Having trouble generating pagination links on custom query

Question

I'm using a custom query on a page after the initial loop to list some posts from a category I'm associating with that page. Im doing this:

    query_posts(array(
       'category_name' => $name,
       'orderby' => 'date',
       'order' => 'DESC',
       'posts_per_page' => 1,
       'paged' => $paged));

I've also tried using get_query_var('paged') in place of $paged btw.

then I do my loop and it shows the correct number of posts, 1. I actually am getting links generating on the page if I use previous_posts_link() or next_posts_link(), however, if I use echo paginate_links() after or even in my loop, no links are generated and where as I have 2 posts in that category currently so I expect to see at least a link to page 2. It seems like there is a lot of info out there about passing the correct info to query_posts for this instance but not what function to use to actually render the pagination links so i'd appreciate any insight. Thanks.

Edit:(full code)

<div id="left_column_wrap">
<?php 
    if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

    <article class="post" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">

        <h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
        <?php //include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/_/inc/meta.php' ); ?>
        <div class="entry">
            <?php the_content(); ?>
            <?php //wp_link_pages(array('before' => 'Pages: ', 'next_or_number' => 'number')); ?>
        </div>
        <?php edit_post_link('Edit this entry.', '<p>', '</p>'); ?>

    </article>
    <?php endwhile; endif;

    $name = '';
    if(isset($pagename))
    {
        $name = $pagename;
    }
    if($name == '5a' || $name == '4a' || $name == '3a' || $name == '2a')
    {
        echo '<div id="all_cats_recent_posts_wrap">';
        query_posts(array('category_name' => $name, 'orderby' => 'date', 'order' => 'DESC', 'posts_per_page' => 1, 'paged' => $paged));

        if (have_posts()):
            while (have_posts()):
                the_post(); ?>          
                <article <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">

                <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
                <?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/_/inc/meta.php' ); ?>
                <div class="entry">
                    <?php echo substr(strip_tags(get_the_content()), 0, 280).'...';?>
                    <a class="quick_link" href="<? the_permalink()?>">(read more...)</a>                    
                </div>
            </article>
            <?
            endwhile;
            echo paginate_links();
            ?>
            <div class="alignleft"><?php previous_posts_link('&laquo; Previous') ?></div>
            <div class="alignright"><?php next_posts_link('More &raquo;') ?></div>
            <?
        endif;
        echo '</div>';

    }
    ?>
</div>

Answer 1

Though all of the arguments are optional, paginate_links doesn't necessarily do anything if there are no arguments. Take a look at the example at the example in the Codex.

global $wp_query;

$big = 999999999; // need an unlikely integer

echo paginate_links( array(
    'base' => str_replace( $big, '%#%', esc_url( get_pagenum_link( $big ) ) ),
    'format' => '?paged=%#%',
    'current' => max( 1, get_query_var('paged') ),
    'total' => $wp_query->max_num_pages
) );

That works. Try it. Now remove the last parameter. See? Try passing that total to your function.

Again, please don't use query_posts, especially for secondary loops. Use get_posts or create a new WP_Query object. I'd do the latter. I don't think you'd really need to alter much.

$myquery = new WP_Query(
    array(
        'category_name' => $name, 
        'orderby' => 'date', 
        'order' => 'DESC', 
        'posts_per_page' => 1, 
        'paged' => $paged
    )
);