I wrote absolutely nothing last night, although I did mean to. I planned it and everything. I'm reading The Claidi Journals by Tanith Lee. I got through the end of Wolf Tower and all of Wolf Star last night and started on Wolf Queen. They have nothing to do with werewolves, I assure you, but they are lots of fun. Well, book two had this strange nightmarish quality to it...but, if you know me, you know I like that sort of thing.
Anyway, that's the text I said I would post. It might be big enough for excerpts...
The coast of Gaul glowed golden in the mid-morning sun. Tiny white caps dotted the water and dashed on the rocky shore. Phillipe closed his eyes as his body absorbed the crests and troughs that tossed the ship. It was a caravel out of Portugal and bound to return there on the tide. The hull bobbed light on the water, but it was no less a target for all that. Heavy ships meant cargo. Light ships meant gold and bank notes. He could only hope. 'The problem with looking for trouble is that no one talks about where to find it,' he mused. In the weeks before, he and Deirdre had visited every waterfront bar in Albion and Northern Gaul. Perhaps her disguises were better. He leaned in a corner and unfurled the painting. Her eyes were still the wrong color, but he searched them any way. In the last day, he had learned far more about her than he wanted to know. Those not-quite-pale-enough eyes held so many secrets. "Pretty girl." Phillipe looked up. A grizzled sailor stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. "You know her?" "Never met her," he said, "but I think you should put that away. Captain can hang pirates at sea. No questions and no trial." "Why would my having this portrait mean the Captain would want to hang me as a pirate." He rolled the canvas as he spoke. "Girl served on the Amantia. The ship was taken off the coast of Ostia. Every soul from captain to cabin boy took a dive off the yardarm and their boots as never touched the deck again. Captain Barrett counted them up after, but 'though he was certain he saw her hanged, they never found any body. Amantia's still out there, they say. If so, the Baroness sails her with a crew of ghosts." "But why hang me?" Phillipe persisted. "Amantia carried in her hull one of the biggest piles of loot ever seen. Enough for every man to live on forever. When Captain Barrett had her searched, they didn't find a pin. He thinks the Baroness got away with it or knows where it's hid. Emperor Maximian, he thinks so too and busts Barrett down to captain of a cargo freighter. Barrett swears any man who knows her, but can't give him the treasure forfeits his life. Now, just you guess who captains this ship."
Authors are easy enough to get on with - if you are fond of children.
Ode to the importance of quotation marks...
I don't need or want a new boyfriend. I'm perfectly happy with the one I have, but I have the horrid temptation to buy this man a pair of Samurai jeans in some one's name. So ladies, if you want him, email me. As for me, you know why I noticed his page. Pirates on the brain. Unfortunately, he isn't one and doesn't have anything to say about them.
New Years Day has passed and I haven't written anything. That's a bad start for the year. However, getting sick on New Years in generally bad. I spent the evening looking at cheap gemstones on eBay. Bad, bad habit, that.
Mmmm...Really...If I had a nickle for all the times I said that I would be finished with "Z" book in "Y" time, I would have a lot of nickles. Christmas is over and I still don't have a finished book, although I have 40 pages of a revamped (in light of the content, I should use the word "changed") book. I also have VCDs of Neverwhere. Priorities...
Wednesday, January 08, 2003
Tuesday, January 07, 2003
-- Michael Joseph (The Observer, London, 1949)
I saw this on the Jim World website and liked it. Thought I'd share.Monday, January 06, 2003
No, not really. But I really messed up my post. It wouldn't even let me go back in and edit it, because of the missed end quote. In case anyone else has this problem, what you do is check the post id number and then look at an earlier post to determine the format for the edit url and plug the post id number in.
I'm going to post again when I get home. I think. I have some tiny excerpts to show, which are not big enough to merit a more permanent place on the web page. By the way, for those of you who haven't guessed, I'm on Bangkok-Hanoi-Jakarta time.Friday, January 03, 2003
Wednesday, January 01, 2003
And, I now have this really cool character (who is a villain) and I don't have the slightest idea of what to do with her. Go figure. I'd really love to talk about her, but have this fear that it would spoil things. I have a feeling that she both is and isn't a tool of Athamek's and that she has an agenda of her own that will bring the ending together.
Now that I've done enough teasing, I'm going to go away and get on with my life.
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