Short WIPpet

It's been rough the past couple of weeks (the baby is fine, my sinuses, however, have called it quits thanks to the crazy weather we've been having) so this is going to be a short post today.

Now, I know WIPpet posts are supposed to have something to do with the date, but today's post doesn't. I tried. I really did! But my poor head is so muddled at the moment that I couldn't make the math work, and I really wanted to share this snippet with you, since it's been so long since we last saw Mattie and her world.

That's right, I've finally gotten over my writer's block for The Undying Ones. It's been slow going, but slow going is better than nothing. Anywho, here's 5 paragraphs from chapter 10. There's been a feast in the great hall, but after her encounter with the King, and her argument with Rordan and Talesin, Mattie is so paranoid that something bad is going to happen, that she waited until the feast was over before slipping in to get some food. It's a first draft, so it's bit rough, but it'll do for now;

Mattie waited until the flames on the torches had died away to faint embers and the guards were dozing at their posts before she finally slipped into the great hall.  

While there were still clusters of citizens huddled over their food here and there, for the most part everyone had retreated to wherever they slept during the daylight hours.  

Rordan and Talesin were not among the former, so she assumed that they had also headed back to their rooms now that their bellies were full. Either that or they had snuck off to report to the King again. She grit her teeth at the thought, wondering how they could betray her so, and furthermore, why the King would be so interested in her. Yes she had accidentally broken into his garden, but aside from that, she was nothing.  

She reached the cauldron and peered inside. It was almost empty of stew, and the only bits of bread left on the table nearby were burnt ends. However it was more than she had had in weeks, so she pocketed some of the bread, and greedily scraped what she could of the stew into a nearby bowl. She licked her fingers clean, freezing when she realized the ingredients tasted fresh instead of stale and moldy. 

She glanced at the tables around her. Where had so much food come from? Supposedly the last of their stores had expired years ago. Were there reserves down in the dungeon? Is that why she had seen Rordan and Talesin disappear through that heavy door the other day? But how was the food still fresh? Any supplies should have gone bad long ago.

 To see more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here

Old Friends...

I confess, I haven't written very much this week. I did get some writing done last week, mostly on that other project, and then on Thursday or Friday I rediscovered my Nook. It had been packed away in one of the bags we took with us on our trip to Washington. While charging it I remembered I had loaded it up with a bunch of books prior to leaving on said trip, and sat down to see what was there, and... well... the rest is history!

I demolished Dragonwriter in two days. It was a lovely book containing some beautiful anecdotes and memories about Anne McCaffrey, who was one of my favorite authors growing up. However, I have to warn you that reading it while pregnant is NOT a good idea. Thanks to pregnancy hormones I cry at anything even remotely moving right now (Like commercials, or the last half of Once Upon a Time's midseason finally) and this book turned me into a red eyed and red nosed mess.

After that I started on Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger. I loved the Parasol Protectorate series, and the Finishing School quartet is set in that same world - only about twenty years earlier. The only downside is that the Finishing School novels are shorter, so I read through them like that *snaps fingers*. They also, sadly, are released about a year a part, so once you finish them, you have to wait and wait and wait... But, thankfully, Gail Carriger has a new series starting next year, that's also set in the same world, only twenty years (give or take) after Parasol Protectorate.

Currently I'm rereading The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. I first read it in junior high, and it's one of my go to books when I want to read something but I don't want to read something new (The Dragonriders of Pern also falls into this category.)

Work is going quite well. They finally moved my coworker and I over to the new project, and we've spent the past couple of days in training. Our old boss still likes to bother us here and there, but we should be moving desks to a different location soon.

The baby is growing. The first trimester ultrasound went well, and the baby is normal... and a little bit of a diva. It cooperated with the ultrasound tech for about ten minutes, just enough for them to get the measurements they needed, and then promptly turned it's back on the tech - and no poking or prodding from the tech could get it to turn around again. It is very much our child! Only another month or so till the next ultrasound, when we can find out what it is, and stop calling it 'it'.

And now for WIPpet Wednesday!

Since today is 3/12/14, here are twelve-ish sentences from my fanfic, Between Two Worlds. This scene takes place in chapter 16 (well before Norah and Domick have their kiss). A mysterious woman approaches their stand at the faire, wearing clothing that Domick has never seen before (though it's actually typical garb for most of the belly dancers at the faire I go to... and it's really damn comfortable to wear even if it is a lot of layers!)

Anywho, on with the show!

It was shortly after noon when a woman dressed unusually, even by Pembroke standards, approached the booth. Her gown was loose and long and black. Slits ran up either side of the garment to her waist, revealing that she wore striped pantaloons underneath that billowed around her legs as she walked. A short red vest and a matching belt topped off the ensemble, holding the gauzy material against her body. Her hair hung down behind her in a twisting mass of rope like tendrils. 

“Hello,” She leaned against the counter, messing up the stickers Domick had recently sorted with her long, wide sleeves. “Is Norah here?”

“That’s me.” Norah introduced herself. “What can I help you with?”

“Fancy sent me. She said you’re a dancer and might be interested in joining our merry band.”

What could the mystery woman be up to?

To see more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here.

Music Monday...

Just another Wednesday...

It's been a long week with lots of annoying drama at work. At one point it was so bad that I was seriously considering going back to my old department - even though I've been in IT for over a year, I'm still a part of  customer service technically, so I could do that with relative ease (all they'd have to do is get me a new computer since I wouldn't be able to keep the work laptop I have currently). However, before I could have a sit down with the customer service manager, one of the managers in our company pulled my coworker aside to tell us that we were being transitioned to help her with her project for the next three months (So we'd be on loan from customer service to IT, and then IT would be loaning us over to this new project - very inception-like...).

The new manager is much, much more mellow than our current manager and the project means we would have a set schedule and responsibilities (our current responsibilities seem to come and go based on our current manager's moods) so there would be less stress for everybody all around... well... aside from the stress of trying to get this project finished by it's due date. 

I was able to write some more this week;

I started work on the next chapter of Descendants even though this current chapter isn't done yet (the last scene simply says *insert awkward proposal scene here when finished*). It's amazing how I wouldn't have let that slide in the past - I would have agonized over that scene until it drove me mad!

The idea I had for The Undying Ones last week wasn't working at all, but I came up with something different that may be even better. I haven't visited Mattie's father in quite awhile, so it's time to let him shine again and maybe get his side of things. And in writing from his POV I've discovered that Mattie's father isn't just the toymaker - he's also related to someone very important. I love it when things like that reveal themselves!

In addition to all that I've also been been toying around with one of the adult stories I was going to publish under my other name. I had abandoned it after a friend read it and gave me some advice on it that was pretty upsetting. It really hurt my ego and made me think that I should just give up on writing romance. After several months of letting it lay around, I realized that my story was okay. Yes, it's a first draft and needs some polish, but it's a perfectly solid first draft. It was actually my friends advice that was totally wrong - she wanted me to change the story into something completely different, something that she came up with, if that makes any sense. So, now that I've come to that realization and have decided to ignore her advice (aside from the grammar and spelling errors she caught) the story is flowing a hell of a lot better.

And now for WIPpet wednesday!

WIPpet Wednesday is run by the lovely K L Schwengel. To participate just share a snippet from your work in progress that correlates to the date. For example, since today is 3/5/14 you could share 3 paragraphs from chapter 5, or 5 sentences from chapter 14, or you can add the date together and share 22 sentences or paragraphs or words from whatever. The more creative the WIPpet math, the better!

My apologies for those who couldn't read the WIPpet last week. When I just copy and paste the snippet over from my document, the formatting gets all wonky, so I tried pasting it into notepad first to remove the formatting, then pasting it into the blog. After that I made the font a little smaller to differentiate between the blog and the snippet. Lesson learned! I will never do that again!

Today I'll be sharing 29 sentences (3X5=15+14=29) from chapter 4 of The Descendants. Again it's mostly dialogue; Vivian finally found her boyfriend, but before she could talk to him, he proposed. She said no and now she's having to deal with the aftermath of that.

“I spent most of my savings on that ring!”
“I’m sorry.” Vivian murmured, knowing that her apology was not nearly enough. She watched Josh pace the length of the kitchen they had retreated to after he had proposed and she turned him down. 
“I thought you wanted to get married!” 
“Maybe someday, but just not now. We’re way too young -”
“Too young!” He cut her off with a bitter laugh that echoed sharply throughout the space. “You’re twenty three, I’m twenty six. We both have good jobs. My parents were only twenty when they got married and they had nothing and they made it!”
“No they didn’t; they’re divorced...” She fell silent as he turned and glared at her, his brown eyes smoldering under the track lighting overhead.
“I can’t believe this. We talked about about getting married and getting out of here so many times...” He ran a hand through his blonde hair, making it even spikier and messier than usual. 
Vivian sighed, “Actually you were the one doing most of the talking -”
“Why the sudden change? It’s not because of him is it?” He cut her off again, spitting out the word ‘him’ like it was venom.
“Him?”
“Don’t play dumb. You know who I’m talking about.”
“No, no I obviously don’t.” 
“That asshole that hangs around the garage.”
“That doesn’t really help me.” 
“Matthew.” Josh snapped his fingers as he finally came up with the name. “That guy has had his eye on you for years.” 
Vivian snorted. “Now you’re being ridiculous.”
“Well, Lara said you two were being all cozy in the upstairs bathroom a few minutes ago.”
“He was calming me down.”
“Sure he was.”
“Bree sent him to keep an eye on me - you know how protective she can be.”
“That woman has never liked me.” He reached the other side of the kitchen again and turned back around. “Did she talk you out of it?”
“Nobody talked me out of anything!” Vivian growled, finally returning his glare. Why couldn’t he understand that she had never wanted this? “I’m sorry I hurt you, but I don’t want to get married! If you had paid attention, you would have figured that out ages ago and this would have never happened!”
“Well, maybe if you hadn’t led me on -”
Now it was Vivian’s turn to cut him off. “I never led you on! I still love you and want to be with you I just don’t want to get...”
“Married.” Josh finished for her. “Yeah, I get that now.” He leaned against the countertop and stared at the tiled floor underneath their feet, a deep scowl marring his otherwise handsome face. 
An uneasy silence fell over the kitchen, broken only by the sounds of the party beyond. The DJ had finally turned the music down, but the noise and the stress of the evening had already done it’s damage - a headache was building behind Vivian’s temples, throbbing in time with her heartbeat. She grit her teeth against the pain, promising herself that as soon as this was over, she would go home and lock herself in her room.
“You know, I bought a ticket to go to England too. Guess that’s not gonna happen now.” He spoke first, grabbing a nearby towel and wringing it in his fists. “Good thing I bought insurance so I can at least get some of my money back.” 
“I’m sorry.” Vivian murmured again.
“Stop saying that!” He roared and threw the towel in her direction. Despite his vehemence, it didn’t go far, falling a few feet short of his target. “You’re not sorry. You don’t care. You never did.”

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