Massive edits are probably my least favorite part of the process. I love writing. I love engaging with readers. I love formatting and layouts. I severely dislike editing. However, when I need to do big edits, I have a lot of help. When I'm ready to be done for the day, Alexandria (Peanut) steps right in. In my opinion, she's the cutest and most accurate editor anyone could hope to have.
I woke up choking.
When I opened my eyes there was smoke
everywhere. A set of large hands shot at me through the dark and ripped me from
the bed. Without thinking I struck out with my leg, and I fell to the floor.
“Harley! It’s Arthur!”
I could hear the smoke alarm blaring in
the background and I continued to cough.
“Use your air magic, pull clean air to
your face!” Arthur yelled through the chaos. “When you can breathe, use your
fire magic to slow the fire down!”
“Ok,” I croaked as I followed him from
the room.
We went into his bedroom and he lifted
the rug, once he got the panel open, he had me go down first.
“Why…are we…down…here!” I yelled
between coughs. “We will…burn…to death!”
“This room doubles as a bunker,” he
replied. “We will be fine down here. I'm going to call your dad and let him
know what's going on. Sit down and catch your breath. If you can, do your best
to keep the damage to a minimum. I’m sure one of the neighbors has called the
fire department.”
I sat down and reached for my fire
magic. I coaxed it to slow down. I used every ounce of energy I had to try to
contain the fire, but it was massive and I didn’t have enough control. Once
Arthur was off the phone, I felt him gather up some air and send it out. I
listened for it to come back. The fire department was here.
This excerpt was taken from a lightly edited first draft. All content here may be changed or removed from the final book.
When I was almost finished eating, I saw someone watching me from the other side of the river. He was in the fountain and partially hidden. Something about him drew my attention. I had an overwhelming need to talk to him. Part of it was driven by the need to know why he was watching me so intently, the other part I couldn’t explain. I finished the last few bites of pizza and tossed the container in one of the trash bins. I walked back over to Saginaw St., and across the river. I could feel his eyes on me the whole time. I carefully made my way down to the concrete fountains and falls.
He was tall and lean. He had short, rumpled, light brown hair,
and amazing deep blue eyes, which further showed off his handsome face. He was
wearing black dress slacks and a cream button up dress shirt, but he was
barefoot in a fountain…watching me.
“Aren’t you afraid you’re going to mess up your pants?” Yep,
that was the first thing out of my mouth. Wonderful.
He slowly raked his eyes up my body. Black skateboard shoes,
long legs, covered only by cut off denim shorts, with a band t-shirt that was
slightly too big. He took in every detail of my face, studying me like there
was going to be a test later. He was silent for so long I was starting to get
uncomfortable.
“Not in particular. I can always change my pants,” he said with
a grin.
“Harley,” I breathed. His voice struck a chord in me. I couldn’t
help but to smile back at him.
“Onyx. It’s nice to meet you.”
When he shook my hand I felt a spark and flinched slightly. I
can read thoughts, but only through physical contact. I had hoped to figure out
why he was watching me. For some reason I couldn’t. That had never happened
before. Interesting.
In a secret world of elemental control, I was in my own secret
corner. Hayden is the only other person that has my particular talent that I
know of. We try to keep it under tight wraps; we don’t want people trying to
use us, even in our own community of Elementals. Hayden and I had learned that
the two of us, if we focus really hard, can send thoughts back and forth
without having to touch or be close together for that matter. We tried sending
them to other people but that didn’t work.
“So, Onyx, why are you standing in the middle of a fountain, with
pants on no less?” No one can say I’m not direct.
“Just thought I would enjoy the view. Besides, the water is
cold; I thought it would be nice to cool off for a few minutes,” his grin was
wide as ever.
“It is beautiful here,” I said. “I used to play here as a kid.”
“I wasn’t talking about the park, my dear.”
With that he turned and walked away, vaulting out of the
fountain with more grace than a cat. I stood there for a moment stunned at the
abruptness of his departure.
“Wait!” I yelled as I started to run after him.
I took three steps before my foot slipped. I tumbled out of the
fountain and into the river. When I came up to the surface I saw him standing
on top of the concrete bank chuckling.
“You could come help me, you know.”
“Ah, but that might mess up my pants.”
After a couple severe illnesses and some personal matters came into play... I am back on here! I have been pushing through with the writing/editing processes! It's been a journey for sure!
Rage is officially up for beta (and has been for about three weeks now)! I'm most likely running the beta through early October. After that I need to push it over to my editor (who is also my cover artist, yay for knowing a professional graphic designer/corporate editor). My mom is still working on drawing the map up for me. Right now it is still just a loose, and kind of sad, paint drawing. I'm seriously hoping for a February release date. My grandma's birthday is February 13th. We lost her this past December She was one of the greatest human beings I've ever known. She was the second person to buy the first thing I ever published (beaten out only by my mom). She always made sure I knew she was proud of me. She is greatly missed, and it would mean a lot to me to dedicate the publication of one of my books to her.
Into the Flames is more than halfway through the massive overhaul I'm putting it through. Even with all the changes I've made to it, it still doesn't quite sound like the writer I have become. I've decided it will just have to be acceptable enough. The second book in the series will sound a lot more like me as I am now.
Looking forward, the second book in the Spirit of Fire series is up next. Once I have that written and out there for beta and edits, I'll be jumping back to Justified. This blog should start getting back to regularly scheduled posts soon. I'm still trying to find my rhythm again after all of the crazy of the past few months (thanks to scheduling way in advance, the posts continued on for a while after I had to take a step back).