Continuing on from last week:
...You have to promise me that you’ll never do anything like that again.”
“If I promise, will you still talk to me? Take lessons from me? Come to visit once in a while?”
Was this a devil’s bargain? Was she making a bargain for her soul, much like Faust?
You can check out the other Six Sentence Sunday posts here: Six Sentence Sunday
More Erik’s Tale picking up directly from last week:
The key seemed to grow heavier in her hand. “Don’t talk like that.” She pictured the police dragging him from the Opera, a crowd gathering on the street, and at the intersection a waiting pyre.
“Then don’t leave me,” he said softly.
Christine closed her hand over the key. “You have to promise me something Erik…
You can check out the other Six Sentence Sunday posts here: Six Sentence Sunday
Erik’s Tale is just shy of 50,000 words. I should probably hit that tonight. It’s getting close to the end which makes me sad, but I’m consoling myself with the fact that I get to edit it later.
I haven’t started my second edit of Through the Fire yet. I was supposed to be done with that at the end of this month, but that ain’t gonna happen. My new deadline is the end of May.
I’m considering putting up one of my longer short stories as a freebie here and on Kindle at .99c (the lowest I can make it). It requires me editing the story and learning how to make a cover. I suspect making the cover will take longer.
Last night I spent some time searching for names for the lead characters in Taming the Darkness. I’ve got some fun ideas for that book — danger and sex, baby!
I’m still totally obsessed with Erik’s Tale so how about I share a bit more? This is after he drops the chandelier:
“Yes. That is the key to the door on the Rue Scribe and the passageway that leads to my house. Do with it whatever you wish. Give it to the managers or the police. Tell them everything I’ve done and let them come down and find me. If you refuse to see me or even talk to me, then I have nothing to live for.”
(oh, he’s so dramatic!)
You can check out the other Six Sentence Sunday posts here: Six Sentence Sunday
Emma’s first magic lesson gets a little out of control:
She looked down at it and thought about it moving, shifting and rising just with her thought. The dark power inside her hummed with an eagerness that made her nervous, but she kept going. She imagined that power coming out of her and lifting the sand. A flutter she thought at first was the wind went around her and shifted the sand. Then the area she’d been concentrating on lifted in a spinning whirl. A small tornado of sand almost as tall as her formed, pulling up more and more sand around it.
You can check out the other Six Sentence Sunday posts here: Six Sentence Sunday
If you’d like a longer taste of Emma and the Air Pirates I will be adding excerpts here: Snippets
I love all my books in their own way, even the shitty one I wrote when I was a teenager. A few I love a little more because they’re so fun, like Emma and the Air Pirates. Then along comes something like Erik’s Tale.
I don’t just love this book. I’m in love with it.
My writing buddy A says she gets a contact high from being around me when I talk about it. I get this big ol’ smile and I chatter on about it as long as she’ll let me. I feel like I’m lighting up inside when I talk about Erik’s Tale, sometimes even when I just think about it. This story has been living inside me, waiting to get out, and letting myself write it is such a relief. Writing it should be harder than it is. I’m laying my heart out on the page, mingling my blood with the (virtual) ink. This story cuts deep, and I’ve cried more than once while writing particularly painful scenes. When I write Erik’s POV, I sometimes see myself staring back from the page. It’s bringing up old pain from my younger days, and other pains that have been buried deep that are still very much alive. I’m afraid of this story.
But my god, I love writing it.
Because the thing about fiction is you can twist things any way you want to. My story isn’t about tragic obsession or a descent into darkness. It’s about hope and redemption. It’s about finding humanity. I can keep kicking Erik because I know he’s not doomed.
I love being able to take this story and mold it into the shape I want. I love discovering things about Erik and Christine. I love watching them grow. I even love being cruel to them while I alternately laugh and cry at what they’re going through. I love rereading my favorite scenes, over and over, because this time I’m truly following the advice to write the book you want to read.
I love being in love.
It’s Air Pirates again this week. Last week Emma questioned pirate captain Zeke’s morals. Here are the next six sentences:
“True enough, they’re not quite the same thing. But take the money.”
She got up from the chair. “No. And I’m done talking to you.” She turned toward the door.
You can check out the other Six Sentence Sunday posts here: Six Sentence Sunday
I wrote these on my whiteboard last night. These are personal reasons, but many apply to other writers.
10 Reasons to Write Faster
1. Inventory (building a backlist)
2. Odds of ‘winning’ increase (more items on submission means more chances for an acceptance)
3. Quality comes from quantity
4. Increased learning curve
5. The bills aren’t going to pay themselves
6. The dayjob will never fulfill me
7. The sooner I stop working for The Man, the happier I’ll be
8. So the phrase “career development” will no longer depress me
9. There is no paper ceiling in writing (this is my term for the barrier that exists between those who have a college degree and those who don’t.)
10. I was made for this
I could probably write a post on each of these points.
This week I’m sharing more of Emma and the Air Pirates which just went off to my beta readers:
That earned him yet another glare. “I was running for my life. I only took as much as I thought was needed to get out to California. Don’t you dare compare that to your piracy. You take money out of pure greed. You are hardly starving here with your trunk full of gold and jewels.”
I’m giving you a taste of Emma and the Air Pirates this week, my steampunk/fantasy. I love Emma, she’s so sassy:
“I don’t see why I should go to see any friend of yours. How do I know I can trust him?”
“There’s no way I can make any guarantees. I can only tell you I give you my word that he’s an honest man.”
“The word of a pirate. Surely there can be no greater word to have.”
You can check out the other Six Sentence Sunday posts here: Six Sentence Sunday