sharp lessons
I’ve made decent progress on “Nightfighter”. 31,000 words in twenty days. Assuming I don’t give up in despair at some point (ever a danger when writing novels; a writer’s greatest enemy is his own mind), I think I’m still on track to finish the rough draft by December 22nd.
Today’s amusing excerpt:
“Halfdan tells me you are very observant,” said Akragas. “So. What do you see about me?”
Caina shrugged. “You’re Kyracian. I can tell from your accent. And…I think you used to be a soldier, one who spent a lot of time on a ship.”
“Very good,” said Akragas. “Perhaps you are observant enough to see this coming?”
He slapped her. Not very hard, but not hard enough to hurt, but Caina stumbled, losing her balance. His hand had moved so fast that she hadn’t been able to follow the movement.
“Why did you do that?” said Caina.
“To see if you could block it,” said Akragas.
“You could have warned me, at least,” said Caina, scowling at him.
Akragas scoffed. “Little girl, I did warn you. My feet said that I would slap you. My shoulders said that I would slap you. My hands all but shouted that I would slap you. If you are to deaf to hear…well, then it is your own fault. You should listen better.”
“Then teach me,” said Caina.
Akragas nodded. “Very well. Let us see if you can learn to hear or not.”
After the first session, she was so sore and bruised that she could barely sleep. Which wasn’t all that bed, considering it meant no nightmares.
In “Nightfighter”, Caina is only eleven (at least for this scene), but in “Ghost Rage”, she’s almost twenty-nine. Writing two simultaneous stories with the same character eighteen years apart kind of splits one’s head down the middle, it does.
-JM