Sandworms of Dune
BLOG

Friday, June 22, 2007

Pre-empting Projects

I'm juggling projects, as usual. Brian and I are still hammering out the details of the full outline of PAUL OF DUNE, though we have most of it complete, except for a few cross-connecting plot threads.

I had managed to edit the first 250 pages of THE ASHES OF WORLDS, but then that work was pre-empted by the extremely tight deadline for proofreading the 400-page galleys of THE LAST DAYS OF KRYPTON. I've gone through the first 280 pages of that by yesterday, when it was pre-empted by ... the weather.

I've been going stir-crazy for some time, trapped at home and chained either to the keyboard (for editing) or clipboard (for proofing). Even on the Alaska cruise, sitting on the ship and looking out at the jaw-dropping scenery, I felt like a kid on the outside, looking through the window of a toy store. I wanted to Get Out There and do some hiking and exploring.

Yesterday was an absolutely perfect day in the mountains, warm, blue skies, completely sunny. I left the manuscripts at home, packed up the car and backpack, took my tape recorder and notes, and spent the day up at Rocky Mountain National Park. I completed a 12-mile hike, a long loop that took me past a panoply of gorgeous high alpine lakes, first the Loch, then Lake of Glass, then Sky Pond, then Lake Hiyaha, then Dream Lake, Emerald Lake, Nymph Lake. Most of the snow had melted, even up to 11,000 ft elevation, and the waterfalls were swollen.

It was relaxing, and inspirational. And I dictated the first two chapters in PAUL OF DUNE, starting with Paul constructing the shrine of his father's skull. After so much fine-toothed-comb work on the other two books, it felt great just to be creative again.

-- KJA