C. L. Norman

I followed Karnage and Sygmund to the busy docks. It were easy to keep out of sight in the crowd and it were easy to keep them two in sight too. They ducked down a narrow alleyway. So narrow in fact that the tips of Karnage’s horns scraped the stone walls on either side when he weren’t careful.

Them two wended their way through a maze of alleys and overgrown, falling apart courtyards and finally ended up at a shadowed doorway. Syggy muttered a few of his mumbo jumbo words that raised the hairs on the back of my neck and traced a funny mark on the door. Sygmund called those kinds of marks sigils. I called them squiggles. Syggy didn’t appreciate that.

Then he placed his palm flat against the door and it opened with only the slightest of sounds. The elf and the minotaur disappeared inside and the door closed behind them with a slimmest flash of blue light.

“Darn them mage-types and their fancy shmancy magic.” I muttered. Magic gave me the willies. I had no defense against it. Nor did I have any way around it. I laid odds that if they used magic to seal the entrance they also used magic to prevent eavesdropping.

I kicked a loose cobble across the courtyard and watched it come to a stop against the bone dry, crumbling, stone fountain in the center. Clearly this wasn’t the way to find out what they were doing. And more importantly, invite myself along for the ride.

I guessed they wouldn’t move until the sun rose the next day. Karnage was always a big one for starting out first thing. And so I made plans to return before then to follow them once more. Until then, I had me a date with a certain shiny stone. I figured by now it be missing me and I never liked to leave a ruby in distress.

I left the maze-like slums and headed back to the shop district, liberating a few more metal coins from their owners along the way. Never knew when an application of coins would be needed to make those nasty militia types look the other way. I may not care for the things but they had a purpose. Sorta like cheese could be used to lure a rat away from its den. So to could coins be used to lure humans and most other races into doing things they otherwise wouldn’t.

Back in the shop district I spent some time in the stores on either side of the jewelers. I found myself a pair of nice gloves that were only slightly too big in the haberdashery. I also found the rear entrance to the jeweler’s place of business, the two windows in the living quarters above, and the low roof of the cheesemonger’s next door that would provide an easy means of entrance and egress.

My plan was coming together and I loved it when that happened. When darkness fell, I would put it in motion.

        

Week 1 ended yesterday and I am already a bit behind. Not loads and loads behind like I was worried I would be. Just enough that I have to put a bit of extra push to write a bit extra every day I can squeeze in the time.

Reasons I got behind in no particular order:

• A family emergency pulled away my husband and oldest daughter for four days. I depend on these two people in my life more than I realized and without them here to help keep the family running smoothly, time and concentration were compromised.
• Work called. Don’t get me wrong. At this point in time and life, I need the hours at a paying job more than hours at a keyboard creating stories that might or might not be seen by anyone but me. I thought I had a very light work schedule this week and so I had time to get ahead a little bit before the end of the month approached. Bringing with it, Thanksgiving and more hours to handle all those Christmas shoppers. Work called and needed me to work and I needed the hours and so I went.
• Writing is like exercise. I have mentioned before I have a hard time putting in the work needed to write and finish large projects. I am using NaNo to help me develop the habits and focus I need to write those novels that have been haunting me. I have discovered that not being use to it is showing. Just like stepping into an advanced aerobics class cold turkey and ending up with sore muscles, so have I ended up with a sore brain trying to keep up with the daily goals.

Reasons why I am happy with my progress:

• I’ve written over 10,000 words on a single project. Wow. I start so many projects and get a couple thousand words in and the energy dies and I move on to something else. Writing this much on a single idea is actually starting to fuel itself. The energy I feel to keep going is now both external (the nanowrimo event) and internal (I’ve gotta know what happens next). It is exciting.
• At least 1,000 words every day. I may not have written the 1,667 words required daily to reach the monthly goal of 50,000 words. However, I have written at least 1,000 words every day. It means I am writing steady and daily. The habits are starting to form.
• The story. The portion of my brain that is furiously outlining the story ahead of the words on the page is working overtime and I am excited by what might be coming along and can’t wait to see it on the page. I occasionally forget that I am the writer of the story and wonder how the author will handle that scene coming up and then remember that the author is me. And I have to handle it and get a bit spooked. Then I think, just get the bare bones down now and revise, polish and flesh them out later and it will be good.

I would like to send a special thank you to all my friends and family that don’t understand what I am doing but still are giving me a thumbs up when they see me. Even if that thumb is up in front of a fake smile because they think I have lost my grip on sanity. Thank you to my glorious husband who asked me how my writing was going even while dealing with the loss of a special person in his life two states away.

End week one and my word count is at 11,334. 

Off to add to my word count. I may be back later. Mouse doesn’t like to be kept quiet for long and she has more to say.