last excerpt

Normally, when posting novel excerpts, I just go from the beginning until I reach a suitable stopping point a suitable way in.

In Ashes Lie, however, is a nonlinear novel: it cuts back and forth between the four days of the Great Fire, and the events leading up to that point. Because of that, I've decided to skip ahead, in order to give you a taste of the Fire scenes. (Don't worry about spoilers; the only thing you really need to know is that Nicneven -- mentioned in an earlier scene -- has grown to be a major threat against the Onyx Court.)

I don't really get into the mode of Blowing Shit Up until later, but hopefully that will whet your appetite just a little.

(If you missed or want to re-read the earlier excerpts, they start here.)

That's it for IAL samples -- you'll have the rest of the book in a little over a month -- but stay tuned for a few more treats . . . .

Almost . . . there . . .

"Remembering Light"



Nearly 2K more on this story, as of this afternoon. Can I finish it before it's time to go to game tonight? Ergo, before the end of the month? Let's find out . . . .

A mixed wiktory

"Remembering Light"



Man, I finish this thing before game, only to find out game's been canceled. Curse you, zunger! <shakes fist>

Oh well. Thanks to that deadline, I managed to get a fourth story completed before the end of April (if only just barely). It's a flailing mess in places, because I kept changing my mind on certain details, like how Noirin's world is falling apart and what exactly Last was trying to get out of all of this, but that is, as we say, what revision's for.

I now have four Driftwood stories, of which two have been published; the other is a little flash piece that doesn't mean much unless you're already familiar with Driftwood, hence not something I'm every going to try to sell. But that's enough for me to legitimately feel like this constitutes a set -- especially once I find the time to revise this thing and get it on the market.

But right now, we're going to go put something on the Magic Picture Box and drool on ourselves for a while. Because cramming three thousand words of this thing out of my head and onto the screen in a couple of hours has left me more than a little brain-dead.