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What?! I hear you cry. What do new chairs have to do with writing the book?
It’s one of the mysteries of the creative mind. Suffice to say that throughout our entire marriage (over 41 years now) we have never had “real” kitchen chairs. And now we do, replacing mismatched, aging, and uncomfortable folding chairs with real wood chairs that are up to our weights and sizes. Library chairs, in fact.
New chairs with new tablecloth & trial chair pad
And in the aftermath of the chairs’ arrival, words flowed out like water from a broken pipe (um…did I mention we had a broken pipe last week? And are hoping not to have another this week, as the temperatures wander up and down the thermometer?) Less noisy, though.
So…the new book is sneaking up on 48,000 words, making it almost-nearly certain (barring power outages like we had last week) to make 50,000 by the end of the week. Though I need to finish the editors’ revisions by the end of the week too, and that’s an actual deadline.
Here’s an out-take, a brief scene from Kings that didn’t make it into the book, but was written for “atmosphere.”
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Jedrah was scared when the new duke rode away and left a yellow-haired woman who glowed in charge. Glowing was scary. He wondered where she kept her red mask. At least with the old keep down, and those rooms gone…but the others had said any place could be used.
“We need to stay out of the stables,” he told the others that night. “She glows. That’s not good.”
The next day they came down to breakfast and found the woman in the kitchen with Faren Cook. Faren Cook was smiling. Even…laughing. She didn’t even yell when Maris bumped into a crock of cream and it almost fell. The yellow-haired woman had caught the crock of cream and set it safely in the middle of the table. After breakfast she said, “All right, youngsters, let’s go to the stable.”
The others looked at Jedrah. “Why?” he asked.
Her brows went up, wrinkling the shiny circle on her forehead. “To see the horses, of course. Don’t you ride in the mornings?”
“We’re not big enough,” Maris said.
“You’ve never ridden?” the woman said.
“I have,” Jedrah said. “But–but the man who used to help us isn’t here now. They took him away.”
“I’ll help you,” the woman said. She glowed. The glow made Jedrah feel good, but he didn’t trust it. The others, though, were looking at her with smiles. “If there aren’t any ponies, you can sit on the big horses and I’ll lead them.”
They piled out of the kitchen in what Jedrah considered a dangerous hurry, the littlest crowding close to her, others as close as they could get. “No pushing,” she said, when Seli shoved Mardi so he could get closer to her. Seli started to glare at her, but she smiled at him and in a moment he smiled back.
Before Jedrah realized it, he was sitting on the yellow-haired woman’s red horse–with no saddle–and behind him Maris clung to his waist and behind her Seli. He’d never been on a horse this tall. The other children were distributed on three other horses. The yellow-haired woman had the lead rope for one of them, and grooms had the lead ropes for the other two. The horse he was on had no halter or bridle…the yellow-haired woman must mean the horse to run off and kill them. He would have slid off, but that would have pulled Maris and Seli after him, and it was a long way down…
Two hours later, with Maris and Seli safely on the ground, he sat the big red horse alone, as the horse circled in a smooth canter. The woman still glowed, but now he wasn’t afraid.
Comment by Kerry (aka Trouble) — February 7, 2011 @ 9:22 pm
The kid can see Paks glowing? I don’t remember ever reading that she glows. Or did I miss something?
Comment by june — February 7, 2011 @ 9:52 pm
The way I read this is Jedrah is seeing her glow, maybe he has some kind of “skill” others do not have. Paks may be “glowing” because she is trying to get the children to trust her, so she is using her “talent” letting Jedrah “see” may be something that is just a result not an intent. Jedrah would have learned to distrust someone who “glows” because of his family if that is the way he sees them when they are using talent. Did that make any sense? Oh, well its two hard lemonades and time for bed. Night.
Comment by elizabeth — February 7, 2011 @ 10:30 pm
June’s on the right track here. In the first place, children do not see adults the way adults see adults…and in the second place, Jedrah has talents he doesn’t understand yet.
Comment by Kathleen — February 8, 2011 @ 6:33 am
I like it.
Comment by Jenn — February 8, 2011 @ 8:58 am
OOOOOH! I love this out-take!
This makes me wonder if Jedrah is Dorrin’s heir since she is “too old to breed”!
Will we see more of him in up coming books?
So sorry about your pipes. May your weather improve to proper southern conditions.
Comment by elizabeth — February 8, 2011 @ 9:15 am
Dorrin has an heir specified when Mikeli makes her Duke Verrakai–a member of the Royal Guard who survives his trial under attainder because he’s been almost as remote from the bad Verrakaien as Dorrin. He’s mentioned in OATH. He’s not a major character (at least, not yet…and I hope he stays background.)
Jedrah is a child of 8 or 9, just under the age at which he would have been attainted and hauled off for trial. So far he’s background only. I wrote this section to feel out how the children–raised in evil–would perceive Paks. Similarly the one where Paks teaches the kids to pull caterpillars off the cabbages. How far could they get towards normality in the time Paks stayed with them? And thus, what will Dorrin find when she gets home from the coronation? at the end of OATH?
Comment by Jenn — February 8, 2011 @ 12:08 pm
I was actually thinking of her other heir. Which is total speculation since I have no idea where you are going with the story.
I am counting down the days.
Comment by Ometiklan — February 8, 2011 @ 1:37 pm
Now that it is getting close, this even more than other things I have read, makes me really want to read Kings right now. Come on, March. Fun stuff!
Comment by elizabeth — February 8, 2011 @ 1:55 pm
Glad it tickled your interest. (And I’m with you on wanting March to come quickly!)
Comment by Adam Baker — February 8, 2011 @ 7:21 pm
Excellent scene!
I kinda wondered if maybe it was something along the lines of how children perceive things differently than adults, almost like the innate innocence of children, allowing them to see things beyond what an adult would normally see.
Comment by RichardB — February 9, 2011 @ 5:06 pm
Lovely scene.
Comment by cabri — February 9, 2011 @ 9:44 pm
I love the chairs. Yes, solid, with just enough design to the back to make them interesting. If you ever watched Firefly, there’s a set in the mess with a simple sunburst in the chair backs (there’s a mix of chairs but the sunburst ones belonged with the long table). If I can ever afford it I will go down to NC and have a set made for me.
(Also loved the Paks.)
Comment by elizabeth — February 9, 2011 @ 10:54 pm
You’ve started me thinking about the top rails on my new chairs. Hmmm. Paint something there? Carve something there? Or let well enough alone?
Comment by elizabeth — February 9, 2011 @ 10:55 pm
Thanks.
Comment by B. Ross Ashley — February 10, 2011 @ 9:44 am
Mmmmm. Nice. Nice chairs, too.
Comment by arthur — February 11, 2011 @ 9:44 pm
This is Arthur. The Verrakai she met at the guard post between the kingdoms, right? I know how it is to not have new furniture for a LONG time. We’re changing that around my parent’s house, now.
Comment by elizabeth — February 12, 2011 @ 10:15 am
Yup, that’s the guy who was judged innocent of treason and the king recommended that Dorrin name him her heir. Which she did.