Snippets from Alicia

So, Kiri Liz has asked me to put some snippets up from Alicia, and I am going to do just that now.

Supper over, I retired to my own chambers and summoned the Lord of Fer and his sons.  I had changed my mind about how to rid the palace of them.

            The lord and his sons entered hesitantly, but I waved them closer and said some trivial nice words to them.

            “Your Highness, may I say again, that is, I have never, er, it is such a pleasure . . .” the Lord of Fer stuttered.

            I flicked my hand at him to silence him, and he snapped his mouth shut most satisfactorily.  “Perhaps you have wondered why you have been summoned,” I said.  “I wish to question you concerning your motives in coming to the royal palace.”

            “Why, we, we only meant to pay our respects to the king,” said the lord with a nervous look at his sons.

            “I might as well tell you now that your wife and daughter are lying in a drug-induced sleep in their guest chamber.  I myself have bestowed the drug that caused the sleep, although I seek no quarrel with you.”  I leaned back in my fine chair and enjoyed the uneasy and nervous expressions that sped across their faces.

            “I repeat, I seek no quarrel with you.  I am merely trying to protect my brother, King Calius.  He is young, and your daughter was a bit distracting to him.  I want you to leave the court tomorrow morning, as the drug will not be fully worn away until then.  Also, I will bestow upon you, my Lord of Fer, fifty golden flens if you will keep your daughter out of my brother’s way until he is wed.”

            The Lord of Fer looked as if he would fall over in surprise.  At that moment I realized that his motive in coming to the palace was perfectly innocent.  I knew that I still had to rid myself of the whole family.  Calius was still at the palace, and I could not get him far enough away from Ezelan to please me.

            I had Calla measure out fifty gold flens to the lord, who gave them into the hand of Alfieri, the older son.  Alfieri gave me such a look of hatred that I was hard put to keep from having him beheaded on the spot.  That I should cast such a slur on his sister was unthinkable to him, I suspect.  Well, he was not accustomed to the rather tiring business of protecting a younger brother from annoying females, so I tried to ignore the look.

~ Alicia

Although he was not the king, Uncle Mieras had the best chambers in the castle.  The finest set of doors, which Father had ordered expressly for the castle, were at the entrance to the rooms.  I loved those doors, for they were carved all over with fine hunting scenes featuring members of our family as the hunters.  Even Calius and I were represented as small children on that door.

            Bruno opened them with a flourish and I took a deep breath and strode through them.  Uncle Mieras was seated at his breakfast, and he beckoned me to the table as I entered.  “Little Impertinence,” he laughed.  “I want you to apologize to Rachelle today.  Oho,” he added, thinking that I was going to deny having done anything to Rachelle, which I was not. “I know exactly what you did.  Always the clever one, are you not?”

            “More clever than some,” I said with a shrug, annoyed that he had called me there merely to make sport.

            “Rachelle is a nasty little beast,” he said gracelessly.  “She is my granddaughter, though, and I wish you would not but her to sleep.  It cannot possibly be good for her health.”

            “No, Uncle, but it is good for mine.  My peace of mind is somewhat limited when I am around her, as she is such a . . . an incorrigible child.”

            “Yes, that she is,” said Uncle Mieras, with a raspy, throaty chuckle that made me want to flee the room.  “Well, well, but if you do try any more of your tricks, I will make you pay, and that is a promise.  I always keep my word.  Now, be off with you.”

~ Alicia

“Quickly,” I gasped to the guard that grabbed my mount’s bridle.  “Carry Calla inside.”

            They scurried about helplessly, helping the ladies of our party off the horses, leading us around, and tripping over several ladies who had not accompanied us but came out to see what the ruckus meant.  Lady Katarina, a sharp-faced woman of forty or so softened when she saw Calla and Elgaro, for she was their aunt.  She helped Elgaro as he struggled to carry the raving Calla all by himself.

            Such pain and suffering flourished all around us.  I finally snapped beneath the weight of what I was seeing and began sobbing heartily.  Bruno wriggled under my arms and clasped his own arms around my waist.

            “Don’t cry, your Highness,” he whispered up to me.  “Lady Calla is going to heal, I know it!”

            “Bruno! Bruno!” I wailed.  “If Calla dies what shall I do?”  No one should have been surprised to hear my lament.  Everyone knew that Calla was my best friend.

            Nevertheless, a snort of annoyance reached my ear, and the words, “No decorum,” stabbed my very heart.  Siladra stood behind Bruno, her face wrinkled in disgust at my outburst.  I wanted to have her strung up by her fingers at that moment until she wailed for mercy.  No decorum!  Our knights had been slain, our ladies taken, my friend was raving with fever, and I was criticized for not displaying enough decorum.

~ Alicia

Thanks for reading, and God bless,

Introducing Alicia

Well, I know I seem to always have a new story every time you come on, but most of these are old stories that I dig up and revive.  This one is new, though.  I started it a few months ago and have been more interested in actually writing it than blogging about writing it.  Also, I had schoolwork to do, which takes up a lot of time.  However, I have decided that the time has come to talk a little bit about the book, because, after all, that is what this blog is all about, sort of.

Anywho, the book is titled Alicia after the main character, and I am over seventy thousand words along with it. Also, the story is somewhat connected with Lonish the Swordmaster.  You know a little about the main character if you read my last post.

I have been writing like crazy ever since I returned from school.  I purposely stayed away from blogger so that I would be able to get work done on the story, and I have gotten quite a bit of work done, so I feel that the time has come to celebrate.

My goal for Alicia is 100,000 words, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the story will turn out to be a good deal longer than that.

So, what is the story about?  Well, Alicia is the main character and narrator.  She is the princess of Valewin, and even though her younger brother is the king, she is the real ruler of the nation.  That is, until Siladra, a power-hungry woman, weasels her way into the court and starts influencing Calius, the king, against his manipulative sister.  Finally, Alicia is falsely accused of murder and thrown into the dungeon, where she meets Riddle, the captain of the dungeon and a warmonger who only wants to help Alicia to escape so that he can start a civil war in Valewin.  Other characters include Calla, Alicia's faithful lady-in-waiting; Rachelle, Alicia's annoying yet clever cousin; Sir Ashenisk, a knight who loves Valewin above all else; Hernagrow, a mischievous and talented artist; and Alfieri, a young man who must make a choice between a heroic destiny and his lady-love, Seria.

What is the genre of this story?  Well, the adventure part of takes up a good deal.  Fantasy plays a decent part in the story, while mystery and romance have very minor roles.  I would probably classify this as a fantasy-adventure story.

Thanks for reading and God bless,

I am back--with a character!

Hi, everyone who has not heard from me since January!

Yes, I know that I have been conspicuously absent from blogger, but that is because I have been too busy to actually write a whole post.  However, Friday is commencement, which means that all of the rest of us get to go home for the summer.  Although I am still a bit busy, I have decided to take a little time and let all of you know that I have not drowned in schoolwork.

I am also linking up with Kendra at Knitted by God's Plan and participating in the character encounter for April.  I will be meeting one of my favorite characters in the woods.

I wonder, though, if it is proper to call the overgrown apple orchard behind our house woods.  I do not go in there very much, mostly because the trees are so intertwined with poison ivy vines.  After a severe case of poison ivy, you tend to be more wary of it.

Alicia of Valewin

Today, though, I am picking blackberries, little sweet-and-sour balls of juice that are better in pies than they are straight up.  The blackberries grow so rampantly in the woods that they choke out some of the poison ivy.  I have just found a branch absolutely laden with berries, so ripe that they fall off onto the ground when I touch the branch.  I stoop to pick them up and put them into my bowl, and when I stand, I see a woman standing before me, her face tired and sagging, although she must be young.  Her dark hair is long and thick, but tangled and in need of a brushing.  She stares hungrily at me with her gaunt, brown eyes.

"Good afternoon," I say pleasantly, knowing full well who stands before me.

"Good day, woman," she replies, her voice heavy with fatigue and pain. "I must be having another vision."

"Perhaps, Princess," I nod.  "Your visions have been more frequent since your brother imprisoned you, have they not?"

"Yes, they have," she answers.  "Who are you?  Are you related to the Osrs?"

"Not in the least," I reply.  "I am the person who is writing your story."

"You have certainly contrived to give me a lot of sorrow," sighs the princess.

Princess Alicia

"Yes, I have," I agree.  "Of course, you know that you are unbearable, and you need a little pain and hardship to straighten you out."

"I suppose you know what is best, although I wish you would hurry up about it," says Alicia.

"Yes, well, do not worry, you will be free soon," I said.  "Even the king cannot keep you from your destiny."

"I see," replies the princess.

"Meanwhile, would you like some of these blackberries to tide you over until you can escape?"  I ask.

Princess Alicia stares greedily at the bowl of blackberries.  "Yes, yes, I would," she says.

I hand her the bowl.  "Please enjoy," I say with a smile.  She scoops them out with her fingers and stuffs them into her mouth, spurting juice down her chin and over her already dingy clothing.  I notice that her neck bones are sticking out, the skin stretched tightly over them.  "Do you need more food?" I ask.

"Oh, that would be lovely," she answers.

"Come with me, and I will get you some leftover pot roast and potatoes," I say, turning and running back to the house.  When I break free of the woods, I turn to tell the princess that the house before us is my house, sure that she'll be impressed, as even the castles in her land are very small.  However, I see no one.  Instead, a little wind streams past my cheek.  The princess has awakened from her vision, and I am all alone in my backyard, holding an empty bowl streaked with blackberry juice.

Thanks for reading and God Bless,

Back to the Books!

Well, Christmas break is over, and the first day of classes has begun!  I am not exactly weeping, because I am one of those odd beings that like school.  OK, please, we do exist!
Also, I am writing a Western Mystery Play!  This was at the request of our CBC's mother, and it is to be played next summer.  I am actually quite excited about this.
In all seriousness, though, I am a little nervous about this next half of the school year.  The first semester held its troubles and rough smacks and black days, and I expect the same for the second.  Still, it is encouraging that "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee."
I like to be dependent, so that is a very comforting verse.  God never promised to take away the trials, but he will keep me in them, which makes them quite worth the trouble.
Now, to set forth my 2013 reading list:
(This is tentative, which means I may add to it.)

1. Nicholas Nickleby
2. The Man in the Iron Mask
3. [at least two new Agatha Christie books]
4. Margaret Ogilvy
5. Kidnapped
6. The Holy War
7. The Children of a Legend
8. The City of Masks
9. [at least three new Shakespeare plays]
10. Mansfield Park

These are all books that I have never read before, so I plan to do so in the coming year.  Of course, I will read more than ten books this year, but this is my planned list.

Thanks for reading and God bless,

Majay Mistrocoli

Merry Christmas break, everyone!  I hope that you are surviving well on this fine winter day.  It has been snowing here, which is great with me.  Here is a picture of our backyard:

This is a beautiful sight!

And now, here are a few snippets from The Dragon Bstirvm, which I dug up when I came home for break and am working on now.

I sipped the thin soup from my bowl.  Soups seemed thinner now than they had been.  I looked into Mother’s face and saw that it was worn greatly.  Perhaps it was only the light of the fire, but I thought that I could see tears in her eyes.  Looking at Janik, I could see how thin her arms were beneath her ragged sleeves, and how her hands trembled as she held the scrubbing reeds.  I stared down at my own clothes, noting their threadbare condition, seeing for the first time the holes in my skirts and the ripped edges of my sleeves.  My eyes were opened.  For so long I had lived in fantasy that I had not noticed the worsening conditions around me.  For the first time in my life I saw things not as I wanted to see them, but as they appeared to everyone else.  When danger reared its head, it tore the blinders away from my eyes.  I was not a princess in disguise, Janik was not a little fairy, Father was not a kindly giant, our house was not the ancient ruins of an enchanted castle, King Edwin was not a grumpy dwarf, and Rusa was not a magical city in the sky.  Instead we were poor, we were common, and we were oppressed.  I had seen only flashes of reality before this, but now that our family could be torn apart, I saw the full blackness of my life.

~The Dragon Bstirvm

As I walked from the smithy I could see soldiers tramping down the street.  They stopped at our front door.

“Father, look!” I cried.

            He came to the doorway and looked out grimly.  “I don’t know what they want.”

            My only thought was that they had somehow heard about Mother.  Perhaps they were going to take her away.  I dropped the basket and ran to the house and in through the kitchen door.  The soldiers were already in the front door, and Mother was standing before them with her hands on her hips.

            “What are you here for?” she asked.

            “Your house has been chosen by lot,” said the captain of the soldiers.  “Have you any daughters?”

            Mother put her arm around Lansel’s shoulders, for Lansel happened to be standing beside her.  “What would you have with our daughters?” she demanded.

            “Orders of the king, woman,” the captain said, flashing a piece of parchment sealed with scarlet wax in front of her face.  “We are to take your oldest daughter.”

~The Dragon Bstirvm

We flew up, up, upward, towards the height of Castle Kaldrob.  The wind was bitter up there, and the air sharp and thin.  We were nearly to the crumbling entrance of the castle when the dragon flew low and dropped me on the ground.  I lay, panting for breath that did not seem to come, as the beast effortlessly soared around the tower of the castle and circled back toward me.  He alighted down beside me and watched as I struggled to breath in the thin air.

            “You are weak from the journey,” he said in a low voice.  He seemed to be stating a fact as opposed to asking a question.  “Catch your breath, Princess, and tell me your name.”

            I looked up at him, meaning to tell him that he was mistaken; I was no princess.  Then I thought of Gabrielle, and I snapped my mouth shut.  If I spoke, the dragon might become annoyed and destroy all of Rusa.

            “What have you brought me here for?” I gasped.

            “What is your name?” he demanded, ignoring my question.

            “Majay,” I whispered.  “My name is Majay.”

~ The Dragon Bstirvm

Thanks for reading and God bless,

More About Lonish

Since coming to college, I have not been writing nearly as much as I did this summer.  I am certain that all of you college people can relate.  However, I have been getting a little bit done here and there, and recently I have dug up Lonish & Co. for a dusting.  They were so happy to see me!

I should think we were!  Leaving us all cooped up in the limbo of non-production!  Some friend you are!

Sorry, Nevarl.  I meant no harm.  Perhaps you should sometime try to get an English Ed. degree.  You need to see for yourself how much extra time I have.

Nevarl

Aye, for I too have a good deal of time at my disposal.

Nevarl, be nice or I will shove you back into the pages where you belong!

There, she is going to be quiet.  Thank heavens!  She is my most troublesome character, you know.  And now, some delightful snippets from Lonish the Swordmaster:

The Maiden of Rugema Ruvin slowly revived, her eyes seeing little, her head paining much.  With great difficulty she forced herself out from under the body of the Dragon.  Dismayed, her eyes fell on the apocalyptic scene about her.  The Estackam had left no living.  Cheol Ruvin bodies lay about her in heaps in the garish light of early morning.

            Birinin walked through the smoking ruins of Rugema with a sinking heart.  The beautiful houses were laid waste, the Cheol stones were broken, and everywhere Death had flung his darkening cloak.

            She found the ruins of her house, and stood there for a long while, her golden light growing paler and paler until it was almost out.

            “They are all gone, and I alone am left,” she said, letting the despair flood her deepest being.

            On the ground outside the remains of the house of the Younger Lord, she found her father’s body.  Behold, a feeble light yet glimmered in his face.  She dropped to her knees and held her father’s face in her hands.  He looked up into her blazing eyes, his own glassing over.

            “Daughter,” he said slowly, before the last of his light sputtered out.  Birinin closed her eyes and bent over her father.

            “But in the stillness of the evening there shall come a sudden attack, and the slaughter shall be great.  In that time know that the end of the Cheolame is near,” she quoted through tears.  “Beware, those that see this day.  Thou shalt not joy again for many a long season.”

~ Lonish the Swordmaster

Oln came clattering back through the forest, this time with several other Cheol Equav at his hooves.  “See, I have brought my brothers and my sister,” he neighed proudly.

            “We are most saddened by this grave day,” said one of the other Cheol Equav.  He looked very much like his brother, so much so that Lonish could barely distinguish between the two.

            “The Estackam are strengthening,” said Nevarl.  “They seek this Mortal Man.  I hate nothing more than a Mortal Man.”  She did not seem vengeful or fierce when she said this, yet Lonish could not help recoiling in disgust at her evident hatred.  “I have shed more tears in the past two days than I have shed in my entire lifetime,” she said quietly.  “Thou art the cause, Mortal Man.  Thou art the cause, and thy family.”

            Lonish resisted the urge to lash back at her.  He turned to the Cheol Equav with obvious exasperation stamped on his face and widened his eyes at them.  Oln smiled a horsely grin at Lonish and snorted.

~ Lonish the Swordmaster

Thanks for reading, and God Bless,

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

It's Thanksgiving Break!  First day, and I am so thankful to be out of the dorms and in a real house, sleeping in a room with just myself, baking to my heart's content, and having all the time I want to write!
Yes, I have definitely been baking today.  I made two pumpkin pies and two loaves of bread, and I am planning on getting up early tomorrow to make some cinnamon rolls for breakfast.
As for The Daulots, I have worked on it a little.
Other good news!  I received an email today, and I am being put into the 2012 International Who's Who of Poetry book!  This is AMAZING news!  I have so much to be thankful for.
So, God bless you all, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends!
Thanks for reading,
Kathryn