Rozen: His First Year

Sep20

Seventh in a series of character-building vignettes following a bunch of characters through their time at Addergoole & beyond.

If you’ve read any Addergoole at all, Rozen should be familiar to you.

Addergoole, Year 2
The school was in the middle of freaking nowhere. It was in the middle of nowhere, and there were less than 40 students, over half of whom had already been here a year. It was in the middle of nowhere, there were less than 40 students, and the older ones all acted like there was some sort of massive joke going on. And it was a four-year sentence. Rozen was ready to punch someone.

He already had punched one guy – half of a pair, creepy rednecks with a “banjos” vibe going on and the same smug attitude as the rest of the upperclassmen. He’d broken the bastard’s nose, and the PE teacher had shown up about three seconds later.

Luke might have been a head shorter than Rozen, but he had “don’t fuck with the Marines” written all over him. Rozen had stepped back, shown his hands clearly, and waited for the officer to ask unpleasant questions. The two shits he’d been fighting had laughed and run off.

That’s how he’d learned their names – Meshach and Shadrach – and learned that there were times when the authorities here would just not care if you broke someone’s face. The school was still in the middle of nowhere, but it had a few advantages.

“Well, hello.” A long-fingered hand landed on Rozen’s bicep, and her turned to look the owner in the face, ready to punch again. He’d already had to explain to two predatory women that he was nobody’s dog, thank you very much, nobody’s boy, and he wouldn’t come when called. This one…

…Could look him in the eye, which was impressive. Most of the time he was looking at the top of women’s heads. She was wearing heels – he checked – but that still meant she was nearly six foot tall in her own right.

Her lips were red. Her hair was black. Her smile was hungry. “I’ve heard about you already. That’s impressive; it’s only the second week of school.”

“If you’ve heard of me, you know I don’t bow to anyone.” His voice was coming out a little thickly. He was human (or whatever) and she was, he had to admit, gorgeous even in a school full of pretty girls.

“I know. And that’s all right, I don’t have any interest in boys that do. But would you be interested, maybe, in laying down for a while?”

“This school moves fast.” Which wasn’t to say he wasn’t interested.

“The school moves the way it moves. I, on the other hand, move the way I want to. Right now, that would be under you. She offered him a hand. “I’m Dita, by the way.”

“Rozen.” He shook her hand. This school had a couple advantages, he supposed.

Basalt: His First Year
Nyyrikki: Her First Year
Orliath: Her Second Year
Cynara: Her Second Year

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/573042.html. You can comment here or there.

An Experiment (Prompts wanted)

Sep18

Okay, I’m going to give this a try.

Someone (*cough* T) suggested I try writing stuff set in the real world.

I’m pretty unsure about this – I like being a genre author! – but I’m willing to give it a try.

Give me a couple real-world prompts and I’ll see what I can do.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/572810.html. You can comment here or there.

SepNaWriMo – last Line of last night

Sep18

I’ve gotten lax on these…

The little one was getting too close to Girey.

19,103 words (goal 18700; 8689 words on Rin/Girey with a goal there of 8800)
13,897 to go!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/572434.html. You can comment here or there.

NaNoWriMo and Addergoole

Sep17

Okay, I did the math. If I keep the books at the planned wordcount, one Book of Addergoole: Original Series is about 25000 words.

I’m still going to write a bit of bonus content, so I probably won’t get all the way through TWO books of Addergoole during Nano, but I’ll get quite a way towards that goal.

And speaking of bonus material:

http://www.addergoole.com/TableofContents.html

Are there Question-answers or Bonus stories you’d like to see updated/rewritten? Are there bonus stories I never wrote that you’d like to see?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/572043.html. You can comment here or there.

SepNaWriMo – last Line of last night

Sep12

It was a good question. It was also a very polite – and Bitrani-indirect – way of asking “what will happen to us?”

1,713 words edited/rewritten (12,126 total)

12,925 to go.

This part is the beginning, so it’s mostly just tightening up and re-writing bits, not any actual writing, per se. Zoom!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/571438.html. You can comment here or there.

phrasing/word help needed

Sep12

Just as importantly, he allowed himself to be led as docilely as if on a lead, through one row of tents, and another, until he was ducking through the entrance of her small tent.

It was no bigger and no more grand, than any other junior officer’s tent, but it was private. Its position was too close to the latrines and too far from the mess tent, but the awkward placing offered a little more discretion for the conversation they were going to have.

^^^
That word. Discretion. It’s not the right one, I don’t think. Help?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/571326.html. You can comment here or there.

Editing Feedback wanted

Sep11

Even so, even with practice and acclimation, she could tell from fifty feet away that the stench was worse today, ranker, like old corpses marinated in goat waste. The news had reached here, then: the Bitrani’s final, bloody, suicidal, nearly-effective attack on Cālenta’s northern border had failed. The surrender had been signed. Now all that was left was the messy job of sweeping up the pieces, and every prisoner knew that they were one of the pieces to be swept. With the Bitrani forces routed, they were an unnecessary bargaining chip. Rin pursed her lips. She’d done what she could for them; now they – all but one of them- would be in different hands.

Is the bold/italic’d line necessary, or does it work without it?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/570961.html. You can comment here or there.