I think I finally have what Rolf is up to!

[pegkerr]

papersky wrote a comment on a previous entry that has suddenly made much of the book fall into place. See here. This was such a crucial comment, and my reply is so long that it doesn't fit in the comments section, so I'm posting it in my main journal:

I mean he [Rolf] could have deliberately made her pregnant, because making people pregnant and then drawing strength from the fetus, which then dies and is miscarried, keeps him young, and it has to be his baby, but the bit where he does it misfires because of the winter magic and because Solveig wants her, she knows she's pregnant and she wants to be, a wanted baby plus winter magic, and so it misfires? And that would give him a reason for wanting to get hold of Ingrid now, if he could figure out a way to suck the strength from her now, which maybe would be a new thing he'd need to do at both ends of the year or something?

WOW! I want to mull over what you've said, Jo, but I think you've come up with a really elegant solution! And it solves another problem I had too with my original scenario; I couldn't figure out why he was stupid enough to get her pregnant in the first place, if he didn't want her to be. To be blunt, he'd use a condom. BUT if he's trying to get her pregnant, he could use his magic to make HER birth control fail (and Agnes' daughter would be smart enough to use protection, you betcha), but then, as you say, her magic takes over, and it protects Ingrid from miscarrying.

It also increases the threat when he kidnaps Ingrid, as I think he will do. There'll be a much clearer reason for him to kill her, and so it'll be a race against time. But the ice palace is involved in Rolf's plans, too. I'll have to think about it; the ice palace is strong with winter magic (it traps magic under the ice). Because Solveig is designing/building the ice palace, it's a wild card as far as Rolf is concerned.

I've been thinking all along that Rolf kidnaps Ingrid for some reason (I keep seeing it happen at the State Fair. I want her to disappear through the Gates Ajar). Jack changes sides when Ingrid is kidnapped. I mean he started out as Rolf's tool/apprentice in evil. Rolf insinuated Jack into the architecture firm to design the ice palace, not knowing that Solveig had ended up there, too. Jack follows Rolf's instructions in guiding/altering the palace design, to Solveig's fury, because that's her job. But then Rolf realizes that Solveig is the person who has been hassling Jack, and changes his plans to kidnap Ingrid.

Ooo! Ooo! Come to think of it, Jack, as Rolf's apprentice, might have even been romancing Solveig up until the point where Ingrid disappears, because he was intending to do the same thing to her that Rolf did--get her pregnant so that he can try the same trick that Rolf tried, that Rolf taught him how to do. I can see him starting to try to make his move on the night Ingrid disappears because he thinks she'll give into him because she's so upset--but at the last minute he pulls back, because he realizes what Rolf has done, he sees how much she loves her child, and he can't bring himself to do that to her, too. He'll pull back, not because Solveig's winter magic would make it not work, but because of ethical concerns, and because he's starting to love her. That's when he chooses the heart of flesh over the heart of stone. He changes sides and tells her everthing. She's going to be absolutely furious with him! But she's going to have to choose her heart of flesh, too, at this point. She's going to have to trust him, even though she was burned so badly by Rolf before, and she knows Jack has already lied to her. Eventually she'll see that if they work together . . . the last thing that Rolf would expect. . . they can design/build the ice palace in a way that would work counter to Rolf's plans and get Ingrid back. This is what really ratchets up the stakes at the ice palace climax. Ingrid's life is at stake.

I had said earlier that Solveig would see a picture of Jack working on the 1880s palace. I think now the picture she would see would be of Rolf. This is the first time Jack would have tried the pregnancy/life-lengthening spell, but Rolf has done it many, many times.

I've been thinking that I want the book to be about Jack and Solveig saving each other. I think this would do it.

I assume she thinks Rolf is the father or uncle of the guy she used to know?

Yes, exactly. I might even make him apparently older (sixties or seventies, even) so that the resemblance is less obvious to her.

This is absolutely terrific, Jo. Thanks! You've really handed me the right solution, I think, and it has made so much more fall into place!

Gratefully,
Peg

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad to be able to help with the noodling. I'm really glad it's helpful and you don't think it's intrusive actually. Good.

The thematic threads go into very odd places with reference to abortion issues, though, if you do that. But it's generally a story about choice, and I'm confident you can handle that (if you can handle AIDS!), and you have the characters to do it, with having Agnes especially.

I wonder if Jack (and Rolf) were wanted children, or if they were unwanted children born when their mothers had no choice -- how's the timing on that? A wanted child, an unwanted child, a loss, a monster -- maybe Jack thought it wasn't such an awful thing to contemplate doing because he wasn't wanted.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I want to read this book so much! It's been fascinating watching it take shape. Thank you for sharing the process.

[kishmish.livejournal.com]

That's brilliant the way that solves everything. Your story is going to be so good:)

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I like this because it thematically ties everything together. The seasons are all about death and rebirth, and you can probably work out some kind of magic system that has parallels between the seasonal magic on one hand and pregnancy and birth on the other. You can forshadow this all over the place. And if Jack is trying to impregnate Solveig, it's another parallel and a really impressive reader surprise at the end.

Are you going to make the ice palace a centuries-old power nexus (or something) that the general populace has been blissfully unawake of all these years, or something recently coopted by the forces of ice magic? I am interested in the histories of this stuff through the years; if you have a framework understanding of that you can drop some it in here and there in the book.

This is sounding interesting.

B

[dragonpaws.livejournal.com]

The power of pregnancy is always a fascinating topic, bringing in as it does all sorts of female strengths and loves- I immediately thought of Tam Lin (especially the modernised retelling by... oh dear, I don't remember, but I always find the story so eerie and wonderful and real in any form, ballad or novel) though it seems to work in reverse, here.

Just my two cents, doncha know.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Pamela Dean. According to amazon, it's out of print, alas. One of the books I really like to reread, since I'm also a Tam Lin junkie.

Peg- I'm coming in late on the "gawkiing over the author's shoulder" component of your journal, but the current project sounds really interesting.

Re:

[dragonpaws.livejournal.com]

ahhh, yes, thank you!

Pamela Dean

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Pamela Dean is on LiveJournal (in fact, I designed her icons): pameladean. See my long reply to dragonpaws here about how I've been influenced by Pamela (and Tam Lin).

I'm glad you're enjoying reading about the book-noodling. I started last September 4, starting with this entry, when I said "I'm sick of being blocked. I'm writing a novel, starting today, and I have no idea what it's about." If you have the patience for it, feel free to read forward to see how the whole thing has been fleshed out since that point.

Cheers,
Peg

Tam Lin

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Pamela Dean's Tam Lin is one of my favorite books of all time, and it was a main impetus for my writing The Wild Swans, because after reading it, I wanted to sell something to Terri Windling's Fairy Tale Line (alas, she had finished editing that line before I finished writing the book. Terri did read it afterwards and tell me she would have bought it for the line, had she still been editing it, a fact of which I am very proud). And Pamela is certainly one of my most important mentors, and a dear friend. You'll note in the Author's afterward of The Wild Swans that I recounted a critical conversation with Pamela that led to the double-strand structure I used. I was at a Shakespeare reading group meeting which was being held at Pamela's house, and we were in the kitchen taking a break and I was inhaling a piece of her gingerbread (Pamela makes the most fabulous gingerbread), and I was telling her that I was going to write a book based on the H.C. Andersen story, but I couldn't decide whether to tell it based on 17th century Puritans, or about the gay community facing AIDS, and she said, without batting an eye, "Just write it both ways."

And, Pamela is now on LiveJournal! Check it out at pameladean.

Anyway, the parallel you noticed between this new book of mine and Pamela's Tam Lin is not news to me at all; in fact, I can assure you that it was the primary thing on my mind yesterday as I was cleaning out the garage. I am also fretting about the similarities to Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's Sorcery and Cecelia, with the epicyclical spell. This, too, is probably not a coincidence; Pat is another one of my mentors. Yes, as in P&C's book the man gets the woman pregnant (perhaps deliberately, using magic, despite her birth control?), and then has a magical use for the pregnancy. Like in Pamela's book, the villain sucks away the life force of someone to whom he is related, to extend his own life (although in my story, rather than finding someone to whom he is related, the villain makes a baby). As I said, I am a little worried about it but think it will be okay. Will have to think of how to spin it a little differently, emphasizing themes of emphemerality/immortality, and parenthood, both deliberately accepted and deliberately rejected.

Peg

[diony.livejournal.com]

Wow. I am thoroughly looking forward to this.