Exerpt from last NaNoWriMo. (bonus post!)

So, NaNoWriMo has come and gone, and I am left with a 50,000+ word manuscript that is in desperate need of editing.

What am I to do? Start editing, of course.

So, that's been taking up a good deal of my time lately, what with fixing all my poor grammar and screwy word choices. Not to mention the stilted dialogue.
Oh, stilted dialogue, why must you plague me so... >.<

That being said, I do have some interesting words in there that for the life of me, I can't recall typing during November. I re-found my choice of "soliloquizing" at one point, and I am pretty dang pleased with that. Overall, I like how it turned out, I really do. The plot arcs in a pleasing way, and my characters (overall) are original and non-Mary-Sue like.

Now, you all, as the readers of my blog, get the dubious honor of reading the first fixed-up bits of my book.

The following is a letter, written from my main character's mother to her lover. It's one of the first bits of the book, and I'm really proud of it.

March 20, 1461

My beloved Carys.
Here I am, living with Tavis now. I miss having you next door, or the next room, or the next chair. If you could only know how often I think of you...

I am so lucky to have a husband who understands me. Tavis is wonderful, he truly is. Never pressures me for anything...as well he shouldn’t! He knows I’m already promised to you, if not in law, in heart. Oh, my beloved, if you and I could only live and marry like I can with Tavis. I long for that day.

How are your parents? How is your sister, Serilde? Is the village missing us? To be frank, I don’t miss them at all. Too many voices saying “No, no, don’t do that. Do it this way, the proper way, our way”. It’s wearing. You aren’t, of course. I miss you so deeply, and I wish...

Oh, if you could see the sunset from our house. All these fiery reds and oranges mixed with the cool purples and blues. I think of you as I watch it every night.
When do you think you’ll have enough money to join us? Another six months? A year? Two years? I’m so impatient, but I can’t help but say hurry, Carys. We’ve been building a small home next door, and then all will be as it used to be. I can’t say “how it should be” since “how it should be” would have us living together in the large house, and Tavis living in the small one next door!

You are still wearing the ring I gave you, am I right? Has Colin asked why you’re wearing another man’s ring yet? I don’t see why you can’t just tell him you aren’t interested. He’ll stop asking when you tell him once and for all that he hasn’t got a chance, but until then, he’ll keep plodding along like the ox that he is.
The air is so crisp and cool up here. Some mornings, it’s like breathing ice. Really wakes you up.

Tavis knows I miss you, and sends his love as well. We talk about you often, and we both miss you terribly. I hope you’ll recognize me when we meet again. Tavis says that I’ve grown paler, if that’s possible! It has to be the mountain air.
I must go now, my love. Thanks be to the gods that we have these letters to exchange. I don’t know what I would do if we didn’t have this.

Wishing you here with me,
Ziska Riedwyn Bronwy


If you liked it, let me know! If not, tell me why, if you would. If you're interested in hearing/reading more, let me know that as well, because I'll have other bits as I go along editing.

Cheers and all that wonderful stuff,
Whimsy

P.S.
If you did NaNo, how'd it turn out? Are you doing it this coming November?

P.P.S. Putting this out here for anyone to read on the internet is really quite nervous-making.

BEDA, Day 22: Renissance Faire!

So, right now I'm at a Renfaire. A Renfaire is a Renissance Faire. (Think King Arthur, etc.)

This will be my first time at said faire. I have gone to faires before, oh, yes I have.

When I was younger, I spent my autumns at the faire in the state I live in. I mean, this was from around age 6 to around age 13, maybe. These actors (who will ALWAYS be their characters to me) knew me since I was tiny.

Spending my September and October weekends in the company of knights, mud beggers, singing executioners, swashbuckling pirates, gypsies, swordsmen, royalty, the fey and townsfolk was a pretty dang good time, I have to say.


I made sure that I caught the pub show (rated PG-13...so I sat in the back) every day. I know more Rennie* drinking songs than any teenage girl has the right to.

When I go to that faire now, I keep hearing how much I've grown.

The singing executioners (who have a stage show that I could recite from memory back when I did the faire) always are happy to see us. I think I've seen them ONCE without the back masks that they always wear.

I wanted to be a knight, instead of a lady, so when I got enough stamps on my card from the kiddie play yard, I asked the king to knight me "not Dame Irisa, but SIR Irisa." Repeatedly. I was THE MOST knighted person I knew. It was awesome.

As you can tell, I had a character. I spoke in an accent, had a character name, warmed up my voice in the mornings (if only by following the Big Kid actors and mimicing them). I was Irisa (eye-ree-sah), a Romanian Gypsy child. (roll the r's, it's better that way.)

Although I have made myself many, many, many swords, I have always wanted to do archery. It's so freakin' cool! And less dangerous. Less physical fighting.

I learned how to curtsy properly, what to say when someone says "Long live the King!" (God save the King!), how to faint (as told by a mud begger), how to harass people into doing the Maypole, every word of "the Itchy Britches song", the difference between an Irish, Welsh and English accent, that one NEEDS to watch out for the knight's swords, and that having a person explain what exactly a cell phone is is highly entertaining.

So, if you have gone to a Faire, go again, if you haven't...GO. You will not regret it!

Huzzah,

~Whimsy


*Rennie = cute version of renissance. Also can refer to a person who loves/acts in the faires.

P.S. With that as a part of my childhood, is it any wonder I'm on the Pirate side of things?

Question:
What side are YOU on, pirates or ninjas?