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Shogran is hovering in the background, along with the Problem(s) he has created.  At the end of B1, Merran has a confrontation with Shogran that dumps her in Pike's lap, while Melayne is trying to unweave a tangle of lies, agendas, and environmental damage that Shogran has set in motion.  That's not enough?

There's already a lot of backstory  in the forgotten history.

I've got between 800 and 1100 words of close outline for the chapter coming up.  The description alone will be a she-grizzly-bear (with cub), so we'll see how it goes.

And I've got more master plot stuff.  I've been trying to move Merran and Pausonallie toward an advennture in this B2 (with Jamen left behind).  When they survive it, it may come to the attention of Powers-What-Oughtn't-Be.  Should I offer a glimpse of those powers, and if so, how much of a glimpse?  It will open questions that should not appear for many volumes, and I'm wondering how/if I can sustain the questions raised.

I'm working on the next chapter.  I've got plot, side characters, description of setting (see posting on JRRT, above) and milieu details to put together, in the right order.  I'm working on our little corner of the Rockpile, how to picture and describe it.

I'm also getting some notes down for the master plot.  How about a massive Nikkano hunt, all while Rome is burning?

I say that there's a hedgerow above the wall, and I'm quite careful to say there's an opening in the wall rather than a break, so a careful read will discover the tunnel mouth.

But you can't tell that the opening opens a tunnel until you are far enough in to call it a tunnel.

Point taken though.  I'll look it over and keep it all in mind.

Who said it's night?  Pausonallie is in the tunnel.  Day and night don't matter to the illumination.

I spent much of the past evening thumbing through LOTR and studying JRRT's writing.  Here are a few things that caught my notice.

For all the fame of his descriptive writing, he does not pile description on description.  He uses just the right strokes and just enough strokes to paint his world.  If he's known for piles of description, that knowing is a mistake.  He should be known for compact and effective description.

He uses pages of summary, sliding freely in and out of dialogue.

His dialogue is often overblown, in the same way that stage dialogue and technique is.

His writing is very economical, which allows him to write seven volumes of story in two and two-thirds volumes.

Few of us could manage the banter in his dialogue, but for the rest, I think we should take the real Tolkien as a model, and not the fantasy OF Tolkien that more resembles the Harvard Lampoon crew's Bored of the Rings.

Just reminded of a Romance lesson from GG.

If we can help you with those, well, don't forget we're here.

Let's see how the next few chapters of Merran's training play out forJamen.

You're gonna make me reply point by point, huh?

I ended my review reply with a smark-alek remark, a paraphrase from the infamous Field and Stream review of Lady Chatterely's Lover.  My point is that you're mistaking one thing for another.  It is, of course, my fault.

Seriously.  My fault.  I have to learn how screenwriters get from point to point without turning it into more narrative--which modern practice argues to turn into dialogue--about nothing at all.

About the only author I've read who can make this 'junk DNA' into something priceless is Dorothy Sayers, and her best example is Gaudy Night.  What is the purpose of the hospital scene with Harriet and Viscount St. George?  From the plot, nothing.  From theme, thesis, and the particular meaning(s) to Harriet, ... what happened then, well that's the play.

Dorothy Sayers I am not.  Nor, I hope, am I Mervyn Peake (and I have never dared to put Gormenghast on my reading list).

Well, you picked up on one hint, but missed another that's buried in the dialogue.  Not a gilt-edged clue but a hint.  You'll understand that as the author I have to say that's good.

To the larger point: in a sense, the opening scene, chapter, even the whole opening couple of books are a bait-and-switch.

Here's the Grand Strategy: Merran's family is caught in an event that is (eventually) traced to disturbances from outside their world.  Before they discover the source, they see other worlds being disturbed by People With Good Intentions, Bright Ideas, And No Judgement.  These are abetted by People Who Clutch Power (and Authority) Like A Threatened Birthright, and both of the preceding are used by String Pullers, Power Brokers, and Power Hoarders.  And all of the preceding are nudged and pressured by Malignancies, which, while not a powerful as Sauron, are much more attractive and enticing.

I'm bucking Good Advice here precisely because I want the consequences to be the various temptations of Power.  I paint this in tar on the white cliffs in the section with Nikkano, but Erevain also provides some hints in his behavior.  Melayne gets a lesson late in B1, and may act too timidly later.  Merran will act in legitimate self-defense and see horrible consequences.

I turn the lurymants from monsters to an essential partner-for-survival of a people, and I may even succeed in giving the reader a sense of wonder about them.

Not the tool, but the abuse, and the temptation to abuse.

And I'm developing a sense as I write that there may be a sort of Tragedy of the Commons with power: pile up too much in one place and the whole system goes critical.  Before I even realized I was thinking that way, I put in the line about "Being greatest became more important than being great."

I do say that, although the Elements may generally be interchanged, some tasks are very specific to one or the other.  I meant to foreshadow this, rather explicitly, with Melayne's meditations on vinegar and other flavors.  I'm probably not skilled enough to go metaphoring around like that, but I didn't let it stop me!

I also let Kirsey do some 'magic' sorcery that should give a hint at the system underneath the system.  There's a strong metaphor in the layers of chemistry and physics.

Of course, it is possible for dangerous uses of Power to escape their controllers.  Remember Melayne's thought in the kitchen about how Merran must learn to respect the ((natural)) way of things?  See this brief analysis of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein--and the article goes beyond it's title.

When you get far enough, you'll see (I hope) that Kirsey's wolves are not robots or cyborgs.  They are wolves, and Kirsey must respect that.  Respect the way of things--call it the Tao, or call it Natural Law--but when you don't, you break more than you build.  Sometimes much more.

Speaking of living beings as robots and cyborgs, I have two hideous things that I hope to be able to pull off later in the story, and one of them is linked to things you'll see--oooh, I've got Kirsey pushed off to Chapter 33.  The first part of that should be earlier.  I pulled it all together because I wasn't sure where to intercut it.  Go ahead and read it sooner.  There's a place indicated that intercuts the adventure I mentioned earlier for Merran and Glaselle, but I don't think it will spoil anything for you.  This is character intro and extended adventure with some unexplained sorcery thrown in.  It's a lot to review, but I'd really like your thoughts on it.

There's a slant developing now, though you may not be seeing it yet.  Merran is an only child; Jamen grew up in a large family.  Watch how they react and interact with Harsan's family

I plan to split him off and give him some time on his own, and some time with Kirsey as well.  But I don't have much of that mapped out.  I hope also to get some Unresolved Sexual Tension between him and Merran--and they're not fated to end up together.  I hinted in Melayne's first chapter that Merran's change to Real Woman is imminent.  It is.  (No, I don't expect to go into menstruation.  Let the Women-As-Heroic-Fantasy-Heroine-Feminine-Mythos authors go that route if they will.)

From the first scene with Harsan and Glasias, he's been the one the little kids turn to--and he's the one who can relate to them.

As we go on, he'll differ with Merran at times, even as he sticks with her.  His judgement calls for more caution, but kids in danger will override it.  That's about as far as I can go in B1.

He and Merran will be separated for a while in B2, and then for much longer, partly due to the UST that one or the other feels.

Oh, and Merran thinks he has feelings for Glaselle.  He doesn't, but she has some feelings for him.  They'll pass, and I'm not sure I can play them up properly.

Oops.  Okay, it's working.  I hope that all of this traces, sort of, to what we see in their first meeting.

Glaselle is paying attention to Merran for several reasons:  Merran in their/her guest, Merran has in a very rough problem because of her father (and, we'll see a bit later, Barris), Merran is a girl her own age who is also a sorcerer--and a rare chance for a girl-friendship, Merran is a very talented fellow student--a source of frustration but also attraction, Merran gave off loud clatters of awkwardness at their first meeting, and Merran came along with Jamen.

It will be hard for Glaselle to feel bitter jealousy toward Merran because of Merran's difficulties, and because this chance for girl-bonding is rare.  She gets some difficulty during training, and I could give her a trace of troubling jealousy early on--but just that.  Her 'development' here should be subtle.  And she's also going to have a brief--and scary--adventure alongside Merran.  But she should feel a little of the 'I wish I had that too' jealousy, realizing that she's romanticizing the situation.  She has a scene late in B1, and I can probably work some of that in.

I look forward to your thoughts about her private scene with Merran the night before Merran and Jamen leave.

There's some push and pull on decisions, but it can't be so strong as to pull them apart--at least not yet.  If anything I need to let Jamen regret not being more of a check on Merran.

I'm not following the three-act structure, and as the characters' threads separate they should shift out of sync for a while, making such a structure for all of them a matter of coincidence or synchronicity.  There should be a major synchronization after ... or perhaps before? the future chapter called The Observatory.  It's sitting at the end of B2 for now, and I'd really, really appreciate your opinions on it.  You probably shouldn't take it up until after Merran's B1/B2 cliffhanger is resolved.  I'm trying for some big effects and maybe I've succeeded.

In The Secrets of Story Matt Bird writes that the writer's business is not destroying expectations but creating them.  I need to be sure I'm doing that.

Fingers well crossed.