I was reading the other day and marked down this because I thought of THIS section of your blog...

"Twenty minutes later, Pender was grinning too as he left police headquarters, his enormous butt balanced precariously atop a tiny white Vespa motorbike that kept threatening to turn itself into a suppository every time it hit a bump, of which there were plenty on the cobbled streets of Dansker Hill."

-taken from Twenty-Seven Bones by Jonathan Nasaw

Bwahahaa! That's hilarious!!

I absolutely love it. That is phenomenal. Thank you for marking and sharing!

This is from a stalled project that i was thinking about today. Sort of Anne McCaffrey meets Dinotopia meets something else entirely.

"The winter morning broke without much fanfare. In Escalon, the sun shone down n from pale blue skies on the city nestled in the rocky arms of a great mountain range, perched leagues above the valley on a plateau. Millions teemed in the city, moving like ants in an upturned mound of carved stone, leaving behind them the stench of wood smoke from the night’s fires, the waste thrown out onto the street to freeze, and the never-ending noise of a city that never truly slept."

Ooo... You're combining two of my favorites!! I want to read this!

I really really like the ants in an upturned mount of carved stone. That's a really brilliant description. The rest is good too, but I'm completely wowed by the other.

Di

Okay, I confess I giggled a little when I read "Her body flushed hot with heat..." Please don't hit me.

I distract you with snippetage! Ha HA!

Okay, it's 3:32 am. I'm a little loopy. Moving on...

It was a skeleton key, in fact; the bow was fashioned with the Krankshadow crest and the barrel had a double bit on one side instead of alternating, but there was no mistaking it.
"Now this is interesting," Evie mused. "I wonder what it goes to? All the doors I've seen in this place have spiderlocks on them."
"Unknown."
"It's very old, judging by the tarnish. Maybe it goes to older parts of the House."
"Unknown."
"Well,” said Evie, “that means only one thing. I'm going to have to go exploring."
"Affirmative."
Evie pulled the chain out from her shirt, slipped the sheared stub off, and put the key on it. It was heavier than her old one, and sat awkwardly between her breasts. It was cold, too. But she had got used to the old one eventually. She would get used to this one too.
"I knew you'd see it my way," she said to Mahler. "Now hold these plate-gappers open for me whilst I muck around in your innards."
"Affirmative."
Once she was satisfied that the hip's going train would hold together and not shear the teeth off the secondary gears, she let Mahler pop the plate-gappers off and snapped the panels closed. She had him take a few experimental trips around the room. Unfortunately it wasn't really large enough for him to get any sort of speed up.
"Let's take that leg for a walk."
Considering his size and weight, Mahler's action was incredibly quiet. Evie desperately wanted to see the Doctor's machining shop to find out how he ground cogs to such fine tolerances. The idea of lining the housing panels with sheets of knurled rubber was brilliant; Evie had already determined how that aided in damping the noise of so many metal parts rubbing together.
"I bet you're glad to get out of that closet," Evie said, feeling her face growing hot with pride as he strode smoothly along beside her.
"Affirmative."
"Oh, let's fix that right now. Statement chain redirect, substitute pathway, 'affirmative' redirects to 'yes'."
She heard his reckoning engine whir and click.
"Did that work?"
"Affirmative."
"Mahler," Evie said, warning creeping into her voice.
"Yes."

I said it before . . . I like this project. A lot. I'm really curious about the key.

And as for the heat thing . . . *face slap* I'm a dork. See, revision and editing will be a good thing.

Di

Right, the key. As soon as *I* figure out what it's for, I'll let you know :)

Remember that snippit a few weeks ago about the dude in the rafters adjusting himself? I'm re-writing that story with female protagonist for the MZB open antho call:

Nadia Cormier waited.
This in and of itself wasn’t unusual. When one was in her profession, one got used to waiting. Nadia once lay underneath a table for nearly two full days without moving to eat, drink, or relieve herself. When the time came, she barely had enough strength to summon her power. She did, and the target was eliminated, but she had learned a lesson: for an assassin, the art of waiting and the art of killing were so intertwined as to be indistinguishable.
No, it wasn’t the fact that she had stood across the street from the Do Tumble Inn for three hours that troubled her. For the first time in her professional career, she was impatient.

I'm totally cribbing your icon, by the way. Love it!

I gacked that one too. Run with it!

I'm not sure it's possible to not relieve the bladder for that long . . . is it? It hurts just to think about it. So what's the antho theme and what are you doing with this story?

Di

The theme is female sorcerers (scorceresses?) and I thought I'd twist it by making my sorceress an assassin as well. It's due by May 16th and so I don't have a lot of time for dilly dally. Plus I wanted to have my YA WIP done by Wiscon (May 23) so we'll see how it goes. I'm pretty good at setting unatainable goals and, while not meeting them, making way more progress than I otherwise would have.

Good point about the peeing business. I'll have to change the timeframe. Though, if one isn't drinking, one isn't peeing, either ...

Okay, I'm on my way out the door to a book signing, so I'm posting this for luck - the first few lines from Kestrel's Dance:

“What’ll it be, dearie?” The serving wench swung by, two empty pitchers dangling from one hand.
Kestrel shook her head. “I won’t be here long.”
“Not even long enough for a drink?”
“I’m meeting someone.”
A sparkle leapt into the wench’s eye. “A romantic tryst is it? Here in the middle of the day. You’re a saucy one, you!”
Kestrel’s throat tightened with revulsion at the thought of sharing anything that could be called ‘romantic’ with the man she’d agreed to meet here. “Business. Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Isn’t me who’s disappointed, I reckon,” the wench laughed, flitting away in the direction of the bar.


Wish me good sales today!

Edited at 2008-05-03 02:02 pm (UTC)

May you have sales aplenty!!

Agreed, seconded, dittoed, yepperoni, Amen!

I've started Mad Kestrel. I have a bad bad bad feeling though. When I get to the end I'm going to really really really want the next one, aren't I? Sigh. When's the next one out?

Di

You just put the biggest smile on my face - thank you!

I don't have a release date for the second one yet, but as soon as I do, I'll share.

He groaned when he heard the sound of boots behind him. “Please don’t let them be city watch.”

He turned. “The gods hate me.”

Three members of Seabean Town’s city watch fanned out around the sorcerer and his small burden. Their faces were hard in the moonlight.

“How predictable,” muttered the sorcerer. He put on his best please don’t hurt me smile and tried to look innocent and non-threatening.

“What are you doing on the street, elf? It’s pretty late to be about, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about good sir. The night is young and full of, er, moon and it seemed perfectly reasonable to take a stroll. But really, if you want, I can, er, go elsewhere. Suddenly a promenade doesn’t seem like such a good idea--uh not to say that you fine fellows make me feel less safe, nothing of the sort. I feel very safe, so safe that bed seems much better than out here. I’ll sleep so much better knowing that the night just isn’t full of moon but of night watchmen as well. A commendable job you fellows are doing, commendable. Well, I’ll just be taking myself somewhere else right now, so if you don’t mind…” Shasta started to back away but stopped when the two on his right and left drew their swords.

“Or, I could stay,” he gulped.

“What’s with the kitsune?” asked the taller one on the right.

“Drunk. Very drunk.”


Edited at 2008-05-03 02:40 pm (UTC)

Heh. Snarky. I like it.

http://mela-lyn.livejournal.com/95602.html?#cutid1

It's sloppy. It's a little long. And I've never written anything like it. And I have no clue what to think of it. Oh, and of course, it's the first thing of mine my husband has read... go figure. He said his favorite part was 'the kitty'... took me a minute to figure out he was joking from nerves of him reading it. *headdesk* *groan*

That one is hard to say I like. I mean, it's like saying I like "Schindler's List" or "Seven." But I think it's well done and I wonder where it's going too. So . . . go get to work.

Your husband makes me giggle.

Di

*releases breath* Thanks... it was hard to write. Strangely, I decided to write this scene after trying saki for the first time yesterday and getting tipsy on 1/2 a shot...

Yes, hubby is definitely cute.