roses

roses

Friday, November 30, 2012

Novel Excerpt

Armand fixed Johnathan with a penetrating gaze. “You are in pain. We must get Penelope to bring you your medication,” he said. Armand pushed away from the table and walked down the hall. Johnathan stared woodenly at the table attempting to take in the magnitude of the last month's worth of events. It boggled his mind how he could have gone from overjoyed at his plot with Margaret to reunite with Vivian to how he found him sitting in Louis Abril's house with Armand Pariseau as master of the household and Louis buried somewhere on the property.

Still caught in contemplation, Johnathan absentmindedly noted Armand's return with Penny by his side. Penny took out of her pocket an amber colored bottle. She shook a few pills into the palm of her hand and offered them to Johnathan. He picked up one of them and held it up in front of himself. He muttered quietly, “To sleep, perchance to dream. Aye, there's the rub, for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause.”

“If you must quote Shakespeare at your medication, must it be so maudlin?” Armand said lightly, “The world's mine oyster. A far superior quote,” Armand chided. Johnathan gave him an annoyed look.

“The words of a buffoon...” Johnathan stared when Armand cut him off.

“Are more welcome during a time of trial then those of a prophet of doom,” he retorted, “Take your medication. Then we are bundling you off to bed with your lovely maiden. And this sweet creature shall ensure bold Andrew's rest.” Armand looked over at the rifle in his hand. Johnathan was half expecting him to make some sort of comment about it being an uncivilized weapon. Instead, he looked at it with a critical eye. “It was good that this was not needed today. It needs cleaned,” Armand said.

He thrust the rifle into Penny's hands as Johnathan took the pills. As he was swallowing down another mouthful of coffee, Armand returned with a cloth and a gun cleaning kit. With all the care of a surgeon preparing for his trade, Armand laid the cloth out and readied his supplies. Gingerly, as though taking a newborn, Armand took the weapon from Penny. As he began the task of disassembling the firearm, he looked closely at the various parts.

“Louis, Louis, Louis,” he muttered in disappointment. Armand was half way through cleaning the weapon when Andrew and Granville returned. He absorbed in his work, he ignored the arrival of the two men. Granville set the keys down on the table and walked back into the kitchen. There he sat down with his wife.
Andrew looked at Armand as he was cleaning the gun. “Penny said that the scope was off,” Andrew said. Armand nodded. Andrew looked over at Johnathan, who was glaring bleary eyed into his almost empty coffee cup. The medication had taken the edge off of his wits and left his thoughts just disjointed enough that he could not adequately express the utter disgust and disappointment he felt with the situation. Johnathan wanted to rage but he found he simply had no energy left for it. “You look exhausted,” Andrew said quietly.
Johnathan looked up at him. “I suppose I am,” he said, “If anything, we must check on Vivian.” Johnathan stood and started towards the front stairwell. He paused and looked over at Armand. “What is the plan if some one decides to come looking for us here?” he asked.

“They will simply have to discuss the matter with Louis,” Armand said, not looking up from his work. Andrew frowned but said nothing. The two men walked to the foot of the stairs. Andrew started to go up the steps behind Johnathan when he waved him off. Andrew watched as his master made his way up the stairs. Once satisfied that the man wasn't going to tumble to the ground, Andrew went off in search of something to eat. He hated to admit it, but stress had a terrible habit of making him hungry.

Thursday, November 08, 2012

NaBloPoMo # 8

I'm so proud of myself. Today I broke the 4k writing mark in total words written for the day. I'm sitting over here doing a happy dance. I also learned something important today, burning 4 sticks of incense, no matter how nice it smells, does not agree with my lungs. It also fails to cover up the wretched smell that is in the entryway. Seriously, it smells like something died out there but neither I or Beloved can figure out what the source of the stench is. I am displeased.

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

NaBloPoMo # 6

Well, it's my birthday. My gift to myself was meeting my writing goal for today. I added two thousand words to my manuscript. I've a fair amount of housework that has been languishing but that can be dealt with easily. If I can manage it, I'm going to squeeze in more writing time tonight. I am two days ahead of schedule. I am going to see if I can make it three by the time I head to bed tonight.

Monday, November 05, 2012

NaBloPoMo # 5

I don't think I wrote anything in here yesterday. It's been a wacky day here. I fell about sixty words short of my writing goal for NaNoWriMo today. I am not upset, however, because I finally moved through the land of 'how the hell does this fit my plot?' It is my hope that despite the running around I need to do tomorrow, that I will get a good amount written. As the characters reveal themselves to me, I am finding myself unexpectedly charmed by some of them. The character of Andrew is proving to be delightful. What was going to just be a bit of proverbial eye candy has proven to have greater depth then I expected. It makes me hope to see more interesting bits develop as I work on this.

(Edited to Add: Apparently I did write in here, I just forgot about it. LOL)

Saturday, November 03, 2012

Excerpt from this year's NaNoWriMo novel

“I saw god,” he said, “There was no heavenly choir or pearly gates, like my mother said there'd be. There was an old man dressed in BDUs holding a rifle with a bayonet fixed. Looked almost like our old gunnery Sargent, actually. He had one eye, the other was a bloody mess. He had no insignia of rank or anything. He pointed at me with his freehand and said 'report to Midgard, maggot.' Next thing I know, I'm laying on the ground coughing up blood.”

NaBloPoMo #3

I'm highly annoyed that the candle plate I have sitting on my altar cracked. I will need to safely clean up the broken glass after the incense burner is done. In the meantime, I'm just going to sit here and be irritated. A part of me says that I should have realized that the glass wasn't going to handle the temperature of the incense burner. Another part of me says that I couldn't have know for certain that it would have handled it. All I know is that the next time I decide that I'm going to burn incense in this fashion, I am putting the clay trivet under it. I know that can handle higher temperatures.

Friday, November 02, 2012

NaBloPoMo #2

I slept a good chunk of the day away this morning. I didn't sleep well last night. For some reason, I was having nightmares of the boys freaking out over us having a pet cow. I think it's just some addled nonsense that my brain came up with. Aside from having that nightmare a few times, I dreamed that I was writing. As I was writing, my words turned to utter gibberish. The then began deleting themselves when I paused to drink my cup of coffee. I think this is a manifestation of my fear that this year's manuscript is going to be utter garbage. I am pretty sure that fear was part of the reason why I was having a hard time writing this afternoon.

Thursday, November 01, 2012

NaNoWriMo & NaBloPoMo

I'm participating in both. This is my first entry for NaBloPoMo. I'm pleased with the fact that thus far today, I've got almost 3 k words in on the manuscript. I'm hoping to add to it this evening after the kids go to bed. My goal is to try to average three to four thousand words a day. I will be milking my days free of children for as much writing time as I can swing. I am also going to be making an effort to get my three journaling pages done before I sit down to type here at the computer.

In other news, I have gotten more yule gifts for people. I am absolutely certian that one of my neices is going to go SQUEEEE over what I'm giving her. :)