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| pinterest: wordcrafter |
Today is also a good time to join in the monthly snippets meme from Katie's Whisperings of the Pen. This month and last, I've been focusing on blog-related things for the November blog party, outlines for Tempus Regina, and major rewrites for Wordcrafter - a sort of constant work-in-progress. The latter has only been featured in smatterings here and there, so I hope you will enjoy this more complete array of snippets.
october snippets
Colour—not merely red, but blue and yellow and faded, sickly green—crashed through Justin’s mind like a broken kaleidoscope; he reeled away, stumbled on something and, catching himself on the shelves, dropped his face in the hollow between two books. Dust got in his eyes and his breathing was laboured, but at least it was breathing, and the smell of the room was there to soothe him again.
“You swear?”
Justin struggled to lift his eyelids, staring sightlessly at the title of the tome before him. Murders among the Dark Folk. What irony. He put his head on his arm. “I swear,” he whispered, and then there was silence for a long, comforting time.
- wordcrafter
Ash laughed his fox-laugh, and there was no puckishness about it today. “How brave you’ve gotten, Justin Wordcrafter! To think of you actually making a threat! But we taught you how to fight; don’t think you can beat us at our own game.”
- wordcrafter
Justin’s echoes ran tittering across the floor and up the walls, and into silence in the dark crannies of the room; his own hard breathing remained, mingling with the king’s and with the husky voice of the leaves on the window outside. Light and shadow splattered the chamber, and the puddle forming about Justin’s feet shone unbearably white while he kept on dripping. Splip, splip, splip... The sound broke into his consciousness after a long while and it occurred to him how horribly pathetic he must look, like some half-drowned rat dumped on the king’s threshold.
- wordcrafter
“You bitter fool,” he said. “What has he ever done that you see him so, except have Gypsy blood? And was that his fault? By Tera! Was it mine, that you throw me in the breach between him and you? You are nothing but a bitter fool and a coward—and a hypocrite, to cast up Tera’s laws to me!”
- wordcrafter
The water-voice had grown distant, but the flow of it sounded like a song: far off and wordless, but comforting; and something in him woke to the memory of it. It was the lullaby Ethan had played on the Fairbairns’ harp. He could see the colour of it, blue like Tera’s sky, and it was leaning down to touch him; a face took shape in it, pale as the sun, and all rimmed with fire that burned him to his heart.
- wordcrafter
"...Will you lend me your shoulder, or are you going to hold a grudge?”
How swiftly he could burst the bubble of another man’s anger! Justin felt lost without it; his shoulders slackened, and the haze flooded through his mind again until he could barely sort out Ethan’s face from the fluttering golden background of the grass. “No,” he sighed, and stooped to give the Hound support. “You hold enough for the two of us.”
- wordcrafter
Everything underneath him—he had not known there was anything underneath him—went suddenly askew, and Tera tilted wild on her axis. Did Tera have an axis? Did it matter?
- wordcrafter
She broke the stare first, deliberately turning the handle and stepping inside, and then, when she had shut the door at her back, standing very still to look at him once more. The bouquet she held flashed in the light, reds and yellows and greens; but Justin was most conscious, oddly, of a pair of brilliant purple wedges peeking from beneath the hems of her slacks.
- wordcrafter
I love this, Abigail! So many cool bits and pieces--I'm glad we're seeing more of Wordcrafter.
ReplyDeleteYay, the purple wedges! And for some dangblasted reason I saw, not Jamie's sister, but Dana Scully. o_O
ReplyDeleteI just have to say that this is all awesome, Abigail. I know you fret about it, but this is top-notch, really and truly. "I was surprised by our conversation." Anyway, I think I liked the first excerpt best: it was very vivid, and as I am nursing what could be the beginnings of a headache myself, I could really imagine my own head coming down with a bang on a bookshelf and (adding insult to injury) the books on either side collapsing on the back of my skull with impious thumps. Fun stuff! ^.^
Aha, so you noticed the interesting date as well? It made me giggle a little as I wrote it down on my math lesson. ;)
ReplyDeleteThese snippets are splendid, Abigail. Absolutely mah-velous. :) Especially that 2nd to last one. <3
I only noticed the date because I had to pay bills. :P
ReplyDeleteRachel - Aw, thank you! It's been fun writing these characters again, and playing with different ideas. It fills the time until November!
ReplyDeleteJenny - Just from images of Scully, it's not a bad model; perhaps a little older than Lizzy, though. And yes, I had to get those wedges into a snippet.
I'm really glad you liked these. The section from which the first came was jolly fun to write, but I was afraid it would give away too much if I included any more.
Bree - I had fun writing the second-to-last snippet and its surrounding section. Playing with the thoughts of someone in a fever is a little difficult, as things are necessarily vague, but it's also fun to see the rambling of the character's ideas. Glad you liked them!
Wow. @ Bree Holloway - I was going to comment the exact thing you said! About writing the date down on a math lesson. Exactly the same for me! Bizarre. :D
ReplyDeleteLoved these snippets! You seem to write with such ease, and yet your words are always intricate, spun like a spider web. :)
Beautiful horse picture, by the way.
B
These were all vivid and amazingly well writ, Abigail. Of course, I hope I told you I thought it was the highest caliber before I saw these. Wordcrafter just seems a treasure of reading.
ReplyDeleteOh, Abigail! Your snippets are so beautiful, so vivid! I know I've said it a million times before, but you have such a way with words! :)
ReplyDeleteI also thought of some more questions I wanted to ask you because they bug me every now and then, and I am think I am the only one with some of these problems!
ReplyDelete*Can you write as well in a notebook as you can on a computer?
*With writing, and blogging, and other computer related business (mine is selling photography), do you find half of your life is spent on the computer, and do you ever fear your wasting time writing?
*Do you find one page chapters permissible in some cases?
Thanks!
B
*Oh! Help! Help! Abigail has posted snippets of 'Wordcrafter'!!!!*
ReplyDelete:D, I am going to love you something fierce for showing us more from 'Wordcrafter' snippets, Abigail. These snippets were just plain brilliant snatches of rare silver jewels... I loved them all, and can't quite choose a favourite, though perhaps the first four were extra, extra special :). And I love Justin's character. Enough said.
Thank you for sharing!!
I like the snippets! Its cool.
ReplyDeleteB. - Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed this peek at Wordcrafter. And that photo is gorgeous, isn't it? Great questions, by the way.
ReplyDeleteLilly - Well, technically all of these snippets are new, so you haven't read them before! But I am glad you liked the story so much. Hopefully my tweaks will make it even better.
Emily - Aw, thank you! You're very sweet.
Joy - You make me smile. And that's enough said.
Aritha - Thank you!
About the date thing. I find I quite like such dates myself. But at the same time I find it slightly amusing. If we were to place any real significance on such days, that significance only applies in some parts of the world and not at all in others. While our calendar system is based on some very real facts, it also has a degree of arbitrariness about it. In particular, for me, October 11, 2012 has absolutely no (patterned) significance. Since I've used the British dating convention my whole life, that date (which in spoken discussion I would refer to as "the eleventh of November twenty-twelve" - or perhaps "oh-twelve") I would write in abbreviated form 11/10/12. For me the more interesting day will be what you call "November tenth" which I will indeed write as 10/11/12. Arbitrary indeed. And I realise that had nothing to do with your snippets, but if seemed like an observation worth commenting on.
ReplyDelete