Snippets of August

Below are some snippets from my current secret project:

William shook his head, mumbling to himself. He was not sure what he had expected from his father’s return, but this boisterous man before him was not it.

***

“Prince William?” Peter called, lifting his torch to see his master. “So God has seen fit to bring you both back to us in one piece, eh?”

***

...And William awoke in a sweat. He drew a shaky breath, silently cursing his father for ruining his dreams with his return. Then he raised his head from the pillow and looked about him, hoping that the sight of reality would drive his dream into oblivion.

***

The prince raised his hand, pointing an angry finger toward Decellus. “You think you have beaten me, but I will outsmart you yet!” he threatened.

Decellus smiled, his eyes crinkling up in amusement. “Good,” he said. “You do that.”

***

“I always thought it was care for the people and support of her husband that were a queen’s first duties,” she argued, hating to think ill of Leramay’s queen that had died ten years before.

***

She reached the bottom of the stairs and ran across the atrium. Yanking the door open, she cast one last spiteful glance up at the prince. “You are a dead man, William of Leramay,” she hissed.

***

But superstitious minds fanned the sparks of impossibilities into a roaring flame of certainty.

***

“You know I don’t believe that for an instant,” Taralia said. “Others may be fooled but not I. I know exactly what your cruel father has done, and we both know exactly how to reverse it.”

***
William held his breath as he walked into the room. After what he had done, he was sure to get a furious scolding, but Decellus only looked up and smiled. It was the smile that surprised William. It looked so contented and encouraging, and William was completely unprepared for it.

Comments

Goodbye and God Be With You

It's rather fitting that some things come to a close on this day -- the last day of the year. I submitted my last entry into the Rooglewood contest this morning. I can hardly believe it took me until the day of the deadline to send it in because I'm usually earlier than that. And, even with the extra time I took, I still felt a little bit like maybe I could have done better if I had more time. But there was no feeling of regret when I hit "send." Mostly it was just a prayer that Rooglewood would hear the heart of the message when they read it and that maybe, if I win, they could help me bring the full potential out of my little story. And there was also a feeling, after working on these stories for more than six months, that it felt good to close that chapter and move on to the next one. I did it. I wrote them. And I'm really proud of them. Last year, the act of hitting "send" on my contest entry catapulted me into an anticipatory state....

Wherein I Still Have My Nose and Ears

I decided to take the plunge. I was going to chop a plot thread out of AAM so the story would fit in the contest word length restrictions. I saved my old version and set up a copy for me to modify. Stories are like woven cloth. Each plot thread is woven into the entire story. So if I decide to cut a character or a side-theme, I have to go through the whole book, chopping out the references to it. This leaves gaping holes and sometimes it looks like the whole story is going to unravel. Everywhere I chop, I have to readjust the whole scene to keep the flow. It's a rather ticklish procedure. Over the dinner table, I mentioned that I was chopping a sub-plot. My younger sister protested loudly (she hasn't read it, but I previously told her the general idea). Then my mom (who also hasn't read it) offered to read it and tell me what she thought could and couldn't be chopped. ...

Rooglewood Countdown: 12 days

For the next 12 1/2 days, as we do our final countdown until March 31st, I'm going to do 4 posts asking about something you would like to see in the Snow White collection. There are so many ways all of us, writers and readers alike, can win in this contest. Maybe a familiar name makes it into the final five -- hurray! Maybe a story in your favorite genre ended up in the collection this year -- woohoo! Maybe you finally get to read a winning story about an evil king and his Snow White son -- how awesome! So, in celebration of all the many things we can root for, I want to know some of the things that you think would be cool to find in this year's set of winners. Without further ado, here is my question for the day: What is a point of view you would like to see in this collection? Would you like a story written from the prince's perspective? A story from Snow White's p...

The Pen of a Ready Writer

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