Dust it Off Bloghop Day 2, writing update

Bachelorette party for my sister successful! Busyness level back to manageable. Plans for the rest of the weekend include: 1. Continuing the Dust it Off Bloghop (created by the amazing Theresa Paolo & Cortney Pearson). 2. Actually tackling the many blogs and commenting I've been wanting to do. 3. Writing another chapter for my current W.i.P

Dust it Off Bloghop dates:

May 3rd: Post a 1-2 sentence pitch about the shelved WIP.  The second day, May 5th:  Post your favorite excerpt (300-350 words)The third day, May 7th: Post what you learned from this WIP.

 DUST IT OFF BLOGHOP EXCERPT

     
     “A dark stranger. A shadowy past. A suspicious conversation,” he continued. “Mist Walkers, mystery, murder-”

     “Woah,” Erin said, sitting up straighter.

     “Murder?” Jolene repeated in bewilderment.

     “Not one right now, but there could be. Any day. What if this Matthew fellow is a crazed killer? Mist Walkers all have to be a little off in the head. Being outside his natural habitat, he could snap at any moment.”

     It was how dead serious he sounded that made Erin gape for as long as she did. She sent a silent look, pleading for some understanding from Derrin, who until this point had been fairly silent. His long legs were stretched out, his head resting on his arms. Derrin had always been too tall for his own good, and his six feet five inches were even more apparent seeing him like this. In sharp contrast to Humphrey, Derrin kept his brown hair short, almost completely shaved. He gave Erin a small grin. He had a small scar on the left side of his chin that just reached his bottom lip, which Erin had given him their first day of school.

     “Well,” he said slowly. “He could be a murderer.”

     Humphrey and Derrin were both Guard Mages. Like her father, they guarded the farms, and so had the same bright yellow and orange uniforms. With two years under their belts, three for Humphrey, they were both considered standard Guard Mages instead of novices. Finishing school was how students marked their passage into adulthood. Moving past the novice level was how the actual adults marked another's adulthood. By that point, one would hopefully have gained more experience and maturity.

     'Obviously not the case with these two,' Erin grumbled in her head. Her magic slid up and into her fingertips, making them itch, telling her that it was happy to help her express her displeasure at any moment. Erin wished her magic really was a dog. She'd have given it a good scratch behind the ears.

Dust It Off Bloghop: The Pitch

Time for a new bloghop! Though I'm still reeling and trying to get my feet back under me from the last one! Haha. Details are:

The amazing Theresa Paolo & Cortney Pearson are having their first Bloghop!!! The Dust It Off Bloghop will be three days, May 3rd, 5th and 7th. 

"We've all had those manuscripts that we poured our heart into, fell in love with the characters and still think of them at random, but unfortunately had to shelf. Now it's time for a little spring cleaning. Take out those manuscripts and Dust It Off!" - Theresa Paolo 

The first day, May 3rd: Post a 1-2 sentence pitch about the shelved WIP.  The second day, May 5th:  Post your favorite excerpt (300-350 words)The third day, May 7th: Post what you learned from this WIP.

So, a little bit about my W.i.P! It's called Knight: Book 1 of the Mist Walkers series (planned to be four books). It's a YA fantasy. Set in a world shrouded by a chaotic fog called the Mist, and involving magic, mage vs. non-mage conflicts, mystery, and the strange Mist Walkers. I'm not sure how much we're allowed to give away, or should, so, onto the pitch!


Knight: The Pitch

Erin Langley is two years overdue on graduating, thanks to her magic, which acts like a pyromaniac puppy with a prankster's heart. When a caravan cuts through the dangerous Mist that blankets the world, bringing fascinating news and trinkets from other cities, they also bring the mysterious Matthew, and a heap of trouble that Erin will find herself smack dab in the middle of, faulty magic or no.

You should definitely look into the bloghop if you haven't yet. And then check out the one hosted by Kelley Lynn and Emily King - Oh, Those High School Dances Bloghop.

A-Z Challenge #26: Z is for Zoic

Z is for Zoic, A Message from the World

[oh my... a bit of strange one to end on, a lot... more intense than I expected, O.o]

If the world could tell the despairing one thing, it would be, 'Look...'

Yes, it is scarred and cracked. But inside those cracks are shoots of green.

Yes, many buildings are being dragged down, crumbling. But the space left behind can be cleared.

Yes, the fight was terrible and all reaching and not a single thing did not get hurt. But scabs form for a reason.

If the world could tell the despairing one thing, it would be, 'Look, I have not given up on you. Don't give up on me.'

A-Z Challenge #25: Y is for Yearning

Y is for Yearning, An Ache Fulfilled

[Fulfilling my weekly quota of sap and fluff... ^_^]

Art:
There’s little about life that Art lets get him down. But even he notices, when he meets Chester and then Baggaro and then Elpirt, that suddenly there’s a lot more reason to have fun.

James:
James has a hard time describing music to the others. Sure, he can talk about sound and lyrics, instruments and rhythm. But to James, that’s not what music is about, or what it means, or how a guitar can be worth almost everything to a person brave about nothing. But he finds he likes trying to, all the same, because they always stop to listen.

Elpirt:
Elpirt likes to climb. To swing around and lug up ropes and sway with the teetering buildings. She had never thought anything could be better than a cold drop brought to an end by the snap of thick, bruising rope, the breath crushed out of her by excitement. But now she like clinging to Barnard’s back, or wrestling while being tangled in Art’s limbs, or, best of all, sneaking to stare at Chester when he wakes up - he screams, he curses … he laughs.

Barnard:
Barnard doesn’t lie. He tells them things as he sees it, and he tells them things as he saw it. He saw the End coming, he saw the reactions coming, and he thought he saw the time where even he would fade away. But he didn’t see, never, how a couple of knuckle-headed thieves with snot running down their faces could paint such a beautiful picture, turning everything he had been seeing on its side.

A-Z Challenge #24: X is for Xylomancy

X is for Xylomancy, One of Barnard’s Quirks

It takes Ellie to notice it. Or maybe, it takes Ellie mimicking it to make James notice it. Either way, it takes James a lot longer than it should have.

It’s innocent enough. They often don’t have a specific destination in mind, and Barnard has lived - and survived - the longest out of all of them. So Art is content to let Barnard change their course whenever he wants, and James doesn’t much care unless they’re running low on supplies, and Ellie..... James doesn’t know about Ellie.

But there are times they are walking along and Barnard will stop. He’ll cock his head to the side and stare down at the road and he’ll mutter to himself and he’ll grumble to them and, more often or not, they’ll end up changing directions with little fuss. They can’t really get lost, since they never have a destination in mind, so all seems well. For all James know, Barnard has a map of every place in the world memorized inside his head. It wouldn’t surprise him, not at all, if Barnard did.

Well, when Ellie joined the group she’d walk right up to Barnard during these stops, cock her head to the side, look down, and hum. She’d nod along with the older man’s whispers, let Barnard cuff her shoulder lightly, and then Barnard would announce the new direction. It was a relaxing pattern, if a little odd.

Well, one day James joined them. He found that what they were staring at, and discussing, were a pile of sticks. Barnard was muttering things like, “no good,” “we should go west,” “too risky to go north, even if it has potential to give us a boon,” and then he straightened up, cuffed Ellie on the shoulder, rubbed a knuckle into James’ head - James scowled, did Barnard think he was five? - and announced, “We’re changing direction. Heading west now. Let’s go.”

“Wait,” James snapped. “Why?”

Everything stopped. It was like James had asked why they didn’t feel like going along the same road, even it lead them over a cliff. Art frowned.

“Barnard says we need to go west.”

“Because of, because of...” James gave a frustrated look at the older man. “A pile of... sticks.”

“If you don’t believe in the supernatural and superstitions, you’re plain mad.” Barnard shrugged.

“Ohhh,” Art said, bouncing on his toes. “Drivition.”

“Divination,” Barnard corrected. Ellie hopped onto the man’s back, grinning at the fuming James over Barnard’s shoulder.

“Yeah. Like, talk to ghosts-”

“I didn’t say that,” Barnard corrected again, gently. “But I’m telling you, I can see things sometimes. Real clear like, in the way wood and sticks pop up. And we do not want to keep going north.”

James gaped, at a loss for words. His perplexition lasted too long, because Art announced, “What are we waiting for? To the west!”

And, well, that was that.

“It’s called Xylomancy,” Barnard told James later.

James shrugged. “Yeah. Ok.” Not like that makes it any better.

Though, they’d soon find, it was a very, very good thing they went west.

A-Z Challenge #22: W is for Winter

W is for Winter, A Time for Tales

The Old Lady has a name, but Art can’t remember what it is. She doesn’t mind, and doesn’t correct him. He thinks she likes it, sort of, because whenever he greets her she smiles. They sort of, kind of, live together. Art’s parents are... somewhere.

“A better place,” the Old lady says. Art believes her. She knows a lot.

Art likes to roam around, so he’s not always living with her.

But now it’s winter, and the weather is cold. Art likes snow because its pretty and tastes okay, but he also hates it, because it’s wet and cold and boring. It’d be a lot cooler if it was purple or something.

“We don’t need to add to our problems,” the Old Lady would laugh. Art doesn’t see how purple can ever been a problem.

It’s a winter day and Art is bored. No. He’s B-O-R-E-D. When Art spells certain words right - sometimes the Old Lady likes to test him - she unearths strange treats. Hard candies that burst with flavor, or burn his tongue. He doesn’t much like the mints, and lets the Old Lady have all of them. But Art is bored and just wants to go outside already, to do something. The Old Lady is coughing a lot, and Art turns to stare. She smiles at him when she’s done, wiping at her lips.

“Come over here, Art. Have I told you about King Arthur yet?”

“No.” Art says. Though she has. A lot. But if he tells the truth she won’t repeat the story, and its Art’s favorite, and it’s ok, he thinks, to live life telling only a couple of lies, right?

“Well come over here. I think you’ll like this tale. It’s about knights, you know. And quests. Do you know what a quest is?”

Did Art know what a quest was?

“No,” he says. And settles down to listen.

A-Z Challenge: V is for Victory, A Few Small Ones

Whew, I almost missed this one, didn't I? Though it's a short one, and not connected to WS.

I'm afraid I've been quite scatter-brained lately, and travel never bodes well for my productivity. And it's been a crazy fews days with family stuff. That said, I'm going to do at least a little victory dance on a couple of things.

1. I'm still working through this A-Z shindig. I hope everyone participating is still going strong and having fun, and those not participating don't mind the blogs that are.

2. I wrote a full chapter (well, maybe it could use another paragraph or two). I feel this is particularly exciting because lately all I've been able to manage are snippets. I like snippets, but at some point I need to get back into writing meatier chapters.

3. I may have forgotten to hand out two of the five copies of EQ to various family members, but I finally remembered to sign and give out one. I'm sort of super excited it's available in paperback, though I need to start learning more about marketing and connecting with readers.

4. I finally started the next book I've been meaning to read, which is good, because I don't want to miss my goal of 65 books in 2012. I just started The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It's a book I've passed over for years, admiring the cover but not buying. I go in and out of my suspense/thriller phase of reading. Lately, I've been craving a good, thrilling mystery, so, perfect timing, right?

Any big or little victories in your lives? I hope so.