It appears May is going to be a busy busy busy month. Southern Faire (which is the Renaissance Faire my husband and I like to go to) is ending, friends are coming in from out of town to visit, and somewhere in between all that and my regular prenatal check ups my husband and I have to pack up our apartment, because we're moving!
In addition to that I just found out that Kristen Britain, author of the Green Rider series, has a new book coming! Yay! I fell in love with the series when I was in high school, and it makes me oh so happy that she's continuing it - I could dance if I wasn't afraid of throwing out my back or my hips!
So last week I mentioned that I had posted a new chapter for one of my fanfics that I hadn't updated in quite awhile. This week I added another new chapter - one I was very pleased with because it turned out oh so well. However I also knew that readers might have an issue with this chapter, and sure enough, one or two did make some comments. To my surprise, they weren't offended by what I thought they would be offended by, but by something completely different - a position two characters ended up using during one of those scenes.
Now, normally I try to ignore negative reviews, but I've been working on this fanfic since I was in college and these readers have been following it devotedly since then, so I figured they deserved an explanation of why I went the route I did. I sent them an email that explained my reasons (and I may have gone so far as to cite examples from the series and the guide books because I'm a really big nerd). My readers promptly surprised me yet again - once they knew why, they were okay with and no longer bothered by said position... though one was surprised that I put that much thought into the science and physics of things.
All is well that ends well - though I still find it funny that the thing that should have upset them didn't, and the thing that shouldn't have did!
In addition to plugging away on that fanfic, I'm also still working on rewriting Chapter 10 of The Undying Ones. It's proving to be tougher than I thought to make the scenes I copied over from the original short story fit in with the novel version because the story has changed so much. In the short story the castle was near the village and nothing separated it from the village, so the inhabitants of the castle could go and steal from the villagers whenever they wanted. Currently, the castle is separated from the village by a big ravine, so stealing from the villagers isn't an option... that we know of at least. Also in the old version, Rordan and Talesin were jesters for the King. Now we don't know entirely what or who they are.
And now on to WIPpet Wednesday!
Unfortunately, no matter how I tried to add, subtract, multiply or divide, there was just no way to get the section I wanted to share to coincide with the date - so I'll be sharing 14 paragraphs because the year is 2014!
Anywho, this week I'll be sharing more from Between Two Worlds, my other fanfic. In this scene Domick heads back to the Stewes (which is the name of the house that he lives in at Pembroke with Norah, her son, and the old musician named Mud) and is greeted by some strange music that has been haunting him ever since he first arrived at Pembroke.
When the last parade passed by the stand, pushing the last few straggling patrons ahead of them, the harper folded up the counters and closed the windows. Then, once he was sure everything was locked up tight until tomorrow, he ducked through the empty stage and strolled up to the Stewes. Once inside he was greeted by the haunting music that had kept him awake during his first few nights at Pembroke. He froze just inside the threshold, listening to the drums and violins swell around him once more.
He decided that Menolly would like it... if she were here to hear it, that was. It was basic, like her songs often were...
“You okay?” A young voice asked, breaking Domick out of his reverie. He glanced to his right to find that Marcus had sprawled out on one of the couches, holding that - what had he called it? PSP? - in his dirty hands. Judging from the sounds that spilled from it’s speakers, he was also playing that assassin game again.
“I’m fine.” The harper lied.
“Cool.” Marcus replied, oblivious to the world around him as he was sucked by the PSP once more.
“Do you know what this song is?” Domick asked, however, the boy didn’t reply. His brow was creased in concentration, the tip of his tongue poking out from between his lips.
He shouldn’t be surprised that he had lost Marcus’s attention - he had dealt with enough apprentices at the harper hall over the turns to know that most boys were easily distracted - however, it was a bit of a shock that he had lost him to the game so quickly. Most apprentices at least pretended to pay attention until his back was turned. Sighing, he crossed the room and slipped his hand between the boy’s gaze and the game.
“Hey!” Marcus yelped, glaring up at him.
“I asked you a question.”
“You did?”
“Yes. What is that music that’s playing?”
“Music?” He blinked. “What... oh, that’s just that belly dance stuff Mom likes to listen to.”
“Belly dance stuff?”
“You know, with the shimmying and the shaking and the snake arms.” Marcus proceeded to demonstrate, but all he did was burrow himself deeper into the cushions on the couch.
To read more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here.
