{"id":24050,"date":"2014-01-20T06:30:58","date_gmt":"2014-01-19T17:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=24050"},"modified":"2014-04-02T11:01:41","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T22:01:41","slug":"the-tao-of-writing-the-book-that-can-be-spoken-of-is-not-the-book-aka-a-daughter-of-blood-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2014\/01\/20\/the-tao-of-writing-the-book-that-can-be-spoken-of-is-not-the-book-aka-a-daughter-of-blood-update\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tao Of Writing: “The Book That Can be Spoken Of Is Not The Book” — AKA A “Daughter Of Blood” Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it’s been a while—quite<\/em> a while…And one reason for that is the quote in the title, which derives from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching<\/em><\/strong>. I have paraphrased the opening line, which (in my edition) reads:<\/p>\n

“The Way that can be spoken of is not the Way.”<\/em><\/p>\n

One interpretation of this is that the Tao or Way that can be spoken of or described is not the true<\/em> Tao, which by implication can only be directly experienced.<\/p>\n

The reason I’ve titled this post “The Tao Of Writing: ‘The Book That Can Be Spoken Of Is Not the Book’…”\u00a0 is because I feel that the spirit of the Tao Te Ching<\/em><\/strong> quote is directly applicable to writing—that until the book is done and can be directly experienced by readers, then there is little of merit to talk about. And because books that are still being written are by their very nature fluid and elusive, trying to talk about them in any meaningful way is counterproductive—and may actually do harm to that fluid, elusive, but also fragile process of creativity.<\/p>\n

In short, my dears, call me superstitious, but I dinna want to jinx the process!<\/p>\n

So that is why I have been maintaining radio silence for so long other than a few snippets of: “yup, still writing”; “writing still, yessir.”<\/p>\n

So what can I tell you that is true and avoids any jinxing, hexing, or otherwise stymieing of the creative process?\u00a0 Here’s\u00a0 a little Q&A that may those of you who’re “wondering” about WALL3:<\/p>\n

Q: Have you finished writing Daughter of Blood<\/em>, The Wall Of Night Book Three<\/strong>?<\/span>
\n A: No, alas. \ud83d\ude41<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Q: Do you think it will be finished soon?<\/span>
\n A: I am currently aiming for mid March, with a stretch goal to 1 April (nothing about the nature of the book being completed should be inferred from the latter date. \ud83d\ude09 )<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Q: Do you know when it will be published?<\/span>
\n A: No, that will be decided by my publishers, once I deliver the book and they accept it. But I’m “pretty sure” they’re as keen to get it to readers as I am.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Q: This book appears to have taken longer than before to write. Is that the case and are there any particular reasons why?<\/span>
\n A: In fact, to date <\/em>Daughter of Blood<\/strong> has taken almost exactly the same amount of time to write as <\/em>The Gathering Of The Lost<\/strong>, but because I could start <\/em>GATHERING well before <\/em>HEIR was published, its writing time appears shorter…Otherwise, I think there are always circumstances around the writing of a book, some of which it may be interesting to talk about here—but to avoid any risk of the dreaded jinxing, not before the book <\/em>is<\/strong> done, dear readers. In the meantime, what else can I tell you? That I have been working diligently and steadily on the book all this time, so you need not fear that I do not take delivering it to you seriously. But the WALL story, as you may have noticed, is a complex and multi-layered one and although another writer might be able to “do it all with a snap of his\/her fingers while standing on his\/her head”—I, alas, am not that writer. I am, however, very committed to delivering a story that will ring true when you read it, and although only you can decide whether it has been worth the wait, I hope that may prove to be the case.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In short, be assured of this: there is a book; it is very close to done — and I can only apologise if I am making you wait far too long to find out what happens next!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Q: When will the next update be?<\/span>
\n A: When I can tell you that I’ve typed “the end” and pressed “send”! \ud83d\ude00
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, it’s been a while—quite a while…And one reason for that is the quote in the title, which derives from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. I have paraphrased the opening line, which (in my edition) reads: “The Way that can be spoken of is not the Way.” One interpretation of this is that the Tao […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-my-books","category-about-what-im-doing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24050"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24123,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24050\/revisions\/24123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}