Author's Commentary on Somewhere Else Entirely: Chapters 31 to 34

Garia recovers after her first major test. We learn more about Anmar as she becomes more comfortable with life in the palace.

Chapter 31, Cleaning Crew

Garia explains the Antikythera machine to the council and several conclusions are drawn. Now that the story had been running for a while I had time to consider such matters as: how she got to Anmar, who brought her there and why. Several ideas had been running through my head but eventually the story itself suggested a way forward, hence the machine. Garia knows she has to be a copy (else she would have his original male body) so it is reasonable to suggest that her belongings, and therefore the belongings of others, are also copies. What has happened to the originals is still open to question at this point.

Robanar mulls over ways to give Garia some kind of status that would provide her with personal security of all kinds. The Harvest Festival seemed a suitable time to make that change but I still hadn't decided what she would become or realized what the side effects would entail.

Kereena

Inevitably, a footman manages to get into Morlan's quarters while they are cleaning and Garia and Keren have to think quickly to avoid an embarrassing incident. Although exposure is averted the incident comes back to haunt them later that day.

Leading Guardsman/File Leader

I hadn't really thought about the ranks and organization of the Palace Guard (not the Royal Guard!) since I didn't think it would be relevant. What did I know? I used the term Leading Guardsman here, when Bleskin and Merek meet Garia to discuss arrangements for the festival. I have changed that to the term I would use later, File Leader, which rank is approximately equivalent to that of Sergeant.

Boiler Suits

Another problem of nomenclature here. What I was thinking of was a garment that covered the whole body, with attached sleeves and legs and did up the front. I called it by the name I was familiar with, namely, a boiler suit.

It occurred to me afterwards that in the US they might use a different name, or that boiler suit might describe something different. I have therefore also used the terms coveralls and overalls in this story and in What Milsy Did. The description which follows the naming here is reasonably thorough so the reader should form the correct impression.

Unfortunately I suspect that naming of such garments varies according to where you are and in which country.

"We'll have a wonderful time, I just know it!"

Yeah, right. This is probably a standard literary device but it seemed right to put it here. If only they knew then...

Chapter 32, Meet the Neighbors

This begins with cleaning Morlan's study and attempting to organize the contents. There was an opportunity here to "find" things that might advance the plot but as things transpired I didn't need to make use of anything like that.

Bursila's discovery of apparently blank sheets with secret writing was one of those. In the event the plot moved in a different direction.

Garia's wrist injury

While writing this I completely forgot that Garia had injured her wrist during the fight with Jarwin (so did she). That would have made the climbing up and down of stepladders a little difficult. However, it was never intended to be a really serious injury and about enough time has elapsed for her (and me) to have forgotten about it. Then she throws Marlin...

Brikant and Kendeven

Merizel explains how Brikant and Kendeven became part of Palarand after the Sirrel washed away the link to North Palarand. Although she explains that they were renamed 'Upper Palarand' and 'Lower Palarand' it seems that in practice I just kept calling them Brikant and Kendeven. Given the older names are more distinctive it made sense and creates less confusion for the reader.

It was time to broaden the information concerning the surrounding regions and this seemed a good way to do it. I didn't know then how important some of those places and characters would come to be. When I wrote this, it was just an opportunity for Garia's development and finding her place in this society.

Marlin

This was a chance to introduce some more characters of about the same age as Garia and Keren. Of course, they are all nobles so to begin with, don't know what to make of her.

One of the visitors had to be awkward. Marlin isn't actually evil, he just wants things to stay the way they always have done in the past. He knows nothing about Garia or what she might represent and their first meeting inevitably led to a clash. I wasn't sure at this point what was going to happen but there were already some pointers for the future.

Chapter 33, Royal Deliberations

There has been a certain inevitable 'flexibility' in the travel times reported during this part of the story. That was partly because I hadn't yet finalized a map of the Great Valley or Northern Palarand. This means that certain journeys seem to be very quick or somewhat slow when considering the distances involved. To fix them all would probably involve a significant amount of rewriting (because people would depart or arrive on the wrong days, for example) so I've just decided to put it all down to 'artistic license' (or slower or faster frayen and dranakh).

Grakh

This is the first mention of a particular Anmar beast that appears occasionally throughout the tale. I had already decided that it was going to be a variety of pterosaur large enough to prey on humans or frayen. How a beast that disappeared 66 million years ago on Earth got to Anmar was another mystery to be explained. It was always intended that they would play an important part towards the end of the story.

Promotion

It was apparent, for several reasons, that Garia would end up with some kind of noble title. Robanar enumerates the reasons in a later chapter but as a young girl giving her a minimum title would offer her some protection. I was fully aware at this point of the 'unintended consequences' - as seen from her viewpoint - but was prepared to deal with them.

If you have ever read David Weber's Honor Harrington series you'll know that the heroine there also gets an entirely unexpected noble title. This not only comes with duties but also baggage in the shape of armsmen, property and accounts. I haven't gone down the exact same path but I have used certain of the basic ideas from there in this story.

When I wrote this chapter I still had no idea what Robanar was going to do at the Harvest Festival!

Chapter 34, Loose Ends

Garia attempts to have a meeting of the young nobles but finds that the space in her sitting room is too tight. This leads her to consider other places they might go in the future. She attempts to describe what she is and where she comes from, with limited success. The nobles can barely comprehend much of what she tells them. Marlin is his usual grumpy self.

The palace is so full of people that there is nowhere for Keren and Garia to demonstrate their martial arts. This was fine, right up until the point I realized that the said martial arts would have to be displayed at some point, in front of the senior nobles. I solved that problem later in a different way.

In the meantime, they have to find an alternative venue and Garia suggests Morlan's sitting room. Garia goes through her story yet again but Marlin still has reservations. I wanted him to be a different kind of obstacle to those she has found among the palace staff. I also didn't want everybody to accept Garia at face value.

Lunch

For the first time, Garia considers her long-term future in Palarand. She is in a society with very different rules and expectations than Gary experienced on Earth. She is forced, for the first time, to seriously think of marrying a boy to keep her position regular in the future.

For this tale, I didn't consider the alternative. I had already decided the basic premise of the plot which was that she would eventually marry the Prince. I know there are some who dislike any apparent shift in sexuality coming from a gender swap but this is different, since she has the right body for what will be required. There are gays and lesbians on Anmar, we just haven't encountered any of them - yet.

Terissa and Dalenna

Another opportunity to have a little gentle fun. This continues whenever they appear in the story. Of course, at the point I wrote them in I had no idea that my first grandchildren would be twin girls!

Dancing and Singing

Since Robanar's brother has turned up, it is an excuse for a banquet followed by some music and dancing. As on previous occasions Garia suffers the music and doesn't know any of the dance steps anyway, so has to sit them all out. That, coupled with too much wine to try and deaden the music, makes her incautious enough to begin to sing.

I wasn't sure what to get her to sing at first but the answer became obvious as something most readers would recognize. Way to get herself too much attention! I didn't know whether to make this an ongoing feature or not but eventually decided that Garia's natural caution would make her refuse any future requests to sing in public.