So yesterday afternoon, while my son was watching TV, I handwrote the rest of my scene.  It took some worked, but eventually it started flowing.  Then, as I watched TV with my husband last night, ideas came to me on stuff to make it even better when I typed it up.  This morning, my husband took my son to a church activity and I stayed home to clean the downstairs (cause we're having company tomorrow) and then I had time left over so I typed up my scene.  I rarely say this about my work because I rarely think this, but after I read back through the scene, all I could think was, "Man, I'm awesome!"  And since I'm so excited about it, I just can't wait for Teaser Tuesday so instead, I'm gonna do a Sharing Saturday and post a small piece from the scene. 

“Riana, wait!” Westley called but she didn’t slow.

She heard him crashing after her.  A moment later he grabbed her arm and spun her around.  “What is wrong?”

She kept her expression as neutral as possible, grateful for all the years she’d spent on stage.  “Nothing.” 

“I don’t believe you,” he said.

She gaped at him.  “Are you calling me a liar?”

“If nothing is wrong, then why did you storm off?”

“I have things to do.”

He crossed his arms and raised a brow as if to say, “Uh-huh.”

“Are you unhappy that I won?”

She shrugged.  “It doesn’t matter to me.”

“And yet, you gave me your favor.”  He fingered the scarf tied around his arm.  He seemed almost hurt by her attitude.  She clenched her teeth and turned away.  Feeling bad about offending him was not a good way to keep her distance.

“What is it?”  He waited a moment and when she didn’t answer said, “Riana?”

She whirled around.  He wasn’t going to leave her alone so she might as well give him a piece of her mind.  “You want to know what my problem is?”

“Aye.”

“Your arrogance!  I know it wasn’t a battle, but you didn’t take it seriously at all.  You could have been hurt.”

He grinned, his midnight eyes softening as he studied her face.  She nearly forgot why she was upset.

“You cared for my welfare?” he asked.

She caught herself in time.  “No!  I just didn’t want to see anyone killed.  I don’t think I have the stomach for it.”

His grin never wavered.  “You needn’t have worried.  Ruben and I are like brothers.  He would not have hurt me.  This was naught but sport.  Had it been real, I’d have taken it seriously.”

Much as she wanted to argue that, no comeback formed on her tongue.  “Whatever,” she said and turned to go.

“Wait.”

She sighed.  “What?”

“Dadro wishes to speak with you.”

“Who?”

“My father, Tarvik.”

“Oh.”  Tarvik was his father?  Perhaps there was a resemblance between them.  She’d have to look for it later.  Wait, what was she thinking?  She shouldn’t care about that.

I should be finishing my scene right now.  But instead, meredith_wood tagged me for this meme.  So here goes:

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was finishing up my sophomore year in high school.  Yes, I know this makes me really young. 

What are 5 things you need to do today?

1.  finish this scene
2.  remember to make myself lunch.  I've been forgetting to this week.
3.  pick up my son from school
4.  laundry
5.  figure out what on earth we're gonna have for dinner

What are some snacks you enjoy?

Nothing good for me, that's for sure.  Chocolate, cheesecake, peanut butter

What would you do if you were a billionaire?

Pay off my house and cars, get a newer house, get a maid so I can write AND have a clean house, travel, buy way too many books.

What are 3 bad habits?

I get down on myself too much.  I don't stand up for myself.  I'm really bad about remembering to call people or respond to emails...especially if it's going to require a lengthy response.

Name 5 places you have lived.

American Fork, UT
Roosevelt, UT
Ephrata, WA
Rexburg, ID
Liverpool, NY
Oneida, NY
Utica, NY
(I know that's 7, but that's everywhere I've lived)

What are 5 jobs you've had?

maid...cook...chauffeur...accountant...secretary...nurse...oh wait, sorry, that's called being a stay-at-home mom. 
Let's see...  the jobs I've had were all in high school/before I got married.
I worked in a daycare, worked at a theater (this included box office, concessions, cleaning, and pizza delivery--we had a pizza restaurant in our theater), and I worked at TCBY/Pretzel Time

That's not quite five, but that's all the jobs I had.  The daycare I worked at for 6 months before I quit because it was awful.  I will never put my kid in daycare because of what I saw there.  I worked at the theater for about 3 years (with a break while I went to college).  And I worked at TCBY/Pretzel Time for 4 months (while also working at the theater) to help out my husband when he got laid off a few months before we got married.

And now to tag 5 people (but only if you want to play)

kazdreamer
robinellen
sarah_create
sometimegoddess
rosemaryinwheat

Had a lot of errands to run today, leaving me only an hour of free time before I had to pick up my son from school.  I spent it going over what I wrote yesterday and fixing a few spots that were bugging me.  I guess this scene spent the afternoon forming in my head because when I sat down after I put my son to bed, I got about 450 words.  Not a ton, but hey, that was in 40 minutes.  So not bad.  I got myself midway through the scene, I like where it's going so far and the rest of it is coming together in my head.  Hopefully this means I can finish it tomorrow.  Even though it's early, I'm stopping now to let it continue to form and to spend some time with my husband.  

I'm making progress with my writing this week.  Incredibly slowly, but it's coming.  Monday I typed up what I wrote on Saturday.  That turned out to be 1K.  I would have posted some of it for Teaser Tuesday but it was a bit too spoilerish.  Yesterday I got about 350 words and today I've gone a bit further than that with 550 so far.  I'd like to be going faster, I'm frustrated by this snail's pace, yet at the same time, going this slow is doing wonders for the scenes that I've written so far.  I guess I should just be glad I'm able to get any writing done at all.

All righty, now that I've checked in, I should return to work with the 40 minutes I have left before I must pick up my son. 

I really enjoyed my day off today.  It started when I got to sleep through the entire night.  I only had to get up at 8 to check my son and give him breakfast.  Then he watched TV in our room so we could sleep in.  I got to sleep in until 9:30.  Then my husband took him to Lowes for the Build and Grow workshop.  This allowed me a leisurely morning. 

I left before they got back.  I went to see Nim's Island which I really enjoyed.  Then I spent two hours at B&N and wrote.  I got about 15 memo book pages handwritten.  I finished a scene and got a decent start on the next one.  I don't know how many words since I haven't typed them up, but I think it's at least 1K. 

Then I came home and returned to reality.  I had to give my son a bath and fix dinner and do laundry.  But that's okay because I got my much needed me time and that really refreshed me.  Plus, my son was in a cheerful mood.

When I asked him what he made at the workshop, he said, "A memory box for you."  Pause.  "Can I keep it?" Hopeful big blue eyes.

I told him he could keep it safe for me. 

Oh, also, when I came home, I found half a dozen tulips sitting on my counter from my husband.  So sweet.

Another bonus, my husband's usual meetings before church were canceled for tomorrow which means I don't have to get my son ready for church all by myself.  YAY!

Okay, I'm going to bed now.  Happy Mother's Day to all the moms reading this. 

1.  I have the best husband in the world.  He's incredibly supportive of me, he makes me feel appreciated, and lets me know how important I am to our family.  I can talk to him about anything.  He works hard to provide for us.  We can have intellectual discussions.  We both have creative minds so he can relate when I talk about my writing.  And when times are hard, we don't drift apart, we become even closer.  (We had a long talk yesterday about how we're both dealing with things and how we both appreciate each other and it just made me even more grateful to be married to him).

2.  Today was Muffins for Mom day at school.  (Yeah, my son is feeling better today, except for allergies, so he went to school).  His teacher asked if I wanted to read the story to the class today.  The book I read was What Moms Can't Do.  It's such a cute book!  Then all the kids got to pick out a muffin (that they baked yesterday) for their moms.  My son gave me a chocolate chip muffin.  Then they had paper bags they decorated filled with the presents.  Since my son missed most of the week, mine didn't have as much in it, but it was still really cute.

3.  Since I finally had a few hours to myself, I used it to write.  I probably should have taken the opportunity to grab a nap since I'm still really tired and have a sinus/lack of sleep headache, but darn it, I wanted to write.  I didn't get much, only 680 words, but at least I got something.

4.  I told my husband not to get me anything for Mother's Day because what I really want is a day to myself.  So tomorrow he gets to stay home with our son while I go out by myself.  I think I'll go see Nim's Island and maybe spend an hour or two at B&N to try and write. 

5.  I just want to say thanks to all of you who commented on my middle of the night post (which was surprisingly coherent when I read back over it yesterday morning).  I really appreciate all your thoughts, prayers, well wishes, and the incredibly kind things you each had to say.

I figured it was about time I post something about writing.  This weekend I finally finished a chapter that has taken me about a month to write.  Most of this was because of a dearth of time, but some of it was also because this was a hard chapter.  I had a lot of characters to introduce, relationships and personalities to establish, and I had to do it in as short a space as possible.  (I couldn't spend chapters upon chapters doing this like I had in the previous version) This meant a lot of writing something, deleting it an instant later, and starting over again until I had something that looked right.  The hardest one, believe it or not, was the one I was most looking forward to.  But I think I pulled it off. 

Yesterday I integrated a small scene from the previous version.  I made some minor changes to it that I think make it read smoother now.  This brought me up to the 30K mark for this draft.  And I came up with some new ideas for what's happening next.  I had originally planned to use what I already had from the first draft for these upcoming scenes, but I think my new ideas will be stronger.  I plan to get started on those today. 
Even though I'm moving at a snail's pace, mostly because I've been not wanting to move on until I'm happy with what I just wrote, I once again have the story in my head.  It's been away for a while, thanks to stress.  But it's back, new scenes are forming, every day things are sparking ideas again, and The Mood has returned.  Now I just have to take advantage of it. 

Anyway, seeing how it's Tuesday, I guess I'll share a bit from what I wrote this weekend.  This is the scene I'd wanted to post last week but couldn't because I hadn't gotten there yet.  But by sneaking in a few minutes here and there on Saturday, I got it done.  This was a hard scene for me to write because I only had the mood of it, not the dialogue.  When you add all the stolen minutes I spent working on it, this took me about 3 hours to write. 

So it's been a busy week so far and it's only going to get busier.  I spent yesterday morning at the dealership getting our car inspected and an oil change.  While there, I managed to get a little bit of writing done.  Today after I dropped my son off at school, I did the shopping, came home, put everything away, left to visit someone from church, came home to grab my son's diabetes backpack, picked him up and, well, anyway, you get the idea. 

I was hoping to reach a certain scene last night and had planned to share from that but I never made it that far.  So instead I'll share from what I wrote at the dealership.  I introduced a totally new character--one who wasn't in the last version of Wayworn--and based his personality off of the waiter we had when we went to Friendly's for ice cream Saturday night.  He's also named after a friend from church who wanted to be in my book. *g* Oh and to avoid any confusion, Daya is the Gypsy word for mother.  So all the times that's used in this snip, it's in reference to Gitana.

All around, Gypsy women emerged from their tents, lighting fires and cooking.  The men swarmed in as soon as the food was ready, even though no one called them or rang a dinner bell.  Either it was some instinct they had or the heavenly smell filling the air that summoned them. 

She helped Nadja and Gitana put the food on the table.  No sooner did they set the last bowl down did Nicolae and another taller, leaner man burst into the tent.  This new man’s shoulder length hair – black like all the other Gypsies she’d seen – was tied in a tail.  Sweat glistened on his face and he carried a bow, a quiver of arrows slung across his back.  If she remembered Gitana’s info dump of her family correctly, then this had to be Jareth.

He set the bow and quiver aside then noticed her.  A grin broke out on his face, making him the first Gypsy man she’d met who wasn’t somber or bordering on angry.

“I heard rumor the gadje was staying with our family,” he said.

“Where are your manners, Jareth?” Gitana chided.  “She has a name.”

 “Oh, aye?”  He bowed before her.  “Would you do me the honor of sharing that with me?”

“I’m Riana.”  She held out her hand but quickly retracted it when he blinked at her in confusion.

“A pleasure, Riana.”  He bowed again.  “I am Jareth.  No doubt by now Daya has revealed my most embarrassing tales.”  He winked at Gitana who swatted his shoulder, an indulgent smile on her face.

“All she’s told me is that you’re skilled with a bow and she despairs of you ever marrying,” Riana said, her mouth twitching at the corners and threatening to turn into a full-fledged smile.  This Jareth was charming, she’d give him that.

“Daya has despaired of me for one thing or another ever since I started toddling around, destroying everything in sight.”

“Aye, this one has been naught but trouble from the start,” Gitana said with motherly pride instead of the disgust that would have shaped a similar statement from Mom.

I grabbed this link from Joanna Bourne's blog (incredible author, btw.  You should go out and by her book, The Spymaster's Lady).

Anyway, author Brenda Novak is hosting an online auction to raise money for diabetes research.  The first $150,000 will go to JDRF.  It looks like there's lots of cool stuff up for auction. 

With one last fruitless glance over her shoulder, she set on the road to Fellendor.  She’d only walked a few feet before hearing a sound she hadn’t heard in years.  Not since Glen had paid for her riding lessons.  She held a hand over her eyes to block the glare of the setting sun and sure enough, two horses, complete with riders, approached.  They reined up when they spotted her.

One horse was the blackest she’d ever seen, the other blindingly white.  And were those blue eyes?  Was it even possible for a horse to have blue eyes?  The men wore loose white shirts, suede vests and pants, wide belts, and knee-high boots.  The man on the white horse had sandy hair and the lean muscles of a runner while the one on the black horse looked like he’d be at home in a weight room.  His bronzed skin, wavy, shoulder-length black hair, and short beard were enough to set her heart to an erratic beat, but it was his eyes that kept her rooted to the spot.  At first, she thought them black, but when she looked closer, they were midnight blue.  And they locked on her with a frightening intensity. 

His mouth turned down as he studied her from head to toe.  Her t-shirt and jeans suddenly seemed inadequate.  She might as well be naked, the way his stare made her feel.  It took great effort to pull her gaze from him, focusing instead on the curious hazel eyes of the blond man.  He seemed much less intimidating. 

“Is this the way to Fellendor?” she asked him at the same time he said, “Whatever are you alone here for?” and the dark man asked, “Who are you?”

 “Um…”  How did she explain her situation without sounding like a raving lunatic?  Probably best to keep it simple.  “My name’s Riana and I’m lost.”

Neither man offered their names.  She resisted the urge to shift her weight from foot to foot.  They already had the advantage over her and it wouldn’t do to let on how uncomfortable they made her. 

“Why do you dress as a man and where are your boots?” the blond man asked.  “Did your horse desert you?  Or did someone leave you here, perchance?”

“I don’t have a horse and I came alone.  I don’t know how to get home so I thought I’d look for help in Fellendor.  Is this the right way?”

“There is no help to be had in Fellendor these days,” the dark man said.  He had such a beautiful, rich baritone that she had to bite her tongue before she begged him to sing.  This was hardly the time to think such things, but she’d never heard such a voice before, either.