#WIPpet Wednesday: Why Not?

Last week sort of blew up in several different directions, and the thought of writing new words and not escaping into someone else’s just seemed impossible to consider.  Eventually though, the characters demand attention, and like any sane writer (is this an oxymoron?), I knew I needed to spend some time with them or they would start making it impossible to sleep.

Well, actually, I didn’t listen that easily, and I haven’t slept that well for a bit now.  High point is…  I have words.  But the caffeine hasn’t been pulling its weight for the past few mornings.

WIPpet

Simple maths… Today I offer you four paragraphs: 1 for the month plus 3+0 from the day. The fifth opening paragraph offers a lead in from my last WIPpet post: Not Smiling. Here I continue to explore the cause of ‘Listii’s nightmares.  I’m learning a lot about the way the Guard has grown since the Cataclysm and things I’d never have guessed about ‘Listii’s relationship with his family and dearest friends.

Any normal day, he’d have been happy to stare. Today he wasn’t even sure he could call her a pretty thing. She just was prettier than most anyone else in the barrack’s mess, or she would be, if she didn’t look like his dead sister.

Impossible. His sister had died years ago, long before they’d emigrated to Acaria. Since he also knew all the trainees, an none of them looked the least like Visse—at least none of them had before this week.

This was the third time he’d seen his sister walking the Center’s halls.

He accepted the refilled cup with a nod vaguely in the girl’s direction. “Thanks, lass.”

“Of course, ‘Listii.”

Hopefully you enjoyed that.  Now, why not head over to the WIPpet linky and visit some our other awesome members? Much love and thanks to Emily Wrayburn, for hosting out bloghop.

#SoCS: Running

image courtesy of Wallup.net

It’s Saturday Sunday(!) again, and as always, time seems to have flown by since my last Stream of Consciousness Saturday post.  Time for a new one (with a new prompt I daren’t use here[against the”rules” this week, you see])…  especially since this week isn’t my WeWriWa post week and I missed my Wednesday WIPpet too.

Mostly I’ve been running away into an imaginary world created by Victoria Thompson in her Gaslight Mysteries novels.  Why I’ve been running?  Life has been…  interesting lately.  Not bad-bad-bad, but more emotionally difficult than I needed right now.

It’s my propensity for chasing after windmills and trying to fix problems that aren’t my own.

There are times I’d like to trade places with those that I am helping, to be the one receiving the help and not offering, not feeling obliged to give it.  And I do feel obliged…  not so much because I was asked to help (oddly, I’m less inclined to help when I am asked as when I sense a need and am not).

Eh…  I shouldn’t dwell on the crazy.  It’s almost a new week and, deals with God not withstanding, I don’t have to keep going this way.  Don’t have to look back to know what I need to do to go forward at the moment…  the path is clear (muddy, but clear).  The moon is lighting it well…

#WeWriWa — A Scullery Maid

It’s a bloghop!

Good morning, and welcome to today’s Weekend Writing Warriors installment. The rules are simple enough if you’d like to participate:

• Add your name and genre(s) to the most recent post on the WeWriWa site
• Post a link to the WeWriWa site on your blog/Sunday post (must be done before 9am EST)
• Keep your excerpt 10 sentences or less (8-10, no more!)
• Visit other WeWriWa authors and experience their work

(Find a complete set on the WeWriWa page as well as links to pages of all the authors involved. Check it out.)

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Two weeks ago (I am only posting these excerpts every other week because life is cray-cray), I posted the second of my pieces from the new opening of Courting the Swan Song: Puddings. This piece follows directly on that.

“Our Lady Kessalan demanded I attend her to discuss tomorrow’s market visit. She asked me to send you to her to attend her as soon as we finish here.”

Despite her asking, Vissse had not listened, sure whatever Kiriina would say would annoy her more. Instead she smiled slightly, picturing how her brother would laugh his head off if he could see her now, seeing how easy it could be to get under her skin. Either of her brothers would have … once. Her smile faded. That wasn’t likely to happen as long as she was stuck here, learning the high art of being a scullery maid.

Kiriina cleared her throat, instantly drawing Visse back to present and what she had said.

“My aunt called for me?”.

Thank you for reading; I hope you enjoyed the snippet. Coming up for WIPpet Wednesday, please enjoy another sample from Courting the Swan Song or perhaps another of my Works In Progress.