Today was my flex day. I was looking forward to getting some new words down, and I managed that to a degree. It feels slightly over 1000 words, so it isn’t much.
This time I worked on Serang. What I wanted to happen was for her to fall in with a gang of thieves. It started out with her master being bitten by a camel spider.
These are hideous beasts with long pointy jaws. They live all over the world, and I even killed one in my home when I lived in Nevada. People there call them air scorpions. Most of them aren’t hairy like this photo, and they’re a disgusting smooth nude color. This was the free-use photo I could find.
A bit of research revealed they are not actually poisonous to humans, but they are believed to be by the common people. I decided since this is a fantasy world, they’ll be venomous if I say so and went with it. They can also be as big or small as I want.
This also led me down a path involving a city at the beginning of a trade route. The country of Di Guo Quishi is a fantasy version of China, so think about the Silk Road here.
The Emperor has taken most of the men for his war. Many of the normal jobs are held by women or even children. How might the goods be exchanged, purchased, stored? How might the money flow? What kind of goods might flow into the west?
Most of these things involve one line or word, but I like to put the thought into them.
After this leg of the journey, they’re going to continue with their little quest by joining a caravan. I needed someone from the western world who will lead them. I decided since Don Velasco (From Lanternfish) was the fourth son in his family, I had one Velasco son to spare. (The eldest inherits the estate, the second gets a military appointment.) Everyone else had to fend for himself. This third Velasco son is the captain of a caravan heading back to his country.
This city has an active thieves market, and young Serang is kind of judgmental about it all. Eventually, if she’s going to become a pirate, she has to make an adjustment.
Unfortunately, I never got to the thievery part. I had chores to do. I have a hunch it’s going to turn into a massacre, but haven’t decided yet.
I ran into town and got my truck sniffed for emissions. It passed, but killed an hour of my day. When I got home, I had just enough time to schedule Lisa Burton Radio for tomorrow. Then I had a deviled ham sandwich.
Please come back tomorrow and check out the Fondant Lion. He’s pretty cute, and I think you’ll like the book he’s in too.
Today, Frankie helped me write. I may have gotten more done without her, but she’s hard to resist.
I can see why you were not as productive as you wanted to be. Frankie is a cutie.
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She just shoved Otto aside and decided it was her turn this morning.
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Eeek to the first photo; aww … to the last. I vote for the massacre! 😉
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It wouldn’t be the first massacre in this story, but it would be the first one by the “good guys.”
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I see otto over to the right as well. Took me a minute to determine what was going on in the photo. Frankie is upside down. Good one.
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She pushed him out (at half his size) then fell asleep like that.
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So many laughs.
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I love your writing helper. I have two with me right now!
Glad you’re adding words to the WIP.
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Both of them can be hard to ignore. New words count, even if there aren’t many.
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Frankie looks comfortable. Also upside down.
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Yup, she fell asleep just like that.
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I’ll bet Frankie is a good helper. Little Bit tried to help me today. Glad you had a semi-productive day. I didn’t write as much as I wanted, but that’s the way life goes.
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So true. I have my days, but many times the word count is minimal. It’s still forward momentum.
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Oh man! I nearly lost my breakfast seeing that big ugly spider 😦
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They’re gross. Their head an mouth is half the spider.
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Ewwww 😫
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That pic of upside down Frankie is a gem. She’s like a cat!
Congrats on your writing progress.The spider totally freaked me out. I don’t mind toads, frogs or snakes, but insects make me shudder (with the exception of handful I actually like).
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Yup, she shoved Otto out then fell asleep like that. The camel spiders are so ugly. Notice it has ten legs and not eight?
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Creepy!!! I’m thinking Starship Troopers now, a movie that still gives me nightmares.
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I thought it was fun. Stupid concept, but they just went with it like pros. Made it fun.
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Why do you ALWAYS have to stick a creepy thing in, man? lol
I had to Google deviled ham, and I need to know if what you refer to is chopped/pureed ham with mayo and add-ins, or if it’s deviled ham from a can. Because the photos look like what we call “ham salad”.
I’m glad you had a flex day. We are sorely behind in deadlines and I worked 12 hours today, prolly another 12 tomorrow. Oof.
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Frankie isn’t creepy. Ha ha! Mine was from a can. I thinned it with a bit of mayo, but didn’t have any sweet pickles.
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Gotcha! Thanks for answering.
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I rarely write more than 1 000 to 1 500 words in a day, Craig. I think that isn’t a bad number. I will pop over and read Lisa later and share on my blog tomorrow. Will share around elsewhere today. Thanks.
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I’m just waking up, so you’re ahead of me. Hope we get you some traffic.
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Sounds like you achieved a lot, even if not as much actual writing happened as you might have liked. I can never resist the furries… Even if productivity suffers for it.
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I’m the same way. They want to hang out or play. I can’t deny them for long. Writing is done in baby steps most of the time. It was a fair day.
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Well, there’s no way you could resist that face.
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Pretty hard.
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1000 words completed for a fascinating story sounds like a win to me.
Wow, that camel spider is gross! I like the way you think. Give him a painful poisonous bite. That would get my attention in any story.
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It isn’t a lot of progress, but it all counts.
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Interesting looking spider. I hope they stay in Nevada:) You do have a good writing helper.
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I have one or both every writing day. They help tremendously.
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Camel Spiders are nasty! I saw a few of them out in Afghanistan. I was told that they weren’t poisonous, but their venom numbs skin. They use this to eat away at the stomach of a camel while the camel doesn’t notice. I even heard horror stories of soldiers waking up with parts of their noses being eaten off in the night by these things!! Really creepy!
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Absolutely creepy. That’s why I picked them.
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