The next time I post I will be in Australia

...if PCR covid test results are good and I get them in time to board a plane T_T.

I tend, when anxious, to try to get whatever is causing anxiety squared away immediately, but with PCR tests, I can't. So no amount of planning changes the fact that I go in, take the test, and pray that the lab is not so backed up the results don't reach me in time to board a plane.

I've been reading the past couple of days, for the book review column that's due on the 20th of March; I hope to get that done before I have to leave.

My plan for Australia is to finish the Cast novel (I set it aside to do proposals and now review column) and write at least a couple of chapters of Hunter's Redoubt. I find writing in Australia far easier because ... there's nothing else on my plate. There's no other work that requires my time, no other emergencies that I can actually deal with in real life, no phone calls and no door-to-door people (often politics related which makes me pull all my hair out in frustration), etc.

I can just sit down at the computer and write.

This helps me defrag my writer brain, and I find, when I return, that it's still easier to get to the book, to find the flow of it, for months afterward.

Before Covid, I did this once a year. It's been almost three years since the last visit, and I am really looking forward (a huge understatement) to that time -- PCR test and paperwork willing.

And now, I have a question--before I run out to get the PCR test.

I generally consider the West and Sagara books to be two different things, at least tonally. But I've found that a lot of West readers have really liked the two Severn books (some West readers also like the Cast novels, but not in the same way). I'm trying to understand what the difference is. The Severn books are multi-viewpoint -- the first multiple viewpoint novels I've ever written that are short - because Severn as a character just... didn't want to talk much. Kaylin never stops. She has opinions about everything she sees or interacts with; she draws parallels to her past, she worries loudly.

Severn, not so much. Many attempts at Severn-only viewpoint failed utterly, and I had to give up on that if I wanted to write a book centered around Severn.

So, back the question part: If you did like the Severn novels a lot, can you tell me why? I don't think of them as similar to the West novels, but understand that they're not really tonally like the Cast novels either.

And now, back to The Cartographers, which I am really enjoying >.>

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This post is mirrored from https://michellewest.ca/

I find it hard to have a conversation on Patreon, and have created a WordPress Patreon only blog to make it easier for me to find new comments and respond to them, sometimes at length.

This post is https://michellewest.ca/2022/03/15/the-next-time-i-post-i-will-be-in-australia/; you should be able to hit Login with Patreon, and should be able to read posts there at the same levels you can read them here.

I'll answer comments here as well if this is your preferred format, but probably not as expansively (which might be a good thing!).