Another Excerpt from "Catseye"

“Come on! We don’t have much time!” hissed Zabora. Confused, the dogs turned in the direction Sakura had gone and followed her. They stopped to linger a moment, just in case it was a trick, but Zabora, Will, and Kylie stayed hidden with the Catseye’s magic. Once the guards were gone, Zabora hurriedly led them back behind the remaining two guards, far enough so that they weren’t noticed, but close enough so that they were still on the right path.

Finally, to Kylie’s astonishment, she set foot on solid ground. She was in a peaceful field, filled with tiny gold and purple flowers. “Welcome to the Gods’ Realm,” Zabora said proudly. “It is pretty, isn’t it?”

Kylie nodded and looked at Will, but he wasn’t there. He was picking the flowers and sniffing them. Kylie laughed. He looked so ridiculous. But he looked even more ridiculous when…he turned into a purple monkey!

“Aaah!” Kylie shouted, jumping back. Will looked at himself in astonishment. Behind them, Zabora was doubled over with laughter.

“What happened to him?” Kylie demanded.

“Those are shape-shifting flowers,” Zabora explained, still laughing. “When you sniff them, you change shape. It is impossible to know what you will turn into.”

“Well, how does he turn back?” Kylie asked firmly. She didn’t think it was very funny…okay, it was, but they didn’t have time for distractions.

Zabora shrugged. “I think he is stuck that way until they wear off.” Behind them, Will made a groaning sound.

“How long is it until they wear off?” Kylie asked, fearing the answer.

“I do not know, but he might find a more reasonable shape with which to approach Anubis and Bastet.”

Snorting, Will picked another flower with his monkey paws and sniffed it. It turned him into a rabbit. Zabora shook her head, so he sniffed another one. This time he appeared as a fox.

She nodded. “The foxes are his people, too. He will be satisfied.” By "him" Kylie assumed Zabora meant Anubis.

Will-fox trotted beside Kylie, who was careful not to sniff any flowers. Zabora was still laughing and floating lazily across the ground.

“Are there any other dangers we have to watch out for?” Kylie asked, irritated.
Zabora nodded. “There are many, but hopefully we will not run into any of them.”

That didn’t sound very reassuring, but Kylie didn’t say anything.

After they left the field, Zabora led them through a forest. It was thick and dark, and Kylie felt uncomfortable. Will-fox, however, was right at home. He chased after every noise, soon returning to the task at hand before running off again.

“I just remembered something else about the shape-shifting flowers,” Zabora said. “As more and more time passes, the person under the spell becomes more and more like what they’ve become. If it takes more than one hour for them to turn back, they’re stuck as an animal forever…and nothing can turn them back, not even the power of the gods.”

And so Will-fox was added to Kylie’s growing list of concerns.

Though the forest was very disconcerting, they soon passed out of it, and entered another field. This one wasn’t filled with flowers, instead tall stalks of wheat waved lazily in the breeze. “How big is the Gods’ Realm?” Kylie asked in exasperation.

“Very big,” Zabora said. “No one, not even the gods themselves, have reached every corner of it. But I know where they are, and we do not have far left to go, so do not worry.”

Excerpt from "Catseye"

Several people have been asking me to post excerpts from my NaNo story, and even though I haven't completely finished my rough draft yet, here is the first excerpt:

Kylie felt queasy in her stomach. Something felt bad about that place, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. And the path to the west was a dead end. It seemed to Kylie that the abandoned city was much bigger than it had been before the Time Freeze. Like Naire had said, the true nature of the place was surfacing. The old city wasn’t nearly as safe as it used to be.
Naire gave Kylie an impudent look and started to make her way down the alley to the south. Kylie sighed and followed her. Gull, Anemone, and Will trotted behind them uneasily.
There was a putrid smell about the place, a mix of blood and old, rotting wood. Rats slithered in the shadows, and a slimy fungus grew on the walls. Kylie covered her nose so that she wouldn’t have to smell such filth. She wasn’t the kind of girl who was squeamish, but this place was enough to make anyone gag.
Naire suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes were wide with fear. There was a new smell in the air, something Kylie and Will had never encountered before…but the animals had.


Tune back soon for another excerpt!!!

I didn't make it

I didn't make it, but I got soooooooooooo close! I am ending tonight at 45,121. The only reason I'm stopping is that I have a test to study for tomorrow. But just because I didn't finish this month doesn't mean I'll stop working on my novel!

More Words...

I've only gotten to 34,006 words today. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow, so I'd better get a lot of sleep!

I've Topped 20,000!

I topped 20,000 tonight at 10:20 PM! Although I still have a LONG way to go, I think I've made considerable progress. I'm going to be spending a long time in the car tomorrow, so I hope I can get to 30,000 or more tomorrow. I'm not positive if my grandmother has the Internet, so I might not be posting for a few days, but I'm not sure.

More Words

I am now up to 18,093. I am absolutely positive I won't make it now, but I'm going to continue this novel because it is much better than the one from last year.

More Words, but not much more

I've only gotten to 13,002 today, since it was much busier than expected. Tomorrow, the whole night after 4:15 is off, which sucks. I'll probably only get to 14,000 tomorrow, which was my goal for today:(

Another Update

I'm now up to 12,168! Since I'll be busy tomorrow, too, I hope I can get up to 14,000 or 15,000.

The Next Update

I've now gotten to 10,108 words. I would write more, but I am soooo tired. I am going to be very busy the next day, so I only expect to get to maybe 12,000 then.

Next Update

I have now gotten up to 8,014 words. It's disappointing, but it's already late tonight and I should probably be stopping now.

More Words!

I've gotten up to 5,547 words! I probably won't (no, make that definitely won't) reach my goal by tomorrow, but I hope I can still finish my story by the end of November...

Starting Over

Since my previous story has been lost, I'm starting a new one. I know it's really late, but I'm going to try anyway. Today I've gotten to 2,270. My goal for the end of the weekend is 20,000. Who knows. Maybe I'll actually reach it for once!

P.S.--For some reason NaNoWriMo won't let me log in, so I guess I'll just be posting my word count here. Is anyone else experiencing the same problems?

Disappointing News

Our computer (where I have my story) has a big problem, so I haven't been able to write at all today, and might not get to for a few days. I also didn't have a chance to post yesterday, so I'll do it now--I got up to a little more than 15,500 yesterday.

NaNoWriMo Day 6

Well, I passed my goal! I am now up to 12,547. I would have written more, but I have a lot of homework to do tonight. Tomorrow's goal is 15,500.

NaNoWriMo Day 5

Another disappointing day...I was very busy today, and I will be tomorrow. I only had about twenty-five minutes to write at the most, and my word count is now 10,585. Tomorrow I will set a more realistic goal--12,000. I know that is a lot less than my goal for today, but it is much more realistic!

NaNoWriMo Day 4

Well, I got to 10,027. I don't want to set my goal for tomorrow too high, but I'm really hoping I can get to 15,000 tomorrow, or more!

NaNoWriMo Day 3

I haven't gotten close to my goal AT ALL yet--I'm only up to 8,254 words!! And, since I have a very busy day tomorrow, I probably won't get much done then. My goal by the end of tomorrow is 10,000 words...

NaNoWriMo Day 2

I've been working on my story a lot more today, and have managed to get my word count up to 7,012. I didn't reach my goal for the weekend, but I hope I can get 11,000 by tomorrow!

NaNoWriMo Day 1

The first day of NaNoWriMo has ended! My word count so far is 3,268. I feel pretty good about my progress, but I have a lot of writing to do tomorrow to top 10,000, which is my goal for the weekend.

I DID IT!!!

I'm so excited that I finished NaNoWriMo! I'm so glad I decided to try. There were times when I was worried that I wouldn't make it. But now I'm definitely doing it next year!

Thanks, Jean, for all of your support and encouragement! I don't think I could have done it without you!

Obviously, I need to do a lot of editing to whip my story into shape, but I'm going to paste my prologue here, since no one could get to my site:

Winged Wolf’s Cry

Prologue

In a land far away, past rolling hills and dense forests, a winged wolf stood on a ragged cliff. His searching eyes scanned the horizon worriedly. “Talia,” he muttered to himself, “where are you?”

He had been waiting for days, standing there, yearning for that flashing smile and those gleaming eyes. But it never came.

“You never should have let her go alone!” he silently cursed himself. “She never could have made it.”

He remembered all too well those dark pits of torture, where the Enemy captured winged wolves and took them, where his Daemons tortured them until they could stand it no longer…

He could stand it no longer. He howled out loud. The piercing cry echoed off of the cliffs and the caves around him.

“Jalon, you know where you have to go,” the wolf told himself, “before it’s too late…”