Words of Power

I've had a couple of questions from readers about these.  I had never planned on opening this can of worms.  I didn't want to create another language. It's so complex, and then I have to keep such careful track for continuity and all that. Well, today I started creating some words of power.  Sometimes you have to make these drastic changes because the characters demand it. Will I be creating a language in its entirety? Heck no!! But there will be some of these in Earthquake.

For those of you over 18

Check out Average by Quinn Clarke. She is my alter ego, since I can't be writing 18+ stuff for my under 18 audience. In this novella, I poke fun at the most popular cliches in erotica and romance. It's $2.99 on kindle, free on KU, and $6.99 in paperback.

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B074MLM5HK

https://www.facebook.com/quinnclarkeauthor/

Excerpt from Earthquake, as promised

This is a first draft. I haven't gone through it with spellcheck or anything. I hope you enjoy.

“Lightning is an advanced air skill that takes manipulation of air using earth or water for friction and fire as an accelerant. Meteorology and atmospheric sciences use air and water in the manipulation of the weather. Air mages often pair with earth mages to attack air pollution, just as water and earth mages often pair for other types of environmental damage containment,” Professor Fuentes added.  “These are topics for late this year and in your future studies, as well as for advanced students.”

Professor Tehranchi made eye contact with me and I sank down in my chair. “Miss Lake, please come down here.”

I heard a few groans from the other ad-pro’s as I stood up. I hated being the center of attention. This was not how I wanted the afternoon to begin.

“Miss Lake is an air mage,” Tehranchi continued as I stood next to him. “She is one of the strongest lightning wielders that I’ve ever seen, in fact.”

This was news to me, and I tried hard to keep my face neutral.  It almost sounded like Tehranchi, who was by all accounts an ogre, was complimenting me.

Professor Fuentes chuckled. “You’re embarrassing Sara,” he chided.  “But we’d love for her to give a little demonstration.” He raised his eyebrows at me and I suppressed a grin.

“What exactly would you like me to show them?” I asked.

“I know you’ve filled this lecture hall with lightning,” Professor Fuentes told me while projecting to the class, “but since it’s full of people, I thought you could make a few lightning spheres.  Maybe basketball sized. Professor Tehranchi can keep them aloft.”

Keeping them aloft would be easy. I’d never made that many small spheres at the same time before, but there was a first time for everything.  Heck, it’d taken me four tries to light the New Mexico desert on fire. I’d start small and go from there.

I’d progressed from needing to start them in the palm of my hand and grow them from a spark.  Looking past Professor Fuentes to Tehranchi, I raised an eyebrow at him just as a basketball sized lightning sphere popped into existence in front of me.  I sent it out over the ad-pro’s and held it aloft with my own air.  I felt air tendrils try to take it away, but I surrounded my sphere and kept control.  Confident that I could do it again, I did the same thing.  And then I made two at the same time. And four more.  I figured eight was enough to let Tehranchi know I wasn’t the scared little incompetent girl I had been in January.

“Tired?” he asked, a little drollness in his tone.  I could hardly believe it.

“Nope,” I replied with a grin. I wasn’t.  I felt great.  “But I think you want to start lecturing again.” I winked the spheres out, nodded to them both, and retook my seat.

Clearing his throat, Tehranchi gestured to me.  “Sara is sixteen years old and in the adolescent program,” he said. “She is not available to tutor remedial students even though she is in my advanced air class, and,” he shot me a glare with a hint of mirth, “evidently she’s been holding back.”

Copyright 2017 Andrea Irving, Colindrea Press

:)

Earthquake

It's going to be longer than I thought, I think.  I'm at 34,000 words now (122 pages). Chapter 16. I thought it'd be shorter than Wildfire by a longshot. Wildfire was 70k words or so. I thought Earthquake would peter out around 50k words.  I'm thinking it's going to be closer to 70k. Not a bad thing. The pace is a lot slower, that's for sure. There's a lot of normal teenage life so far, which Sara has missed out on. They're back in Montana and school has started.  It's going better and worse than they could have hoped!

I'd be farther along if fewer RH books had been coming out over the last few weeks. No end in sight through the end of September. It takes a lot of willpower to get my nose out of a book and my fingers onto my laptop keys. Thank you for your patience. I still write faster than GRRM.

It's still going great

I never know how long my novels are going to be.  50k words at a minimum is what is "recommended," whatever that means.  In this day and age, it's not as important.  At about 250 words per page, that's 200 pages. I'm nowhere near that in Earthquake, but I've made a huge dent in what I wanted to get done. The plot is rolling on, and we've got a new person's POV in chapter 12. Hmmm, I wonder who it could be? He's chattier than I thought he'd be, that's for sure! There will be more supporting character POV chapters going forward, as well.

I've also gotten the final edits from beta readers for my smutty novella. I finished the covers for that today, as well as finalized my pen name. As soon as I do my own final edits and final read-through, I'll be uploading that. You'll be able to find it if you search for my publisher's name, if you're interested.

I spent some time looking at more images for Earthquake and Rarity, too. Photoshop is... fun? I'm not an artistic person.  Obviously my covers are very basic.  Earthquake is going to tax my limits.  I may have to alter a stock photo for Rarity. It depends on what I end up choosing.  I try not to do too much, since I know that is not where my talents lie.

I spent way too much time on shutterstock today. Or maybe not...

I hope your summers are going great!!

6000 words later...

I'm sitting in my office at the clinic where I work, so I thought I'd post an update. I'm about to hit 6000 words (250 words/page) since I said I was buckling down and writing.  I think it'd be more, but I hit a snag last night and it was painful to get through.  It should edit fine later, and I'm excited to be past it. I've written a thousand words in between patients today, which I think it because we're finally hitting the part in the story where the plot takes off and it reels you in and gets good. I hope.

So I just wanted you to know that while Earthquake will be late coming out, it shouldn't be too late.

I'm sitting down to write right now!

I am behind schedule.  I think writers are almost always behind schedule.

I went out of the country on vacation. Part of our vacation was spent in a lake cottage.  I assumed (ha!) that I'd be able to chill and write.  I got maybe 1000 words out. Everyone wanted to be social, and it's very hard to concentrate and write when people are trying to carry on a conversation with you.  How dare they, right?! I got a bit more done on the way home on our layover.  My 12 hour layover that turned into 16 1/2 hours. After a long day of seeing the historic sights in Philly (what we had planned for such a long layover), I was exhausted. I wrote some variation or other of "Sean is a dick" 3 times in as many paragraphs.  I conceded to my fatigue, and turned off my laptop.

Interesting things that happened:

On our way to our destination, we flew over Kalispell, MT. I got to see exactly where the Montana School is. My husband just shook his head at me. My 7-year-old was not impressed. My 4-year-old was asleep. But I was excited. Glacier National Park is just gorgeous. From the air anyway. I've never been there in real life.

I get to write off a lot of this trip on my taxes.  Part of Book 3 or 4 in The Program will take place in Philadelphia. That was my son's input. He was excited that I was taking his opinion into consideration. He hopes you like his choice when those books are written.

I ate my weight in poutine.  The 7lbs I gained... Well, I know where they came from, and I'm not sad about how they came to be.

I love paddle boards.  So relaxing. Man do they work out your core! All that balancing.  Same with kayaks.  My thighs burned. I think these activities are why I only gained 7lbs.

They make Olympic (and Paralympic) medals at the mint in Canada. They also make Star Wars and Avengers coins there, too. I saw a coil of gold ribbon that was worth like a million dollars.

We rode on a regional train, 2 subways, a bus, a car, someone else's car, the SkyTrain, and 2 airplanes all in one day.

I prefer Cheezies to Cheetos, Smarties to Rockets, and Canadian Smarties are just meh. I love Jujubes. I wish they sold Alexander Keith's in the US; I'll have a Kiltlifter instead though and be usually as happy drinking it.

Fidget spinners were on sale for $3.99 Canadian at GT.  My 7-year-old's mind was blown when we told him that was half what he'd spent on the glow in the dark one he got at home.

Tim Horton's jelly donuts are excellent.  There are lots of Dunkin Donuts in Philly. AZ does not have many donut places at all.

OK, I'll stop.  Thank you for your patience. I'll just get back to writing....