The End Is Nigh!

That’s right folks, the end of Blood Ties is close at hand. It seems like the closer I get, the faster I write. I put on a burst of words of NaNo proportions this week and all that’s left is the smack down between Jessica and Anakaron, and the denouement.

Well, and the editing of course, but I’m actually looking forward to that. To start the editing process I’ll probably re-read the other two, just to get the same feel. After all, it’s been four years since the last Jessica book and I think in this one I’ve kind of got away from the essence of her personality.

The words for last week are kind of a bittersweet victory. In order to accomplish it I kind of let a couple of other things slide. I cheated on my Wednesday post and I skipped Friday altogether. I did take a look at my prompt, but I was on a roll with Blood Ties and I didn’t think taking time out for the prompt was in anyone’s best interest.

It seems like forever ago that I started this series. Magical Misfire was published in 2013 and I probably started it at least a couple of years before that. It started out as a serial on one of my blogs (now defunct), and let me tell you, if you need a way to force yourself to write, that’s the way to do it. Nothing like a weekly deadline to get the creative juices going.

Jessica’s come a long way since I first thought her up while I was in highschool, and she’s been through more perils than Pauline. I’m almost going to be sad to see her go.

The basement is coming along nicely, but that really had little to do with me, other than helping to pick out the new flooring. The old furniture has been carted away and the new flooring has been laid. All that’s left it to re-furnish it and enjoy.

I made a couple of forays out in to the big scary world last week. I actually walked down to the waterfront to meet up with an old friend where we sat in the shade and had a nice chat. The following night I was down there again, this time to meet up with my poetry group. Seeing as I had to take a chair with me, I did not walk for that one.

I’m sure we made a curious sight, sitting in a circle in the dark, flashlights going on and off as we took turns reading. All that was missing was a camp fire and s’mores.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

Editing – 0 hours, 0 pages
This might be a whole different story in the week to come

Research – 2.20 hours

Blood Ties – 7,356 words!
Woot!

Blog Posts – includes the post for my regular blog, but not the prompt story.
590 (regular blog)+ 906 + 583 = 2,079 words total

Weekly Prompt – 0 words

Total Words – 9,435

New Prompt
Use this as your first line: He looked at his phone, turned pale, then quickly left the room. She watched him, smiling.

Goals From Last Week:
Blood Ties is almost at 100,000 words! Can you believe it? That light at the end of the tunnel keeps shining brighter and brighter. Now that Jessica is actually inside the mountain, having failed in her attempt to rescue Howard, she’s going to face the big, bad dark lord. And even if she wins, will that be enough? Only the author knows for sure. Mwahahahaha

I looked at this week’s prompt, seriously I did, but it didn’t really do anything for me and I didn’t want to take the time away from Blood Ties to look for something else.

No editing this week, and no guilt over it either. Maybe I’ll have myself an editing NaNo this year. I can track changes and put all the new words I add to stuff into a separate document to use as my NaNo novel. LOL

So . . . I was actually planning on doing my Wednesday post, but when I looked at my research for the new series I was going to start I got cold feet – there was a lot of information I need to distil and I just didn’t want to take the time away from Blood Ties to do it. So then I did some research on a different topic, thinking it would be easier, but it turned out there wasn’t as much out there as I thought there’d be for it so I just plain gave up.

Goals For This Week:
1. Blood Ties, Blood Ties, Blood Ties! Jessica is about to have her big smack down with Anakaron, but that’s not necessarily the end. There’ll be some serious fall-out to deal with that I’m hoping will give the ending a bit of a twist.
2. New prompt story will depend on how it goes with Blood Ties. And I’ll probably be picking a new prompt, too.
3. Despite the fact the editing is piling up, it too will depend on my progress with Blood Ties. Maybe I should put my editing pile on the front of my desk instead of on the bookcase behind it.

And there’s what I’ll be up to this week. How about you?

Stitching the Words

Writing is like sewing – but just as I’d rather sew something from scratch than alter it, I’d rather write something fresh than edit something old.

Once upon a time I sewed for a living. No, I wasn’t a tailor, although I had tailoring skills. And yes, I made a bit of money at it (a very little bit). The problem was, most of what people wanted were the fiddly little things they were too unskilled (or lazy) to do themselves, like repairs, hemming, or alterations. Things that weren’t particularly difficult, but they were time-consuming.

With sewing, you need to learn how to use a pattern – pin it to the material, cut along the lines, transfer the markings to the fabric – you need to learn how to thread a needle and do the basic stitches, then you’re ready to use a sewing machine. The machine is intimidating at first, threading it, pressing gently on the presser foot to start it stitching, feeding the material through, learning to reverse stitch and turn corners . . .

With writing you need to know how to use words to make a sentence, string sentences to make paragraphs and pages. You need to learn the rules of grammar and punctuation, and when it’s okay to break those rules. Maybe you’ll start with pen and paper before graduating to a computer where you’ll have to learn to use writing software, maybe you’ll even have to learn how to type.

Just as there are finishing touches to sewing – reinforcing the seams, trimming the threads, adding lace or buttons or other embellishments – there are finishing touches to writing – rewriting, editing, proof reading.

The stories I’ve been editing for the anthology were mostly written from prompts with restricted word counts or made to fit within narrow parameters. Getting them into shape is a lot like altering a garment – letting a seam out here, taking a tuck in there, adding some embellishments.

Quite frankly, I’d rather be writing something new.


Prompt of the Week

Between working on Wandering Wizards and working on the anthology - I really want to get one of them done before Christmas - I’m not sure if I’ll have time to work on a prompt story or not this week. However, if you’d like to give one a try, here’s the list of prompt generators:

The Story Shack
The Plot Generator
Writing Exercises and Prompts
Springhole
Seventh Sanctum
RanGen

To Be Here

To Be Here: The Writing Place, run by poet Tanis MacDonald, was probably my favourite master class from last weekend. I even bought a couple of her books – one non-fiction and her latest volume of poetry.

She’s also a writing instructor and has her own class up in Waterloo, Ontario. I guess whatever she said sunk in because I don’t have a lot of notes from her class. However, I do have this poem:

The exercise was: “Here” is subject to your own definition: it can be either the ground upon which you stand right now, or your homeplace as you define it, but it should be a definite geographical place. “History” is your lived experience of a place with an emphasis on your (and possibly your family’s) place in it.


“Here” is only a memory
of home/not home
another city, another time
the house that Al built
for his beloved Florence
two thirds of the way down the hill
or one third up
depending on your point of view.
Black walnut trees
manned by squirrels
guarded the road and driveway
flagstone sunken patio above the rock garden
green, green, green: memories . . .
in front of me the steep green hillside
below me old growth maple, beech, and aspen.
Follow the green pathways
down to the sleepy river
or up to heaven’s cascade of colour.
Change catfoots in on the trail of loss
home/not home
the sentinels have fallen to
the axe and saw
stone has been restructured
like pieces of my heart
green is fading, dozed over
the river is somnolent and thirsty
there are houses in heaven now
childhood’s end, ploughed over.
“History” lives only in my memory.

Winterfire

I made it home from the retreat yesterday, although it was a close thing. There was a brutal wind, with snow on top of it, making the driving treacherous. One of the major highways was closed both ways due to accidents, and I only narrowly avoided being stuck waiting for an accident to be cleared away from the route I took. A second accident I was able to turn around from and take an alternate route.

But enough about that. Let’s talk about the retreat itself. The Winterfire Writing Retreat was held at the Loretto Maryholm Spirituality Centre, which is owned and administered by the Loretto Sisters of The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This probably accounted for the single beds with their super firm mattresses.

My friend and I got to the retreat on Friday with enough time to settle in, unpack, and relax a bit. Supper was a light buffet of seriously healthy food like avocado, shredded carrots, diced cucumber, couscous, chick peas – you get the idea – that you could combine in any way you saw fit. This was followed by the first workshop.

When I think of workshops, I think of everyone working at a single task. The Winterfire workshops were a little different in that we worked at several different things. For instance, there was a tiny card at each place with a single word written on it. We were to begin with the phrase, “I want to have” and write a short piece incorporating that word. The writing was timed, and after we were done we shared what we’d written before moving on to the next task. We’d usually do three or four of these little prompts (all different) before the workshop was done.

Saturday we did a prompt workshop as a group, then broke into two groups for more prompt writing. But it was after lunch that things got really interesting. We did something called “silent writing” for something like three hours. Now silent writing doesn’t just mean writing quietly, it means you don’t smile at anyone, don’t talk, don’t even acknowledge another person – not even to offer them a cup of coffee.

I was kind of skeptical of what this would accomplish, but I gotta tell you. I went into the silent writing time feeling tired and dragged out, but by the time it was done I felt rejuvenated. It was really weird, and really productive.

I got a lot of writing done at the retreat, most of it from prompts. And I completed two short stories. The other participants were a varied group, ranging from a young screen writer to a research doctor who was working on her memoir, with several different genres in between.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we were divided into teams to make lunches and dinners and the purpose was two-fold. The first was to provide delicious, home-cooked meals, which were not included in booking the house, and the other was to allow us to get to know each other better through a shared task. Remember, there were 15 of us and we’d never met each other before.

Would I do it again? Definitely. Being unplugged for the weekend was in no way a hardship. I got a lot of writing done and met some very interesting women – everyone seemed to have a story.

But next time I’m getting a room to myself.

State of the Stuff Address

I thought that sounded cooler than “Progress Report.” Hey, what do you want from me? It’s early and I’ve only had one coffee so far. LOL

There’s really only two things I want to report on – the progress of my office, and the progress of Wandering Wizards (the 3rd Moonstone Chronicle). If you’re a regular reader of this blog then you already know I seem to be back on track with Passion For Poetry Wednesdays and Fiction Fridays.

So first, the office. When I get my office finished (if that ever happens) I will create a new page at the top to chronicle my journey. However, that day is not even close yet. I’ve run into a bit of a snag when it comes to clearing out the pile of “stuff” in the corner where I want to put a comfy reading chair.

First of all, my (spoiled) 18-year-old cat discovered the shag carpet in the bottom of the storage closet and has taken to sleeping in there during the day. Which means I can’t rearrange the stuff on the shelves to make room for the stuff in the corner because I don’t want to disturb him.

And I don’t want to hear from any of you non-cat/animal lovers telling me to just move the cat or shut the door or whatever. He’s 18, and the other two cats kind of pick on him, and he doesn’t ask for much except a comfy place to sleep. Not only am I keeping the closet door open for him, I’m keeping the office door open for him, despite the fact that one of the other cats got his nose out of joint and sprayed the canvas board I had leaning up in front of the small bookcase. Twice. Which is why the pile of stuff is now safely tucked under a plastic cover and access to the rest of the room is limited.

At some point I’m going to get a baby gate for the door (no worries about anyone jumping the gate, they’re too old and fat) so I can have the door open but don’t have to worry about anyone’s indiscretions in there. It’s a southern exposure so there’s no way I can keep the door shut in the summer. But…I can’t do that until Taz finds a new favourite place to sleep. Which he will eventually, he likes to move around.

I’m at the point where I can use my desk, although I need a new desk chair because the space is a little cramped with the big one from my old office and I keep knocking stuff over on my desk and the bookcase behind me every time I move. Loving my new computer, although the delete key is in a different spot which kind of throws me off and I’m still not happy with Windows 10. I know, suck it buttercup, it had to happen sooner or later.

On the weekend I set up the new laser printer and now I can connect wirelessly to it and the inkjet in the other room. Go me! And in the process of trying to install it onto the hubby’s lap top I inadvertently fixed whatever the problem was he was having to connect wirelessly to the ink jet printer. Which was really weird because I couldn’t install the laser – for some reason his autorun isn’t working and I couldn’t find the DVD drive (he has Windows 10 too).

As you know, I’ve been struggling with the second half of Wandering Wizards for some time now. There was something off about it and I just couldn’t figure out what. Well, I finally figured it out. And I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s good because I figured it out, but it’s bad because it’s going to take a lot of work to fix it.

To put it simply, it’s still Jessica’s story, but there’s very little Jessica in it. Until she meets up with her friends again on page 129, she only appears twice, and only for about a page each time. So yeah, she needs to have a bigger presence – keep adjusting to her powers, come to terms with her new life, maybe have a fight or two with Dominic, whatever.

So there we have it. The state of the “stuff” I’ve been working on and will be working on this week. Wednesday’s class is Inspiration From Dreams, so be sure to check back Friday to see what I came up with.

For that matter, check back Wednesday too to see what my poem for National Poetry month is. :-D

Readin’ and Writin’

Short Fiction - 762
Long Fiction - 2043
Poetry - 152
Total Words - 2957
Editing Hours - 0
Paragraphs of Notes - 3

Despite the fact my numbers are higher than they’ve been previously, I have to admit to being a little disappointed. Granted I had a few health issues going on last week, but there were several times when I had a choice between reading and writing and I chose reading. Yeah, I know. Bad author!

But there were a couple of steamy shifter books on the e-reader that were really hard to put down, and I started to really get into Stephen King’s The Dark Half. I love when his characters are writers. And if you’re writing under a pseudonym you really need to read this one.

The good news is, I’ve started a collection of military based romances on my Kindle that aren’t quite as riveting, and I finished The Dark Half and needed something a little more ordinary in the tree book department, so I’m reading a Regency Christmas anthology. Don’t judge. :-p

I surprised myself by not only writing a poem for the Brazen Snake Books prompt, but coming up with it early. The deadline is Friday at midnight and you can usually find me hard at work on it at 11 p.m. But this one was finished on Thursday! If you’re curious, you can read it HERE. And I thought it was pretty ironic that the day it was posted it was hazy in the morning, got hotter by lunch, and then some clouds started to roll in. Of course these clouds just rolled on by and it never cooled down, but still ...

I often get together with a writing friend on Saturday mornings for coffee and a thrift store run, but this weekend we brought our coffee in thermoses and packed a couple of lawn chairs in the car. We parked on the pier and sat in our chairs facing the harbour and pulled out our notebooks to write. I should clarify - Catherine wrote; I kept getting distracted. This is the view I had:

The water was so calm it looked like you could walk on it. There wasn’t even a hint of breeze. It was beautiful. There was a flock of seagulls on the other side of the barrier that keeps pedestrians from walking out to the lighthouse and even they were quiet. Then all of a sudden there was this loud splash as a huge fish leaped out of the water and smacked down again. He did this three times and then moved on to a different spot. He seemed to be making a circuit of the harbour - always leaping three times before moving on - and I couldn’t help but wonder what his deal was.

This was one of those times when I tried to bend the writing to my will, which never works and I really should have known better. I had my heart set on doing a story for the BSB prose prompt, but I could not for the life of me come up with a reason why someone would send hate mail to a weatherman when the weather was good and fan mail when the weather was bad. Of course now I have about three different ideas that would work, but it’s too late. LOL

Anyway, after spending way too much time getting nothing done on that I turned to my own prompt, the picture of the month. And started re-writing the story I’d already started from the beginning. A page or two into that I got a couple of ideas that I had to write down, so I abandoned my story and didn’t get back to it. And then it started getting freakishly hot so we packed it in.

So while I didn’t get the 12 pages written that Catherine did, I got enough accomplished that I don’t feel like I wasted my time. Next time I’d like to be better prepared - maybe with a clearer idea of what I want to work on. I kept thinking I should have taken my Neo with me and next time I will.

And sun screen. Lots of sun screen. ;-)

Of Plots and Plans and Things In Between...

Writing is the dragon that lives underneath my floorboards. The one I incessantly feed for fear it may turn and devour my ass. Writing is the friend who doesn't return my phone calls; the itch I'm unable to scratch; a dinner invitation from a cannibal; elevator music for a narcoleptic. Writing is the hope of lifting all boats by pissing in the ocean. Writing isn't something that makes me happy like a good cup of coffee. It's just something I do because not writing, as I've found, is so much worse.
― Quentin R. Bufogle

This was the inspirational writing quote I sent to my best bud Jamie today, and in the accompanying email I said something to the effect that after careful consideration I have to agree with it. Writing doesn’t always make me happy, but it makes me a lot happier than not writing does.

The daughter was away for a conference this week, which necessitated me having to babysit during the day while her hubby was at work. Monday I was a disorganized mess. But Tuesday I discovered that by planning ahead things went much more smoothly. I even managed to get some writing in during the toddler’s nap time. Wednesday was the same.

I used to get very frazzled whenever I was expecting company, until I learned my aunt’s secret. She planned everything ahead of time, and did as much of the prep work for meals before the company arrived as she could. It’s amazing what a little planning can do.

During my writing time while I was babysitting, I was trying to work on a story but I wasn’t sure where it was going. So I jotted down a few plot points of what I wanted to have happen. That’s not to say I plotted the whole thing out, just a really short plan of the action.

A couple of weeks ago I used mini index cards to jot down the remaining scenes in the novel I’m currently working on, and even a couple of scenes closer to the beginning that I’ll have to go back to so I can fit them in. As plans go it’s not much, but it got me eager to start working on it again.

All of this made me realize that maybe there’s something to planning ahead after all.

Once upon a time I wrote a blog post about pantsers versus plotters. It’s fairly simple. Pantsers write by the seat of their pants - they just sit down and write, having no clear of what’s going to happen until they write it. Plotters, on the other hand, plan everything out ahead of time so there are no surprises.

Back when I was new to writing, I thought everyone was a plotter. So I spent a lot of time on outlines and maps and character sketches and eventually realized that I was spending more time on them (and having more fun in the process) than I was actually writing. My novel kind of stalled and it was years before I got back to it. Actually, my writing stalled - it was a few years before I got back to any of my longer fiction.

The first novel I actually finished was written purely by the seat of my pants. I was goaded convinced by Jamie to try my hand at a blog serial. I let the story progress naturally and most of the time I had no idea what was going to happen next. It was an adventure, albeit sometimes a frustrating one.

I wrote several other novels after that (that book turned into a series, of which I’m about to start number five), all by the seat of my pants. It was decided. I was a confirmed pantser.

But then I began to struggle a bit. My second series, based on that first attempted novel, began to flounder until I discovered all the character sketches, maps, and notes I made originally. While the characters had evolved well past those initial sketches, the notes were invaluable, as were the maps. Using the notes, I created the “scene cards” I mentioned earlier, half-sized index cards with a few words describing a single scene on each one. This will take me to the end of book three.

Maybe planning out a novel isn’t such a bad thing after all. Especially when you’re writing a series. And recalling those story notes I made ... I used to get an idea for a short story and just wing it. But knowing what’s going to happen actually makes it a little easier to write. And notes help jog my not-so-reliable memory when it falters.

So... while I doubt I’ll ever be doing a long-winded, multi-page, detailed outline such as plotters are famous for, neither will I dismiss the idea of a little planning ahead. I guess you could say I’m taking the middle road. “Neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring.”

I’m not totally a plotter, but neither am I strictly speaking a pantser anymore. I’m somewhere in between. I ... am a tweener!

Old Writers Never Die, They Just Keep Revising the Ending

So how, exactly does one have fun with quotes?
Glad you asked! If you’re like me, you start by exchanging quotes on a daily basis with your best bud. But not just any quotes, writing quotes, to give each other inspiration. And then you pick the two best quotes of the week to share with the rest of the world - because ... why not? :-D

Though you might find it hard to believe, Jamie and I do not co-ordinate our daily quotes. I swear! It’s just a happy co-incidence that they seem to go together, if not totally similar. Or maybe it’s just because we’re working with the same topic. ;-)

For Jamie’s quote this week I picked the one that seemed to stick best in my mind:

You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won't be able to take a break from being a writer...
- Stephen Leigh

I think anyone who’s ever been bitten by the writing bug will agree with this. Sometimes you can get frustrated or just tired and you set the writing aside for a while - taking a break, as it were. But then you’ll catch yourself thinking about the way the words flow when you’re reading a particularly well-written novel. Or maybe you’re enjoying a cup of coffee with a friend and as you glance out the window of the coffee shop you see an interaction between a young man and a woman and it gives you the idea for a story. Or maybe you’re getting a breath of fresh air in the garden and you start thinking, what if?

Just because you aren’t writing things down doesn’t mean you’ve stopped being a writer. You’re still going to be thinking like a writer and you’re still going to see things the way a writer does. And no matter how badly you need the break in the first place, somehow it’ll never be for as long as you think it’ll be.

My quote this week is also short and sweet:

Writing is like breathing, it's possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what.
― Julia Cameron

At first glance, my quote seems to contradict Jamie’s, but if you think about it, it’s like two sides of a coin. Writing can be like breathing, but sometimes we need to take that break so we don’t start hyperventilating. We should write no matter what, but even when we take a break we’re still thinking like writers or at least thinking about writing.

So follow the above advice, but don’t be afraid to take a break when you need to. You won’t stop being a writer if you do.

It's NaNoing Time!

Yes, it's that time of year again, when thousands (if not tens of thousands) of authors are seduced by the sweet, sweet lure of NaNoWriMo. That's National Novel Writing Month to those of you who are new, or live under a rock or something. The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel during the 30 days of November. You can click on the above link for more details.

It's both exhilarating and terrifying.

When I first heard about this intriguing event called National Novel Writing Month, or as most people now call it, NaNo, I was a hard core dabbler in writing. I'd dabble in this, and dabble in that, write out character sketches and summaries, and dream of becoming a famous author.

NaNo is all about getting the story written. You can do as much prep work as you like, but come November 1st you need to buckle down and get to work. Sounded like fun to me! So I talked a writerly friend of mine into signing up too (it's always more fun with a buddy) and away we went. Pretty much the only things I remember from that first year was that I was working full time, gummi bears were my snack of choice, and coffee is my friend. :-)

I did not complete the challenge that first year. I made it to 33,000 words and ran out of story. However, I was far from disappointed. For one thing, I had a great time and met some really interesting people online. And for another, I genuinely liked the story I'd written. But the most important thing was, I finished it. I'd never finished a story before. And let me tell you, it was an awesome feeling.

Of course the story itself was one hot mess. This was before I realized that I was a pantser, not a plotter. But that's a post for another time. ;-)

Ironically, the friend I bullied browbeat coaxed to participate with me won the challenge with words to spare.

I didn't do NaNo the next year, but the year after that I did, and completed the challenge with words to spare. It was an awesome feeling. I wasn't going to do it the following year, but on November 1 a name popped into my head: Treasure Beaumont. And I was off and running with the longest novel I'd written to date. The following year I was one week and 10,000 words into the story when I realized this was not a book to be written quickly. For one thing, it required a lot of research. So I tabled it and started a brand new novel. And reached my 50,000 by the end of the month.

I have completed the NaNo challenge eight times, but have yet to complete one of my NaNo novels. See, with NaNo it's like that scene in Cannonball Run where the guy rips off his rear view mirrow and says, "What's behind me doesn't matter." NaNo is all about the words - good, bad, or indifferent. Just get that 50K done no matter what. You need to write 1667 words per day to complete the challenge so there's no dilly dallying to pick the right word, just put in whatever word works and fix it in January (because you'll be too exhausted in December).

This has left me with eight, count 'em, EIGHT incomplete novels. While it's true most of them have their finale where everything is nicely wrapped up with a bow, there are gaps and plot holes where I couldn't take the time to figure out what happened next so I just skipped ahead. It's not pretty.

I have two novels (not NaNos) that I want to have out before Christmas, I've already started the sequels to both of them, and I've started the first three books in a seven-book series. Not to mention the fact that my life has got a whole lot busier lately. So much so that most days I'm hard pressed to manage my daily quota of 500 words - 1667 would be out of the question. And to be perfectly honest? The last thing I need is another "not quite there yet" novel to have to fix.

Will I miss it? You betcha! There is an energy to NaNo that you will find no where else and at no other time. It can only happen in November. You become part of this world wide community of fellow writers who become friends. Even if you can't attend the write-ins or parties, you can't help but get caught up in the excitement.

But while I'll miss the sense of community, I will not miss having one more incomplete, 50,000 word novel.

Infernal Interfering Ideas

Two weeks in a row with the blog posts. Can you stand it? LOL

So ... a funny thing happened on the way to making progress with An Elemental Spirit, and I'm not talking about the increase of day job work either. Quite frankly, that doesn't really interfere with the writing time at all. It just killed my mindless gaming time. Which is a good thing, trust me. :-)

No, what's interfering with An Elemental Spirit is ideas. Lots and lots of ideas. *sigh*

It's my own fault really. I have the base of operations for my heroes of the Ardraci series set aboard the firefighter class starship Valkyrie, which is a ship that's going to have its own trilogy eventually (one of which is written) and a couple of stand alone books (another one of which is written). Anyway, I started Spirit aboard the Valkyrie and before I knew what was happening I started writing a bunch of back story about the whole freaking history of the universe.

Now that in itself isn't a bad thing, but I checked a couple of facts in the trilogy, which takes place before the Ardraci series, and things don't quite line up. And the real problem is, the facts I came up for Spirit are better than the facts I had in the first Valkyrie book. So now I'm having to re-think the beginning of Spirit, and figuring out how to re-write the Valkyrie book to include these new ideas.

So while I'm pondering all these new ideas and what to do with them, I've gone back to work on Wishing Star 1. See, I'd left it temporarily 'cause I couldn't figure out how to keep my heroine, Eva, from finding out that that lion she's traveling with is a shapeshifter and yet still have them develop a relationship.

And then I got an idea.

They could meet in dreams. A dream like this one:

Eva was walking slowly along a beach. It was night and the moon was full, its light sparkling on the water lapping at the shore. The sand was cool, tickling her toes, which made her smile. A warm breeze played with her hair and there was a scent of flowers in the air.

The moonlight picked out another figure on the beach, some distance ahead. Though too far away to be more than just a vague shape, she knew instinctively that it was a man, just as she knew she had nothing to fear from him. He was waiting for her.

As she drew nearer she could see he was tall and lean, but gave the impression of great strength. His skin was sun bronzed and his hair was long and dark. There was some kind of tribal tattoo on his left pectoral, disappearing over his shoulder but the moonlight was behind him and it was indistinct. He wore nothing but a loin cloth and it was at that moment she realized she was dressed in a sarong that fell to mid-thigh.

She stopped walking when she reached him. He was unfamiliar, and yet she knew him. "Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Aiden."

His voice was deep and smooth, and sent a shiver right through her.

"Is this a dream?"

"Of course it is."

"I know you ... somehow I know you. How is this possible?"

"Perhaps we knew each other in another lifetime, or another dream."

Eva reached up and touched his face. "You're my jungle lord."

"Yes," he said.

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, a kiss that coursed through her like fire, leaving no part of her unscorched. She pressed closer, needing ... needing something but she couldn't say what.

Not bad for a first encounter, eh?

"To sleep, perchance to dream ..."

Through dreams Aiden can give her important information, like what plants are safe to eat, he can show her how to use the flint and steel she was given 'cause she has no clue what they're for, and, of course, they can grow closer. Which will make it all the more shocking when they meet in person.

Ideas.

You gotta love them. Even if they do interfere once in awhile. ;-)