Works in Progress, Week Eleven, Blood Bound and Bones of Earth

Blood Bound
Flesh and Blood, Book 1

57165 / 95000 (60.17%)

***

Bones of Earth
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 3

30842 / 95000 (32.47%)

Progress! (Yes, even if it isn’t a lot of progress. The number lines moving upwards is progress.) At this rate, I’ll be finishing up Blood Bound by Christmas, as is my usual writing schedule. Bones of Earth will continue until morale improves/everyone learns to swim  it’s finished. And I’m not going to START anything else until both Bones of Earth and Wings of Air are finished. I think I’ve proven that working on two projects at a time is not the best use of my time. So hopefully, once I finish Blood Bound, the only thing that I will have to distract me from Heir to the Firstborn will be edits for things I have out in various slush piles.

Forged in Fire is out now, and doing well. There’s a five star review over on Goodreads (yay!)  Just a request to the audio radiance that writers love reviews. (hinthinthint)

I think I’m finally over the slump in Bones of Earth, too. The writing seems to be moving at a faster pace, which makes sense now that things have happened in the story, and someone has shook off their holding pattern and started moving forward.

That’s nice and vague now, isn’t it? Good. No spoilers.

I did have a pretty big surprise while working on Bones just before we went to Necronomicon. If you follow me on Twitter, you saw my “I did NOT see that coming” post. I’ve decided to share…

We meet Alanar in Forged in Fire. He is a blind Healer, and he and Owyn have become very close. Very close, as we see here. They’re about to leave on a journey, because reasons.


“I’m not going to lie to myself and say everything is going to be fine and wonderful. I know I’m walking out of the only safe place left in the world. And I know there’s something out there that would make me change my mind and not go, if I knew what it was. That’s why the Mother won’t let me see what’s coming. So I know I have to go, but I’m going to take every precaution I can. Like leaving behind things that make me stand out too much.”

“And I won’t?” Alanar asked.

“Nope,” Owyn answered. “Because we’re going to tell people who get nosy that you’re my husband, that we just got married, and that we’re going north to visit your family in the Solstice village and bring them the news.”

Alanar looked startled. “When did you think of that?” he asked.

“Last night,” Owyn answered.

Alanar coughed. “Last night. Really,” he repeated. “Then I clearly was doing something wrong.”

Marik burst into laughter. “More information than we needed, Alanar!”

Owyn reached over and took Alanar’s hand. “I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep,” he explained. “I didn’t want to wake you up, so I thought about ways to cover what we were doing to anyone outside the Water villages. Any objections? I mean, if you don’t want to be married to me—”

Alanar shook his head. “Stop that. You’re a perfectly fine husband, even if I only get to borrow you for a while.” He smiled, raising Owyn’s hand to kiss his knuckles. “Maybe I can ask Aria if it can be more than a while.”

Everything stopped. The entire world stopped. Owyn’s breathing stopped. His heart stopped. Everything just… froze. Then it all lurched into motion again, like it had been kicked by a mule. “I… what? What?”

Alanar’s smile faltered. “I… I’m sorry. Was that… too… I don’t know. Owyn?”

“No, no, no,” Owyn sputtered. “Stop. Just… stop.” He swallowed. “You… just asked me to marry you. Did you mean to do that?”

“Yes, I did, Owyn.”


“But wait!” I heard you cry. “Owyn is supposed to be with Aria and Aven!”

I know. I know! This was not in the outline!

But there’s also no reason why it can’t be. As we find out shortly after this scene, Companions can, indeed, marry, so long as their spouses (spice?) understand that they are entering a group marriage. So we’re going with it.

Because reasons.  And because when stuff like this flows out of my fingers without stopping for me to think about it, that means it’s usually the right choice for the story.

Meanwhile, over in vampire land, I’ve dropped several mountains on Daniel, and wrote a science fiction plot point into my story bible that later that same day turned into science fact. No, I did not know that was on the horizon. At least, I don’t think I knew.

I also just yesterday wrote a scene I’ve had in my head for ages, ever since I made Daniel have a day job as a yoga instructor.

The only thing you really need to know for this scene is that Hiro is much shorter than Daniel — Daniel is 6’2. Hiro is 5’5


He made his way back out into the living room, sipping his tea as he went to the window and looked out over the dark expanse of Central Park. Streetlights flickered and shone through windblown tree branches, and he could see the reflections of light in water. This window must look out over The Lake. It was a nice view. Must be pretty in the winter, when it snowed. It would be nice to watch the snow fall from this vantage. He took a deep breath. He was still tired. Overtired, maybe, and sore. He needed to go back to sleep. Maybe he could flow, and relax that way. It was worth a try. He put down his cup and moved in front of the window. He closed his eyes, shifting to stand in mountain pose, slowing his breathing, silently examining himself, looking for pain. He ached, but he didn’t hurt, so he started, sweeping upward into the salute. The sun salutations felt good, strong, and he flowed through them three times before he started seeking balance. High tree pose, raising his arms like branches over his head, then reaching down, catching his raised right foot with his right hand and reaching back into Dancer. He extended his right arm toward the window, and saw movement reflected in the glass.

“Well, that is a handsome pose,” Hiro said from behind him. “I could bind you like that, but then I’d have to stand on a box to do anything with you once I had.”


For this week, my main goals are to get really moving on Bones of Earth — there’s a good bit coming, and I can hit it maybe this weekend if I keep my words up.

Oh, and for the record, I am not doing Nanowrimo this year. I’d have to focus on one project to the detriment of the other. I’ll do Camp Nano in April.


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