A princess story begins

Over the years I have written a number of princess stories, often with a humorous bent to them and often because of random things involving a dear friend and her RP characters my own little Fae character nicknamed The Knight and The Rogue. Well she has again inspired a new princess tale, so I thought I would share what I have written already (in all it’s raw unedited glory). Mainly because Angie told me to….

The princess woke before the sun had begun to pour its light across the darkness of the moonless night. Her hair was mattered and stuck with the leaves that had been her pillow through the night as she slept in the space between the roots of the kindly old oak who had given her the shelter of his canopy. Her body ached for having slept in such a way, not at all like the soft mattress and pillows it was used to resting upon. But there had been nothing else for it in the wake of the princess’s escape. That she had been running was clear, but from what remained the question. Hazy memories circled her head when she tried to remember. It made her head ache as the disjointed images swirled.

She saw a beautiful woman laughing and in that laugh was madness and malice. For all the fairness of her face there was something ugly about her.

There was a man with a blade that caught the light as it thrust and returned to sight dulled by blood. The princess touched her side gingerly and whimpered at the pain.

Pushing the tatters of her dress aside she found the wound covered and on closer inspection already healing. Someone had tended the wound and time enough had passed that it was healing. But how much time had passed and who had the faces been and why should they hurt her?

“The princess bleeds like any other wench, let us see what else she does as one.” The words and voice rose in her mind unbidden but there was no image just the words and the fear they carried even in memory. This all was why she was running but it was a lacking explanation for still she did not know who these people were the sought to bring her pain, nor did she know why they did such things. How had she wronged them to turn them to such vile acts? And what of the rest of her life? 
Fractured memories remained in her mind with no context of time or what might be dream and what reality. 
Carriage rides and fights, dragons and dolls, faces and feelings all swirled in her mind as a maelstrom of confusion and the princess felt overwhelmed to the point of tears by it all. 
‘”We do not show the weakness of tears even when we are alone.” 
Another memory rose and the princess thought she knew the face worn by the man who sat her on his knee and she wished to call him uncle. The tears she was not to show she thought with some surety that they were for her parents who had been cruelly taken from her and the people. The tragic events were still denied her mind but she knew it still to be true. 

All these thoughts crossed her mind as she sat in the dirt at the base of the kind old tree and she knew she must rise from her spot and continue her flight. She could hear nothing and see nothing yet she knew danger remained behind her, seeking her for further pain and humiliation.

 

Tis the season to be busy…

This the season to be busy falalalala shoot me now.

I knew I was going to be busy as I headed into Christmas just because of work alone. The sheep all need shearing and crutching and I end up doing payroll for up to 250 staff which by myself is no easy feat I might tell you (And I just did….yes I rock at being an office administrator, if this writing gig doesn’t work out….no wait…I don’t want to be an office manager all my life so this writing gig WILL work out.) So knowing that I’m going to be a stress bunny I decided to want to release an audio teaser, a short story, write more on my joint novels, complete my babypire novel and shift house, all before Christmas. Actually I get the keys to the new place in a week and the house is woefully not packed (It is partially packed though, all the easy things, like the DVDs, why isn’t everything as easy to pack as DVDs?). Oh yes and the fun fact that I am just not sleeping like I need and I’m exhausted before I even get out of bed (Here I have to blame my dreams, I need to stop having such intense dreams of evading capture and saving the day, that shit is exhausting).

Man I am a complainoid. Now I’m not meaning to be, that wasn’t the point of this post.  I was just reflecting on how busy things are because of which things are suffering. I haven’t even finished editing Auta’s story to begin practicing reading it aloud ready to share with you all. This annoys me some, I need a clone or a tardis or magical powers… Oh or that necklace thingy Hermione has. That would be neat.

How does everyone else do it? Being a writer takes a lot of time and effort, are there tricks I should know to keep on top right of everything or is it simply a case of keep plugging away and eventually you get there?

Or is this why so many authors are jokingly said to be insane…. Because we are all sleep deprived zombies trying to get it all done.

Out of my mind, back soon

As some of you may have noticed I’ve been a little silent here the last few days. Please forgive me, it does not mean I do not love you all immensely. It has been a busy weekend. I did see Skyfall and OMG *zips lips* I won’t say anything but but but, no I won’t say anything. It’s gooood.

It has meant that I have not had time to look at Auta’s story any to prepare for recording. I had hoped to last night but work completely melted my brain so that alas did not happen. Fingers crossed for tomorrow. I am thinking that perhaps I should give a date for releasing my audio teaser for Auta’s story. (Also I really do need to get around to giving it a real name…) So how do we all feel about Saturday the 15th of December? You can think of it as an early Christmas present.

Speaking of Christmas…please don’t. I am still in denial that it is approaching. My dreams of releasing Nyssa’s Tale before the new year are slowly fading. But perhaps it will be a brilliant way to start the new year. New Year, new novel, exciting new journey. This idea has merit.

And on that note I must alas finish up this ramble and begin to get ready for work. I leave you with these gifs.

 

Thank you and you and you and yes you

Last night around the world the shrill scream of a not so young any more woman was heard. Yeah sorry about that.

But last night thanks to a couple of late night downloads from two darling women I reached my little download goal. To say that I was excited would be an understatement hence the ear drum rupturing scream that circled the planet faster than Santa on speed. I cannot thank you guys enough for downloading A Queen’s Tale and making me this giddy.

With that in mind I promised you a treat did I not?
The votes are in and the clear winner and then some is me reading an unreleased piece of my work. I have been thinking long and hard about this as well as sitting at my desk reading things aloud (which just made me seem an ounce crazier than usual). I have it narrowed down to two things. Autumn’s Tale which follows on after Gwyn’s and gives you all more Myr who seems to be a quick favourite character (He quite modestly says “But of course love, I am rather fantastic after all”). Or a part of Nyssa’s Tale, perhaps one of her flashbacks. I am still of two minds but more and more I am leaning towards Auta.
So I am going to give myself a few days to rehearse and record. I never expected to reach my modest goal so quickly. And I do want this to be good. Lucky for you guys I have some experience with public speaking. Yes I was the captain of my debate team and we already know all about my on stage shenanigans. So I am, at least, not totally in over my head with this. Just mostly.

So next week my darlings I shall hopefully be subjecting you to my voice (alas unlike most of you I was born without an accent) and most likely sharing sweet Auta’s tale of tragedy, change and destiny. Where does she fit in to the tales of Arthur and just who is she to the souls of A Queen’s Tale? Well I guess you will have to just wait and see.

To edit or not to edit

So I was reading an interesting post on self-editing your books, which is what I did for A Queen’s Tale. (And so far I haven’t had anyone jumping up and down pointing out typos to me….well yet.) And I admit that I am all for self-editing.

If you have the skills.

Now I know some of us really suck at grammar and spelling for the most part. I know I do. But generally that is in the first draft where I am just writing hell for leather and don’t really care until later that “her wings filled up with water” when it was clearly meant to be her lungs. Now editing wise when I go back I am not a god, and I did have some help on it. But editing wise I am the only one who knows the kind of book I am trying to create, what the story should be, what is in the characters head and how I want it all to sound and I got an A bursary in seventh form in English so I should know what I am doing (even if that was so many years ago)(as to what the actual % I got for that I can’t actually remember but I was damn damn proud of it and didn’t care that I failed Calculus by 1% considering I had barely gone to any calculus classes since I was the only English speaker in there and the teacher never went back over things because all the genius other people in the class didn’t want her to…so yeah, I managed to con my way out of a lot of those classes…I vaguely regret it but more so I regret not just changing to a class I might have enjoyed more)

Right rambling where was I.

Editing right. I imagine that someday in the future I may have a real editor, one who has studied and/or earned this title, I admit I am going to be a picky little cow no doubt because I think I have a unique writing style at times and I don’t know that all editors will truly appreciate that. But I am still happy to be doing my editing myself, with some help with certain grammatical issues from others who read just for that, or people who are my trial audience like my partner in crime Sam.

Years back I was part of a writing course and got to spend some time with a leading NZ author one on one with my then novel Eiridis (which, yes, has fallen on the back burner again). But she had me edit the first chapter myself and then take it to her with her version of her edit of it. And she was delightfully surprised to find that I had it in me to kill my baby just how she had, red slashes everywhere (it was my first novel after all) and that I picked up the points she had noticed herself. (I was a “That” whore, seriously I couldn’t have used the word more if I had tried.) So that gives me some confidence. And yes I am the type to read a published novel and point at the mistakes I do find and sit and quibble over a sentence that doesn’t make sense until I work out how I would have said it myself so it read right. Am I saying I am gifted and talented her, well maybe, but mostly no. I mean anyone who reads my initial drafts, or has ever seen my facebook or twitter knows that I am simply put, the princess of the typo.

Was there a point to this…yes…if you have an editor or can afford an editor that is marvellous, if you are self-editing, don’t feel like you are doing the wrong thing, providing you have the required skills and a good support crew.

It takes a village to edit a book, but just one idiot (usually) to write it.