Another few hundred words on the novella. Not very many, primarily because I spent ages trying to write a poem. I had this awesome idea of a plot point that would require my main character to compose a clever poem–the sort of idea that sounds fabulous in outline, and then less and less so as you realise that you are going to have to write the darn thing, and your poetry skills suck… I then spent about one hour rereading poems by Du Fu and Li Bai, and a couple other Tang poets–cobbling together a few verses [1] in order to actually write the rest of the scene.

‘Tis done. Now for the aftermath. One scene away from wrapping up part 2 (of 3). And part 3 should be mostly downhill, as everything falls into place.

*knocks on wood*

[1] Yes, it ended up as a mostly Chinese poem. I did look a few Vietnamese poems, but decided that since in that timeline China was dominant, Vietnam would probably still be stealing a few cultural references from its neighbour. (also, my Vietnamese–which I really need to start again–is nowhere competent enough to read poetry in the original) To compensate, I had the banquet made of completely typical dishes (and lots of fish sauce 🙂 )
[2]Also, I have handed in my edits for Le Cinquième Soleil aka Harbinger in France. Not sure of pub date yet; it’s been pushed back but Eclipse didn’t know by how much.