This is in response to Lyda's comments.
I have a novel, the sequel to Ring of Swords, which I have never been able to sell -- until recently, when Aqueduct Press became interested. The trouble is, the book as written isn't properly focused, per three of the four people who have read it. Ruth Berman says it's fine as is; but the other three -- the noted scholar Brian Attebery, the noted author Ursula K. LeGuin, and the noted editor Timmi Duchamp at Aqueduct Press -- say the book has problems.
Because the book is a sequel, I thought it was about the people in Ring of Swords. But it has ended being about three other people; or rather -- at the moment -- it is caught betwen two sets of people. It should be about the hwarhath home world and especially the women on the home world, because that's what people expect. But right now, it is about other things. So I have to shift the center of the book. Timmi thinks it won't take a lot of writing to do this. We shall see.
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As a reader, Eleanor, I think your three-person opinions are correct, in that it should be about the women of the hwarhath; and I think that you are right in thinking that (and here I'll paraphrase your thought) the story would seem likely to revolve around the protagonists of the first book. Not absolutely necessary, but certainly preferable, IMHO, in that we don't have to completely relearn our relationships with the characters, or at least, with a specific few of them. It makes it more of a sequel, and less of a stand-alone in the same universe.
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