The Feathered Serpent's Nest

A whole lot of non-progress

2008-05-16T18:17:49Z

I think I wrote maybe a handful of words yesterday, hence the non-progress. The story is very slow to form, and I've been rather tired lately and having difficulty concentrating. I might try revising my Inca myth story rather than work on this story, for I still have no clue what it's about.

For those who don't normally follow the blog of the slushmaster, he's posted an entry on the process of fishing my story out of the slush (and it was rather unusual process for him this time from what I gather). It's had me thinking a bit about derivation, imitation, and influence as well as the idea of readers wanting the "familiar" or things similar to their favorite authors (when I worked at the bookstore, we had lists of "if you like this author, you'll probably like this one" to help out the customers.). What we read obviously influences us whether we're conscious of it or not, and hell, weren't the greats of the Canon influenced by the works that came before them? I mean, would there have been a Ulysses without The Odyssey? And how many authors pillage the Bible for material? Seeings how I'm always worried about originality in my work, I'm always wondering where the line is between inspiration and imitation. Any thoughts?

Progress

2008-05-15T15:44:56Z

Made a tad bit of progress on a new One World story yesterday, only about 250 words, but a start. I've had the story in mind for a while now but still don't really know what it's about (hence my failure to have started it sooner), but maybe I can muddle my way through it. Today I'm going to work on it some more, but first will go over "The Place That Makes You Happiest" one last time then get it printed up and into an envelope and ready to go (though I won't mail it for another two weeks).

I could quite possibly spend hours here...

2008-05-15T02:16:27Z

It's called LJ Images and it's a feed that shows the last 50 pictures posted on LJ, some of them quite non-work safe (so wait until you're home to take a looksy). I will say that folks seem to be rather celebrity obsessed.

Progress

2008-05-13T21:55:43Z

Finished up the rewrite of "The Hearts of Men" today and employed my new editing technique, and found it very useful for finding typos and making final changes, so I think I'll add that to my checklist of stuff to do prior to submittal. I'm a little too high-strung right now to work on anything so I think I'll treat myself to some Age of Empires 2 for the rest of the day.

And big congrats to aliettedb, who just sold a story to Realms of Fantasy!

A rare writer moment

2008-05-12T19:29:30Z

I'm used to folks finding the fact that I write to be rather quaint; the only person non-writer person I know who really doesn't seem to feel this way is my mother, who will never miss an opportunity to brag to friends and relatives that I'm a writer. I had a rather interesting moment at my daughter's school today. She has the day off due to academic assessment, which is what we were there for (it was supposed to take 30 minutes but instead lasted an hour). I'd brought along the latest issue of Paradox, since I have one story left to read and I was hoping to get it read while waiting for her to do her assessment. Before she was to go in, we sat at a table in the hallway, waiting for her time to roll around, and one of her classmates came over and sat with us. I had my nose buried in my magazine. Dana was talking to her friend then suddenly she turned to me and asked, "Is that the magazine your story's in?"

"No. That was the last issue."

"Oh." But she then turned to her friend and said, "Guess what. My mom writes stories and they get put in magazines like that one."

And her friend looked at me all wide-eyed and he said, "That's so cool!" It's such a rare thing for anyone to look at a writer like he would his/her favorite basketball or football star or actor/actress. I'd never felt prouder of being a writer than at that moment.

Progress

2008-05-10T14:24:13Z

Made a good go of it yesterday and have about two pages left to rewrite. I'll probably work on it today, since tomorrow's Mother's Day and we have family stuff to do.

Also, the anthology Arcane Whispers, with my Quetzalcoatl story "The Divine Conquest of Mexico" in it is now available through Lulu. It will available through Amazon in a couple days, as both a paperback and a Kindle download. I'll provide links to those when they're available.

Progress

2008-05-09T16:28:08Z

Made it up to page 12 yesterday, so not a very good production day. I spent time doing some reading up on the Mexican-American war and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. I also got back the final edits on the rewrite for Paradox from aliettedb and all looks good on that front. I'll wait to print it out until the end of the month, so I can go over it one last time after having had some time away from it. I've already made a start on today's work, so I'm late posting progress (almost forgot to do it!:)).

Beware my oversize scalpel!

2008-05-08T19:51:20Z

stolen from aliettedb. I so totally have to find a way to use this because it's so totally me. >:-)

Progress

2008-05-08T13:31:21Z

Retyped about 7 pages yesterday. I should have a better day today since both kids will be at school. Not much else to report.

Progress

2008-05-07T15:04:13Z

Finally did the bits of the rewrite I was putting off doing in "The Place That Makes You Happiest" and sent it off for an opinion. Today I'll be working on another rewrite, which will involve retyping it (I think I skipped this step of my editing process with this story so I'm going to do it now) then have some minor points to think about and address. This will take a couple days.

Took the kids out to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner last night since Jeff had a business dinner to attend, and we had lots of fun. It's definitely not the cool experience I remember from my own childhood, but then we always went to Showbiz, which had better games and animatronics. And skiball used to give you the best number of tickets, but now it just sucks. Next time I'll unload ten bucks worth of tokens into the dumb bouncy ball game that seems to give the most tickets of any game (sometimes as much as 50 a ball) then maybe the kids can get better stuff than awful fake jewelry and plastic trinkets that fall apart as soon as you play with them for the first time. But yeah, we still had fun.

Progress

2008-05-06T13:40:49Z

Morning Star Rising

4,124 / 150,000
(2.7%)

Making my way back through again, adapting chapter 2 to be chapter 1. It's proving a bit tedious, but then I was feeling quite tired yesterday and had difficulty concentrating for long stretches. The nights have been so warm here that I've had trouble getting to sleep and it's showing coming morning time. I'm going to need to lay down again before I can start working today.

No excerpts until I get back to where I was before, so it will be a couple days at least.

tlmorganfield @ 2008-05-05T08:24:00

2008-05-05T14:38:35Z

I spent the weekend letting my changes sink in mentally and playing video games, so today it's back to work, which involves starting over with the first two chapters (I think I'm going to outline the action first, just to make sure I get things straight before starting on the actual writing).

On the book-buying front, I got two new ones this weekend: Letters from Mexico and The Nahualli Animal Oracle. The later comes with a deck of divining cards, and apparently my nahualli is a coyote (perhaps the 3-legged one that I sometimes see in the field behind my house? Having a disable leg certainly hasn't slowed it down.).

Thoughts on Catalysts

2008-05-03T22:50:50Z

As you're all aware, I've been bitching and moaning about the catalyst of my novel for weeks now, wondering whether or not I could actually get it in within the first 30 pages or not (the answer I came to was no), but I'd also starting to wonder what the heck my catalyst was. In the previous draft, it was quite obvious what it was, and that event took place about 120 pages into the manuscript. But since that draft, I've done a whole bunch of brainstorming on character motivations and made a decision of bringing a new character into play that was only talked about in the previous draft, and I gave him more hands-on involvement in the plot. And by doing so, I think I actually changed the catalyst to something else. The same things still happen, but there's a more sinister reason behind it this time around. But I'd been writing the new draft as if the catalyst hadn't changed (meaning that one character, despite knowing what was really going on, continued to act as if his motivations were the same as in the first draft when in fact he's supposed to be acting on someone else's behalf ,for a greater purpose that will become evident to the protag later in the book). And I think this was my big problem: I didn't adapt the narrative time-line to the new catalyst, which in fact means that I need to make chapter 2 chapter 1, and move chapter 1 to chapter 2, and watch my antagonist see his plans for seeing his son take the throne crushed by this new catalyst, and so spur him to more drastic measures. His disbelief in the catalyst just isn't sufficient this time around since there's no way now that he wouldn't believe it. Which means rewriting the first 2 chapters again and a bit of chapter 3, and in fact I think I can make the new catalyst happen within the first 30-35 pages. And it feels like a relief to have figured this out.

Progress

2008-05-03T14:11:13Z

Morning Star Rising

20,079 / 150,000
(13.4%)

A bit of progress yesterday. I'm feeling cranky today because I've just gotten to the big catalyst and I'm at page 93 in my manuscript (53 according to my MM template--which, for those that are curious, is based on my copy of the Summers at Castle Auburn in mass market, for it looks rather typical, the font not too small or too big, and no crowded margins), well outside the 30-50 pages I mentioned earlier. But I'm inclined to think that I'm laying too much importance in that. This is epic fantasy after all, and it was pointed out by one commenter that for most epic fantasies, the catalyst comes around page 100 rather than within the first fifty pages. That's not to say that I couldn't cut back, though probably not enough to get it down to the first 50 pages of manuscript. Yep, I'm stressing unnecessarily and should probably get off this kick and just get this draft done.

So, here's today's excerpt:

I stuck the torch around the darkened corner, in case the man-eating cat was hiding there, but when I looked both ways down the hallway, I found it empty. At the end, my father's curtain stood open, moonlight creeping out at a sharp angle. Father never kept his curtain open. I crept down the hallway towards Mother's room, which was right next door to Father's. Her curtain was closed, but when I slipped inside, her bed was empty.

My heart raced a moment before I thought, She's just in the bath. She had her own small, private bathhouse in her garden so I headed there immediately, still clutching my torch.

But she wasn't there either. "Nantli?" I whispered as I looked around the garden. I tried to stave off the panic growing in my stomach but couldn't hold back the tears and breathing rapidly. Where was she? It wasn't like Mother to not be in her room in the middle of the night, to give me comfort when I woke up from a nightmare. It might get me a scolding, but I decided I had to wake Father.

I threw aside the door curtain and turned the corner into Father's room with such speed that I almost clipped the doorway. But instead of finding father, I came to a sliding stop a few arm-lengths away from a black-robed monster hunched over my father's bed. Its long, matted hair glistened in the moonlight and it sang prayers in a harsh cadence while also making sounds like breaking bones. I managed only a startled gasp before the panic took over and I ripped lose a piercing scream.

The creature whirled on me so I swung the torch at it, hoping the fire would keep it at bay. It flinched back but also said, "Quetzalpetlatl! Put that down before you hurt someone!"

In the torchlight, I saw it wasn't some demon but rather my uncle Ihuitmal. His face was painted with gold stripes and his usually neatly-brushed hair hung in wet strands around his face, but I recognized him. A wave of relief swept over me and I dropped the torch and rushed forward, throwing my arms around him. His robe smelled rank, like a bloated deer carcass, which drove me back almost as soon as I embraced him, and at the corner of my mind, I wondered why he was dressed like a priest of the Sun. But I was too overwhelmed with joy and relief to pursue the question. "You came back, uncle?" I asked, wiping my tears away as I shook miserably.

"I told your father I would," he said, straightening his robe as if I'd messed it up when I'd hugged him.

"I'm so glad to see you. I think there's a jaguar loose in the palace!"

"You think so?"

"I thought I saw it when I was coming back from the bathhouse." My wrist started itching again so I rubbed it against my side.

"I didn't see anything," my uncle said. He glanced over his shoulder at the bed then stepped closer to it but still kept his back to it. "You were likely just having a nightmare, child."

I didn't think so, but I knew better than to argue with Ihuitmal. He had even less patience with argumentative children than my father did.

Progress

2008-05-02T15:31:31Z

Morning Star Rising

18,792 / 150,000
(12.5%)

Another good progress day. I had to do some character damage-control yesterday, since my protag was starting to feel rather bitter towards another and it was likely to have some effects on how she reacts to his death in the next scene. So they had to mend their differences first, to maximize the trauma and make what happens a bigger motivator. I also think it does a good job of building an actual relationship between the two characters whereas before I think it relied too much on readers bringing an ideal about parent/children relationship to the story themselves to understand why the protag is so affected. Ha! I love being cryptic! (though those who have read it will probably understand what I'm saying). I'm not sure how much work I'll get done today since Jeff's off work and we're planning a lunch date. I'm going to make a go at it for a few hours in the morning.

Anyway, on to the excerpt:

I met Nochuatl outside the Great Hall and he offered to walk with me.

"Are you excited for school?" he asked.

I shrugged.

He nodded. "It's a big change."

"I'm use to change," I said, trying to sound strong like my mother.

Nochuatl chuckled. "We've certainly had our share of that lately. We have to move on, but that doesn't mean we have to forget. I miss Black Otter too, you know."

His saying that sprung a leak in the elaborate dam I'd built up around my heart over the months. "Do you think he's all right?" I asked in a hush, serious voice.

He didn't answer right away, but then said, "I really hope so."

It felt nice that Nochuatl treated my concerns as real rather than just dismissing them, the way my father always did. "Do you think we'll get see him again?"

"I honestly don't know. There's an awful lot of bitterness between Ihuitmal and your father."

"Why?"

"It goes a long ways back, to before your father became king. And Ihuitmal has a right to be angry, but eventually we have to let go of the past, before it completely destroys us."

"Is that why Father told you all that stuff about getting married?" I asked, and when I saw the stricken look on his face, I regretted saying it. "No, please don't tell me. I'm not good at keeping secrets anymore."

Nochuatl gave me a weak smile. "Some secrets are better off left as secrets, Papalotl, but yes, that's exactly what your father meant when he told me to move on."

We found father back in the aviary, watching his brand new pair of quetzals. Today he smiled at me like he had the day of my wedding and that put my mind at ease a bit. I thanked Nochuatl for walking me there and added, "I'm sorry if my question upset you, uncle." I was extra careful these days to make sure I said my apologies in a timely manner.

"You haven't anything to be sorry about," he told me with a smile then he went back the way we'd come.

Progress

2008-05-01T13:51:50Z

Morning Star Rising

16,709 / 150,000
(11.1%)

Good progress yesterday, and I even got to spend a couple hours playing the Playstation. I'm starting on chapter 4 today, which is actually chapter 6 in the old draft (minus the first half of chapter 6, which I'm cutting). I've got some new stuff to add before getting to the big scene, but the plot's moving along nicely. Here's today's excerpt:

I felt something pushing against my back.

I was lying against my mother's stomach, her arm draped limply over my shoulder. I wiggled around to face her, to look for what had pushed against me, but there was nothing between us. Puzzled, I poked gently at her dress, looking for something hidden behind it, but all I felt was her slightly swollen belly. I frowned, confused and wondering if I'd just imagined it.

Then I felt it again, this time against my hand where I'd rested it against Mother's stomach. It startled me and I withdrew my hand immediately, my heart pounding. Great Feathered Serpent, what was that?

I cautiously set my hand against her stomach again and this time kept it there when I felt the bulge slide under my hand. "What is that?" I whispered.

"Your brother," mother whispered. I hadn't noticed she'd awakened.

"Truly?"

She nodded. "He's started moving already."

"Is he supposed to do that?"

"He is. You did the same."

"You carried me in your belly too?" I asked, amazed. "Did you also swallow a piece of jade to put me in there?"

Mother laughed. "No, I didn't. How you came to be in there, well, that's a discussion best left for when you're a bit older."

I set my ear against her stomach. "Do you think he'll talk to me?"

"He won't talk for quite a long time."

That was a disappointment but I couldn't deny the joy I felt at having finally felt proof that I was going to be a sister.

Progress

2008-04-30T13:24:27Z

Morning Star Rising

14,730 / 150,000
(9.8%)

A poor showing yesterday, so no excerpt today. I spent most of the day playing the new Grand Theft Auto game, but now that I've got the initial excitement of it out of the way, I can get back to writing.

Progress

2008-04-29T13:54:38Z

Morning Star Rising

14,237 / 150,000
(9.5%)

Had a pretty decent day yesterday, finished chapter 2 and am halfway through chapter 3. I'm having some difficulty figuring out what exactly is the catalyst for my story, for there's quite a few "catalysts" that happen at the begin that get the story rolling for certain characters. One happens before the story actually starts, though the protag finds out about it within the first couple of pages (its the thing that spurs the elusive big bad to formulate his nasty plans), then there's a catalyst in chapter 3, which pushes villain into acting ahead of time, then there's the thing I think is the catalyst for the protag, the nail in the coffin of her childhood so speak but it's brought about by catalyst #2. I think the talk of catalysts over at Pubrants is just confusing me (because this is a very multi-layered story and there's a ton of important stuff going on that the protag will not know about until much later) and I should just stop looking at it and stop worrying about it. Not that my worrying has caused me to change my plans of how I was going to rewrite the beginning; I am still following my original plans for it, but I'm worrying far too much about whether that thing that I think is the actual catalyst will fall outside the first fifty pages of the book (not first 50 of manuscript. We're already well past that point). Anyway, I am enjoying the rewrite. And so today's excerpt:

I found myself beginning to hate Black Otter too. I might have been able to dismiss his ignoring me, but not his moving in on my father's affections. As the king's new son, Black Otter spent time with my father every day. Sometimes he sat in on court when Father listened to the peasants fight over land and who killed whose turkeys; they spent time in the men's private yard, where Father tutored him on wielding swords and spears; and Father and Nochuatl took Black Otter hunting with them at least once a week. Before my heart merely missed my father; now it burned with jealousy for having lost him to my new husband.

"I wish I'd been born a boy," I told Mother as we walked through the market, towards the temple of Quetzalcoatl. She wished to make offerings to the Feathered Serpent in thanks for giving her my brother and insisted I come along. I didn't want to; I not only despised Black Otter, but I also despised my brother, for, though he wasn't yet born, he too would enjoy the privilege of my father's company. "Why wasn't I born a boy, Mother? It's not fair."

She set a sympathetic hand on my shoulder. "Life is seldom fair, Papalotl. And you were born a girl because that's what the gods wished you to be. I know being a woman is difficult, but life itself is difficult, even for men. While we remain safe behind stone walls, they go off to war, many to die and never see their loved ones again. We make sacrifices, but so do they."

"It's still not fair," I huffed. "Father hates me."

"Your father doesn't hate you," Mother said, a hint of warning in her voice but I wasn't in the mood to heed it today.

"He does too," I spouted. "He's never loved me because I wasn't a boy."

"That is enough now, Quetzalpetlatl," Mother said, stopping in the middle of the crowded market, our guards pressing in around us. This time I knew better than to push the subject any further; she only used my proper name when I was in trouble. "Maybe your father was right; you have been too coddled, allowed too much freedom, and though I truly don't wish to send you away to calmecac before you're twelve, perhaps what you need is the strict regiment of a priestly school to remind you of your place."

I hung my head, to try to look remorseful when in fact I was scowling. Now Father had turned Mother against me too and I was fuming.

Mother sighed and knelt in front of me. "I really do understand how you feel, Papalotl. It was tough for me to understand why my own father had to distance himself from me--"

"But why? What did we do?" I asked, tears now leaking down my nose.

"You didn't do anything, and never think you did. There's an order to things in our world and it says that men and women only cross paths for certain things, and outside that we live our own lives apart."

"I don't want to live apart from Father, or Black Otter, or uncle Nochuatl," I said. "They make me happy when they're around."

"I know they do." Mother smoothed my hair and sighed. "I'm sorry I can't explain it so you'd understand. And yes, it's not fair, but that's how things are and we just have to accept it."

Her answer only irritated me more but I managed to keep my temper this time.

"How about this? When we're done at the temple, we'll go down to the lake and see if your father will let you watch he and Black Otter hunting. They're practicing spearing ducks over there this afternoon," Mother suggested.

I wiped away the last of my tears, nodded eagerly then took her hand and we continued on to the temple.

Progress

2008-04-28T13:34:36Z

Morning Star Rising

9,236 / 150,000
(6.2%)

So I actually got quite a bit done yesterday, for it wasn't quite as warm out as I thought it would be (and once it did get really warm, everybody was too busy doing other things to go on a walk, so I settled for working). And so, today's excerpt:

"I'd hoped that with your brother on the way, your father might let you choose your own path," Mother said while she tied an emerald ribbon on the end of my braid. "But perhaps Black Otter will be a far better man than his father."

"I don't mind marrying Black Otter," I piped up. "He's my best friend." I almost told her that I doubted Black Otter minded either, not having given me that kiss, but I was too afraid of saying something that might make her scold me on my wedding day.

Mother smiled a little then said, "I know, dear. It's just that you're both so young and people change as they get older. I'd hate to think you might grow up to find yourself married to someone who doesn't treat you well, who doesn't love you, who you don't love either...."

"But you love father, don't you?" I asked, puzzled by her words.

The servants glanced at each other. "I will finish up myself," Mother told them and so they left. She then turned me around and straightened my dress. "I love your father very much, Papalotl," she said. "I've never regretted leaving the priesthood to marry him, and the Gods know he loves me, otherwise he would have divorced me and married one of his other wives when I couldn't have anymore children. It would have been his right to do so, but he didn't. I'm lucky, Papalotl; I loved your father even before my father decided to wed me to him, but not all women are so lucky."

"But I do love Black Otter," I assured her.

She chuckled. "I'm sure you do." She sighed. "I'm sorry to worry you so. I'm just not ready for my little girl to become someone's wife. Our lives are never our own--that's a woman's lot in life--but it's difficult to see yours given over to someone else so soon. You'll understand some day." Mother than took my hand and we left the nursery together.

The Silly Things We Writers Do Sometimes

2008-04-27T17:04:13Z

I converted my old draft of MSR to published-book format. I actually started out doing this little exercise for a good reason (I've been following the pitch lessons over at Pubrants and I've been trying to figure out exactly how many manuscript pages equates to 30-50 pages of a typical paperback, since the pitch lessons say that the story catalyst should happen within that range in a book, and I think mine might happen a little later than 50 pages). But now I'm just fascinated by how cool it looks. I converted what I have of my rewrite into it as well, to see where I stand page-wise (17 pages at the moment, though when comparing page to page, I think the format I have is closer to trade paperback size rather than mass market. My second draft: 408 pages, which is indeed steep for a TPB). Anyway, I wasted a good deal of time oogling at this today and also decided that it might actually be a good format for proofing my novel when I get it done, for just a casual perusal of the first 6 pages in this format uncovered quite a few typos that I undoubtedly would have missed by trying to read in manuscript format.

I did a tad bit of writing yesterday, certainly not enough to justify updating the word count, but I wrapped up chapter 1 and started on chapter 2. I'm also contemplating making my protag a year or two older, for I do think her voice isn't quite as young as it's supposed to be, and really there's no reason she can't be a year or two older (this would also allow me to trim more off the front end, since then she wouldn't have to go through the naming ceremony and such, and information about her own experience can come in when her brother sees the soothsayer about his adult name.). I'm not sure I'm going to work on it today; it's nice out and we're probably going to go for a walk rather than hang around the house.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

Progress, sans Excerpt

2008-04-26T15:59:23Z

Morning Star Rising

6,496 / 150,000
(4.3%)

I didn't get a whole lot done yesterday, thanks to a hair cut, and I don't anticipate getting much done today, thanks to there being both Avalanche/Red Wings and Nuggets/Lakers to watch this afternoon, but I'm going to make a run at it. And because I got so little done, I'm not posting an excerpt today.

Progress

2008-04-25T13:48:46Z

Morning Star Rising

5,943 / 150,000
(4.0%)

Made a decision yesterday that I didn't need the end of chapter 1, or the first half of chapter 2 since it doesn't really push the plot forward, and the bits that worked with character were for characters that I'm not doing anything with in this version. So I decided to just skip on ahead to the first big conflict scene between our hero and the villain (well, one of the villains, but he's the major one) and I'm liking how the character dynamics are shaping up.

Here's today's excerpt:

But before either of us could say anything, the black jaguar hissed and raked its claws across the wooden bars of its cage. Ihuitmal looked over his shoulder and bowed his head slightly before murmuring, "Of course. I forgot." He took the lid off the basket and pulled a rabbit out by the ears. It let out a plaintive squeal of pain so he supported its rump with his other hand as he carried it over to the cage. The jaguar's tail swished like an excited dog's and it leaped down from its perch in the tree and waited for him at the bars.

Part of me marveled at my uncle's bravery, approaching such a ferocious beast with food in his hands; the other part wondered if he was crazy and trembled at the thought that I might witness the cat tear his arm out of its socket. I couldn't look away though, as if I'd been entranced by a sorcerer.

Ihuitmal approached the cage with seemingly no fear, holding the rabbit out before him. The jaguar hissed when he came close and backed away a few steps, but when my uncle reached through the bars, it came forward again and snatched the rabbit from his hands. The rabbit screamed between the cat's fangs though it faded quickly as the jaguar held it to the ground and squeezed it in its jaws. Finally I was able to look away, horrified.

"One should never turn away from the sacrifice, Papalotl," Ihuitmal chastised me. "Or someday you might find yourself the one on the sacrificial stone."

I hesitated to look up but when I did, the jaguar had already dragged its kill into the tree and was tearing the fur off.

"Everyone must eat, child," Ihuitmal said then he sat on the bench. "But we were talking of other things, of stories your mother's telling you."

From the Work in Progress

2008-04-24T15:24:18Z

I've decided to experiment a bit with posting small excerpts of what I'm working on, no more than a couple hundred words at a time, along with my daily progress. I've seen other folks do it, and though typically I don't read excerpts, I get that some folks like to and so maybe folks would be interested in seeing bits and pieces of what I'm working on.

My big project at the moment is the second rewrite of my novel Morning Star Rising, and the following is an excerpt from what I wrote yesterday:

"There wasn't any interesting talk at all," Jade Flower said.

I threw her a sharp glare then told Black Otter, "I'm going to be a sister!"

"Yeah, so, what's special about that?" he asked.

I pushed his shoulder in mock outrage. "My mother's having a baby."

"But you said she couldn’t have any more."

"The Feathered Serpent blessed her," Jade Flower replied and this time I elbowed her for interrupting me.

Black Otter raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

I nodded. "He's given her and the king a son."

"That's splendid!"

Jade Flower snorted. "Don't listen to him, Papalotl. Brothers are the bane of every girl's life, slinking along the walls like rodents and shooting arrows at your dolls."

I was about to argue against her when her brother Itzcoyotl came up behind us and snatched Jade Flower's little jeweled flower basket from her hands. "Give it back!" she screamed, turning on him with clawing fingernails.

But he cackled and shoved her back with his foot while holding her basket up out of her reach. "Weeping Woman! Weeping Woman!" he chanted once she dissolved into tears.

"Give it back to her," Black Otter said.

"Shut up, Lake Monster," Itzcoyotl said with a sneer than returned to taunting Jade Flower.

In response, Black Otter punched Itzcoyotl hard in the gut.

Itzcoyotl doubled over, holding his stomach and moaning, but when Black Otter reached for the basket, he threw a fistful of dirt into his eyes. Then he lunged at my cousin like a jaguar mauling a deer.

Progress

2008-04-24T14:17:49Z

Morning Star Rising

2,938 / 150,000
(2.0%)

Finally decided to start keeping track of the word count. Yes, even though I think the word count will actually increase given my changes, I'm still going to aim for 150k. I figure it's worth a try, at the very least. I didn't get done nearly as much as I wanted to yesterday (spent too much time reading LJ), but today I plan to buckle down and work on it all day.

Synopsis Ohoy!

2008-04-23T04:01:59Z

I have synopsis, though it's kind of cruddy right now and just sort of ends with a whimper (I'm really unsure how to write up what I envision the last chapter being like without reiterating stuff that's already been said, so I decided to not talk about it). I am quite pleased with some character renovations I made and now that I've given my protag things to accomplish along the way, she feels much more motivated and forceful about getting her way. Right now it's 7 1/2 pages, which is much improved over the original 15 pages, but I'd still like to get it down to 6 pages if I can (5 would be ideal, but I'm not going to push it yet). I shall go over it again tomorrow morning and see what tweaking I can do, see if I left anything out, then send it off to a couple of friends for their opinions on the plot changes before I get too far into the actual rewrite.

Off to bed now though. I feel very accomplished.