Defeated

Ugh! I have been defeated by my own addiction to work. With a little more than a week left, I know I will not finish my book this month.

I had expected to have some downtime to work on my manuscript during my trip to Florida over the weekend, but no such luck. Then as soon as I got back -- SLAM!

• Two new -- and immediate -- freelance projects
• Author review and major cuts to my 600-page Complete Idiot's Guide (which is only supposed to be 400 pages)
• Five classes worth of essays I have to read and comment on
• Grading and meetings with students
• An extracurricular MLA workshop I'm holding tomorrow to help my students better understand this English language bugaboo
• And another freelance project that has to be done on-site and will take almost a day to complete

And they all have to be completed by Tuesday or sooner.

Chapter 1 - Part 2

Derry sipped the rich black coffee that burned comfortingly through the cup in his hands. If he had to be living among mortals, he was grateful that there were some comforts that would make the experience more bearable. Giovanni’s fresh-brewed coffee was one of them.

He told himself that this was the reason he stirred from his bed with only a few hours sleep in him morning after morning. He said it adamantly every time he settled down on the corner of Dorchester Avenue, directly across the street from Bryn Mercer’s apartment.

It was just a quiet place to enjoy the effects of the caffeine. It had nothing to do with his ongoing fascination with the woman who’d been coming into his pub, Mallory’s, since its opening a few months ago. Nothing at all to do with those mesmerizing green eyes that sparkled even in the dim light of the bar nearly every night.

And it definitely had nothing to do with the sidhe charm she wore around her neck.

Chapter 1 - Part 1/NaNoWriMo Update

Had kind of a rough week, but I'm up to about 5,260 words as I close this week out -- which is a lot more than I've written in months. Yeah NaNoWriMo!  Here's a tease for Chapter 1:

Chapter 1

Bryn Mercer woke with a start, the way she always did after the dream that had plagued her since childhood came. One of the few constants in her life was the surety the same feelings of violence would pervade her sleep every night. Though nothing more than a vague recollection would follow her into the daylight, however, yet the dream always haunted her, and she didn’t know why.

Shaking her head to clear what few images she could remember from her mind, she slid out of bed and padded to the shower. Today was supposed to be a good day; Adrian Marx would finally be going home.
As she stepped into the rush of hot water, she thought how rare it is for a nine-year-old to be adopted and by good people – really good people, not just the kind that put on a show for the social workers and then turn around and beat their kids.

Bryn had spent twenty-six years in the Massachusetts child protective services system. She was initiated the day the Boston police found her in an abandoned car on Mercer Street when she was an infant. She knew all too well the kind of people who took in foster children, and exactly what many of them were after.
In fact, she knew the moment she met every foster family she’d ever been placed with whether or not they were really interested in providing her a good home or if they were just in it for the money – or worse.

Prologue

As promised, here is the prologue to my novel, Lost Sidhe. This scene takes place in the past and has not been edited in the slightest, so if there are errors, please take this for the first draft that it is. Any feedback is always appreciated!

Prologue

The inside of the car was so hot that an uncharacteristic flush swept over Áine DeDanann’s fair cheeks. She looked down affectionately at the baby sleeping in her arms, gently tucking the child’s fine brown hair behind one ear so she could see all of her daughter’s face.

Áine sat still on the back bench seat as a curtain of sadness fell over her eyes of crystal violet, just like the flowers would look if viewed through water. Her loose auburn curls framed a face that smiled gently, as if assuring herself of something.

“It will be alright, my love,” she whispered to the child, who opened her eyes at the sound of her mother’s voice. The woman stroked the baby’s cheek in a gesture of comfort, feeling the smooth pale skin so like her own. “I promise you, I will keep you safe. He will not take you. That is the only gift I have to give you now. I am so sorry.”

Tears fell on the pink blanket that swaddled the infant, who blinked brilliant aquamarine eyes at her mother as if she understood what she’d said and all that was happening around her. A tiny hand grasped the Áine’s finger and held it tight. She smiled at her daughter’s gesture and kissed her on the forehead.

Good Intentions, Novel Intro

Just like New Year's resolutions, some of my NaNoWriMo resolutions have already bit the dust. :( I came down with a sinus infection that has inhibited my ability to concentrate, so I only got about 300 words done yesterday and about 1,000 done so far today. But, I am not being too hard on myself and am determined to plow through tonight and get up to 3,000 words at least.

One pledge I will come through on right now is some information about my novel. I like to think of myself as a Celt. My heritage is Irish, German, and Eastern European, with a little Italian mixed in for good measure. Though the Celts are known mostly for their history in Ireland and Scotland, they were also very prevalent throughout the Germanic and Eastern European countries.

So, when I went looking for inspiration for a story premise, I turned to Celtic mythology. There, I discovered the sidhe (pronounced sh-ee), a race of faeries who had power over nature and were the complete opposite of what most people think of when they hear "faery." No little wings or faery dust, sidhe are the size and shape of humans. They have powerful control over nature and a long history of waging battle throughout Irish mythology. Faeries that kick butt -- sounds cool to me.

Based on this concept, I developed a paranormal/suspense/urban fantasy-type story that involves a cast of supernatural characters, including:

• A sidhe queen who gives up her life to ensure a future for her daughter
  
• Her halfling daughter who is raised as a human in a gravely flawed foster care system
  
• A sidhe warrior who was forced to flee his homeland into the mortal world after the queen's fall
• A collector demon (collects the powers of other magical beings upon the moment of their death) who is obsessed with the queen, her daughter, and fulfilling a prophecy that is yet to be determined
  
• A sleeper villain who acts as a puppeteer among these characters to gain his revenge for a wrong that was done to him
  

This may sound simplistic, but I don't want to give away too much of the plot. I will post the prologue later in the week to give a taste of this little universe I've created.