Chapter Nine is now posted. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that I still haven’t finished writing Chapter Ten, and it’s less than half paid for. Looks like this one may be running out of steam.
More bad news: I’m going to be traveling next week. I hope to post Chapter Ten anyway, if it’s done and paid for, and I’ll have a computer with me with all the necessary software for that, but I will not have my e-mail lists, and will probably not have access to this blog, so there won’t be the usual wave of announcements, and Progress Report Ten will almost certainly be delayed.
Also: I’ve been mulling over possible titles, because Ishta’s Companion is just not a grabber. My current favorite is A Relic of the War. Comments are welcome.
Maybe Tesk could get a job running a PTSD support group.
I just realized, that talk about white smoke and black smoke sounds surprisingly like what happens when they elect a new pope.
PS: I prefer “War Relic” to “A Relic of the War”. The original “A Stranger in the Forest” is probably a bit too creepy.
Dunno. I like “Ishta’s Companion” better than the “Relic” titles. It’s more interesting to see the main protagonists from someone else’s – a brother – eyes. I vote for sticking to that title.
To me, War Relic puts too much emphasis on “War.” It’s not a war story. A Relic of the War emphasizes the “Relic” part.
Just sent in my bucks. Hopefully the word will get out that payments are needed.
Thanks!
A Shadow of the Great War?
A Remnant…
I have reasons for using “relic” rather than “remnant” that seem good to me, and don’t want to use “the Great War” because to non-Ethshar readers that means the First World War.
“Shadow,” well, it works, but I then want to associate it with my Worlds of Shadow series, which is not appropriate.
Maybe combine the two lines of thought; Ishta’s Relic? Creates a definite link between the present of the farm life (all Ishta has known) and the past of the war… though, some readers might get confused by the appearance (and trivality) of the device at the beginning.
So, why is shatra not capitalized at the beginning of a sentence? I will admit this is the first time I can recall seeing it at the beginning, but I thought italicized Ethshar words were still capitalized at the beginning of a sentence, no?
“My life is in two parts,” he said. “There’s the war, and there’s after the war. shatra are from the war.
That is the relevant passage. Was that a typo?
Relics of War might be more appropriate, because Tesk isn’t the only one it seems.
Anyway, it sounds strange, but at least in WW2, a lot of veterans actually found a lot of camaraderie with people they had fought against, meeting them decades later.
It’s a typo, more or less. When I was converting the text to HTML I did a global search-and-replace to italicize shatra every time it appeared, and that stripped out the capital. Usually I catch it when that happens; this time I didn’t.
Typo’s fixed.
As a fun mash up of the three posed titles so far (Stranger in the Forest, Ishta’s Companion, and A Relic of the War) Ishta’s Strange Relic. It’s a goofy idea but I actually really like the title. It does run the same issue that Ryan brought up of some confusion with the device in the beginning of the story, but as long as at some point Tesk mentions that he is just a “relic” of the war and times passed, then it would really fit.
Here are three possible titles if you laugh that’s ok too 🙂
Warrior and Peace, Lure of the Shatra or The Misenchanted Soldier
Hi, it’s me — I’m not logged in.
I’m traveling, will be home again Sunday; until then, I can’t do anything with the comments waiting for moderation. There are a couple of them. I’ll get to them as soon as I can once I’m back in Maryland.
Also: Chapter Ten is written, but I’m still $62 short of posting it Wednesday.
I’m back home, with a ton of stuff to catch up on. Chapter Ten did get posted, and I wrote half of Chapter Eleven while traveling — sometimes it’s a good thing when the train’s wi-fi doesn’t work. More when I have time.
Oh, yeah — comments have been moderated. Sorry it took so long, RobS.
Demonblood Shatra … that is a title that grabs attention.