Work in Progress: Ashes and Light, week five

Just barely made my word-counts this week.  It’s been a busy week of non-writing related stuff, and while I’ve thought a lot about writing, I haven’t actually accomplished as much as I wanted to! I’m not behind — not by a long shot. But I’ve lost a little of the momentum I’d gained. I’ll be fixing that this week!

Part of that delay was the usual — writing a sex scene. The blocking on sex scenes and fight scenes always slows me down! I did finally finish it to my satisfaction — we’ll see what the editor thinks when this book finally goes off to him.

I also put a short scene up onto my Facebook to see what people thought. I like the concept, but I thought there was one passage in particular that felt clunky. So I asked for opinions. This is what we ended up with:

“I’d wondered at that. Is there no one in Zaragoza to teach you?” Turpin asked.

“I wouldn’t know who to trust,” Nasir answered. “My uncle’s city… well, it’s not Constantinople.”

Turpin looked at him. “Is that why you want to go back?”

Nasir nodded. “Part of the reason.” He paused for a moment. “Imagine that you’ve lived your entire life in a world of vibrant color and music, where everything is rich and alive. Then…take it away. Replace it with a world where everything is drab and gray. Where the music is just off-tune enough that it makes your teeth ache. Where everything has not yet made up its collective mind on which side of dead it can be found. That was what moving from Constantinople to Zaragoza was like. I hate this city. No, hate isn’t strong enough. I despise this city. I want to go home.”

Turpin blinked. “I do understand what you are saying,” he said. “That’s a most impressive description, Nasir. Why do you stay?”

Nasir shook his head. “My uncle. To put it mildly, he controls my purse, for another year.”

***

In Patreon news, Chapter 6 of Heir to the Firstborn just went live this past Friday.  The tension is building, the mountain is teetering… looks like it’s going to fall soon. (Soon being Chapter 8. I’m writing the scene now.) I’m kind of looking forward to this, because it will bring in a character I’ve been dying to write (whose voice, in my head, sounds like Sam Yao from the Zombies, Run!  running app.)  It also brings me one step closer to a character I really can’t wait to get to in this story, because once he’s in the page, things will really start to get interesting!

See you all on the flip side!