Works in Progress: Table of Stone and Forged in Fire

Table of Stone
Swords of Charlemagne, Book 4

Forged in Fire
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 2

I realized yesterday (I think) that I never updated the blog last week. I’m going to have to start doing it some other day than Sunday. Sunday is family day, and I don’t always get onto the computer.

Words proceed apace on both Table of Stone and Forged in Fire.  Table of Stone got a slow start, mostly because I was busy with everything to do with getting Written in Water ready for publication, and the Highland Games, and the OCLS Writers conference that I attended last week. (Which was amazing, and if you’re in the Orlando area next January, I highly recommend it.) Once things calmed down, the words started flowing again.

Speaking of Written in Water, the first review on an ARC hit Goodreads this afternoon. I’m very pleased — first reviews are always nerve-wracking! We’re now just over two weeks from publication, and I just hit the approve button on the paperback proofs. So yes, there will be dead tree versions of the book! Once the sales links are up for those, I’ll post them.

Now, an excerpt from Forged in Fire. Writing this made me giggle, so I’m figuring it’s a good thing.

***

“He’ll be starving when he wakes up,” she added. “I’m not sure what we left for him will be enough.”

“It’ll have to be,” Owyn answered. “We won’t have anything else until we get to that village. Unless we hunt…” he frowned. “Or fish. You lived on the canoe with him. Do you know how to fish?”

“Not the way they do it,” Aria answered. “They used nets and spears underwater. I’m not sure about how to do it from land. I know how to open oysters. But I don’t know how to tell where to find them.”

Owyn nodded slowly. Then he perked up. “How about crabs? Aven said there were crabs in… in where we found that poor bastard. You can eat crabs, can’t you?”

“Me?” Aria asked. “Or us?”

“Us.” Owyn moved Trinket to his shirt pocket. Then he got to his feet and brushed the sand off his trousers. “I’m pretty sure we can eat them. Come on. Let’s go see if we can find some.”

Aria got up and followed him down the beach and around the rocks. It seemed like a good idea. She just hoped that Memfis knew what to do to prepare crabs — it didn’t seem fair to make Aven prepare his own meal, even if he didn’t have to catch it. By the time she caught up with Owyn, they were around the rocks and into the sheltered cavern where Owyn and Aven had found the body. Owyn was standing near the edge of the pool of water, frowning.

“Now what?” he asked as she came closer.

“It was your idea,” she pointed out. “Do you not know how to do it?”

Owyn grimaced. “I was kinda hoping you did. You hunt. Aven hunts. I’ve never hunted before, and where I’m from, catching crabs has a whole ‘nother meaning.”

Aria blinked. “What does it mean?”

He blinked. “You don’t know? Right.. well, it’s not a good thing. That’s all I’m going to say. So what do we do?”