I went on a bucket-list adventure trip, fishing for tuna in Venice, Louisiana. I won’t claim it was on MY bucket list, but when the opportunity presented itself, I was thrilled to enjoy a friend’s bucket-list trip with him. My oldest daughter’s basketball season ended in the first playoff game. They lost by three points and had a three point shot at the end… so close! Great game. Great season. All three of my kids are buried in schoolwork and looking forward to spring break. They always forget that I don’t get a week off from work. 😝 Speaking of work, I am hiring a team of engineers in Costa Rica! I re-downloaded Duolingo to up my Spanish-speaking game. While I’m sure they exist, I am yet to find anyone in Costa Rica with a bad attitude. Pura Vida! Book 2 of Thaumatropic Roots actually decreased in word count over the last couple of weeks. I'm at 34.3k words (35k last newsletter), even though I wrote a couple of new chapters. I think I have at least another couple of weeks of that, where storyline changes create replacements instead of adding to the length. And looking ahead, the pace still isn't right. I thought the changes would fix the pace, but while it bumps up the tension earlier, it doesn't fix the overall pacing problem. For now, I'm just going to forge ahead. And, ironically, writing this newsletter gave me an idea. SPOILER ALERT for this newsletter. This one is very likely to be gone or completely transformed by the time the book is out. Too much reveal? “Ask him,” I said. “Does the Warder carry the bone of a dragon?”
Such an unexpected oddity, the shine of our magic, not quite Ancient, but old. It had to have been from Jenat. We’d argued, even fought. Had she perished? Or, like my daughter, had she given a tooth freely?
“He says… he says they have a dragon bone.” My daughter cocked her head sideways. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what he’s saying. I don’t know who ‘they’ are.”
I’d sent lackeys, and then nieces, to retrieve the bone I’d glimpsed. We collect our dead. They’d failed. Then the bone had disappeared. Bones don’t vanish. Yet it had. Still, the ward of Lairras claimed ‘they’ had it. If so, why couldn’t my nieces see it?
Jenat could See. If that bone were hers…
“I want that bone back,” I said.
Cyrli stared off to the west. “He says they need it,” she informed me.
“I. Want. It. Back!” I said, stomping a foot that caused the mountain to tremble. We would have our dead!
I looked down the Dragon’s Fang to find the troll had returned. The troll’s sight would never be able to pick us out atop the mountain, but I could see it just fine. So I didn’t miss the flare of red in its eyes.
“We are not done,” I said. It was a struggle to lift my bulk off the mountainside, but it would be even harder to fly back up. The mere thought drained me. But my commotion had stirred the Father, and getting on his bad side was the last thing I wanted. “Tell him to hurry,” I said wearily. “Our time is almost at an end.”
Changing topics: my editor, Marla Taviano, is releasing the third book in her series. Not fantasy -- she's one of these crazy people that doesn't escape into fantasy. Yeah, I know... I feel bad for her too. Her book releases March 26. I've quite enjoyed her poems, and find the topic of religious pain... um... "enjoyable?"... in poem form. There. I not only decimated her work, but did so with a sentence she'll be driven to correct. Home run. One of her daughters creates the covers for her books. Perfect, right? Indie Author ShowcasePrevious Newsletters
May you get lost this week in another world. Follow me on Goodreads. |
Hi! If you enjoy fantasy with snarky humor, I've got some books for you. My newsletter takes you along the creative journey, and keeps you informed of what's brewing.
I had a couple of things I wanted to mention. One is what looks like a weird new scam that I haven't worked out yet, and the other is just an update on how I'm doing in marketing. Scam Alert! So, the potential scam. I received an email that looked like this: Your book just gained new reviews from my readers community.<screenshot of a GoodReads book review>Did you get it?Looking forward to hearing from you I followed up with a couple of emails, and I basically think the paid-book-review people...
Last week was Homecoming week, and my younger two girls are both now in High School. It's really something watching how much effort the girls (and their mom and other girls' moms) put into the preparation. Meanwhile my oldest had a rugby tournament, where they awarded her MVP. Certainly a better way to spend her time than watching that Arkansas v Notre Dame football game. Brutal. Yes, to relax, she does rugby and boxing. Any wonder I came up with Red? Really miss having my oldest girl around....
We're a few weeks into the school year, and settling in to the new/old routine, more or less. With my oldest off to college, and my youngest now in High School, I'm getting sentimental about all the lasts. Last time I'll help one of them learn geometry. Last time I'll teach one to drive. Last time I'll find a "box of strawberries" in the fridge that is nothing but stems. It's funny how even the things you don't like become things you miss, innit? My oldest sent me one of her papers from...