Closing Down

I know I said this once before, but this time I really am shutting down this blog. My main blog, Joyously Prolific, is going well and I don't see any reason to have a snippets blog here when I obviously never think to use it!

I'll even being doing the NaNo stuff over there this year.

Come on over.

First Manuscript of the New Year

The story is not titled yet. I suppose I should get to that soon. And it is slipping closer to novel lenght, having just crossed 30k. However, I think I'm going to go in for the ending in the next 10k and then edit it back down to something reasonable.

Here's a snippet from the start -- which really, was just a way for me to get a feel of the character before I got into the story.

One of the clearest memories I have from childhood is me grandfather holding me up so I could wave to the departing ship that sailed from Dublin, taking me cousin Dyfed O'Neil -- and the rest of his family -- off to America. He'd just turned twelve, Dyfed had, and he sailed with his parents and four sisters. I would miss Dyfed, who had been me closest male relative with all the other O'Neils I'd known had already gone to America. He'd given me his precious rock collection, there on the docks before he left -- a small wooden box with bits and pieces of odd stone in it. I'd been barely five, but I swore then that I'd follow him and give it back.

And I did, eventually but it was a long eighteen years between those days on the docks and the time I finally stood on a deck and watched Dublin disappear in a grey foggy morning. I had stayed longer than I wanted, I had -- but after grandda died, I did my best to see after grandma and keep her safe and warm. I worked when I could, stole when I had to, and got into too much trouble in Dublin for it to really be safe for me there. Once I buried the last of me grandparents, I started saving every copper penny I could lay me hands on, and checking the fares on every ship that took to sea. With Hitler moving and the war building on the continent, the price of everything doubled, including the fare to escape. But I kept at it. I wanted to join Dyfed -- a child's dream, but it kept me going in dark days when I lived in alleys and stole more than I worked for. It took me another four years before I finally sailed.

Heading toward the end of the year

I'm scrambling to get my fiction work done as we get closer to the end of the year. I have a rule about finishing everything I start, and clearing everything out by January 1. It's an odd rule, but it works for me. It means I don't let things sit, half finished, and pretend that I'll get to them later. It also allows me to go into each year feeling like I could do anything I wanted.

I'm lucky this year. I just completed my final big nonfiction project for the year. I have one story and two outlines to finish. with the nonfiction piece out of the way, life looks pretty good for the last two weeks of the year.

I'm not certain what I'm going to write in 2007. I have things to consider, but I don't have any of them really set to go.

But I'll be ready when the time comes!

Post NaNo and back to work!

I ended up with two great novels. (Okay, maybe I'm biased.) The Servant Girl is going to need more work than Dancer, but I'm very happy with what I got, especially considering all the side things in life that have been going on. Servant Girl had 102,000 words and Dancer about 98,000 -- so I managed 200,000 words. It was hard work, but I'm glad I did it.

This was, in fact, the hardest NaNo I've ever done. But that's what NaNo is about, isn't it? Pushing yourself to do something that isn't easy for you? Every year I could do 50,0000 words and claim victory, but it wouldn't be helping me grow as a writer. NaNo does that, if only because it allows me to push beyond my current comfort level. I also try to write something a little outside my usual boundaries each year. The Servant Girl was it for this year -- a non-magical fantasy. I'm still not sure I liked the way it turned out, but I'll let it sit for a while and see.

Dancer was a different sort of work, and I think I finally got something there that I like, after three completely new versions of the novel.

Now, I'm back to other work, though. Today, I finished the final edits of Paid in Gold and Blood today, a book that I've been working on for about four years. It will be heading to DAW, I think, early next week. That was a huge amount of work as well, but I'm happy with the end result.

I am also working on a database of information from my stories since some of the stories use the same locations and sometimes minor characters can turn up in various places. I'm using Access since I'm familiar with it and I can get what I want easily there. I can add material into it as I work on different stories, and it should be fun.

Yes, I have odd ideas of fun. Like no one here noticed.

But NaNo is done, and this blog will soon go back to regular snippets and odd writing things for the next few months.

Well, yes, I got busy!

I didn't realize it had been quite so long since I updated here!

I am currently at 96,069 for Dancer and 198,154 for the month. So, yes, good month. Good books and a lot of fun. I still have a ways to go on Dancer, but I should finish soon.

Despite everything, I've had fun. I'm already starting to get back to work on other things as well. Writing on other stuff... which means my total for the month is going to be over 200,000 though not by much, I think.

So here is a snippet -- some of the last stuff I've written, in fact. It's a scene that's really post-novel since I got to the end of that plot, but I've added it in and found that I really like where it's going, and will have to work it in to the actual book, or into the next one in the series.

Snippet:

When she reached the glass cube, Epona glanced her way with a look of worry, and keyed open the sliding glass door that let the few worthy people into her office. Devlin came through with a nod and the door slid closed, leaving them in an odd, quiet little space in the midst of chaos.

"Are you all right?" Epona asked, waving for her to sit down.

"Nearly healed," she said. "It's not really that serious."

"Good." Epona watched as Devlin took the seat in front of her. "So why are you here?"

"I screwed that last case up," she said, leaning back. It was easier to say than she thought it would be.

"Not from what I can see."

"I screwed it up," she repeated. "We both know it. If I hadn't chanced on Dancer and joined with Cha, I'd still be sitting there trying to figure out how to get into the bear camp. I'd probably be sitting there thinking what a shame it was that the scientist died in an accident."

"No," Epona said. She leaned back as well. "No. You'd have figured that one out. You never believed in coincidence and chance."

She gave a little shrug of acceptance. "But still --"

"What is this really about? You've had worse cases. You've lost people on cases, but you didn't on this one -- and it was because you were smart enough to pull your two companions through the trouble."

She winced a little at that reminder of other ghosts, even though the people who had died had not been her fault. She'd always done the best she could, and she had done the same on Forest. She knew it. And it hadn't been enough.

"I think I want to quit," she said aloud.

Epona's eyes went wide. People would note that outside the cube, even if they couldn’t quite guess at what was being said.

"You can't really be serious. What would you do? Go work in some office somewhere?" she said and waved her hand at her own desk.

"You did it."

Epona sighed and sat forward this time. She pushed aside chits and her comp screen and keyboard. This was an intimate conversation, the kind you didn't share with the others who might have picked up the knack of reading lips. Damned hard working in an office full of spies sometimes. Devlin leaned forward as well.

"I had to leave the field, Devlin. I'd taken some serious injuries in my last field case. The kind where they told me that I wasn't going back out. I still don't have feeling in either of my hands or my right leg. But that's between you and me. This post opened up when Feinman suddenly retired -- and I think he did it to give me a chance at the position. But I'm not going to retire and give it to you, Devlin. I'm not ready to go sit in my room and watch things happen that I can't affect in any way. Do you want to do that? Do you want to give me that gold card right now and walk out of here and never come back?"

"Hell."

"Yes, that's what it would be. So tell me what you really want."

Day 19 -- 10,028-- 57,991/Dancer 160,076 total

I have had three 10k days in a row. It's been a long time since I've done anything like that. Okay, the start of the month, but the first week of NaNo is always exceptional forme. later, though... I am usually fighting for 3 or 4k at this point.

I'm doing well -- at least for the NaNo stuff. I can't say the rest of my life is working as well, but I'll get back to it soon.

Sitting down and forcing yourself to write is difficult some days. Today was one of those for me. My mind kept leaping off into other things. I wanted to work on an article for Vision. I needed to answer emails or do some house cleaning. I managed to avoid almost all of those things. And I'm glad. It was Sunday. I wrote. All is well in the world.

And now I will sleep.

Snippet:

Dancer nodded. "We were talking about Earth Normal."

"Yes. Like I said, it can't apply to terra formed worlds, because none of them can ever be earth, no matter what flora and fauna -- the plants and animals -- the planners bring in. The things introduced to a new world always mutate. And the term means even less on a world like this, which was habitable from the start."

"If plants and animals mutate, what about the humans?"

"The higher up the evolutionary scale, the slower the rate of change," Cha answered.

Dancer nodded again. "But we are changing."

"Yes. I'm amazed that you caught on to what most people ignore. We began the change ourselves, and not just with leaving earth. It came with the first fifty years of the new regen drugs out of Terra Nova. It turned out that the drug did more than help heal wounds and help people recover from what had been deadly diseases. It also renewed tired cells. It was pervasive and worked into the DNA, and within one lifetime, life spans suddenly doubled. And there it stopped, having reached the limit of its own powers. But we all carry the new strand of regen DNA in our own makeup now, and pass it on to new generations, so everyone benefits from it."

"Is that why I've survived when I shouldn't have?"

"Some of it, probably," Cha agreed. "It was lucky that the regen drugs hit before we'd spread beyond the Centauri system and Terra Nova. And we're lucky that the scientists who found it turned out to be altruistic, rather than greedy. They were able to spread the regen out to everyone in those early years. And then the new birth control and the opening of new colonies saved us from a (something) in the birth rate. So we survived, and here we are."

Day... what day is it, anyway?

Oh. My trusty computer tells me that it's the 19th. Only twelve more days of NaNo counting today.

(Looks at outline for Dancer)

Okay, time to get moving again. I've had two 10K days in a row, and I think I need a couple more in order to get comfortable for the end of the month. It also looks as though Russ will be home for Thanksgiving this year, so we'll do a little fun stuff of our own.

I currntely have 47,963 on Dancer and a total of 150,048 words for NaNo. I think Dancer is about half way through, so it might come in at about 100k total. That would be fun. I've never written two 100k novels in one month. (Last year it was one 100k and two shorter pieces -- much easier, in some ways, because you can see the end.)

Now it's time for me to get back to work on things. I have some other stuff I need to take care of today, too... but I'm going to start out with a bit of writing.

And here is a snippet from the last few days of writing:

The best job was not to be mayor or council person in Woodvine, and live like a sheep among sheep. They didn't have painted doors. The best job was Governor of the camp, and Storm intended to have that job before too much longer. He had been working toward it for most of his life, and the more mistakes Spring made -- and she had made quite a few of late -- were only going to play in his favor.

Things would change once he was in charge. The dancers were going to pull their own weight in the camp, the hunters would get the respect they deserved, and he'd tell everyone what they could and couldn't do

He let his hand brush against the unnaturally silky surface of the door for a brief moment. When he became Governor, he'd paint the door blood red.

He pushed the door open and stepped inside the small outer office, nodding to the man who sat at the desk, whose job mostly consisted of jotting down notes and filing paperwork that kept track of their supplies. The clerk looked up from the desk, frowning.

"The Governor is in the conference room. Go straight in."

Storm almost stopped and stared in shock. He had never, in all the years Spring had been Governor, not been held in the outer office at least half an hour, even when she had sent for him. The idea that he was being sent straight into the conference room without any wait or announcement could not be good. He turned, hoping he hadn't stood there too long already, and started down the long hall. Blue light cubes, imported from the IWC, lit the hall in an unnatural glow. He passed three doors where he could hear people working, and came at last to the end of the hall and door open to the conference room.

Governor Spring sat at the head of the table, and five of her top people sat around her, leaving the end, where he stood, empty. He gave a nod to Spring but didn't acknowledge any of the others. None of them looked happy. There was not the usual scattering of papers around the table either, which meant whatever had happened must have been rather recent.

None of these people liked him, from the Governor through the lowest of her flunkies. It showed in the narrowing of their eyes, the disdain as they looked him over, as though he had just climbed up out of the slime to appear before them.

Without a doubt, the feeling was mutual.

Spring looked up and folded her hands on the table in front of her. "We have a new problem. Dancer has gone off with the IWC scientist."

He felt the anger build up again, and he couldn't keep it from his voice this time. He leaned forward, both hands on their precious desk and stared at her. She didn't flinch, though two of her people visibly backed away.

"I told you we should have killed him before now," Storm reminded her.

"We tried," she said, her eyes narrowing.

"And I told you Dancer is too good. You'll never kill him in the ring."

"No matter," he said, and lifted a hand as though to fling those words away. "We have a problem now."

"And what do you think should be done about it this time?" he said, finally standing back up. He knew, now, why they had called him in. They always did that when they had something they needed done that none of them could handle.

Spring looked around the table at her companions, but whatever they'd decided was already agreed to. The others said nothing.

"We have heard that Dancer will be going out with the scientist and that nosy guard, Devlin, to look at wild bears."

"By aircar?" he said and felt a little twitch in his shoulders.

"Yes," Spring said. She even, unexpectedly, smiled. "You're good with that kind of equipment. Make certain they don't come back."

"That's not very subtle," he said with a shake of his head.

She looked up and met his stare, her face going unexpectedly hard in that moment. "We're way past time for subtlety, Storm. He's already told them a great deal about bears, and we don't want the scientist to find out more, now do we? We don't want him reporting what he's learned, or finding a reason to bring the military into this."'

"They wouldn't. They haven't yet."

"Not yet. But they've never had any information on bear dancing before, except what they see in the ring. They don't know what we do here... except that Dancer is now telling them everything."

He nodded, considering the things Dancer knew -- enough, of course, to bring IWC censure down them.

"Try to get Dancer away from them before they go out," Spring said, looking up and meeting his stare. He started to curse at that, but she shook her head. "We want to know what he's aid and what reports might have already been filed, so we can make certain we have everything covered here, just in case. But if you can't him, we'll do our best anyway, and Dancer shares the fate of the scientist and his guard."

"Shares their fate," he said with a smirk. Such a fancy way of saying murder.

But there was a certain amount of joy at seeing Spring have to come to him for this. There was no one else in the camp who knew much about aircars, but he'd made sure he could work on the one they had for hunting.

She would owe him for this one.

Day 15: 7630 (21778/Dancer -- 123,863 total)

Half way!

We've crossed the midway mark for NaNo. I don't know if I'm happy that we've gone this far already, or worried that I'm running out of time. The second novel is going very well, though. I just know that I will have less time to work on it as the month progresses.

We'll see. So far I've managed to get a few other things done around the NaNo madness. Not enough, but I'll start focusing on them again, and see what I can get done.

I hope others are having fun with the work this month. I always enjoy the rush of NaNo!

Here is a snippet from Dancer:

They were headed out the door into a cool, bright morning. Cha stepped out first with his bag of gadgets slung over his shoulder, and Dancer followed, holding to the cane with one hand and limping still, but moving a little faster. The morning seemed too quiet to her, but then they always did on this world. Even the military base didn't have the same constant noise of the other worlds where she'd been. It seemed as though the world of Forest required quiet, and as Devlin came out of the building, even she carefully pulled the door closed so that it didn't make much noise.

And she realized, as she started to turn to join the others, that someone came around the side of the building toward them. She spun --

But Dancer moved far faster. He dropped the cane, spun on one foot, and brought the other up until the heal of his left foot rested against the neck of a very surprised, but unhurt, man.

"Idiot," Dancer said and pulled back. "You should know better than to sneak up on a bear dancer."

It was something Devlin certainly intended to remember. The man though, and the two women with him, paid no attention to Dancer at all. He could have been invisible, and Dancer, just a little tired of the game, apparently, shook his head in disgust and started to pick up the cane. Cha got it for him instead.

"We are here to point out to you that you are acting in ways that are not acceptable on Forest," one of the women said. She had the tone of an old-fashioned school teacher, and the look she gave Devlin was probably meant to quail any question of her authority. Devlin, though, wasn't much impressed and she could see Cha wasn't, either. "Your behavior can have serious repercussions if you don't take our suggestion and remove yourselves from the company of this person."

Devlin stepped up beside Dancer. Cha moved to the other side of Dancer, and by doing so, the people were forced to at least acknowledge that Dancer was present. It annoyed the woman, who's piggish eyes narrowed as her face colored.

Devlin ran a hand down her uniform jacket. "You see this? It means I am not one of your people. Neither is Dr. Cha Hao San. You may be able to play these kinds of game with you own people, but don't bother us again. We have work to do."

"We warned you --" the woman began.

"No," Cha said, cutting her short. "You didn't warn us; you threatened us. And you didn't do it very well, either. I suggest that you go make a study of diplomacy. In the meantime, as Lt. Devlin pointed out, we have work to do."

The man reached for Dancer again and looked back in shock when Devlin suddenly caught hold of his arm. "Don't do that again," she said.

He took her seriously this time. The three backed up and watched as they went to the aircar. Cha used the commlink to key it open and she slid in over to the pilot's position, though she really didn't want to be the first one in. Dancer slid into the backseat again, but from the look on his face, he plainly didn't know if this was a good idea or not. Devlin didn't give him a chance to change his mind. As soon as Cha was in and seated, she keyed the aircar on. Belts slid into place and she took them up, giving a quick glance to the three by the building. They were already walking away, and she didn't think they need worry about Cha's equipment.

"You handled that very well, Cha," Devlin said with a nod toward him.

"I have plenty of practice." He leaned back and gave a little shrug, settling his equipment on the floor beside him. They were already sweeping past the last buildings of Woodvine and over the fields. "People are often worried when I examine the systems that will keep them alive. They get surly and rude."

"What if you find something wrong?" she asked, taking them up a bit higher.

"I always find something wrong. We're aliens everywhere we colonize. We bring change and it's rarely good. I'm there to find the balance and make certain that things that are going bad don't get worse. I'm saving them from disaster."