(Previous)
The magic of the gate responded to me, a little movement here, a different touch there. If I'd had time --
I didn't. I focused, which was difficult with the sounds of trouble growing behind me. I stopped and looked back. Edmond was urging Icelings closer and several hundred of them were already there, though most of them watched the trouble coming down through the long street. Alsia was alone, but she was powerful. A few icelings and Lord Snow worked at keeping her back, but they lost ground one step at a time.
"Mark!" Edmond darted to me. "We are running out of time."
I brought up both my hands, and focused as best I could on the magic in the gate. I dared not get distracted again --
The gate spoke to me. Not in words, but a whisper of something that awakened the power within me. For a moment I was the gate and understood that someone else had closed it, long ago -- not a safe place to go to this Earth.
They must escape back to Elsewhere!
The gate began to open. I heard the cry of surprise and pleasure from the Icelings, and that gave me the strength to push harder and force it open --
It was just as cold on the other side as here, but that didn't matter to the Icelings. They were already rushing through, going past me with touches on my arms and shoulders, a moment of thanks. They were heading for home. I knew that was part of Elsewhere on the other side and wondered if the great dragon, the Lord of Winter, was nearby. I wasn't certain I wanted to see him, but --
I heard a huge crack of sound followed by the thunderous sound of stone and ice collapsing. I spun around and raised my hand, magic dispersing the debris that had almost crashed down on us all. That had come easily because I had seen others in danger and knew I had to protect them.
The use of that much magic, and the power I'd expended to open the door, left me cold and trembling. Edmond brushing against my legs almost sent me tumbling, and my eyes were not focusing well.
"Hey!" Edmond said. "Come on, Mark! We need to get through --"
"Not yet. Lord Snow -- Alsia."
Edmond didn't argue, though I thought I could hear him hissing, mumbling, and growling
.
"You can go, Edmond," I said and meant those words. "I'll try to follow as quickly as possible, but I can't leave yet --"
"I know, I know," Edmond said. He darted up a pile of debris and then spread his wings and sailed ahead of me.
"Be careful!" I shouted. The little cat had no sense of his own vulnerability.
I rushed forward, darting around the fallen buildings. I was sorry to see them destroyed, but then I realized the icelings were heading out the door still, and this place couldn't stay here afterwards, for some human to find as the glacier retreated.
I glanced back. There were still at least a thousand more icelings to go through the door. I hadn't realized there were so many. I could only catch a glimpse of the world on the other side, all white and snowy. The icelings seems to disappear into that world as soon as they crossed.
I could feel the link to the gate in me, tenuous and if I lost it --
We had a battle still, with a woman who would have been wiser to back away now that I had opened the door and let the icelings get away. Ah, but they were never her real prey, were they? It was me she wanted.
Lord Snow had been doing his best to battle her. I could see blood on his shoulder, his rear left leg dragged, and some of his fur had been singed. None of this seemed to have slowed him at all, and Alsia had a few wounds of her own.
When she saw me, her voice rose an a howl of anger and she swept Lord Snow aside -- I didn't see where he went, and I didn't have time to go and help him. I raised my hand and tried to call up magic --
Nothing.
"Edmond, get back to the gate!"
Alsia smiled brightly. I had to agree with the Icelings on this one. The woman was insane. I didn't know how to deal with her if I could not call up magic again. My mind was swirling, trying to call back that magic I'd gained, but nothing came --
Edmond swept around over my head and headed back for her.
She lifted her hand --
"No!"
The force of my power sent her flying to hit hard against one of the few standing walls. It collapsed, but did not stop her. In a moment rock and ice flew everywhere. Edmond had turned back to me again. I grabbed him out of the air and we retreated back toward the door. Something moved to the right and I caught a glimpse of Lord Snow keeping pace with us. Just get back to the door --
She raced towards us. We were not going to get through, though at least the Icelings had made it to safety. I saw a few on the other side, yelling I thought for us to hurry.
I was barely three yards from the gate when she lifted her hands and I knew --
We hadn't counted on Lord Snow. He leapt from a pile of debris, drove her to the ground and grabbed her by the leg, dragging her past us so fast that I couldn't have stopped him.
I took a step forward, but I had lost my link and the gate was already closing.
"Good luck!" Lord Snow shouted. "I'll see you at the other gate!"
Closed.
The city around us began to crumble. I grabbed Edmond and ran for safety back out into the world.
To Be Continued
997 Words
Only one day left of the first month of the year! That went quickly. It was helped along by several very nice weather days. Now we have snow and pretty stuff, but also colder than it was. Not horrible, but still unpleasant whenever the door to my office opens, and the cold from the unheated part of the house rushes in. My cats don't quite understand 'close the door behind you!' so I'm stuck with getting up constantly and either shoving it closed or opening it again. Hey, it's exercise. I should probably have about six more cats so that I had to do it more often.
On the other hand ... no, not such a good idea. I've had that many house cats (and more) before. I'll stick with my three and our small but entirely useless dog.
I've had one bout of illness, which I am just recovering from now. It's been a rough day, but I think I can get back to working again. I also need to pull back from the political world. The daily anxiety of 'what has gone wrong now' is not helping me. It's not helping anyone, but I fear we are stuck with it.
Hold on. I meant to talk about the novels, not the real world. Journey of a Thousand Truths is flying along, even if we don't have a pilot or a map. I've really enjoyed the work, with only a few days where I mumbled and grumbled and couldn't get more than 1k. The novel is now over 55k, and I still have several big adventure points coming up. Yay!
My secondary work for the month has been a rewrite/edit of the 4th Devlin novel, Missing Persons. Here I hit a BIG problem. I have rewritten the start three times now, and it is still boring! Just dull. Nothing seems to fit together.
Or at least that's how I felt until tonight when I realized two big things -- in my haste to get to the main storyline, I'd not set things up very well. I did a lot of 'show, don't tell' spots and didn't even realize it. Well, that makes a difference. I also realized I had an excellent chance to start the trouble with one group long before Devlin's Team gets to the world where the current assignment is taking them. The story finally seems to be picking up. Once I get past the opening, I shouldn't have so much trouble. I will not have the novel done this month as I had hoped (not even close since I am still back at page 15), but I finally see why I thought it was boring. Nothing was really happening. I recited events and did not let my characters live them. This is never the better choice when you have such great characters to work with as Devlin, Cha, and Dancer. I needed to turn them loose.
Now the problem is that I have two really fun stories vying for my attention. I'm not sure that's the best answer.
Oh. That reminds me of one more big change I made.
I restarted my Writing Comes First Campaign. For too long, I was getting up, messing around on the Internet, getting distracted, and writing later. I always write, so there was always going to be some words, but I was not doing as well as I used to. I decided to make sure I had my writing done before I went over to FaceBook or any other site, especially with the current climate on the Internet. (Ah, but how long will we even have the Internet?) I thought this change was going to be difficult.
It was not. I don't miss scrolling through FB first thing and filling myself with the kind of useless distress that doesn't help writing. I also learned that if I simply sit down and start writing, the words will come to me. I am having no trouble getting 3k first thing where I was having a horrible time getting 1k some days just because of the wasted time and energy.
You are not going to find me online before 6 pm or so central time. Probably later on many days. I am reapplying myself to my craft, and it's working. I am going to take more time for other forms of art as well.
We all need to find things we enjoy, no matter how much we might dislike other things in the world. If we give in to despair and cast aside all that we enjoy, isn't that a form of defeat?
In the words of Neil Gaiman -- Go Make Art.
(Previous)
Not far? The Icelings clearly didn't understand the term in the same way that a battered, tired human did. I kept moving and gave a grateful thank you to Lord Snow when he called a halt several hours into the walk. From the way he looked over his shoulder, though, I could tell that we were not going to be here long.
I had to believe the Icelings knew where they were going. The idea that there might be another gate to Elsewhere made me hopeful. If we could get there, get allies, come back through the gate near home -- yes, that was a plan. I had never had a plan during this madness.
For the moment, at least, I even let myself believe it would work.
We climbed and hiked, moving onward all through the day. The air grew thinner, and the cold tripled, but I adjusted. I'd never liked cold before, and I didn't now, but I was doing okay.
At sunset we arrived at a high alpine glacier, the edge running with a waterfall, a pile of debris dropped at the edge as the ice melted back. I had thought it close to the ground, but we went down under it into a tall, wide area. Dark for the first few steps, and then we passed through some sort of wall of magic, and I could clearly see the winding path ahead of us.
The icelings were far happier now that they were down here under the ice. I didn't think we would be safe from the actual trouble. Lord Snow had told them we had enemies, but they were aware of that anyway. The magic used to make the avalanche had been what drew them out.
We did not go far into the icy cavern before they began to gather at the rock wall. Boulders moved aside, and we quickly headed in, the rocks moving back into place behind us. Not really safe, I knew. I had sensed the magic here and so would Alsia when she came this way. We had to work quickly --
I turned around and felt my breath catch.
A city sat in a hollow below me, the walls of translucent stone rising one floor atop another and glittering with magic light. Paths led down the hillside at a gentle slope, and far down I could see what must be the closed gate.
"Make sure they understand that I have not one this myself," I said as we went down the long path. "I was with Lord Cayman when he opened that last door, and I had a feel for it, but --"
"I have explained," Lord Snow said. "They understand that you can only try. If you do this, it will help us all, though."
He didn't say so, but I had the feeling he worried about our next encounter with Alsia. I hurried a little faster, despite that my body ached.
I also wanted to stop and look at the buildings we passed. They were wonders of stone and ice, filled with magic color that spilled out all around us as we walked. Edmond darted here and there, but never went far. Lord Snow talked with our hosts and from the way his tail twitched now and then, I could tell that what he learned did not please him very well.
He finally dropped back to talk to me.
"They knew about Alsia already," he said. "They'd sensed her in the city where she turned up just a few days ago. When they went to her, though, she killed three of them and the others barely escaped. They think she might be insane."
"Maybe she spent too much time here among humans," I offered.
He gave a little rumble of a laugh. "You might be right. I think, though, Alsia's appearance, and her dislike for the other beings points more to someone who is working with Darman. She is not Potilia, but they have a lot in common."
"And she is still coming after us," I said with a nervous look back over my shoulder.
"She'll have some trouble getting through that shield and into the city. They took quite a chance coming to you as they did because they knew Alsia was in the area, too. She is an enemy, though. I don't think she realizes how much her callousness is going to cost her."
"Best if I get the gate open," I said. "Better if this doesn't become a fight."
"True," he agreed.
I hurried forward. Edmond bounded down with me, though he did to the air. I had the feeling his inability to land well would have embarrassed him before the icelings.
The closer I got to the gate, the more I felt a link to the magic there. I put my hand to it and felt it swirled and touch me.
"I don't think I'll have much trouble opening this," I said looking down at Edmond. "But is it safer for us to go through. I never felt very safe in Elsewhere before."
"Nowhere is safe," Edmond said and rubbed against his legs. "We just have to do what we can, Mark."
I mumbled agreement, but my attention was not on the bit of magic before me and tried to ignore the sounds of trouble -- and the growing feel of magic -- behind me. I had to block it out and recall all I knew about magic, which was not a lot. I'd been around it enough, though -- and this gate wanted to open. The icelings had not touched the right chords with it. This was fae magic, and though I wasn't a full fae, it still recognized me as one of them. That was an odd feeling, there in the midst of all this trouble.
And there was a problem. I could hear Lord Snow growling as the trouble came closer....
To Be Continued....
990 words
A few years ago I wrote a book titled Beware the Wrath of Bunny Hopper. When I was done, and after I had edited the book, rewrote parts of it, edited it again, I was very happy with the end result. I thought This is the One.
You know what I mean: This is the one that is going to sell well. People will enjoy it! The story had adventure and humor. It was a good solid YA contemporary fantasy with a female lead. It had huge mutant bugs. What was there not to like?
But the sales never took off the way I had thought they would.
So a couple years later I had another book I was getting ready to go out there: In the Shadow of Giants. This one was a real change for me -- science fiction/fantasy/mythology tale that pitted the Norse Gods against the Chinese Gods sometime in the future. Loki was my main character. I had written it long before the Loki craze that came with the movie version, but the timing of the release was good.
I thought This is the One.
I was wrong again. The sales on both of these books have been okay, but you always hope for the one book that will take off and do better.
Last year I wrote, edited and published Raventower and Merriweather 1: Secrets. I loved the book -- my first nudge into the world of steampunk but with a lot of magic added. The characters were wonderful to work with.
Was this the one?
Not so far as I can tell yet.
So here is both a problem and a joy of being prolific: You can have several books that you think are going to be something more popular than they are and go through this time of hope and then realize it is not going to happen. You can go through this many times, unlike less prolific writers who might not have more than one book every five or so years.
I could add other books to the list: Kat among the Pigeons (Contemporary Fantasy), Paid in Gold and Blood (Fantasy), Xenation: Draw the Line (Science Fiction) -- even more that I expected to do well. When they do not, it can be disheartening.
On the other hand, I still have other novels to publish. I still have hope that I will find The One that will catch enough attention that people will mention my work to other people. I am not looking to make the New York Times Bestseller list. What I want is to know that I've reached a good number of readers who enjoyed something I wrote.
And I have more to write, too. I will write the third Raventower and Merriweather book this year. The second is sitting in first draft status, waiting for me to do my very first read-through on it. I'm excited still about the second novel and the ideas for the third.
Am I ever going to find The One? Maybe not. And you know, despite some disheartening moments, I realize that it wouldn't change things anyway. I will still be writing, won't I? If I am not looking for bestseller status -- which sounds like a lot of work AFTER the book is popular -- then what do I care?
My books do sell, all of them adding up to a nice little bit of money every few months. I get to sit here and write more. Should I really want more?
Well, maybe just a little bit more....
(Previous)
I blinked several times and saw where human-like creatures, though taller than me, thin, and with icy blue skin with whitish hair and clothing. They looked like moving piles of snow, and they were far too quiet.
Edmond shifted, gave a slight hiss of sound at the sight, and went silent and still. We were surrounded; I looked and found some even kneeling on the overhang, looking down at us. Their eyes were only a slightly darker blue than their skin, and they blinked when they met my look.
I tried to stand, but my legs gave out. I had gone as far as I could, and I wondered if Edmond could escape and get to Lord Snow. I didn't know what I faced. They hadn't attacked yet, but they were moving in a little closer now. I could barely hear the sound, like the faint whisper of snow-against-snow.
I thought they might seem more curious than dangerous. They could have attacked me by now. I watched, aware of a whisper of sound that must have been words between them. They were quiet people, and I had the impression that they didn't like to be out in the open where they might draw attention.
I stayed seated, and they formed up in a circle around us, the first row kneeling so that they second had a clearer view of us. Edmond was no longer hissing, and from the way his head turned from side-to-side, I had the feeling he might be rather curious himself.
They were whispering again. I wasn't sure of the language, but if they were here, I had to hope I could talk to them.
"Are you from Elsewhere?" I asked.
Though I spoke softly, it still sounded like a shout compared to these quiet people. I startled them, and even the kneeling ones started to scramble to their feet to get away -- but then they stopped as though they had only just heard what I said. They all knelt this time, and the ones above on the rocks came down and sat with the others. I felt as though I was on a stage and hadn't been told the name of the play, let alone what part I played in it.
"I feel like I should know what they are," Edmond said.
Oh, and that drew a strange reaction. They were not surprised to find that the cat could talk. There was even a nod of heads to him, as though he were something they understood far better than they did me.
I had no idea what to do. We sat in silence for a few moments, but then I heard another sound and saw movement --
Lord Snow arrived.
The people did not panic. I heard cries of surprise, but more of them stood and stretched out their arms to the snow leopard as though in delight. Lord Snow came bounding through the snow and came to a sliding stop beside me. I had to put a hand on the rock to keep from going down.
"My apologies," the big cat said. He sat down and mumbled words that were not in English. The others answered, a chorus of words that seemed to tumble over each other. I thought Lord Snow looked pleased.
"What are they?" I asked when they all went quiet again.
"Icelings, from Lord Ice's own realm. They know me, even though they've been here for a long time. I'm not sure what happened. I think they were exploring other winter lands and somehow ended up here. I don't know --"
One of the Icelings began to talk. Others joined in. I could tell that whatever they said took Lord Snow by surprise. He spoke a few times and then turned back to me. Edmond, I noticed, had snuggled up next to the larger cat's long fur. I wondered if I could shift a little closer myself.
"They have told me something I had not known," Lord Snow said at last. "Mark, there is a second gate to Elsewhere, and it is located high in the mountains, but not too far from here. The problem is that the gate is closed and they have never had the ability to open it, so they were trapped here. If you can get it open, then it would be a better way back."
"I don't know much about gates, but I'm willing to try," I said. I started to stand, but my leg gave out again. Lord Snow reached over and put a paw against it, and I felt a wild surge of magic that made not only the leg but most of the rest of me, feel much better. "Thank you!"
"Dangerous," he admitted. "I'm not used to applying magic to fae or human. But I'm glad it helped."
I picked up Edmond and draped him over my shoulders. He purred since he didn't like to walk and I appreciated having a nice warm fur collar again. The Icelings were excited now, some of them actually leaping as they bounded through and over the snow. They had to slow for the rest of us, but I could sense the joy they felt.
I hoped I didn't disappoint them. I wanted to say something to Lord Snow, to have him warn the others that I might not be able to do the work -- but then I suspected he already had done so. It wasn't like him to give false hope to others.
I'd do my best.
We were heading farther up into the mountains and far away from the railroad tracks, which we crossed. I looked up and down them with a bit of longing but didn't slow. I realized that the 'not far' for the Icelings might be a long distance for me --
Lord Snow looked over his shoulder and nodded. We were being followed. That wouldn't be good since it could be no one but Alsia.
To Be Continued....
998 Words
