Six Sentence Sunday: The Witches of Arion

Hi, Six Sentence Sunday-ers, and I hope you’re having a good week. This time I’m going to start sharing snippets from the unfinished novel ‘The Witches of Arion’, which I started for Camp Nanowrimo’s August session. This is somewhat raw unedited prose, so I’m sorry for any little mistakes that creep in.

This book started as a prequel idea to my seaside fantasy “The Storm Mirror”, and tells some of how the old dead witch in that story, Grandmother Sunshine, became a witch in the first place…

Nashua had no idea what was missing in her life until the day the Fair came to town.

It hadn’t been anything obvious. There was always food on the table, and a few toys in her room, and she’d learned early that not every little girl was so lucky. Nashua’s father was very important and talked with the Baron of Egya every day, though he wasn’t usually happy when he came back home from the big Manor House. Mother was always very nice to Nashua and Father. There weren’t any other children around their little home, but that suited Nashua fine when she stopped to think about it. Having a brother or sister had never sounded particularly interesting to her.

Most months Nashua went to a school up the hill, six days a week, heading out just after dawn, and school went until the second hour after noon.

I hope you enjoy reading, and thanks for any comments. I’ll try to find some candy for people who reply!

A great note to end the month on.

Plenty of good news here, yay!

First off, my tooth is much better – found some really great dentists here in Lawrence. I’m not quite sure if the insurance stuff is all squared away, but I’m very happy with the rebuild job they did on my chomper. 😀

I sorta met my rebel goal for June – if you count 2000 words of worldbuilding to be the equivalent of a short story. Plus a 972 word flash scene, and a 425 word start that didn’t go anywhere. And I’ve written over 20000 new words total in June.

Started my rewrite of ‘The Storm Mirror’ for fellow workshoppers. I’ll probably be a little crazy trying to finish that tomorrow, but I like where it’s going so far.

And I’m going to sleep now. See you all in July!

Don’t just kill your babies – let other babies eat the best bits.

Workshop update – today’s session went great. (So did yesterday’s, which I didn’t mention in yesterday’s post, since that was mostly written in the morning.) I got lots of great feedback and suggestions for ‘The Storm Mirror,’ including that old favorite that I seem to still be having trouble with – torture your characters more. 😉 I’m excited about the revision.

We’ve been talking quite a bit so far about ‘killing your babies’, which wasn’t advice that I got that I noticed – if a favorite element isn’t working for the story, you have to take it out; and maybe try to use it later. That reminds me of this favorite exchange on Stringing Words between myself and Elizabeth Twist:

Elizabeth: …Ultimately, this is helping me to let go of my older projects by allowing the new project to digest the juiciest bits.

Me: [That] prompted a very weird mental image in my head – something like you as a mother in a graveyard, saying goodbye to your ‘babies’ but smiling because a bizarre, chimera-like creature (your new book) is picking at the dead bodies. Fun. 

Elizabeth: Thanks, Chris–that’s an accurate image of my mental state right now. Except I’m wearing a tiara and cheering on my chimera. Whee!

So, that’s my little piece of writing advice to everybody who reads me today – feed your chimera!

Six Sentence Sunday – The Storm Mirror 3

First six. Second six.

I’m skipping ahead just a little in the story. Melvin has found out that his big brother Alec was lost overboard in a storm. After the memorial service, his mother sends him to the market to buy supplies for the salting yard.

“It’s all on account of the witch, you see,” Auntie Janis was saying to her middle-aged assistant, as she looked for the bottle of tarragon. “She used to be so nice and kind, but I suppose that you can never trust a witch. First she got ugly, and then she got old, and then she said that she didn’t want anybody visiting her anymore. Maybe she’s sending the storms out of spite, for all that I know.”
“Excuse me, Auntie,” Melvin said, taking out two large pieces of silver – a bit more than he’d need to pay for tarragon and paprika. “Which witch are you speaking of?”

Six Sentence Sunday – The Storm Mirror

First off, apologies that I messed up last week’s Six Sentence Sunday installment so badly – first I scheduled the snip for too far in the future, didn’t notice until Sunday afternoon, and then shifted it so that it appeared below Saturday’s post. D’OH! 😦

This time I’ll take more care with the scheduling feature. I’m also going to move on from ‘Project Fast Track’ and start sharing a snip from my newest story, “The Storm Mirror.”

Father was talking with his second mate near the stern when Melvin found him. “Wouldn’t you know it, for the weather to settle down just as we make it to shore.”

“You’re okay, Father?” Melvin asked, and Father nodded curtly. “What about Alec?” He looked around the deck and the pier for his tall older brother, but it was hard to sort out anything in the dim light. “Is he down below decks?”