Kenn Ghannon: Blog

Well, life got a bit away from me and I didn't get a chance to post chapter 5 until just now. It should be in the queue and will get posted at the next opportunity the moderators have. Since it's so late on Tuesday, I'm not sure if it will post before tomorrow but we'll see...

'Fairly CAPable, Chapter 3' has been met with mixed reviews. When I wrote it (four years or so ago), I thought it was a bit innovative for the Swarm Cycle. I wanted to use Chapter 3 to compare and contrast the different points of view of each of the concubines, to delve into their characters a little. I couldn't think of a better way to do it - in depth - as describing their thoughts as they first set foot on the moon base.

When I create a new character, it starts with a name and age. I then go and build up their family - even if I never plan to use the family members. As I go on writing them, I build up who they are. When they say something or do something, I always review their actions to make sure what they say and do is in their character and in line with their motivations. Chapter 3 was my way of sharing some of that background with the readers - I thought it would give some insight into why Calix's women do some of the things they do.

One of the largest complaints about Chapter 3 is it's too slow. It doesn't advance the plot. I think those arguments are valid.

Personally, I'm happy with how it turned out. I agree it's slow. I agree it's long. I'm proud of it, though. I was especially proud of the way each described the window layout - it's the same window but different from each person's point of view. Maybe I was trying to be too clever for my own good.

The preliminary responses to 'Fairly CAPable' are fantastic. I'm glad, since I changed the pace and focus of the story a bit from 'Pretty CAPable'.

Don't get me wrong, I liked 'Pretty CAPable' - even now, I re-read it from time to time (and I definitely read it before writing 'FC', to get back into the heads of the characters) but it didn't delve as deeply into ancillary characters as I would have liked. It didn't necessarily examine the 'why' of what the characters were doing - well, it did a little, but I wanted everyone to get to know more about the secondary characters this time around. I wanted to make sure they never became one- or two-dimensional. I think I've achieved that in 'FC' better than I did in 'PC'.

Of course, it makes the story longer because I had to deal with each of the characters on an individual basis - but I find I didn't mind that so much. I hope no one else does either.

Thanks for reading,
Kenn Ghannon

P.S. I have been getting a few questions about some of my other works - specifically, 'Ring of Command' (patiently waiting to be re-written or at least finished), 'Runesward' (which is waiting on Tome 2) and 'Not Enough'.

I'm committed to finishing 'Ring of Command' but I have no date in mind for it yet. I'm actually hoping to do a complete re-write and clean up some stuff - but we'll see where I'm at later on in the year.

I'm currently writing 'Runesward, Tome 2' - but I'm not heavily at it. In other words, I'm writing as I have time instead of making time to write. I hope to have it finished and ready for editors by the time I finish posting 'FC'.

Finally ... 'Not Enough'. I'll have to think about finishing it. It was meant as a trilogy but Marc was a very dark character and I have had difficulty getting into his mind-set. I'll consider moving back to it - but I don't know when and I won't say it for certain.

'Fairly CAPable' will begin posting with the 'Ch 00 - Prologue' tomorrow. I've already uploaded and set release date for tomorrow morning, so I expect it to show up. I won't be home when it posts, so I'll check on it later.

Once it posts, I can start posting the later chapters to be released on a scheduled basis. I like the new 'delayed' feature for uploading but a limitation is the first one has to post before I can add more chapters.

We're still editing it but we're close to half-way through, so it's time. If we catch up to the point where I have no more edited chapters available, I'll likely continue posting and then go back and replace the unedited versions with the edited versions.

Thanks to the stalwart efforts of my amazing editing team, we have reached the 'Chapter 16' threshold and 'Fairly CAPable' will begin posting on Saturday, May 30, 2020. Further chapters, one per posting day, will be posted every following Tuesday and Saturday until completion (or, until I run out of edited chapters to post, whichever comes first). I was going to wait until we finished Chapter 17 - but it is such a tiny chapter, I didn't see the purpose in waiting.

This leads me to an important note - as I've said before, I will only post one chapter on Tuesdays and one chapter on Saturdays. Some chapters, like chapter 17, are amazingly short (chapter 17 comes in at about 2.5 Microsoft Word pages which is inordinately tiny). Some chapters are quite long (20 or more Microsoft Word pages). No matter how short or long, I will only be posting one chapter each Tuesday and one chapter each Saturday. Issues with the posting cadence and chapter sizes will be cheerfully ignored.

On the 'further stories' front, 'Runesward, Tome 2' is coming along and I hope to have it at least in editing by the time I finish posting 'Fairly CAPable'. That is a goal, not a promise. I know better than to promise. :)