One more bit of plot nailed down.
The wartime "Zero Stations" are far too perfect. The Auxiliary Units, with connections to the Home Guard and W.W.II with all the "camping in the subway station during the Blitz" stuff and even the idea of invasion are wonderful for stuff to talk about, archaeology to discover, and theme to integrate.
I'm still thinking of an older thing below it. Why? Because I want some trowel work, and the kind of archaeology involved in digging out a W.W.II building is a bit different. Haven't decided on that. One problem is, relatively speaking, the archaeological history is shallow.
What I mean is, about a meter of soil was deposited on the ancient walls of Londinium. The Tube stations are in geologic eras, far below any human landscape. Well, except for the amount that's been shifted around and that's a problem, too. The beginnings of the Underground were cut-and-cover and that means anything that was higher in the strata is well and scattered.
***
A different thing I'm puzzling on is how much to go beyond the probably and into the possible. I've more-or-less ruled out Penny's big Tomb Crawl from getting into live subway tunnels or the secret passage to Number 10 or anything. Stuff that is critical infrastructure is well known, well explored, and well guarded. Every dime-store terrorist has thought of it and every cop has heard of Guy Fawkes.
Which isn't to say I can't talk about it, even have her underground adventures relate to, pass near, detect evidence (the shaking of passing trains) of the other life that's down there.
But still doesn't tell me how big I dare go with what she does find. Or how to explain how it is still accessible.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Hit that like button...with a large hammer
I swear I didn't click on anything. Watched a couple random videos. And suddenly my YouTube feed pops up with Jdn Ptrsn, at least two other mansplainers, and vx dy himself.
(The suspects were disemvoweled to keep the One who "knows when you are sleeping, when you are bad and when you are good, and how much science fiction you buy each fiscal quarter" from deciding I need to be fast-tracked to have all my manosphere needs met.)
It is getting to be a bit like spam and the golden rule of never click, and absolutely never follow the "please unsubscribe" link. I have put any and all reviews of the latest Star Wars movies off my viewing list, for instance. Not that I was going to watch them anyway. The reviews...or the movies.
Ah, brings me back to the good old days of using iTunes as a theatre sound designer. Monday I'd need "YMCA," Thursday I'd need "Summer ist icumen in" and on the weekend I'd be checking out some independent band that I would have to be mixing Sunday. Next time I logged in iTunes would be frantically trying to find electric guitar covers of medieval folk tunes set to a disco beat because it was sure it had finally figured out which bland identical product it could sell endless slight variations of to me until I died.
***
I'm being depressed about writing again. I have three people reading the last book at the moment. One of them got as far as the author's bio (he skipped to the back). The other should be just about at the scene were Penny buys a bra and I'm wincing internally at the thought.
The "quick and dirty" was only relatively so. Took me a year, I cut some corners I should not have cut (no beta reader, no paid editor). I'm flailing around wondering if there is something easier to write than a story set in the real, modern world that cares about the details of history and culture and geography -- both in getting them right and in covering them in detail.
I have the idea traipsing through my head right now that the bulk of a near-future military SF novel would come out as fast as I could type. Once the world is built, it is all combat scenes and the drudgery of soldiering and of course shit-talking with buddies. Pity the idea I have for that is an off-kilter close-to-singularity world with strong horror elements, various trope elements, and at least one character who has spent four hundred years reading literature and it shows.
***
So I'm still nailing down plot elements for the London adventure. I have the majority of the set-piece scenes I want to do, but still figuring out the physical layout and the who knows what and who cares. The "Churchill bunker" as my notes still call it (it is probably post-war), is growing in importance and I won't be able to consider this outlined until I've figured it out properly.
And I have to change history. I knew that already. I want to make a thematic bit about a North Sea storm surge, and there wasn't one of note in the time period I'm probably using. (Most likely right now is November of 2018, which was noted for cold snap and some rains). I am also more likely than not to follow most other people and create a Tube station rather than try to re-work an existing one.
Although there is one possible candidate. In the real world, the Northern Line being built to Battersea power station and opening in 2020 or so decided against a route that would have required expanding Vauxhall. But I'm still sort of caught between multiple things I'd like to throw in, which may not be all compatible; a closed station, a new construction project, an archaeologically interesting site, a W.W.II air raid shelter, a hidden phone/switching/intelligence/i dunno bunker. And a lost river, but there are a bunch of those and nobody is going to complain if I move or even invent one.
I just found a huge new resource for underground London so I have reading material for months. That's also getting in the way. This would be a really good week to actually write.
See, writing is best done in long blocks of contiguous time. Enough to get into the flow, then enough to make it worth while. Plotting, on the other hand, is oddly suited towards the work week. I get an idea, it lead to another snag, and I think about the snag for a day or two until I have an idea how to work past it.
Sitting and staring at the outline is exhausting. So I'm wasting all this lovely time off by being where I am on this book. But, since I have no other book that is in a better place, what choice do I have?
(The suspects were disemvoweled to keep the One who "knows when you are sleeping, when you are bad and when you are good, and how much science fiction you buy each fiscal quarter" from deciding I need to be fast-tracked to have all my manosphere needs met.)
It is getting to be a bit like spam and the golden rule of never click, and absolutely never follow the "please unsubscribe" link. I have put any and all reviews of the latest Star Wars movies off my viewing list, for instance. Not that I was going to watch them anyway. The reviews...or the movies.
Ah, brings me back to the good old days of using iTunes as a theatre sound designer. Monday I'd need "YMCA," Thursday I'd need "Summer ist icumen in" and on the weekend I'd be checking out some independent band that I would have to be mixing Sunday. Next time I logged in iTunes would be frantically trying to find electric guitar covers of medieval folk tunes set to a disco beat because it was sure it had finally figured out which bland identical product it could sell endless slight variations of to me until I died.
***
I'm being depressed about writing again. I have three people reading the last book at the moment. One of them got as far as the author's bio (he skipped to the back). The other should be just about at the scene were Penny buys a bra and I'm wincing internally at the thought.
The "quick and dirty" was only relatively so. Took me a year, I cut some corners I should not have cut (no beta reader, no paid editor). I'm flailing around wondering if there is something easier to write than a story set in the real, modern world that cares about the details of history and culture and geography -- both in getting them right and in covering them in detail.
I have the idea traipsing through my head right now that the bulk of a near-future military SF novel would come out as fast as I could type. Once the world is built, it is all combat scenes and the drudgery of soldiering and of course shit-talking with buddies. Pity the idea I have for that is an off-kilter close-to-singularity world with strong horror elements, various trope elements, and at least one character who has spent four hundred years reading literature and it shows.
***
So I'm still nailing down plot elements for the London adventure. I have the majority of the set-piece scenes I want to do, but still figuring out the physical layout and the who knows what and who cares. The "Churchill bunker" as my notes still call it (it is probably post-war), is growing in importance and I won't be able to consider this outlined until I've figured it out properly.
And I have to change history. I knew that already. I want to make a thematic bit about a North Sea storm surge, and there wasn't one of note in the time period I'm probably using. (Most likely right now is November of 2018, which was noted for cold snap and some rains). I am also more likely than not to follow most other people and create a Tube station rather than try to re-work an existing one.
Although there is one possible candidate. In the real world, the Northern Line being built to Battersea power station and opening in 2020 or so decided against a route that would have required expanding Vauxhall. But I'm still sort of caught between multiple things I'd like to throw in, which may not be all compatible; a closed station, a new construction project, an archaeologically interesting site, a W.W.II air raid shelter, a hidden phone/switching/intelligence/i dunno bunker. And a lost river, but there are a bunch of those and nobody is going to complain if I move or even invent one.
I just found a huge new resource for underground London so I have reading material for months. That's also getting in the way. This would be a really good week to actually write.
See, writing is best done in long blocks of contiguous time. Enough to get into the flow, then enough to make it worth while. Plotting, on the other hand, is oddly suited towards the work week. I get an idea, it lead to another snag, and I think about the snag for a day or two until I have an idea how to work past it.
Sitting and staring at the outline is exhausting. So I'm wasting all this lovely time off by being where I am on this book. But, since I have no other book that is in a better place, what choice do I have?
Thursday, December 26, 2019
I can do this
I think this is the first time I was able to read through the entire book without interruption.
I haven't changed my mind about the flaws. It is still too busy, too unfocused, and the protagonist doesn't really speak to me.
But I also see how I have learned and grown and how I can do better. The last few chapters are the action chapters and cut way back on the excess excursions. And after the solo adventure of so much of the first half, the banter between Biro and Markos as they join Penny in exploring Athens is just so nice.
The next book is free of the language stuff. Or rather, is a different kind of language stuff. But there's less of it anyhow. The next book is more focused on London and it's history. And it is -- and this is mostly to the good -- largely stuff that Penny doesn't know and when it is plot-important, the reader gets to learn it with her.
Really, the first book was a lot of groundwork. I recognize that. But the strength of the London book is going to be focus, a lot more interpersonal stuff, a fair bit more action, and that I think I've learned how to write better. Basically, it should be more of the stuff that was good in the last one.
So basically, the main thing I got from the last reading: a lot of "Oh, I know how I could have done this better."
***
It is funny. I've run into several people who were impressed I got a book printed. Printing? That took almost nothing to learn (well, I did have a head start in most of the essential skills) and not that much time to do, either. If I hadn't done my own cover it would be even less than that (and probably better results but anyhow).
The writing is the tough part. Hard to do and takes a long time, too.
I haven't changed my mind about the flaws. It is still too busy, too unfocused, and the protagonist doesn't really speak to me.
But I also see how I have learned and grown and how I can do better. The last few chapters are the action chapters and cut way back on the excess excursions. And after the solo adventure of so much of the first half, the banter between Biro and Markos as they join Penny in exploring Athens is just so nice.
The next book is free of the language stuff. Or rather, is a different kind of language stuff. But there's less of it anyhow. The next book is more focused on London and it's history. And it is -- and this is mostly to the good -- largely stuff that Penny doesn't know and when it is plot-important, the reader gets to learn it with her.
Really, the first book was a lot of groundwork. I recognize that. But the strength of the London book is going to be focus, a lot more interpersonal stuff, a fair bit more action, and that I think I've learned how to write better. Basically, it should be more of the stuff that was good in the last one.
So basically, the main thing I got from the last reading: a lot of "Oh, I know how I could have done this better."
***
It is funny. I've run into several people who were impressed I got a book printed. Printing? That took almost nothing to learn (well, I did have a head start in most of the essential skills) and not that much time to do, either. If I hadn't done my own cover it would be even less than that (and probably better results but anyhow).
The writing is the tough part. Hard to do and takes a long time, too.
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Sure I do, and so's the Queen
I'm watching Time Team and getting distracted by dialects again. I can't help but notice the British don't correct each other. Or even pause, or seem to notice. But I've heard the same thing in podcast discussions between an international group of archaeologists or historians.
Sure, let's just pass over "Mycenae" versus "Mykenae." That's the c-k problem inherited from the long history of Latin within other Western cultures. I've run into people who make a point of not just pronouncing, but spelling "Akropolis" et al. And other more accurate transliterations, which can slow your reading a bit while you puzzle out the new form of a too-familiar name.
I'm talking more of distinctly different pronunciations of other words. Like mesolithic; in one programme I recently watched, there were conversations between a mezo-lithic and a miso-lithic.
In the one I'm watching now, I'm hearing tsu-nami (the wall of water), su-nami, and tu-nami.
Oh, yes. And this on top of dialectic distinctions that can be generally made between British english and American english; shed-ule/sked-ule, gla-ceer/glay-seer, geyser/geezer, etc.
Sure, let's just pass over "Mycenae" versus "Mykenae." That's the c-k problem inherited from the long history of Latin within other Western cultures. I've run into people who make a point of not just pronouncing, but spelling "Akropolis" et al. And other more accurate transliterations, which can slow your reading a bit while you puzzle out the new form of a too-familiar name.
I'm talking more of distinctly different pronunciations of other words. Like mesolithic; in one programme I recently watched, there were conversations between a mezo-lithic and a miso-lithic.
In the one I'm watching now, I'm hearing tsu-nami (the wall of water), su-nami, and tu-nami.
Oh, yes. And this on top of dialectic distinctions that can be generally made between British english and American english; shed-ule/sked-ule, gla-ceer/glay-seer, geyser/geezer, etc.
London Calling
The numbers are not looking good on The Fox Knows Many Things. It is largely a numbers game; the Amazon ecosystem, for instance, functions a lot like a game of Civilization. You get more sales when you have more exposure, but you only get exposure with sales. Leading to many people gaming the system, but that's a whole other conversation.
I'd like to go to London and do some research. Not because the book would earn it out but because I want to travel anyhow. Aside from dropping in over the holidays to catch a Panto (the only local panto is closed this year and won't be back until next December), I'd want to go in April-March when the field schools open as do the tours to various underground places of interest.
And that's a little far ahead. I pushed the last book out without outside editor or beta readers or feedback, and without working up interest and pre-sales via whatever kind of social networking. I just needed to actually finish something for once. And now I find it isn't over. I need a second or third book before I can start really playing numbers games. There's options open right now like BookBub advertising and promotional pricing, but none of it makes sense with a backlist of One (1).
The London book is dense, though. Not the kind of details I need to research -- although some of them are potentially daunting, I have a better idea of how much I need to know before I can write and how much is actually going to fit in, and even with putting in Theatre and Shakespeare and Panto and HEMA and Roman re-enactors and combined sewers and the Churchill bunker and the Thames Barrier it isn't really so bad.
Worse is all the Britishisms, particularly the way some Brits like to talk. Lots of witticisms and references. Verbal one-upmanship. Ribbing. I might be able to take a few pages down to the pub and let the Geordies have a look.
No, where it is dense is in the interpersonal interactions. There's a lot more character stuff and social stuff here. It isn't a largely solo adventure. Graham continues to grow on me and this is going to be a prickly and sometimes difficult but rewarding friendship. And that's just the start of it.
***
Now that I've done a book, it all seems so much simpler. Or at least more straight-forward, even though it is a lot of work. So I'm digging up all sorts of schemes, even though it seems most sensible to do the London book before anything else...and maybe the Japan book following (Kyoto, post-war Japan, the Takarazuka Dance Troupe, weebos, a bit of Tokyo, San Francisco, the Internment).
Stil have a hankering to do a generic fantasy. One of the people at Quora came up with an interesting wrinkle that I'd like to integrate.
Then there's the lightweight version of the Bronze Age novel. The misfit crew of heroes up against the Sea People.
And the techno-werewolf book. Which is basically brooding gritty mil-SF.
And the all tropes all the time space opera. Which should really involve singing. And is currently trying to see if it can morph around the title The Tiki Stars.
Incidentally, another thing I'm turning up on Amazon with the right search filters (well, actually, what I did was log out then try to ignorantly find something like my own book. I kept at it until the algorithm finally showed the ad I'm paying for. At which point I found out I needed to edit the ad!)
Anyhow, another thing I've been turning up is a fair number of, well, call them Manly Men adventure stories. A serving of retro with a side order of Take That, and not a small whiff of Eu de Sad Puppy. And that's the thing. The Tiki Stars doesn't want to be PC. But I don't really know how I can make this work for me.
I'd like to go to London and do some research. Not because the book would earn it out but because I want to travel anyhow. Aside from dropping in over the holidays to catch a Panto (the only local panto is closed this year and won't be back until next December), I'd want to go in April-March when the field schools open as do the tours to various underground places of interest.
And that's a little far ahead. I pushed the last book out without outside editor or beta readers or feedback, and without working up interest and pre-sales via whatever kind of social networking. I just needed to actually finish something for once. And now I find it isn't over. I need a second or third book before I can start really playing numbers games. There's options open right now like BookBub advertising and promotional pricing, but none of it makes sense with a backlist of One (1).
The London book is dense, though. Not the kind of details I need to research -- although some of them are potentially daunting, I have a better idea of how much I need to know before I can write and how much is actually going to fit in, and even with putting in Theatre and Shakespeare and Panto and HEMA and Roman re-enactors and combined sewers and the Churchill bunker and the Thames Barrier it isn't really so bad.
Worse is all the Britishisms, particularly the way some Brits like to talk. Lots of witticisms and references. Verbal one-upmanship. Ribbing. I might be able to take a few pages down to the pub and let the Geordies have a look.
No, where it is dense is in the interpersonal interactions. There's a lot more character stuff and social stuff here. It isn't a largely solo adventure. Graham continues to grow on me and this is going to be a prickly and sometimes difficult but rewarding friendship. And that's just the start of it.
***
Now that I've done a book, it all seems so much simpler. Or at least more straight-forward, even though it is a lot of work. So I'm digging up all sorts of schemes, even though it seems most sensible to do the London book before anything else...and maybe the Japan book following (Kyoto, post-war Japan, the Takarazuka Dance Troupe, weebos, a bit of Tokyo, San Francisco, the Internment).
Stil have a hankering to do a generic fantasy. One of the people at Quora came up with an interesting wrinkle that I'd like to integrate.
Then there's the lightweight version of the Bronze Age novel. The misfit crew of heroes up against the Sea People.
And the techno-werewolf book. Which is basically brooding gritty mil-SF.
And the all tropes all the time space opera. Which should really involve singing. And is currently trying to see if it can morph around the title The Tiki Stars.
Incidentally, another thing I'm turning up on Amazon with the right search filters (well, actually, what I did was log out then try to ignorantly find something like my own book. I kept at it until the algorithm finally showed the ad I'm paying for. At which point I found out I needed to edit the ad!)
Anyhow, another thing I've been turning up is a fair number of, well, call them Manly Men adventure stories. A serving of retro with a side order of Take That, and not a small whiff of Eu de Sad Puppy. And that's the thing. The Tiki Stars doesn't want to be PC. But I don't really know how I can make this work for me.
Saturday, December 21, 2019
To thine own self be true
I'm not in love with my protagonist.
It's actually a little annoying. I mean, this is a character that was designed to be a bit Mary-Sue. Either the traditional definition, or the modified, "yanks the entire plot and universe into orbit about her own gravity."
Penny is going from naive tourist to Lara Croft in one easy lesson (or two, or a dozen...) So on the one side, she comes on stage with a ridiculous number of pre-existing skills. And on the other, she is walking into a universe that seems willing to bend over backwards to let her succeed.
Well, at least that was the first book. The London book is the "reality ensues" book.
Of course this is also the Everyman Hero from so many films. The guy (almost always a guy) whose claim to physical competence is "played some sports" and is just so "gosh darn that's terrible fellows hey maybe if we all worked together we could fix it" the person who walks into an existing situation and instantly becomes the most important person in it.
But none of that changes that I just don't have an emotional connection with my protagonist. Who is my narrator. Who is my first person narrator; the entire story is told in her voice.
The main thing I connect with her on is that she can get really geeky about history. The whole series is largely an excuse for me to get geeky about history. (And lecture about pseudo-history, but so far there hasn't been an opportunity). Other than that she's largely defined by a list of what I didn't want to do. I didn't want her to snark or make endless pop-culture references. I didn't want her to act like old people. I didn't want her body-conscious or shy. There's a list of things I've seen done too often and am tired of, and there's an equally tired list of things I would do if I wasn't trying to stop myself.
So, sure, I sympathized with her struggles. And I expect to sympathize more in the next one, as it will have lots of cold and damp and dirt and bad food and so on. And uncomfortable work situations. But it is just a physical sympathy. I'm not feeling her goals, her concerns.
I'm not rooting for her, not yet. And maybe it isn't her, maybe it is the situation. Either way, this is something I have to solve before I can finish outlining this thing.
It's actually a little annoying. I mean, this is a character that was designed to be a bit Mary-Sue. Either the traditional definition, or the modified, "yanks the entire plot and universe into orbit about her own gravity."
Penny is going from naive tourist to Lara Croft in one easy lesson (or two, or a dozen...) So on the one side, she comes on stage with a ridiculous number of pre-existing skills. And on the other, she is walking into a universe that seems willing to bend over backwards to let her succeed.
Well, at least that was the first book. The London book is the "reality ensues" book.
Of course this is also the Everyman Hero from so many films. The guy (almost always a guy) whose claim to physical competence is "played some sports" and is just so "gosh darn that's terrible fellows hey maybe if we all worked together we could fix it" the person who walks into an existing situation and instantly becomes the most important person in it.
But none of that changes that I just don't have an emotional connection with my protagonist. Who is my narrator. Who is my first person narrator; the entire story is told in her voice.
The main thing I connect with her on is that she can get really geeky about history. The whole series is largely an excuse for me to get geeky about history. (And lecture about pseudo-history, but so far there hasn't been an opportunity). Other than that she's largely defined by a list of what I didn't want to do. I didn't want her to snark or make endless pop-culture references. I didn't want her to act like old people. I didn't want her body-conscious or shy. There's a list of things I've seen done too often and am tired of, and there's an equally tired list of things I would do if I wasn't trying to stop myself.
So, sure, I sympathized with her struggles. And I expect to sympathize more in the next one, as it will have lots of cold and damp and dirt and bad food and so on. And uncomfortable work situations. But it is just a physical sympathy. I'm not feeling her goals, her concerns.
I'm not rooting for her, not yet. And maybe it isn't her, maybe it is the situation. Either way, this is something I have to solve before I can finish outlining this thing.
Taking Stock
I'm thinking of trying out a new cover. A more "stock" genre cover, using stock pictures (all the advice says; unless you are a well-known author, don't get creative with your covers).
ShutterStock already turned up a hero pic, from a model that has enough of a series in that costume I could do a long run of books off it. I'm tempted to do it just for the fun and challenge. Of course dropping a hundred bucks on ShutterStock, on top of everything else I spent this month...
But then I didn't really write a "stock" book, either. Although searching through top sales in categories, there are some similar things. What I was aiming for was the generic "go to exotic places, have adventures." I did a little too much "go to" and a little too little "adventure," though.
***
So the London adventure is turning into a zig-zag plot. Not one big arc, but more like a bunch of reversals. Rather pulp-ish, now that I think of it. I also think of it as a Tribble plot, in that there are things building slowly in the background that suddenly become a foreground problem.
So I'm still on for detectorists, dai-london binbo seikatsu manual (err..Down and Out in London), Romans, coin collectors, Panto, a bit of tourism, Doggerland, urban spelunking, train spotters, archaeological methods, the life of a shovel bum, and of course Underground London.
Just read an introductory book on Panto. I'm a little early for page counting, but it feels to me that I won't be getting more than 10-20K out of it, without it turning into filler. Plus might not be the right season for it (the big Panto season is the winter holidays. Do you know The Hoff played a villain several seasons running? He apparently does a great Captain Hook.) Anyhow I might set it in April; "Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote..."
I'm still lacking for villain. I mean, to really connect him to the themes and the plots. And what I'm calling the God Game is still way in the background. Anything supernatural is still entirely deniable, and also doesn't tie in any way to apparent entities of the last book.
(To lay it out baldly...in the last book there's a strange-acting little girl on the Acropolis, someone gives Penny a Medusa amulet, the ship that rescued her was called Hermes, she had a moment of power, competence, and rage in the big fight that the text is careful to place closely to a mention of the aristeia, but the only difficult-to-negotiate moment is that the Art Squad detective tells Penny he heard and saw her give a rousing speech -- in flawless Greek.)
So I can't use whatever the Immortals might be up to as a way to fill plot holes. Whatever happens, happens for clearly human reasons. Penny is going to wonder if there is more going on than meets the eye, especially in regards to the Whisperer in Tunnels, but there isn't going to be anything inexplicable in this book.
What there is, is much to develop in the relationship between Penny and the character she plays. I knew there was going to be. But I thought I'd be further along. This book is still in the figuring-out-how-it-works for her, and I've still yet to come to grips with the problem of pseudo-archaeology. And the way an Indiana Jones ripoff character tacitly supports it.
Well, this may be the book where I reverse a previous statement. I think Tomb Raider (that is, the games and movies and books) exists in her world, and this is possibly the best book to admit to it and start coming to grips with that.
ShutterStock already turned up a hero pic, from a model that has enough of a series in that costume I could do a long run of books off it. I'm tempted to do it just for the fun and challenge. Of course dropping a hundred bucks on ShutterStock, on top of everything else I spent this month...
But then I didn't really write a "stock" book, either. Although searching through top sales in categories, there are some similar things. What I was aiming for was the generic "go to exotic places, have adventures." I did a little too much "go to" and a little too little "adventure," though.
***
So the London adventure is turning into a zig-zag plot. Not one big arc, but more like a bunch of reversals. Rather pulp-ish, now that I think of it. I also think of it as a Tribble plot, in that there are things building slowly in the background that suddenly become a foreground problem.
So I'm still on for detectorists, dai-london binbo seikatsu manual (err..Down and Out in London), Romans, coin collectors, Panto, a bit of tourism, Doggerland, urban spelunking, train spotters, archaeological methods, the life of a shovel bum, and of course Underground London.
Just read an introductory book on Panto. I'm a little early for page counting, but it feels to me that I won't be getting more than 10-20K out of it, without it turning into filler. Plus might not be the right season for it (the big Panto season is the winter holidays. Do you know The Hoff played a villain several seasons running? He apparently does a great Captain Hook.) Anyhow I might set it in April; "Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote..."
I'm still lacking for villain. I mean, to really connect him to the themes and the plots. And what I'm calling the God Game is still way in the background. Anything supernatural is still entirely deniable, and also doesn't tie in any way to apparent entities of the last book.
(To lay it out baldly...in the last book there's a strange-acting little girl on the Acropolis, someone gives Penny a Medusa amulet, the ship that rescued her was called Hermes, she had a moment of power, competence, and rage in the big fight that the text is careful to place closely to a mention of the aristeia, but the only difficult-to-negotiate moment is that the Art Squad detective tells Penny he heard and saw her give a rousing speech -- in flawless Greek.)
So I can't use whatever the Immortals might be up to as a way to fill plot holes. Whatever happens, happens for clearly human reasons. Penny is going to wonder if there is more going on than meets the eye, especially in regards to the Whisperer in Tunnels, but there isn't going to be anything inexplicable in this book.
What there is, is much to develop in the relationship between Penny and the character she plays. I knew there was going to be. But I thought I'd be further along. This book is still in the figuring-out-how-it-works for her, and I've still yet to come to grips with the problem of pseudo-archaeology. And the way an Indiana Jones ripoff character tacitly supports it.
Well, this may be the book where I reverse a previous statement. I think Tomb Raider (that is, the games and movies and books) exists in her world, and this is possibly the best book to admit to it and start coming to grips with that.
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