Exhaustion...

It's been a ridiculously busy couple of weeks. Between work, the holiday, a couple of custom rush Etsy orders, doctors visits, and two demanding cats, there hasn't been much time to write, blog (which I feel very depressed about) or even respond to comments lately (which I feel a bit rude for not doing).

But I swear I haven't forgotten you all, dear readers, fellow ROWers, and WIPpeteers! I don't have the time or the energy to say much at the moment (maybe next week will be better) but I can at least share a snippet. So, since today is the 11th, here's 11 paragraphs from The Descendants. We're going back to the first book here; Vivian has just shown up at a going away party that is being thrown for her and Audra by their friend's. However, rumor is that something big may happen at said party, and Vivian isn't looking forward to it one bit. Oh, and those strange porta's from Maya's introductory prologue make an appearance again...

“Just a small get together, she said.” Vivian murmured to herself as she climbed out of her el camino. “It’ll be just a few friends who want to have dinner before with us before we leave, they said.”

However, judging from the amount of cars lining the driveway and the street, it appeared that her worst fears were correct - everyone and their mother had shown up to see them off. She could see people milling around inside the large log cabin and could hear voices and music drifting from the deck overlooking the lake in the back of the house.

And somewhere in that mess was her boyfriend.

The boyfriend who was planning on proposing to her tonight.

The boyfriend whose heart she would break when she told him ‘no’.

The boyfriend who would probably never forgive her.

Vivian groaned and rubbed at her temples. She was being foolish. After all, just because Josh had been acting suspicious earlier today, asked to speak to her dad, and might be carrying a ring box in his pocket did not mean that he was going to pop the question. It could be some other totally innocuous piece of jewelry without any strings attached. Or maybe it was something he had bought for his mother. Or...

The Valet - one of many Audra had been hired for this little get together - standing by her car cleared his throat, reminding her of his presence. Vivian longed to hop back in her car and drive home, but she forced herself to hand her keys to him and step away from the el camino so he could drive away. Then, after taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she crossed the short distance to the front door.

Even though there were people already inside, and she knew she could walk right in, Vivian knocked on the door anyways. She waited patiently for someone to open it, pausing to study the stone under her feet.

It was an odd piece - a large round disc that Audra said her father had imported from Europe or some other far off place when the cabin was being built. Designs that looked faintly like celtic knotwork had been carved into its surface; an outer ring that consisted of two bands twining around each other, and, inside the rings border, two overlapping trilliums. Three stones had been set around it’s outer perimeter, equidistant from each other and it appeared there might have been a fourth stone in the center, but it had been chipped away at some point.

Vivian had commented on its strange design when it had first arrived, but hadn’t paid any attention to it since then. However, tonight, the stone’s surface seemed to gleam and sparkle in the light of the moon. She shrugged it off; the stone probably had mica or something else in it.

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