Snippets | September 2017

The latest draft of TAD2 is complete! It’s close to 80,000 words in length, though I’d initially expected it to be around 50K when it was done. Overall, there are a lot of things I like and a few I don’t, and I’ll be diving back into it after a short break. As with last month’s snippets, it was hard to find some that weren’t too full of spoilers!

  Once, he aspired to shape the future of Aldivere into something good and bright, something full of hope. Those dreams faded fast in the light of reality and all its harsher elements, and staring now into his empty mug, he couldn’t think of a way out of the mess they were all in.

  Out of the times he’d been a prisoner, this one, in some ways, was far from the worst.

  He’d taken enough lives to know there was fear in the end, and he did not think himself above it.

 

  “I’m all right.” The words tasted sour on Ed’s tongue, but he said them anyway, forcing his mouth to shape the words with the remnant of a smile. It wasn’t a proper one, but maybe it was enough to make Kat look at him with something other than pity.

  His voice wasn’t his own, wasn’t something he could recognize as it tore out of his throat in what might have been a sob or a yell.

  An ache flared behind Kilam’s eyes. It was far too early in the day to be dealing with such matters, and on so little sleep. What he needed was the ability to think clearly.
  And for something—just once—to work in his favor.