A mild writing day.

I allowed myself to sleep in a little. My wife has to work all three days that I’m off, so there is some writing time available.

Today, I took up Serang and moved her story ahead. This one involved her helping out the thieves to pay for the medical care her master needs. She deviated from the thieve’s plan and wound up killing a bunch of soldiers. She’s Serang, so that’s kind of expected of her.

Some camels died too, but she didn’t do it. These are Bactrian camels, the two-humpers. This is a fantasy world, but I want some similarities to Asia, so this desert is high and cold.

What Serang doesn’t realize, is that she is doing things she’s frowned upon previously. With her master on the mend, he’s going to call her out for this. She’s going to justify it in her mind, because they are soldiers. Doesn’t mean she’s right, but young people tend to find justification for their actions. It makes sense that she would too.

I’m at another transition point in the story, and those slow me down. I know what the next events are, but I have to get the characters in the right place and set the stage for it all to happen.

They’re going to join a caravan, travel with them for a while, then deviate for their own quest. While I think about this, I should probably come up with another fantastic creature of some kind too. This world doesn’t have an overwhelming amount of fantasy beasts, but there are some and it’s about time again.

I can’t just miraculously heal Yong, her master. This kind of thing takes time, but maybe he can hold himself in the saddle so they can move on.

I got all my critique samples back for the other story. This is the one with no name yet, and involves a bunch of my previous characters in a team-up kind of story. I need to work through them, then will probably take this one up again.

I might have gotten more done today, but bulldogs were involved. Frankie is more aloof than Otto and rarely wants lovins. Today she did. She wanted cuddled and scratched, and rubbed. How could I resist?

Of course, Otto was up here most of the morning, but he just hangs out and lets me write most of the time. Frankie insists on direct attention when she gets in the mood.

The writing wound up being nearly a chapter. Not a great day, but I can’t complain about it either.

Otto, just hanging out with Dad.

Some new words, some chores too

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.