Every time I think of the novel, I'm assured that I'm making the right call. Why? Because I changed Chapter 1's Ange/Nellwyn sections back to previous girly versions, I've had to change things through the rest of the book.
For instance, Ange no longer has her *weird* vision (which I may put back in later). That means she has no idea who Caius Raynor is. So, I changed their first meeting to consist of Ange falling into the mud and a laughing Caius Raynor helping her up. I like it, because I think poor Caius has no idea what happened between helping this bedraggled girl and leaving her. Something happened though. And there's no "she's a beauty." It's mostly the oddity of her, of a finely dressed powerful man's daughter out in the garden, branch in her hair, covered in dirt, talking happily with a slave. I like it!
Secondly, I've thought about how I have had no scene where Ange shows her reaction to Nellwyn being engaged to thePrince. Isn't this a big deal? Um, yeah! So I wrote an entirely new scene where Nellwyn's punishing Ange for dirtying her dress, and they're scrapping together -- until Ange breaks down crying about her sister getting married. That, to me, is more real than anything. This book is about sisters, and here I have a very important sisterly moment.
The progression of revising this bad boy continues. I'm hoping to work on it this weekend, as well as next week and during my sans-Internet week at Gettysburg! Then I've got two brand new readers I can give manuscripts to, which is always a motivation to get things done!
~X
In a world scarred by Ice Wars, two baseborn sisters live in exile. Aiglentine, a sickly girl with an otherworldly empathy for the world around her, sneaks out of her sickroom to explore nearby ruins. There, she encounters warriors performing a ritual and has a strange vision that sets her on a path beyond all imagining.
Her maternal older sister, Nellwyn, frets over her younger sister’s apparent madness and yearns for the truth about their estranged family. When they receive an invitation to a gala honoring the Battle of Toc’s anniversary, everything they have been told about their lineage is cast into suspicion.
At the gala, these two sisters’ lives intertwine with those of four strangers:
Peylon, a spoiled prince besotted with Nellwyn who must face a terrible choice between his future and what’s right;
Vespera, a wealthy, power-hungry seductress intent upon teaching Aiglentine all she knows;
Caius, a first generation slave questioning his loyalty to a land he’s never seen and its leader, the Adamant; and
Helain the White, a tattooed outlaw seeking redemption at any price — even civil war.
The collision of these desires, decisions, and doubts has catastrophic consequences. Soon after, the once calm and prosperous Elsinaire is thrown into upheaval by an assassination attempt, a slave revolt, a tragic death, and an unlikely rise to power.
I have an international M. Phil. degree in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin and incorporate Irish themes in my story. I’m the writer for several subscription-based nationally distributed newsletters and am currently working on The Adamant, Book 2: Last Descendant Living.
Her maternal older sister, Nellwyn, frets over her younger sister’s apparent madness and yearns for the truth about their estranged family. When they receive an invitation to a gala honoring the Battle of Toc’s anniversary, everything they have been told about their lineage is cast into suspicion.
At the gala, these two sisters’ lives intertwine with those of four strangers:
The collision of these desires, decisions, and doubts has catastrophic consequences. Soon after, the once calm and prosperous Elsinaire is thrown into upheaval by an assassination attempt, a slave revolt, a tragic death, and an unlikely rise to power.
I have an international M. Phil. degree in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin and incorporate Irish themes in my story. I’m the writer for several subscription-based nationally distributed newsletters and am currently working on The Adamant, Book 2: Last Descendant Living.
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