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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween!


The boys wanted to say hello and wish everyone a Happy Halloween!



Wednesday, October 30, 2013

All Hallow's Eve Eve

Happy Almost Halloween everyone!

I'm just going to give a quick little ROW 80 update this week because, I'll be honest with you, I'm really excited about today's WIPpet Wednesday and I want to get to it as quickly as possible!

So here's the progress I've made on my goals since last week:
  • I downloaded the stock art I was eyeing, turned it into a cover, figured out a pen name to use, and published the first part of my serial on Barnes and Noble! I've also made two sales! Yay! Now I'm just waiting for it to be processed for Amazon. 
  • I rewrote the scenes of the other contemporary project that were making the hero look like a jerk. 
  • I chipped away at my new project some more
  • I started part two of the serial
  • And I even started on the next update for one of my fanfics (Chapter 29 to be exact, and I'm only halfway through the story. Sheesh.)
In between all of that I finished two tribal bodices and added them to my etsy store. Normally my items are made to order, but these are made out of that spiderweb fabric I shared last week. You can check them out by clicking the link for my store above, or on the pictures to the side here.

It's been a very busy week!

Now, for the part of the post that I have been waiting for since last week! WIPpet Wednesday!

I mentioned last week that I had written more of Maya's prologue. It's actually a scene I'm very excited about, because it's where she first meets a character who has already met her. Of course, neither of them realize who the other person is at the moment - oh, the joys of time travel! Plus, as you'll see shortly, it's appropriate considering that tomorrow is Halloween!

Without any further ado, since today's date is 10/30/13, here's 30 more paragraphs!

To Maya’s surprise, the grass she landed on gave way almost as soon as her backside made contact with it. She kept falling, slipping down a rocky slope until something hard and unmoving and cold stopped her. She instinctively rolled to her side, throwing her hands over her face and head to protect it from the debris that fell around her.


Marius leaned over the edge of the hole she had fallen through. “Are you okay?”


Maya coughed and gagged, gasping for air and leaving a small puddle of spit on the rock floor underneath her. “I think I’m fine.” She called up to him, then stood carefully. She hurt all over, and she could see bruises forming on her skin from where she had landed, but when she stood her feet could bear her weight and she was able to move her arms and fingers. “Yeah, I’m fine!”


“Can you climb back up?”


“I don’t know.” The slope was pretty steep and made up of rough rocks. She stepped on a stable looking one, hissing when a sharp pain shot through her knee. She fought through the pain though, desperate to rescue herself and return to the dig site before anyone knew what had happened. However, when she grabbed another rock above her head to pull herself up, it pulled loose from its neighbors, and she fell back down to the ground.


“I’ll go get your dad! I’ll be right back!”


“No! Don’t! Just get me some rope okay!” Maya called up to him, but he was already gone. “Great.” Maya grumbled to herself. Her parents were so going to kill her. There went any chance she had of going to Euro Disney. All because she had tried to impress a boy by riding a stupid horse. She sat down on the ground, pulled her knees against her chest, buried her head in her arms, and began to bawl her eyes out.


Eventually she wiped the tears from her eyes and dried her nose on her sleeve. Crying wasn’t going to get her out of this mess.


She stood and faced the rocky slope once again, determined to pull herself out of the hole she had fallen into. However, on a closer inspection she realized that the slope wasn’t made up out of rocks like she had originally thought -- it was actually made out of several stone bricks! She stepped back and looked around her, noticing that the walls on either side of the small space weren’t the rough walls of a cave, but smooth and flat and painted in a myriad of colors, and the floor underneath her feet was tiled beneath all the dirt.


She followed the floor away from the hole she had fallen through. It was dark but here and there light filtered through cracks and holes in the ceiling above, revealing more mosaiced walls. They told a tale she couldn’t quite understand, showing pictures of a world being destroyed by fire and floods and people fleeing the chaos while others huddled together and prayed, or bowed down to a group of three women. Possibly four, as a large chunk of plaster was missing from the mosaic.


Maya’s fear of being yelled at, at being told she couldn’t go to Euro Disney, was slowly beginning to fade away into excitement. Had she discovered a set of new ruins? She was fairly certain they weren’t on any of the maps she had seen at the dig site. And if her dad’s team had known about them, there would be archeologists crawling all over the place.


She stared at the mosaics as a goofy grin spread over her face. She would be famous! Her face would be all over magazines and newspapers like those kids who had discovered those dinosaur bones back in the 1800s! She’d like to see Katie Perkins beat that!


She continued to follow the hallway until it ended at a square room. Here the walls were simply whitewashed and absent of any decoration, and tile floor was broken up by a large stone disc that had been set into the floor in the middle of the room.


Even though she knew better than to touch anything, Maya found herself drawn to the disc. She bent at it’s edge, brushing off debris to reveal intricate carvings and semi precious stones that seemed to glow in the dim light. She frowned; to her untrained eyes, the mosaics on the walls outside this simple room resembled the pictures she had seen of Roman art in a book her father had bought her, but the carvings on the disc looked faintly Celtic . . .


“Maya!” She could hear her father calling her, his voice echoing through the vast and empty space. “Maya, sweetie! Are you okay? We’re coming down to get you!”


Maya stood, and turned back towards the long hallway, intending to rush back to the hole and reassure her dad that she was okay. However a dark shadow blocked her way.


Remembering all the horror films that she had watched when her mother had told her not to, Maya’s mind immediately leapt to the wrong conclusion about the shadow. It was a monster, or a zombie, or some sort of demon intent on eating her, sacrificing her, or dragging her back to hell. She screamed and stumbled backwards, stepping on the disc in her desperate attempt to escape the hulking shadow.


The shadow shouted something at her in an unfamiliar language, and reached for her with skeletal hands. Maya screamed again, then darted to the side, evading its’ grasp. The shadow turned to follow  her, stepping away from the doorway. It held its hands up, a ring on one of it’s fingers sparkling in the sunlight spilling in through a small hole in the roof as it continued to mutter in that strange language -- probably asking her to become it’s undead bride, or casting some heinous spell on her, or something.


Maya shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks as she sobbed in terror. However, despite her fear another part of her mind seemed to sharpen. She realized through blurry eyes that the creature approaching her was doing so on shaky legs. It wove from side to side with each step, and it’s steps were slow and stiff.


She held her breath, and then as soon as she saw her chance she took it. She rushed towards the creature, dodging to the side at the last minute. The shadow tried to grab her, but it’s arms closed around empty air as Maya was already past it and bolting down the hallway towards safety.


Her father had just reached the bottom of the rubble pile and was turning towards her when Maya reached the hole she had fallen through. She flung her arms around his waist, trying to explain about the undead thing chasing after her and how they needed to get away, now, in between sobs. He didn’t listen, just hugged her close and kissed her head, shushing her. “It’s okay. It's okay. I’m here. You’re safe.”


“But . . . But . . .”


“Maya, there’s no such thing as monsters. It was probably just a skeleton.”


And then the creature stumbled out of the hallway.


Maya screamed again at the sight of it. Her father quickly shoved her behind him, and swung his heavy flashlight at it, as if that would somehow keep the monster at bay.


The creature simply stared at them, and then it canted forward, falling first to it’s knees before collapsing all the way to the ground.


Maya peered around her father at the thing sprawled out in front of them. Now that they were out of the dim hallway and in the light, she could see that the monster was human shaped, with long matted red hair, and wore rough simple clothing that looked like something from medieval times.


“Stay here, Maya.” Jack commanded her, stepping closer to the creature.


“No! Dad!” She cried, clutching at his shirt in a desperate attempt to keep him back.

It was no use, however. He simply shook her off, and knelt next to the thing that had chased her through the ruins. He turned it on to it’s back, revealing that it was not a monster, or a zombie, or a demon, like Maya had thought, but a man.

To see more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here.
To see more ROW 80 updates, go here

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Something New and Different...

I have a sinking suspicion that I might be getting sick again. I woke up yesterday with that nasty taste in the back of my throat, the one that always means a cold or sinus infection is on it's way, so I've spent the past two days downing orange juice and airborne and cursing my friend who got me sick the first time. Though, honestly, this go around is probably been because of the weather; first it's hot, then it's cold, then it's hot, then it's cold . . . it sucks.

But on to the fun stuff, shall we?

I completed my first Etsy order and shipped it out on Saturday.

Since then I've started creating a couple of Halloween tribal belly dance bodices to put up on my Etsy store. I stumbled across some amazing spiderweb fabric while I was getting the fabric for the order together, and it was just begging to be made into something - so I happily obliged it. I just wish I had thought of it sooner, but better late than never.

(See? Isn't it awesome fabric?)

I'll share pictures of the finished product as soon as it's done!

My progress on ROW 80 is chugging along. I finished chapter nine of TUO, but I worry that two of the characters are giving away too much information too soon and that it might spoil the surprise. But I'm being good and letting it go until the beta readers can take a look and tell me what they think.

I went back through and reworked some scenes in the other contemporary project in an attempt to make the hero more likable.

In addition to that I gave in and started working on the new project idea that popped up in my head last week. So far it's a lot of fun; it's kinda steampunk, but only just barely, with hints of Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper. Oh and the main character is a prostitute, and most of the scenes take place in a brothel as a result of that.

I told my husband about the new story and he just shook his head. He does that a lot when it comes to my crazier ideas - but they all work out so you would think he would learn to trust me by now ...

Since it's Wednesday, that means it's time for WIPpet Wednesday!

WIPpet Wednesday is run by the lovely K.L. Schwengel. To join, just share a piece of the WIP that you are working on. The length of the piece you share must somehow relate to the date. For example, since today is 10/23/13 you could share 23 paragraphs from chapter 10, or 10 sentences from chapter 23, or 1023 words from page 13. You can even add the numbers in the date together to come up with how much you should share! The crazier the math involved, the better! Once you've posted what you want to share, add a link to your blog at the linkie that will be included at the end of this post.

For today's WIPpet, I was going to continue with Maya's prologue from the Descendants. However, I realized the length and the events that happen in the part I wanted to share were better suited for next Wednesday's post - so I'll be sharing 13 paragraphs from my new project instead (10-23=13).

This new world of mine is based loosely on Victorian England, but the place doesn't have a name yet. Mary is a lady of the evening at the famous Madam Mince's brothel. In the chapter before this, Mary had a customer spend the night that her protege does not approve of. She questions why Mary is so willing to sleep with him, so Mary explains a thing or two to the girl.

Hannah picked up Mary’s robe off of the floor and hung it on a hook by the door. She then took a seat on a stool nearby, where she would wait until Mary was ready to return to her room.


Mary had spent many an hour in her youth waiting on her old mistress while she was being trained, and remembered well how boring it was. Usually she tried to be quick, but today she found herself lingering and enjoying the sensation of the warm water flowing about her skin. She stretched out in the bath and leaned her head against it’s tiled back. She was sorely tempted to doze off, as the judge had been unusually demanding the night before -- rising for four rounds when he normally only did two -- but a fear of drowning prevented her from giving into her desires.


“How can you stand him?” Hannah asked softly, her voice breaking the silence that had previously only been interrupted by the drip of the tap.


“Because I must.” Mary replied. She finally reached for the wash cloth and bar of lavender soap sitting on the side of the bath and began to scrub at her skin.


“But he’s so rude and old and ugly.”


“Hannah.” Mary sighed, then stopped to take a breath, reminding herself that the girl had not been born into the business like most. While most ladies of the evening were ready for their first encounters at sixteen, she was still learning, having been brought to the house only the year before. “If they pay, then you must provide them the company they ask for, regardless of their age or how they behave. Not every client is going to be young and dashing.”


“I know . . . but . . .  can’t you have a preference? Like how the judge chooses you because you are so exotic.”


“You won’t earn any money that way. And if you don’t earn any money, Madam Mince won’t keep you around.” Though, perhaps, that was what Hannah wanted. She could have a paramor at home that she longed to return to -- but what man would want a former lady for a wife? Even if her virtue was intact, she was tainted from spending so long in their company. Best to disabuse her of the notion now. “Then you’ll have to take whatever you can get, whenever you can get in order to survive. And they aren’t gentle out there. At least here you have a feather bed, food to eat, and the bully boys will protect you if things go wrong.”


The girl worried her bottom lip with her teeth. After a moment or so, she spoke again, her voice soft. “If it’s so safe, then why are you saving the money to leave?”


Mary frowned. Did the whole house know of her plans? “I am not saving the money to leave,” she lied. “I am saving it for when I am no longer wanted.”


“No longer wanted!” Hannah cried out in surprise.


Even though she didn’t want to scare the girl away from the business, she couldn’t hide the truth. “Beauty fades.” She found herself admitting. “The best ladies have only a few decades in them at most, before they end up toiling in a factory or worse. Save every penny so that won’t happen to you.”

The girl nodded, her bouncing curls wilting like a flower in the bathing room’s humid air.

Like I said, it's been a lot of fun to write. Probably because I'm not worrying about details at this point - I'm just going with the flow and seeing where things take me.

To read more ROW 80 updates - go here.
To read more WIPpet Wednesday posts - go here.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Adventures in Self Publishing...

A few months ago, Barnes and Noble shut down their PubIt! service and started Nook Press. The only real difference that I could see at the time was that they had added a manuscript editor to the website, so you could write your novel on the Nook Press website at any time from anywhere as long as you had an internet connection - kinda like Google docs.

I have Sigil at home, and I like it and enjoy using it, but I do a lot of writing at work when I'm on break or lunch. Since my company wouldn't approve of me installing unauthorized software on their laptop (which is totally understandable), I didn't want to drag my own personal laptop to work (lugging around one laptop is enough, thank you!), and I didn't want to wait until the weekend to work on it (who knows if the cats would actually let me work on it at home, though, since they're pretty big attention whores), I decided to give Nook Press's online manuscript editor a shot.

You know what? It's actually pretty easy, and pretty cool, to use!

When you create a new chapter, it automatically includes the chapter title at the beginning of the new chapter for you. It even has presets for the cover, title page, dedication, table of contents, etc that it automatically creates for you at a click of a button! The only downside is that at the moment it only has one font and font size aside from the headings for the title page and chapters, and that there's no way to download the manuscript to your computer while you're working on it... but other than that it's pretty cool and I love it.

Unfortunately the serial hasn't been published yet as I am still working on the cover art. The stock art I want to use for the cover art is goregeous and fits in with the simple cover art styles that are so popular with new adult novels right now. Unfortunately, buying it has been a bit of a pain as most of the stock art websites I can find the image on all charge credits for their images. The image I want is only 7 credits, which isn't that bad, really, but none of the websites sell just 7 credits. The lowest amount of credits they sell is 14, or 20, and I don't want 14 or 20 credits. I only want 7!

I'm reminded of this scene from Father of the Bride:


Thankfully my ROW 80 goals are going much better than the cover art:

  • I'm 80% done with chapter 9 of TUO. Though I worry I may be giving away too much too soon in this chapter. So I may have to remove some of the dialogue in edits.
  • I've chipped away at the other project some more
  • And I went and started another story, because I totally needed another project...

My sewing is moving along as well. One of these days we'll have a bigger place, and I can have stuff pre-made and ready to ship out. Since we don't have the room, everything is made to order. I was able to get the bodice I sold on Etsy sewn and 80% done in two days. I probably could have gotten it completely done if it wasn't for the fact that my grommet press has wandered off somewhere.

It's not in it's usual spot, but we did do some cleaning right after faire season ended - so it may be hiding in the Harry Potter cupboard (yup, we have a closet under our stairs that's just large enough for someone to sleep in... if it wasn't stuffed full of camping gear and other junk) I've asked the husband to go looking for it since he's better about pulling stuff out of there and putting it back in than I am (it's an art).

And now on to the WIPpet Wednesday portion of the show!

WIPpet Wednesday is run by K. L. Schwengel. To participate just share a portion of your WIP that somehow relates to the date and then post a link to your blog in this linkie.

Since today is October 16th, I'm giving you 6 more paragraphs from Maya's prologue (10-16=6). She and her parents have reached the hotel they'll be staying at, and her father has taken her to visit the dig site while her mother unpacks.

Originally Jack Lensherr had wanted to stay at the dig site with his colleagues, but Maya’s mother had refused, insisting that she would not rough it and neither would her daughter. Jack had tried to explain that the amenities at the dig site were actually pretty nice, but Iris would not listen, demanding that he find a hotel somewhere until he eventually gave in.

Following her father through the middle of the dig site, Maya could see that her Mother had been right. While the tents were nice and kept the rain out, all the power in the camp was produced by a row of cranky old generates that smelled of grease and acrid smoke and had to be refilled every so often with fuel. There was no TV or showers, and the only bathrooms were rickety old out houses that smelled of human waste.

However the people at the dig site were nice enough, and almost all of them spoke English. They greeted her dad excitedly, talking about a stone carvings that they had found in the woods not too far from camp. The carvings were like the ones they had seen in ruins near Pompeii, they claimed, and based on what they could translate they spoke of a gateway not too far from camp.

Her father stopped in his tracks so suddenly that Maya almost ran into him. “A gateway.” He asked the blonde woman who had told him the news. “An actual gateway?”

She nodded, her brown eyes bright with excitement. “Yes. A ‘porta’. It doesn't mention where...”

As Maya watched he pulled the woman into a hug, swinging her around in a circle. "Who cares! It exists! They really exist!"

To see more ROW 80 updates, check out this link.
To see more WIPpet Wednesday updates, check out this other link.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

An Etsy Sale and My Round 4 ROW 80 Goals...

So I had a post written last night detailing all the fun stuff that's happened since last week - but all that was blown out of the window when I looked down at my phone and saw someone had bought something from my Etsy store!

My very first sale!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay! Now that that bit of excitement is over with - on to the writing!

I think I mentioned last week that the first part of the serial was finished and sent off to beta readers. They came back with good feedback, and edits have been made to the story based on their suggestions. Now I'm just waiting for Friday to roll around so I can buy some stock art and make a cover (Hey, Ma! Look, all those graphic arts classes were good for something after all!) Then I'll toss it all together, format it, and get it published.

And then probably spend the remainder of my life ignoring any reviews on said serial because I am a wimp like that.

Unfortunately, I haven't done any other writing this week, or posted my ROW 80 goals, due to illness. The cold from a couple of weeks came back, either that or I managed to catch some fresh new hell. Either way, the cold brought a friend this time; the cough of doom. My in-laws heard said cough of doom on Friday and promptly sent the husband and I home with a care package full of NyQuil and DayQuil.

Yuck.

However, as much as I might hate both NyQuil and DayQuil, they are doing wonders for the cough. Unfortunately, they are not helping my concentration at all, and I find myself being easily distracted and wanting to sleep most of the day away.

While I was out of it, a new Round of 80 Words began. My goals for this round is the same as usual with one or two additions:
  • Write 1,000 words a day
  • Keep plugging away at TUO
  • Write the next part of the serial
  • Take over the... wait... wrong to do list...
As per usual, Wednesday also means another WIPpet Wednesday post!

I'm glad everyone enjoyed Maya's introduction last week! This week I'm bringing you 9 more paragraphs from her prologue since today's date is 10/9/13. This bit follows shortly after the last bit - in fact I think there's only one or two sentences separating them.


“How about this sweetie - once your dad is done out here, we’ll go back to Paris and see the Eiffel Tower.” Her mother put down the guide book she had been flipping through and twisted in her seat to look at her daughter. “Won’t that be nice?”

“Can we go to Euro Disney?” Maya asked. Katie Perkins would be the jealous one if she brought back something from there!

“Um... I don’t think we can afford that...”

Her mother patted his arm, “I’m sure we’ll find a way, Jack. We are your favorite girls after all. You’ll do anything to make sure we’re happy, right?”

There was something in her mother’s tone that made Maya look at her sharply - a brittleness that seemed to sneak into her voice more and more often lately. Her mother was smiling, but it seemed flat, and her father stared at the road ahead with a clenched jaw.

It hadn't always been there - in fact, her parents had been quite loving to each other once upon a time - but ever since her mother had discovered a strange car in the driveway a few months ago, something had changed. Now they argued all the time over little things, though they always waited until Maya was asleep before they began fighting over the big stuff. Maya had lost count of the times that she had woken to accusations of affairs ringing through the house.  

“Iris...” He glanced back at Maya’s face in the rear view mirror. He looked away suddenly, sighing. “Fine. We’ll figure it out.”

Even though going to Euro-Disney was better than crawling around a muddy dig site, Maya felt her heart sink. Oh, she wanted to go to Euro-Disney desperately. She had wanted to go ever since she had first heard about it, and had begged her father to take her whenever they were in Europe. However, she didn't want to go if her parents were fighting and her father only agreed to make her mother happy. Still, she forced herself to smile just like her mother was, and pretended that she was excited at the prospect. 

“Awesome!” She said and looked back out the window at the countryside passing by.


To read more WIPpet Wednesday posts - head on over here.
To find out more about ROW80 - go thataway

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Night of the Zombies...

Despite the fact that things are tough right now, we were able to blow off some steam this weekend.

First we stopped by and visited Knott's Berry Farm's Halloween Haunt. It was a busy night, so we weren't able to visit all the mazes or see any shows, but we had fun visiting with friends and watching people getting scared in the fog.

The next day we drove out to Glen Helen to take part in Run For Your Lives, which is a 5k obstacle course with zombies. I participated in it last year, but we didn't think we would be able to do it again this year until Run For Your Lives announced that they would be doing a night run. Our group promptly signed up to be zombies again, and we decided to go with a tourist theme. 

(The husband says this is going to be our Christmas card)

The night race was interesting. When you work during the day you'll get an occasional scare, however, at night time things were kicked up a notch. Runners didn't see us or realize that we were zombies until they were almost face to face with us, and people were screaming left and right. It made my retired monster heart very very happy.

However, the course wasn't very well lit, and as a result of that there were quite a few accidents and people running off course. Also, since we were at the front of the course this year and not towards the middle, there was a lot of down time in between waves of runners, and it was over way too soon.

Regardless of these problems it was still a lot of fun, and we can't wait to do it again. Thankfully next years race is a lot sooner and a lot closer to home.

Last week was also a remarkably good writing week despite everything that was going on. I finished the first part of the serial and sent it off to a couple of good friends to beta. One has already finished it, the other is in the process of reading it and doing an in depth edit. If any of you, dear readers and WIPpeteers, would like to beta it as well - just let me know in the comments. Please be advised that while it's no where near 50 Shades of Grey or Anything He Wants, it is explicit. Also, since it's the first part in a serial, it's only about 10,000 words long.

The other contemporary project is flowing along smoothly. I knocked out about about 3,000 words on it yesterday, and I'm bit more than halfway through, but not quite at the 2/3rds mark. I'm hoping that I can also get this finished quickly so I can return to The Undying Ones.

And now for the WIPpet Wednesday goodness!

WIPpet Wednesday is run by K.L. Schwengel. To join in on the madness, all you have to do is share a piece of what you are working on that some how correlates with the date. For example, since today is October 2, you could share 10 paragraphs from page 2, or you could share 2 sentences from chapter 10. You can also add the date together, 10+2=12, and share 12 words from your work in progress. Then, share a link to your blog over at this linky thingee, and stop by other blogs to see what they've shared.

In between working on my other projects, I did start working on another prologue for The Descendants. This will take place in book three, though there is a possibility that it may become a short story that ties into the series, but it is only set a year or so after the prologue that introduces Vivian. This prologue introduces another character, Maya, who becomes one of Vivian's best friends through the course of their adventures. Maya is actually a really great girl, who's very nice and very smart, but she's only 12 in this bit, so she's a little bratty.

Since today's date is the second, I'm going to be sharing 8 paragraphs from the prologue (10-2=8)

Maya Lensherr was not sure what was so special about France. She watched the countryside pass by the window of the rental car and wrinkled her nose, wishing, for the millionth time, that she was back home instead. Home where she could sit by the pool and read her books. Home where she could understand the shows on the TV or the people around her. Home where it was warm, and not raining.

“What do you think, kiddo?” Her dad asked from the driver seat, his reflection smiling at her from the rearview mirror.

“I’m bored.” She sighed, slumping down in her seat.

“Bored! France is not boring. There’s history here just waiting for us to find it!”

“C’mon, kiddo! What happened to my budding archaeologist?” Her father was an archaeologist specializing in ancient cultures and he had been thrilled when his daughter had announced one day that she wanted to follow in his footsteps. Granted, she had been seven at the time, and cared more about discovering a new dinosaur than an ancient civilization, but he had been excited nonetheless. He had done what he could to foster her interest in the subject by buying her books about Romans and Greeks and taking her to museums.

However, as time had passed, Maya’s interest in digging around in the ground for bones and pottery shards had faded. Now she would rather read, or play games on her nintendo gameboy. She was beginning to develop an interest in boys, and there were never any boys around her age at museums or digs for that matter either.

“There’s nothing here! Just trees and grass and...” When her father had mentioned taking the family on a trip to one of his dig sites, she had been expecting another trip to Pompeii or Egypt - not rainy old France. In Pompeii or Egypt you were surrounded by history, and there were exotic things every where to look at. In France there was only stuffy museums, and people who talked funny.

She wished her parents had sent her to the summer camp her friend Katie Perkins was going to instead. It was a fancy equestrian camp where the campers learned how to ride and care for horses, and at the end there was a big show. Maya loved horses and longed to ride one, but the closest she had ever come to one was petting the ponies at the state faire. Katie was so lucky. She going to come back with all sorts of ribbons and pictures, and nothing Maya could bring back from France would beat that.

To see more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here.