And, yes, I'm going to be doing more plot-important snippets. I feel that it's only fair after all of the fact plot twists that I shared on that April Fool's joke. Some of these snippets I HAVE shared before, elsewhere, but I love sharing.
Also, in writing news, I finished The Seven Drawers on Tuesday! 15,000 words! In less than two months! This is the fastest that I have EVER taken a book from concept to completion. There is a bit of a scene that I'm considering adding to the end, but ... for now, the story is done, which means that, for the first time, I WILL be able to enter the Rooglewood contest.
(Now I'm wondering if I should go ahead and write the second idea that I have spinning around in my head - Red as Snow. We shall see.)
Amberite Art Credit: Hannah Rogers |
One evening, when Adrian was, as usual, in the library
hoping for a chance to meet with his sister, he heard giggling.
It wasn’t terribly unusual. The library was popular for
stolen meetings between lovers. Yet Adrian was bored, so he unconsciously
wandered towards the giggling.
As he expected, he found a young couple just a few shelves
down. They seemed to be about Adrian’s age, perhaps a bit older, and both wore
expensive clothing. He wore a number of finely-crafted weapons. She, an array
of jewelry that didn’t strictly go together. He was whispering in her ear,
hands trailing through her long, frizzy, brown hair. She was the one giggling.
Adrian was about to back away and leave them to it when her
head shot up and she locked eyes with him. All mirth instantly vanished, and
even her lover removed his hands and backed away.
There was no guilt in either of them, however, as Adrian was
accustomed to seeing in the couples that he had caught in similar situations.
“Adrian, there you are,” the girl said, in a thick accent. “Your
mother said that we were likely to find you here.”
“My mother…” Adrian repeated. “You know about me? You know
who I am?”
The girl’s lips twisted into a smile. “Adrian, I was there
for your birth. Besides, you are the image of your father, and there is no
mistaking.”
Adrian drew back. “You were … but you can’t be much older
than I am, if that.”
“I am flattered by your kind words, but in truth, I am much older than I look,” the woman responded. “My husband and I have seen the passing of nearly three thousand years. I was there for your birth, yes, and I was there for the birth of this very world.”“You’re…” Adrian took a step back, realizing who this couple was. He swallowed down fear and awe. “The immortal king and queen.”
- The Worth of a King.
“I don’t remember there
being deserts in Rizkaland.”
Reuben opened his eyes
at Rich’s words. Sure enough, orange sand stretched away as far as the eye
could see.
“Rintae Isle,” said
Andrew. “It had been settled during your reign, but the inhabitants only really
came to our attention during mine and Clara’s. Caused quite a bit of trouble,
and was the reason I missed most of Clara’s first pregnancy.”
“Ah,” said Rich. “So do
you have any idea where we are?”
Andrew glanced about,
his hand brushing the hilt of his sword. “In the middle of the desert. There
aren’t any landmarks in sight, even less ones that I recognize. A better
question would be when are we. How long has it been since our last visit?”
“Maybe you arrived
before,” Laura suggested, mischievously. For some reason – probably because she
had helped focus his mind after Petra disappeared – Reuben could actually feel
the girl’s mind.
“Did we?” asked Clara,
her voice even, lighthearted, but Reuben saw that she tightened her hold on
Andrew's arm.
Laura gave a small giggle. “We are about five hundred years after Reuben, Petra, and their siblings left at the end of their reign.”
“That would mean that it’s a thousand and five hundred since ours,” Andrew observed.
“Well, if math serves, that would be correct,” Laura confirmed.
- Love and Memory
“Thing is, I’m not quite sure how to reward the two of you,” Arthur continued. “I mean, there’s
the usual money and honors and all … but, I don’t know, it just feels way too
impersonal to me. I’d like to reward the two of you in ways that are unique to
you. So, I’d like to know, here and now, what you two would like – and, so long
as it’s within reason and my power to grant, I’ll see what I can do.”
“So … anything?” asked Leo, leaning forward.
“Anything within my power and within my power to grant,”
Arthur repeated. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that I can’t set you up with half
my kingdom or grant nobility. I think that’s a bit of a stretch for just
friendship.”
“Oh, but I could have really used half your kingdom,” said
Leo, leaning back, forcing a cocky grin and a bit of a laugh. Seriously,
though. Maybe he’d be a bit less unlucky if he had that behind him.
Shira leveled a glare at him, but Arthur just laughed. “I’m
sorry, but I only have half the kingdom to begin with, so … are there any other
wishes that I can grant?”
...
Arthur shifted his attention to Leo. “What about you? Since
you can’t have half the kingdom, is there anything else that you’d like?”
It would be so easy to throw on a grin, quip something
smart-alecky. A small sum of money would be fine enough … but it was it what
Leo really wanted? No. It wasn’t.
Even as he threw on his carefree grin, it turned into a
frown and he glanced away from the prince.
“No…” he said. “What I want … it isn’t in your power. You
already said that you can’t grant me nobility.”
“You wish…”
“Not for me,” said Leo, leaning forward. “Not entirely, at
least. I could care less about the power and prestige and all. That’s all just
a big mess of annoyance. But I’d be willing to put up with it … for her.”
“Her?” Shira repeated, her voice feather-soft.
Leo shrugged. “Yeah. Her.” He stood. “I don’t want to talk
about it. If you want details, you could ask Prince Eric – he knows. Tell him
it happened two years ago if you need to jog his memory. Just know … without a
title … actually that’s why I’m here.”
With that, he left the room, not even waiting to be
dismissed.
- The Quest for the Quince
“SeƱorita?”
She jerked her attention to the menu she held in her hands.
“Ah, yes, what do I want. Food, that’s for certain. I want food…”
“She’ll have a taco salad, Italian dressing,” Jeremy
interrupted, even as she flipped through the menu. “Chicken for the meat.”
“Will that be all?” the waiter asked.
“For now,” Jeremy answered.
And the waiter was gone before Jennifer could form any sort
of protest. So she turned to Jeremy instead. “Maybe I didn’t want a taco salad!”
“And maybe pigs can fly,” Jeremy returned. “You’d have spent
the next fifteen minutes heming and hawing over your options, and you still
would have gone with your safe option of a taco salad.”
Jennifer ducked her head, endeavoring to not give him the satisfaction of a
smile. “Well, you’d better be glad that I like taco salads.”
“Precisely, that’s why I ordered it for you.” Jeremy dipped
a chip into his bowl of hot sauce, nearly yellow it had so much butter, and
crunched it loudly.
She just shook her head.
- The Seven Drawers
“Ah, good, you’re dressed for adventure,” Eric
said, sizing Robin up as Meg took the braid back.
Robin glanced down at her lap, running a hand over
the leather of her pants. “We don’t have anything important planned for today,
so I figured that I might as well dress comfortably.” Her eye followed him as
he sat down on the sofa across from her. “I notice that you’re not in
your royal finery either today.”
He grinned. “So, we’ve not had a moment to each
other since we arrived here, and I really
feel that there are some things that we need to talk about before we actually
make it to the alter tomorrow.”
“Are these things going to … change
anything?” Robin asked, tilting her head to the side and being rewarded by a
sharp tug on her hair. She straightened immediately.
“Hopefully not, but it will largely depend on
you,” Eric answered, a bit of his grin fading. He leaned back. “I need to know
if you’re okay with it yet.”
Robin blinked. “Okay with what?”
“After I … didn’t propose to you, you said that
you that you thought that you would be okay with marrying me, but you
certainly didn’t seem to be then, and I frankly can’t tell if that’s changed.”
Eric leaned forward, eyes boring into her. “I don’t feel comfortable marrying
you if your heart’s not in it.”
Robin closed her eyes and released a long sigh,
fighting every impulse to run – to grab her sword and challenge to a duel. Fighting
was so much easier than discussing her conflicted emotions.
Unfortunately, Meg had a tight hold of her hair,
and she wasn’t going anywhere.
“I’m still not sure,” she admitted. “But if it
makes you feel better, I’m not okay with not marrying you, either. I do know
that.”
She opened her eyes to see that Eric’s eyebrow was
arched.
“Do you need to have it postponed until you can
sort these conflicted emotions out?”
“No, no,” she shook her head violently, even
despite Meg’s protest. “Putting it off will make it worse – it’ll give me more
time to overthink, to second-guess myself. Logically, I know that you’re my
best marriage option – even politically. You love me, even despite all of my
flaws. My gut says to marry you, and I think my heart’s in agreement – the way
you can set it pounding has to count for something.”
“Yet you’re still not okay with it?”
She managed a weak smile. “I spent eleven years
looking for reasons to hate you. Old habits die hard. Even though my mind,
heart, and instincts all agree, none will admit that, and each is arguing with the others as to why they’re
wrong. I think that the only way that I’m going to get them to talk to each
other civilly is to actually marry you.”
- Do You Take This Quest Revision.
The first snippet! Amber and Granite! *grins* They're being cute together, I just know it!
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, are you ever going to write a story in which the Rizkaland characters go back to Rizkaland before they were there the first time? And is the Jennifer in the Seven Drawers story by any chance related to the Jenn in The Ankulen?
*gasp!* How did you EVER guess?
DeleteAs of right now, I don't think so, though book 6 is rather timey-whimey, and something similar kinda happens. I think.
No, Jennifer is a completely separate character from Jenifer. About the only thing they have in common is that they were both only children.
Because they're one of my favorite Rizkan couples for a reason, that's how. <3
DeleteOk, cool.
And the fact that they have the same name, save one N. Just curious.