So I’ve been chatting on social media this month about The Songweaver’s Vow, sharing tidbits for #WIPjoy. Right now I’m throat-deep in revisions, which is always a challenge but especially so with this book, as I did not write it linearly (start to finish, straight through).
I know a lot of writers who can write out of order. Apparently I am not one of them. These revisions are kicking my butt like… well, like Vikings trashing a fishing town.
I know I’ve talked about the fun and eclectic nature of story research before, but it’s worth returning to. Topics I have researched for this single short story include but are not limited to: the Devils Hole Pupfish the history of Chinese bronze casting the natural history of Kazahkstan cassowary attacks the destructive “Cultural…
Today’s #WIPjoy suggestion is to share a line about fear.
I often have problems with word count, so here’s not a line, but a conversation.
Share a cliffhanger? I’ll keep this short, in the spirit of #WIPjoy, but here’s Euthalia’s first day in the Norse village, beating out communication with the very few words she knows with a kind older woman.
It was fresher than the boat’s provisions, at least, as they had saved the spices and treats to bring back to the village. And Euthalia, no longer surrounded by dozens of strange male warriors, found herself relaxing enough to feel real hunger. She devoured the bread.
“Good, good,” praised Birna. She nodded. “Eat. Tomorrow, slagtoffer.”
Euthalia did not know the word. “Slag — what?”
Birna smiled, a little tightly, and drew her hand across her throat.
Well, then.
Today’s #WIPjoy, Day 9, is a fun one: “Share a line that shows off your antagonist.”
In the spirit of sharing, I’m going to give you not a line, but a whole paragraph.
Here’s the thing: any time you find yourself in Norse mythology, even if you’re just visiting, you’re going to have Loki as an antagonist. That’s the nature of Loki. Even if he’s not the primary antagonist, he’s going to be an antagonist, because Loki. In modern interpretations Loki is often something of an anti-hero, but that’s not consistent with the source material, in which Loki is pretty much just a turd to everyone. (A useful turd, sometimes, but still a turd. And if he does get threatened or beaten fairly often, well, he usually had it coming.)
Today we unveil the cover for C is for Chimera, the next installment in the Alphabet Anthologies and my first appearance there. Are you ready?
So while I was cleaning the house — I do that every epoch or two, believe it or not — I found some index cards with plot notes. I’m not actually an index card plotter, but I did some detective work and determined, based on the debris strata and corresponding artifacts, that these were from a writers’ conference workshop from 2013, I think. We were supposed to invent a novel plot from scratch within the workshop.
Here’s the short summary I found:
“A little help?” called Angie. “I’m down sixty-four hit points! This thing is killing me!” Cassandra didn’t even look up from the figures on the table. “I know! That’s why I’m about to hit it in the head with a mace!” “Cassandra, you’re the cleric! I want some…
So I took your advice and suggestions on colors, and now the shirts are coming.
The shirts are coming.
You want to see one of the designs?
So, I think I’ve mentioned that I have a couple of new short stories in anthologies coming soon. If you’d like to be one of the super-special-awesome people who have it before it releases, you might want to jaunt over to editor Rhonda Parrish’s site and enter to win.…
