I probably won't have 50,000 words done by November's end, btw. I'm clocking around a 1,000 words a day, and that seems the best I can do. I'll take it.
Rough draft, may change, please do not repost or quote anywhere else. Thanks!
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Katie stood, her feet cold in the snow, and watched several people decorate a huge evergreen tree on the outskirts of a town, singing while they did it. At least thirty to forty people stood around the tree, dressed in warm fur coverings, leggings, and knee-high boots, wearing colorful scarves covered with intricate designs. Most of the people were older--older even than Katie's own parents.
Crunching snow to her left drew her gaze. A girl who looked about seventeen, red hair framing her face, freckles across her nose, approached her. The girl had an open, friendly expression.
“Hello!” the girl said. “I’ve not seen you here before. Have you come to make your wish?”
“Wish?” Katie repeated.
“Yes. This is the Wishing Tree. Did you bring your decoration?”
“I’m sorry, I have nothing,” Katie said.
“Oh!” the girl said. She reached inside her fur coat and brought out a tiny doll made of sticks and cloth. “Here. I brought her in case someone lost or broke their decoration. You can have her.”
Since the girl held out the doll with an expectant look on her face, Katie took it. She looked at the doll and marveled over the handiwork. The doll wore a cloth dress that seemed to be made of some pliant leather and decorated with the same kind of intricate designs she saw on the girl’s scarf. The doll’s face appeared to have been hand-painted in exquisite detail.
Katie looked up at the girl, lost. “What do I wish for?”
The girl cocked her head. “Surely you must have some desire in your heart.”
I only want one thing, Katie thought. I want my sister back.
The intensity of her expression must have caught the girl’s attention. She reached out and caught Katie’s sleeve in sympathy. "Are you in pain?"
“Just my heart,” Katie said.
The girl let go of her sleeve, and Katie walked forward. The people around the tree parted to let her through. She found a branch and hung the doll from it, smoothing the tiny dress with her fingers.
An expectant hush seemed to fall over everything. Katie felt the weight of it pressing down on her. She opened her mouth, and what came out was altered from what she had meant to say.
“I want to see my sister Mel again.”
The wind sprang from nowhere, gale-force, flinging snow in faces and tangling Katie’s hair. She heard people cry out. The wind circled the Wishing Tree, which remained untouched.
Snow whirled, coalesced into a visible shape. As Katie watched, Mel looked back at her, an agonized expression on her face.
Katie reached out.
“Don’t!” someone said.
Katie hesitated. The girl,again at her side, hung on to her arm.
“She is a Yule Ghost! Touch her, and you will share her agony!”
“How can I help her?” Katie asked in a trembling voice. Her sister’s visibly tortured features shredded her insides.
“I—I don’t know,” the girl admitted.
The wind slowed, subsided to a sigh. Mel lost form and being, dissipating on the last breeze.
“Mel!” Katie whispered.
Leave me, Katie. Save yourself.
From somewhere the anger boiled to the surface, and Katie screamed after her sister's shade, “How dare you leave me!”
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
NANO - Day Two
Just a shade under a 1,000 words. Blech. Phone calls can eat way into your time if you're not careful.
Probably won't post every day from here on out. I'll let the progress bar do the talking.
Probably won't post every day from here on out. I'll let the progress bar do the talking.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
NANO
Which is writing a novel of at least 50,000 words in the month of November. I'm going to try this. I'll either have a novel at the end, or a spectacular failure.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Some Progress
I've made some progress on "Dragon Crown."
Below is a brief snippet. First draft, please don't quote or repost.
His rooms seemed lonely without Tamli’s presence. Asher pulled off his boots and stretched across their large bed. He supposed he ought to undress, but he couldn’t find the energy. He lay and stared at the bed’s canopy before sliding into sleep.
In his dreams, he saw Tamli. She stood, tall and beautiful, and smiled at him. Light seemed to glow and cling to her.
“Asher,” she murmured.
He reached out to her but couldn’t hold her.
“I’m sorry that I can’t be with you anymore. I wanted to stay, but I didn’t have the strength.”
Asher dreamed he tried to say something, tried to tell her to stay, but he couldn’t speak.
She leaned forward and he felt the brush of ghostly fingers on his lips.
“Goodbye, my love.”
She started to fade. Asher reached out, trying to speak to her, ask her not to leave him. Her smile, sweetness and regret intermingled, faded away.
Asher woke with a shout of repudiation on his lips. He stared up at the canopy above him in confusion.
It was a dream. He wiped the sweat from his brow and tried to convince himself.
Somewhere, in the hollow of his heart, Asher knew the truth.
Tamli was gone.
Below is a brief snippet. First draft, please don't quote or repost.
His rooms seemed lonely without Tamli’s presence. Asher pulled off his boots and stretched across their large bed. He supposed he ought to undress, but he couldn’t find the energy. He lay and stared at the bed’s canopy before sliding into sleep.
In his dreams, he saw Tamli. She stood, tall and beautiful, and smiled at him. Light seemed to glow and cling to her.
“Asher,” she murmured.
He reached out to her but couldn’t hold her.
“I’m sorry that I can’t be with you anymore. I wanted to stay, but I didn’t have the strength.”
Asher dreamed he tried to say something, tried to tell her to stay, but he couldn’t speak.
She leaned forward and he felt the brush of ghostly fingers on his lips.
“Goodbye, my love.”
She started to fade. Asher reached out, trying to speak to her, ask her not to leave him. Her smile, sweetness and regret intermingled, faded away.
Asher woke with a shout of repudiation on his lips. He stared up at the canopy above him in confusion.
It was a dream. He wiped the sweat from his brow and tried to convince himself.
Somewhere, in the hollow of his heart, Asher knew the truth.
Tamli was gone.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Changes
I've dropped the snippet updates for the progress bar to the right. MarFisk of Forward Motion is the creator of that progress bar, and it works well.
Another change I've made is in the working title. Instead of "Soul Survivor", the WIP is now called "Dragon Crown."
Here's a brief snippet of what I've been working on.
First draft. Please don't quote or repost elsewhere. Thanks!
She could hear the aides talking. She’d worked out that they were nurse’s aides some time ago, during one of her lucid moments.
“….so I kicked him out and told him if he wanted that kind of relationship, he should pick somebody off the street.”
“Bet that made an impression. Sounds like a real moron to me. Help me turn her over. She might be developing a bed sore and Salizar wants her turned.”
She couldn’t see them and she couldn’t feel them touching or moving her. She tried to grunt or do anything to make them aware she heard, but nothing seemed to happen.
“I’ll be back in a second. I need to check on number 26,” the second voice said.
Footsteps, then a phone rang.
“Hello,” the first voice said. Then, “Tim, I told you not to call me at work.” Indeterminate sounds. “Yes, I am at work. I’m with the patient I told you about, you know, the basket case—the one who lost her son, then drove off the side of a cliff.”
Screaming inside, she tried to see, to get up, to do anything but listen to that voice. The voice faded and she drove the car, the highway sliding underneath, the white stripes blinking faster and faster through the wash of her tears….
Another change I've made is in the working title. Instead of "Soul Survivor", the WIP is now called "Dragon Crown."
Here's a brief snippet of what I've been working on.
First draft. Please don't quote or repost elsewhere. Thanks!
She could hear the aides talking. She’d worked out that they were nurse’s aides some time ago, during one of her lucid moments.
“….so I kicked him out and told him if he wanted that kind of relationship, he should pick somebody off the street.”
“Bet that made an impression. Sounds like a real moron to me. Help me turn her over. She might be developing a bed sore and Salizar wants her turned.”
She couldn’t see them and she couldn’t feel them touching or moving her. She tried to grunt or do anything to make them aware she heard, but nothing seemed to happen.
“I’ll be back in a second. I need to check on number 26,” the second voice said.
Footsteps, then a phone rang.
“Hello,” the first voice said. Then, “Tim, I told you not to call me at work.” Indeterminate sounds. “Yes, I am at work. I’m with the patient I told you about, you know, the basket case—the one who lost her son, then drove off the side of a cliff.”
Screaming inside, she tried to see, to get up, to do anything but listen to that voice. The voice faded and she drove the car, the highway sliding underneath, the white stripes blinking faster and faster through the wash of her tears….
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
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