It's been over a year since my last post. Hopefully you haven't given up on me completely. I just had to put this part of my life on hold for a little bit in order to focus on completing the M.A.T. program. Which I did. Successfully, I might add. I am now a certified teacher! Yay!
But just because I haven't been posting about writing, doesn't mean that it isn't still one of my obsessions. Actually, one of the great things about being a literacy teacher is that it is so inspirational for my writing. Last year, I participated in NaNoWriMo with some 8th grade students and started crafting a really awesome new story, tentatively titled The Price of Magic.
Here's an excerpt from the rough draft:
The beat increased
as the women spun around her. Smiles and laughter, screams and cries, formed
the melody of the music while the drums throbbed and the tambourine clashed.
The pipe’s song went wild, soaring and shrieking into the dawn. The tempo
increased along with the beat of Lara’s heart. She spun and twirled, dipped and
shook. Her hair stung her face as she threw her head. Her breath quickened. She
leapt and, suddenly, the music stopped.
She was on her
knees, the cold, wet grass pricking her skin. But she remained there, frozen,
gasping. This was the moment, the key moment, when the spirits would either
accept or reject her.
She waited. The
seconds seemed to stretch into eternity. And then she heard a faint sound, like
a bell being rung from far away. The fire sputtered and died, and from the
swirl of smoke, a shape emerged. Cat-like, it leapt from the embers and ash and
padded toward her. As it approached, she felt her left hand tingle and then
burn. She raised it, and the ink glimmered. The tiger, a creature she hadn’t
seen since they’d fled their homeland when she was five, drew closer. Inches
away, it stopped, and she could smell the heat of its power. The tiger studied
her with its fiery eyes. It seemed to peer into her soul, and she felt her
magic—always so carefully banked—flicker and flame within her. The smoke tiger
bared its fangs and pounced.
She felt the
weight of it crush into her, bearing her backwards. But the women caught her
before she could fall, and lifted her to her feet. She struggled to breathe.
The tiger’s presence filled her, burned her, built an excruciating pressure in
her chest. A scream built in her throat, but just as she was about to vent her
pain, the feeling abruptly ceased. She staggered, feeling empty, but the women
held her up, cooing nonsense into her ears. Bright light glared through the
dawn; it was Lara’s hand.
“It is done,” her
mother whispered. “You are a woman now.”
“And so much
more,” Ishla, elder and chief of their tribe, said. “The spirits have favored
you, child. No one has seen the Great Tiger in decades. You have been given a
great honor to have it as your spirit guide. Hold its strength within you,
Lara.”
Lara nodded,
unable to form words of thanks or gratitude, too stunned and shaken by what had
just happened to her. Warm arms enfolded her, and she found herself the center
of an embrace from all the tribe’s women.
“Welcome, sister,”
they said as one, and then withdrew.
I have still also been editing and revising The Dragon Queen. It's probably going to be ready for querying by the end of this year (at least that is my goal...we'll see how much time I have for it; since this will be my first year teaching I will be really busy)!
I'm glad to be back. Don't worry, I haven't given up on writing, and I never will, no matter how busy I am!
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