers carried trade goods of every variety except alcohol — including rifles, to Finn’s concerned disgust.
Darling Du Jour: Here was a land of almost impassibly high grass and thick forests, but the Gila was exuberant where it was surrounded by the mountains, and teemed with fish. That night Finn asked Cochise for permission to fish. Permission was granted. By the time the moon crept around to the west and illuminated them from opposite the mountainsides, Finn realized what a strange sight this group must make: American trappers, Cochise and his Chiricahua, Spaniards and Pima and Papago, all strung along the riverbank fishing deep into the night. The Indians of each tribe watched with open amusement at the outsiders who hung strings from sticks; the Americans and Spaniards watched with open amazement as the Indians snatched fish with their bare hands.
Non-Research / Review Books In Progress: Kelton; Brown; The Last Human by Esteban E. Sarmiento.
