STONE ROSE
There is still time to get your Kindle copy of SECOND SON for just 99 cents! The price goes up to $1.99 tomorrow evening and will remain there until Tuesday, after which it will revert back to full price.
There is also still time for you to help me spread the word about this deal and enter the drawing to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card, so don't forget to stop by THIS POST for more details on how to toss your name in the hat! So far, only a couple of people have entered, so the odds may still be in your favor. The giveaway continues until the 19th, so don't worry, there's still plenty of time to enter.
I think that's all the announcements I had. On to today's post!
Since I finished up all the editing I can do on Yorien's Hand last week, I had a decision to make: what to work on next?
It's never a lack of writing projects, my friend. I could get started on going through the notes from my content-editor for book #4. I could start working on the sequel to The Orb and the Airship. Or I could get started on the first book in my sci-fi series. Or I could work on editing The Orb and the Airship a bit. I could work on editing my Cinderella retelling - as I have a friend working on illustrations for that in hopes of publishing it in the near-ish future. Or I could work on my entry for the Five Enchanted Roses contest.
After all that editing, I really needed a creative project to work on for a bit - so that disqualified the other editing jobs waiting in my queue. But, knowing that I will have more editing to do shortly, I decided I needed a smaller project than one of my novels, so that narrowed it down to one: Five Enchanted Roses.
I haven't said anything about my idea here, yet... simply because I didn't have a fully fleshed out idea for a while. I had started writing, but only because I had the glimmerings of the beginning of an idea. I knew where I wanted the story to start, I knew who the important characters were (or at least most of them), but I wasn't sure yet where the story was going to go.
Then I had one of those last-piece-of-the-puzzle-falling-into-place-just-before-you-fall-asleep-hope-I-remember-this-in-the-morning moments of inspiration the other night. I did indeed remember it in the morning, and got started working on the story in earnest. I know where the story is going, now. And I know sort of what the Beast looks like... something kind of like a wolf/bear/lion conglomeration... I can't draw, but apparently there is a dog that sort of looks like what I had in mind (crazy, huh?)
I want him to look truly ferocious. Not that he IS truly ferocious. But one of my issues with Disney's Beauty and the Beast (besides the appearance of the prince in his true form at the end....) is that the Beast really doesn't look all that scary. Why everyone is terrified of him and not of the asylum-director, is truly beyond me.
Anyway, I'm not sure what the title will be, yet, titles are annoying. But I'm currently thinking about something like "Stone Rose," (hence the post title) or "Rose of Stone"... or something that incorporates the idea of stone and roses... if anyone has any brilliant ideas they'd like to share, I'm open to hearing them.
I still don't want to give too much away, but here's a little snippet to whet your appetite:
Excerpt from "Stone Rose" (working title)
Karyna dropped the pile of dirty laundry she had been struggling with and raced to the partially open door to the throne room.
Oh no! No, no, no, no! Not again, she thought desperately.
Heart hammering with trepidation and a sorrow that threatened to devastate her, Karyna pushed the door open and slipped inside. The room was dark and murky. Small amounts of light streamed in from behind heavy curtains that hung over the windows and forbade the sun to look upon this room. Hundreds of statues stood about the hall in various poses; Karyna tried not to look at them. It was not a sight anyone sought out. Every statue was a person, dressed in elegance and finery, as if for a royal ball. And every face held an identical look of merriment turned to sudden horror. Karyna shuddered and a tear slipped unbidden down her face. She hated this room, it was too horrible.
“Hello?” she called out timidly. “Your… your highness?”
She listened, but heard nothing. She crept cautiously through the maze of statues, careful not to disturb them.
“Prince Barend? Are you in here?” her voice was barely louder than a whisper, but it resounded in the deathly stillness of the room.
Karyna paused, attempting to calm her racing heart. Prince Barend was not dangerous, but it was best not to startle him. Several of the other servants had found that out the hard way. She peered through the gloom, but nothing stirred, and she realized she was alone. Well, alone but for the hundreds of statues. If Prince Barend had been in the throne room again, the damage was already done. She sighed and proceeded on her path; she might as well continue now that she was inside the room. Her footsteps brought her to the far corner of the throne room, where the servants generally stood and waited in case one of the nobility had need of them. She walked up to the seventh statue from the dais on which the thrones sat. Tears welled up in her eyes and a lump lodged itself in her throat. This statue was not so fine or grand as the others, but it was the one she loved best. She reached up and touched the statue’s face gently, her hand just barely brushing the cold, stone visage.
She bowed her head. “Papa,” she whispered. “I’m doing my best, Papa. I miss you. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the curse is still unbroken. I think everyone has given up hope. Don’t worry, I haven’t… but it’s hard… so hard… to be the only one.”
