Notebook and Netbook (c) Dmitri Popov
This month has essentially disappeared on me. I don’t know what happened or where it went. Most of it seems to have been eaten up by my day job and the rest of it consumed by sleep. I suppose. There’s really no other explanation.
What this also means is that I’ve hardly done any writing this month. I’ve done a couple rounds of edits on Sing Sweet Nightingale, but as far as actual writing goes… Maybe a couple thousand words? In the entire month? For me that’s the lowest word count in a month since… Well, since I started really working on the first draft of SSN. I’m not a firm believer in the “You must write every single day” law (I mean, come on. Everyone needs a break). HOWEVER, habits help a lot. Keeping yourself in the habit of writing makes it easier to slip in and out of that strange space in your head where dreamdemons walk right next to the heroine of a contemporary romance while they both watch a mage from a desert island train with a sword. Or is that just my head?
Whatever the case, I have to find that creative space again because I have revisions. Revisions on a fantasy project that will involve a lot of writing. New material and revamping current pages. Shifting interactions and deepening motivations and bringing to light all the strange facets of this world that popped into my head one day.
Want to know more about what I’m working on? Well, Maria from I Believe in Story recently asked me that very question. Visit her blog to see her Behind the Scenes post and get a little bit more about my fantasy, currently titled The Trial. Title totally subject to change, by the way. In fact, I will be SHOCKED if the book is published under that name. SHOCKED I TELL YOU. Because it sucks. But, for now, there’s Maria’s post and this fun little piece from the newly written beginning of the book. 😀
The wind shifts and I freeze, breathing deep. Tachi and I are protected by an outcropping of sandstone, so I don’t have to worry about a predator catching our scent. The chill in the air and the heavy scent of salt and brine is far more treacherous right now. We’re too far inland for the smell of the ocean to be this strong. The sun is too strong for the wind to carry even the slightest bite. It smells like a storm. A strong storm. And it’s the wrong season for a storm.
Shifting my weight and ignoring the sharp rock cutting into my bare feet, I look for a handhold that will get me to the top of this ledge. From that height, I should have a view straight over the plains and out to the ocean. I should be able to see if I’m right.
“What are you doing?” Tachi whispers. When I glance down, his eyes flick toward the south where we are supposed to rendezvous with the rest of our training group. “Sabre, we’ll be put to work in the underground farms if we go off task again.”
“So don’t follow me.”
That’s all for now, lovelies! I’m diving back into the desert with my deadly characters. 😀
Sing Sweet Nightingale is now completely through line edits and sitting in the copyeditor’s inbox, waiting for them to go through and tell me how bad I am at commas (which I already know). After one or two copyediting passes (I’m honestly not sure), then page proof, and then, I think, galleys? That is the point in time when I’ll actually be able to hold a book that I wrote in my hands. Something with a cover and a pretty layout and my name on multiple pages and OMG. I think I might start freaking out soon. And it’s not even here yet!
This is what it must be like to have your life flash before your eyes. Everyone I’ve ever met exists here, and their faces and words pass me by in an instant. But then I begin to see places I’ve never been, people I’ve never seen, and hear words I don’t understand. Trying to focus on it all at once increases the pressure in my head until I worry my brain might explode out my ears, so I relax and let it pass me by, concentrating only on the moment I want to find.
Still interested? Read on!
For now, though, without further ado, here is snippet number one!