Construction Antics!

All through January, Writers Ink will be in re-building mode: re-working the Writers Ink Books website, polishing up this one and the other allied pen name sites, and constructing a completely new site.

Please bear with us during our mess!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from a 1909 German card!

Gifts abound all around / and the Best cannot be seen only felt!

Success x 3

Here's a lovely reward pix. I'm late posting -- as I was late all through November.

Lots of disruptions and distractions in November, but I managed to work through a non-fiction project that I'll publish early in 2020. It's actually a combo project :: three things coming together as one.

Nonfiction because I had no brain for creative work even though I have fiction hanging over me. Still, some things get done, other things percolate a while longer ~ as long as I'm not making bailiff coffee.

Do you know what "bailiff coffee" is?  It's the coffee that bailiffs make for jurors, thick enough to keep a spoon upright, strong enough to keep everyone thinking, caffeinated enough to keep everyone determined to do the job so we could get out of there (which means reaching the consensus that a verdict is). I've served on two juries, one of which didn't want to reach a verdict, and I was grateful for bailiff coffee.

Still am.

I don't make bailiff coffee for myself--but I do have my two mugs every morning. Keeps me determined to do the job even when everything else conspires to disrupt.

So, November dropped the fiction and picked up nonfiction. Three projects came together to get credit for the National Novel Writing Month ~ which means that I had to switch my projects to have success. Projects finished / revised / edited / corrected / formatted and now waiting on covers.

I guess that means -- watch this space for more information ;) !

It may look a little like this

and this

and quite a bit more.

Such is the Writing Life.

Writers Write Words

If you want to improve your writing, 

start at the basic level: words and sentences.

M.A. Lee offers the essential guidebook for enhancing your words and sentences. Discovering Sentence Craft covers figurative and structural elements, from metaphors and symbols to zeugma and polysyndetons. The guidebook is A to Z, auxesis to zeugma.

What more could you want? Find it here.

What's After Halloween?

What's after Halloween? 

The great HORROR.

National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo.

That sounds like a monster, doesn't it?

> Succeed with the Number 1 indicator of writing success: Daily Word Count Tracking. Use the *Think/Pro* planner.

> Getting stumped? Consult *Discovering Your Novel*, everything you need to know, from idea generation and story foundations to publication and promotions.

> Stumbling over the basics? Use the 7 lessons every professional writer knows, in *Think like a Pro*.

Discover more on M.A. Lee's author page.

https://www.amazon.com/M.A.-Lee/e/B019PD3Z7W/

Prep for NaNoWriMo

The best indicator of writing success?  Writing every day.

Track your building word counts with Think/Pro ~ A Planner for Writers.

Project planning. Word Counts. Project Meters. Tips and Guidance. Weekly agenda. Monthly review and previews. Seasonal checks and re-starts. Yearly success measures.

Find it here.

October is PREPtober

A lot of handy charts and infographic sets on this page.

http://writersinkservi.com/wis-write/

What I'm Reading Now ~ Recommended ~ another by Mary Stewart

Mary Stewart is one of my favorite writers. Every year I re-read one of her books, and often I try to

squeeze in more than one. Of all the books that I have read--and it's in the high thousands--Stewart has three of the top five places. My Brother Michael and The Moonspinners constantly shift as #1 and #2.  Also in the top 5 is her This Rough Magic, a stronger book than the other two, but MBM and MS do capture my heart more.

So I re-read a book a year, but somehow this year I've gone for a re-read of five of her books--I don't know if that says something about stress levels or what. Maybe it says something about seeking inspiration from an excellent writer. Maybe it says something about the state of story-telling in my other reading.

Re-reading is a constant anticipated pleasure in a good story. Stewart always delivers.

You might ask~

"Why do people re-read books multiple times? Don't you know the story?"

My answer~

Yes, I do know the story. Why do you watch movies a second and third and fourth time?

For something you missed? For the ins and outs of the story that aren't so obvious? For the character interactions and the jokes and all those clever little things that make the movie memorable?

Good books are like those movies--and are EVEN BETTER! (Yes, that deserved caps.)

Story-telling is character development, character relationships, plot structure, plot twists, foreshadowing and red herrings and hidden clues, and sentence craft.

And much more.

So here's Stewart, Master of the Craft of Story-Telling, and the book that I've picked up is not her strongest. It's Nine Coaches Waiting, a classic gothic / that's romantic suspense for anyone confused by constantly shifting definitions.

Stewart introduced me to one of my favorite quotations in 9CW.  She usually has headnotes for each chapter, appropriate for the story or the setting or some such element.  This quotation, however, is stated by the protagonist. It's from Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark". It comes far, far into the story, at a crucial moment between our heroine and the man she loves--a man she's not certain she should trust.

What I tell you three times is true.

Here are the three cover versions: the first one that I had on my shelf for many years, a second which is the best of all the ones out there, and the third one which is obviously a New York marketing executive's attempt to capture interest with the woman in jeopardy trope.

Recommended: Pro Software

I love MS Word.

This love comes out because I just endured several days of Mac people bashing MS / pc people as if the Apple world is divine.

It's good. Sometimes it's even great. Divine? Nyah.

Try 25 years with MS Word.

Anniversary of Publication ~ Summer Sieges

Today is the anniversary of the publication of Edie Roones' first book which is the first book in the

Sansward Quarternary.

Summer Sieges introduces the world in the vale of Sansward and the stakes if the allies against the Gitane Witches and the Overlord Summa fail to stop their attempt to conquer the whole vale.

Purchase here.

A brief story of the writing of S.Sieges can be found here.

Running Behind and Looking Ahead

I'm running behind. 

In my "entity" as M.A. Lee, my current mystery The Hazard of Secrets was supposed to be finished on the last day of June. Here it is 25 days later, and I'm still not finished.

For HoS, I have 5 to 7 more chapters to write. My expected word count was 55,000. I am currently at 50,000-plus.

When I look at the scenes that are necessary to finish the mystery and solve the crime and close the other threads, I think that word count is going to be closer to 70,000 than 65,000. Those extra words are part of the problem.

However, the main problem is TIME.

What's Inspiring

When you've got a ton of things ahead of you before you can pick back up something you absolutely love, you need a little inspiration to keep going.

Summer requires a little Wonderland (untouched by Disney, please).

Here's Alice in Through the Looking Glass.

"Can you do addition?" the White Queen asked.  "What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?"

"I don't know," said Alice.  "I lost count."

What have you lost count of?

What I'm Reading Now

One of my favorite authors is Mary Stewart.

My mother loved Mary Stewart's books, and I can remember so wanting to read Stewart when I could barely handle chapter books. I had to wait--though I remember peeking inside several of the books on the shelf.  The vocabulary defeated me--I was only in third grade!

My first Mary Stewart was This Rough Magic, and it remains in my Top 5 Books of all time.  (Top 1 & 2, which remain neck and neck, constantly shifting position, are also Mary Stewart books: My Brother Michael and The Moonspinners.)

By the time I glommed all of Stewart's books, she started putting out her Arthurian saga, the first of which was The Crystal Cave.  This is the cover I remember, before I replaced the mass market paperback with the hardcover.

I haven't read The Crystal Cave in years.  I was looking for a good comfort read while my back was messed up--yes, I strained my lower back and had spasms and great pain every time I breathed.  It's gradually getting better--and I remembered this book.

The protagonist is Merlin, and Stewart's take combines history and myth with her great story-telling capabilities.

The link is to Amazon only because I'm lazy.  If you're intrigued by the Romans in ancient Britain, by the Celts and the earliest of the Pendragon kings, by the origins of the King Arthur myth (which modern scholars think was a Roman descendent helping the Celts fight off the invading Angles and Saxons), then this book is for you.

Pro Writer Advice?

Looking for how to start, work through, and end your novel?  Looking for keys to publication? Look no further.

Discovering Your Novel is a self-paced guidebook that takes you on the journey from idea to book-in-hand.  Find it here.

1st Chapter Free!

Read the first chapter of To Wield the Wind at this link.

See the previous blog for the link to Amazon.

Just released ~ A Flight of Fancy

Available on Amazon.

Orielle, sent from the Enclave to renew the alliance with the Rhoghieri in Iscleft Haven, discovers the Wildness is filled with dangerous eldritch creatures: Wyres. Sprites. Gobbers. Cryge--Choosers of the Slain. 

And all view her as prey.

Snippet from Killer Nashville

The last snippet that I'm going to share from the Killer Nashville mystery writers conference last August is this . . . .

REV to recharge the creative spark.  

Read other writers.  

Exercise body/mind/soul.  

Visit people, places, things, and ideas.

I'm never looking for a high-speed race although I enjoy watching them.

I do seek ways to keep the creative flow going.  I never want to dam it up.  I've been there.  That's not a happy place.

public domain image

Sprites and Gobbers and Wyre, Oh My1

Remi Black has released To Wield the Wind, a high fantasy with Dark Fae and wyre shifters, beautiful sprites and dangerous gobbers. This is the book that she blogged about all through April.

Join the adventure!

A Writer's Month

What is a Writer's Month like?  Remi Black details her daily deeds in a blog series while she writes her newest To Wield the Wind.  You can read the series in its entirety by starting here.

To Wield the Wind is a fantasy set in her Enclave World series, the first of three novellas about  Oriella and Grim, sorcerers and shifters, Crygy and sprites, gobbers and trolls.

Snippet of Writerly Advice

More Advice from the Killer Nashville Conference

~~ Do not write and revise at the same time. 

This is MAJOR.  Writing is creative.  It uses the intuitive side of your brain.

Revision is critical.  It uses the objective side of your brain.

Creative flow is not critical flow.

Never should the twain meet.

Start saving now to attend the 2019 Killer Nashville conference, where pros meet newbies, trads meet indies, and everyone works to write the best novel possible.

Guests of Honor this year include David Morrell, writer of First Blood; Joyce Carol Oates of We Were the Mulvaneys and numerous pivotal short stories, and Alexandra Ivy, with her acclaimed writing for multiple series, including Guardians of Eternity, ARES Security, Immortal Rogues, and Sentinels.

Pro Writer Advice

More advice from the Killer Nashville mystery writers conference that I attended last August.  The Writer magazine voted this conference as THE BEST!

The Advice:

Record accomplishments as well as what you still need to work on.  Otherwise, you'll focus on your failures.

Well, that's true.  Doing this keeps me focused and moving forward--and when distractions and obstacles and obstructions hit, as they always do, I can see where I've been and know how I need to move forward.

Planners are a great way to record your accomplishments.  Whether your goal is your writing dream or exercise or a new diet, find a way to write everything down.

Two great planners for writers

Happy 1st Birthday!

On this date last year, after weeks of struggling, I published Winter Sorcery, third book in the Seasons in Sansward Quarternary.

The characters of Winter Sorcery were the first ones that I envisioned when I first conceived the Sansward quartet.

Join Rolf and Catal as they escape Gitane Witches and troops from Overlord Summa's Watrani army.  Cheer for Niijai and Legeeta as they aid the two spies in their escape.

When the Gitane and the Watrani close a trap Niijai and Legeeta never expected, what will happen to them?

Available on Amazon.

What I'm Reading Now: Spindle by Gingell

Here's a book for you, an unexpected joy of a re-written Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.  Yes, I didn't expect that either.

When I look for books, I often skim the review. SPINDLE was both up and down.  With the mixed reviews, I almost didn't give it a chance. However, I loved 12 DAYS OF FAERY and WOLFSKIN, also by W.R. Gingell, so I continued on to this book. I won't give you a summary of the book;  you can head off to the link below for that. I want to persuade you to give this book a chance.

The first 10% percent of the book made me unhappy: a cursed princess confused by everything, a hero who is not heroic but definitely full of himself. Then into the story came Onepiece, a boy hiding by shapeshifting into a dog, and I lingered in the story, enjoying his charming interactions with Poly.

The pacing is quick, the dialogue amusing, the characters attractive even for their problematic behaviors. Without those three elements--and Onepiece--I would have abandoned this book as I have others.

By the 25% mark of the book I was extremely unhappy with our hero Luck ... and then something happened to help me realize his treatment of Poly was designed to ferret out the tangle of curse still clinging to her.

At 30%, I realized that Luck's absentminded thoughtlessness was designed to prod Poly toward recovering her absent memories and thought-less-ness caused by the curse.

Fortunately, as we rollick along to the midpoint, we have more charming characters as Poly recovers more and more of her self that was stolen when the curse descended on her, stealing memory and thus her life, Onepiece ventures more and more into adorable boy, and Luck reveals more and more that he is not ignoring Poly, he is ... well, he's an enchanter who's not interested in someone less than him in age ... and magic and cleverness.

By this time the threads of SPINDLE have me caught, and I can't put it down. And I didn't put it down until the end, an ending that I found very satisfying. (My Kindle was even down to 5% battery.)

If you need more than Love's Kiss that fizzes, then pass this up until you need enduring charm more than a flash-bang-thank you, ma'am. Those do have their place. SPINDLE, however, is a special that will survive a re-read.  I can tell that I will enjoy another, slower reading so I will catch everything I missed first time through. I will enjoy reading it  many, many more times.

SPINDLE is a magic of its own: a shocking surprise, a charming lure, an energetic twist to the expected, all with hints of danger if things go wrong.

Here's a link:  not an affiliate link.

Tackling the Many-Headed Hydra: March's Recommendation

For Projects that are Monsters

Like Novels or Website Builds

This unassuming little booklet is absolutely GREAT when you have to tackle Project-based To-Do lists.

The left side is a check off.  On the right is a Gantt Chart to denote progress.

If you haven't met a Gantt Chart, it functions like a progress meter.  You can denote Started, In Progress, and Completed in 12 segments.  OR you can use the Gantt Chart as a monthly calendar.  (The developers even have little numbers to help the page function as a calendar--I prefer the Gantt Chart method.)

I like this method. I can set a project per 2-page spread then breakdown that project into its various segments and track each segment to completion.

I wish I had had this for the Great Website Rebuild last summer. That project had so many different segments that it was like fighting a many-headed hydra or herding cats (please see that commercial ;) or maybe the GWR was both hydra and cat related. It’s done!  I'm happy.).

This booklet would have made unnecessary all those sticky notes that kept getting lost under the normal daily undertakings.

Now I know to get this United Bee To-Do booklet for such multi-segmented hydra or cat-herding projects. I am well prepared for the future. And it serves just as well for my day-to-day smaller projects.

Thank you, developers at United Bees

While this links to Amazon, I am not affiliated nor do I receive money if you click this link.

What I'm Writing Now

Dagger Meets Wizard ~ 

Here's another taste of the story that's currently intriguing me more than it should.  I should be writing Spring Magicks.  Oh the woes of the indie writer:  trying to stick to the proper deadline. However ~~ Enjoy!

Brom sensed the attention his questions had roused in the greatroom.  He had sensed magic in use, subtle and passive, but his ward hadn’t flared, warning of magic in direct use against him.  The magical aura faded as he told Faldo and his four friends the story of the ground troll’s assault on Hardraste.

He told it as if he’d seen it first-hand.  He hadn’t.  He’d been there that night, but he hadn’t see the rocks being tumbled from below-ground.  His brother Sverr had freed him from that power-draining cell, and together they had gone to find Corrie, the girl Sverr loved.  Corrie, the bane wizard who had killed the Prime Wizard Enstigorr.  It had taken all of them, Mannemous included, to kill her uncle Arne, the wizard who had killed her father, his own brother.

He wasn’t going to get the answer he wanted from Faldo and his friends.  So he told them about the ground-troll, adding bits from his imagination:  a large stony-colored arm reaching out of the earth to punch at the quarried stone that formed the towers, boulders that flew through the air and crushed men rushing to attack the troll, people screaming as they were buried in soil.

Brom paid for another round of drinks.  When he finished, he left the tavern before them.  He knew Faldo already had planted an imaginary dagger in his back.  They would follow him.  He planned on it.

The chilly night closed around him.  A full moon gave hunters enough light to find their prey.  Few torches lit the streets.  Verdeneth might be the capital of the richest province in the great valley, but lamplighters rarely ventured onto backstreets and certainly not into allées.  Brom tucked his hands in his jerkin pockets and let power seep into his fingers.  The leather would hide the magical glow.

A scrape of a boot on cobbles alerted him.  He didn’t look around but kept his pace even.  Just ahead would be the allée he had scoped out earlier.  Marked by one of the few torches kept lit by the lamplighters, it passed through to a series of back lanes that wound into the depths of Verdeneth.  He could lose his pursuers in the maze of passageways, but he didn’t want to lose them.  He wanted the Keirne.  For all his lies, Faldo knew who had the magical stone.  Brom didn’t intend to leave Verdeneth without it.

He turned into the allée and heard the footsteps behind him speed up, losing quiet in exchange for haste.  He still didn’t look around.

The walk between two warehouses he had reckoned was so narrow that three men couldn’t walk abreast.  The tall walls had no overlooking windows.  The moonlight didn’t reach directly into the allée, but with the torch it cast enough light for predators after prey.

Brom grinned.  Faldo would be misjudging who was predator and who was prey just about now.

“Ho there!  Stop.”

Vikings and More Vikings: Recommending WATCHING

Looking for a Viking fix? Northmen manages to satisfy your obsession while entertaining you more than you would expect.

Yes, the classic tropes are there, not only for action adventure fight scenes but also for expected settings (cliff climbing, rope bridge crossing, etc), but you will pleasantly pleased by a coherent story line well enacted, more than decent battle scenes with bro in arms moments, and an internal logic to everyone's behavior, from Vikings to mercenaries and all caught between. And for once the Christians aren't trashed because that's "the easiest story-telling thing to do".

The Vikings, their hostage, and the crazy monk are extremely likable. The mercenaries are extremely hate-able. No fancy-smancy hoodoo with the supernatural, either. The ring of fire is possible. The ground-touch sense makes "sense".

And you might pick up a few history lessons to investigate.

Good entertainment and well worth the hour and a half entertainment.

And I certainly had several hunks to watch ;)  Here's the trailer.



Here's a Link to Investigate (it's not an affiliate link, which means I don't make money off your looking--or buying or renting or anything).

Anniversary of Publication: "A Matter of Trust"

In 2015 I ventured into publication with my book Summer Sieges.  That marked my first-ever ebook, uploaded to Amazon, under this pen name of Edie Roones.

Second out under my Edie Roones was my first ever publication, a short story that originally published back in 1992 (yes, the Dark Ages of indie publishing).  That story was immediately accepted after worked on it for over a year.  I had tried to sell other stories before then, but this one--well, it struck some kind of spark and wound up in FANTASY Magazine in the Spring edition.

This week marks the fourth anniversary of my electronic publication of "A Matter of Trust".

View a trailer at this link.

I have a special place in my heart for this little story.  Some day, when everything else slows down, I might return to Coello and the wizard.  For now, the original short story is on Amazon for $1.00.

OR you can read the story free by contacting winkbooks@aol.com.  Use the subject line for your request.  We won't bombard you with emails or sell your emails on:  that's unscrupulous, and we obviously aren't money-grubbers at Writers Ink.  Nor do we have affiliate links.

Enjoy!

Get Back on the Resolution Horse: Recommended for February

Have you fallen off your Resolutions yet?

Are you having trouble keeping track?

Did you hope to make changes for your whole self, not just exercise or money management?  A couple of checks on that Bucket List?  Plan to read something better?

Did you sing "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength"?  And did you think, If Only.

If you answered YES to any one of those questions, the 2 * 0 * 4 Lifestyle Planner is for you.  It's designed to help you move and muse, feast and fast, and live and love.

With 7 covers to choose from, you can find the perfect addition to help you maintain your goals.  You can start anytime, for it's not dated.  Just open and go!

Shown above, the Meadow (left) and Floral covers.  Below is the Mountain River edition, with a cover front and back from the Smokies.  Also available are ~

Teatime ~ purple flowers on the front, a garden setting for an English tea on the back
English Cottage ~ the typical shingled cottage with a riot of flowers in the front and a warm cup available on the back, in lovely cranberry colors.
Woodland ~ images evocative of the Rockies, perfect for Hikers.
CityScape ~ with the Knoxville skyline and a view of the Henley Street Bridge across the Tennessee River.

Available on M.A. Lee's Amazon space.  She's a friend!

Just Published: Key for Spies

My pen name of M.A. Lee has just published book 8 in the Hearts in Hazard series.

The Key for Spies

Spies and traitors.  Lies and treachery.  Unexpected love where bullets fly.

One traitor destroys loyalty.  What will two traitors destroy?

The British spy Simon Pargeter scouts the terrain for Wellington’s army in French-controlled Spain.  Miriella de Teba ye Olivita, the famed Doñabella, wants to give him aid, but she must first find the traitor lurking in her band of guerillas.

Can Simon escape the French patrol hot on his trail?  With Major Pierre LeCuyer actively seeking Doñabella’s identity, can Miri hold her guerrillas together long enough to get the information Simon needs?  Can she locate the traitor before she is unmasked?

Or will the traitors reap the reward while Simon and Miri swing from a gallows?

The Key for Spies clocks in at 98,000 words.  Set in the Regency era, the Hearts in Hazard series combines suspense and mystery with a dash of romance.  The Key for Spies is set in Spain.

Available on Amazon

For questions, comments, speculations, or more, contact winkbooks@aol.com.  Use the subject line to direct the email.  Writers Ink doesn't collect emails nor do we have affiliate links.

What I'm Writing Now

Dagger Meets Wizard ~~

Here's the opening of a story that's currently intriguing me.  Rabbit holes are problematic.

Foolish.

Or magicked.

He’d asked Faldo and his cronies about the Keirne.  That question was going to get him killed.

Which was a shame, for he was a fine specimen of a man.

He’d walked in like he owned the tavern, never stopping on his way to the bar.  He stopped beside Faldo and his cronies.  The tapster waited for his order, but the fine specimen ignored him.  He leaned an elbow on the scrubbed plank that had to be sticky from spilled liquor and broke into Faldo’s conversation, a conversation that Dagger had listened to, hoping to get information about which brothel the men were headed for their night’s entertainment.

“Keirne?” Faldo repeated.  “I don’t know no Keirne.”

“The Keirne of Kirchwald,” the fine specimen clarified.  “You’re Faldo, aren’t you?  You were there for the charge on the Red Tower.  You were there when Baron Gysthronnen tumbled the blocks of the tower and took the Keirne.”  He folded his arms, and Dagger watched the leather jerkin stretch across his back.

Faldo wasn’t impressed.  He didn’t have Dagger’s view.  Turning away from the fine specimen, he wiped his sleeve over his mouth.  “The baron’s dead.”

“Cursed,” his friend said.  “Horrible death.  Even I heard about it.”

The fine specimen straightened so he could look around Faldo at the crony.  “You saw the baron die?” and in her corner Dagger strained to hear the answer.

“Nyah.  Heard about it.  We all did.  Wastin’ disease.  Death was a mercy.”

“Why do you say he was cursed?”

“Hale the day he took Kirchwald, sick the day after, dead inside a fortnight.  Cursed by some witch not killed when the Red Tower fell.  What else would you call it?  Ain’t that right, Sergeant?”  The crony clapped a hand on Faldo’s back.

He stiffened.  The crony had overstepped, although he seemed too sloshed to realize.  Faldo drained the last of his ale then tapped his stein on the bar.  “Don’t know what yer talkin’ about, friend.  Don’t know why you’re askin’ me about some Keirne.  I weren’t never in the Kirchwald.”

Faldo lied, as Dagger knew very well.  She might have started her search a year after the assault on Red Tower, but she had tracked five men from the fallen city.  From Gysthronnen’s ashy pyre beyond the tumbled red marble blocks, across the slowly greening vale of the burned Kirch, north into Griestreigon, and finally into prosperous Ornestreigon.

“What happened after the baron died?”

Fool.  Or magicked, she considered, for he didn’t fear the consequences of letting everyone know he was tracking the Keirne, taken when Kirchwald fell.

She peeked at the fine specimen again.  Tall.  Dark hair flowing down his back, ready to be grabbed in a fight and used to trap him.  Broad shoulders.  Straight back.  Gods, the leathers clung to his arse and long legs.  A long dagger hanging from his belt, knife in his boot. No sword.  No bow and arrow.  Not even a crossbow.  No weapons to defend himself when Faldo and his cronies decided to haul him off to gaol.  Or kill him in the closest allée.  Maybe he was a witch.  Or a wizard.

A fool wizard, tempting death.

She swallowed and fastened her gaze on the mug before her, turning and turning it while she strained to hear the guard’s answer.

“You know to ask about Kirchwald and the Keirne, but you don’t know what happened after?”  The crony shook his head.  His three friends had their mugs buried up to their chins, staying out of the interrogation.  “When he died, his troops burned what was left of Kirchwald, scattered the blocks of the Red Tower, then scattered themselves to the four winds.  Wouldn’t you, after what happened to the baron?”

“And Faldo came here.”

The big guard shook his head.  “You’ve got the name right, but the man wrong.  I ain’t that man.  Never rode with Baron Gysthronnen.”

He lied.  Dagger knew he’d served the baron.

And Faldo was no sergeant.  He’d led a troop for Gysthronnen, and when his lord had died and the soldiers scattered, he and four of his fellow commanders left Kirchwald.  They took the Keirne with them.  Even four seasons behind, Dagger had found their trail easy to follow.  She knew one of those five commanders would have the Keirne, and she had a contract to return it to the scattered blocks of the Red Tower.

The five men left a trail of broken lives from Kirchwald to Ornestreigon.  They surprised her by staying together.  She would have ridden off on her own.  And that would have given her the dilemma of whom to follow.  Yet they rode together, even into the capital Verdeneth.  Their evil deeds made them memorable to freeholders and villagers, even jaded townsmen.  When they could not hire what they wanted, they took it, and they delighted in taking what they wanted.  Dagger had heard tales of screams and pain.  She’d seen scars from knife and flame.  She’d counted graves.  If she hadn’t had a contract, she would have taken a personal one, to kill each one of the commanders.

But she had a contract that offered her opportunity.

Faldo would be the first to die, after he identified his fellow commanders.  She would work her way through them to the Keirne and then return it to the razed city of Kirchwald.

“The Faldo I’m looking for was a commander,” said the fine specimen, still persisting, giving them a reason to fetch shovels to dig his grave.  “He had five friends.”  He counted five.

“Not us,” the crony said.  “I ain’t never been across the border.”

“Not us,” another man said.  “We’ve been guards here in Verdeneth for three years and more.”

“Not me,” Faldo said.  “I ain’t never commanded an army.  I’m a sergeant, appointed a couple of months back.  I came here a few months back with my commander, but he never served in Kirchwald.”

Clever lies.  He commanded troops, not the whole army.  The commanders hadn’t served in Kirchwald; they served in the army that attacked Kirchwald.

All so the dead Baron Gysthronnen could take the Keirne from the Wizard of the Red Tower.

Dagger kept her head down.  Faldo may have fallen from high rank, but he was one of those five commanders.  She knew it.  For months she had wormed her way closer and closer to the Keirne of Kirchwald.  She had covered her tracks.  She had asked her questions in corners and shadows.  She had slipped coins across scrubbed tables or wrangled information out of men who hadn’t wanted to remember the assault on the Kirchwald.  And she found Faldo, here in Verdeneth.  She had only to get him alone.

She was certain of only one more of them, Britellt, still a commander, harder to reach than Faldo was.

This fool walked up to the former commander and asked him who had led the charge on the Red Tower.  He came poorly armed.  And he acted like his questions were nothing.

“What do you want with this Faldo?” one of the other men asked, wiser than the crony who had talked first and longest, obeying some hidden cue from his sergeant.

“I want the Keirne.”

“Keirne?  What is this Keirne?”

“A magical stone.  One that only a wizard can wield.”

“A magical stone,” Faldo repeated.  “What kind of magic has it got?”

“Now that I don’t know.”

“You got magic?”

“Do I look like a hill witch?”

“You don’t look like much.”

Dagger disagreed.  His profile was cleanly lined.  The half of his face that she could see lacked the puffiness of heavy drink.  He had broad shoulders and narrow hips.  He’d had moved with panther stillness, his strides smooth and long, a man at home in his body.

Gods, she didn’t want him dead even though he kept digging his grave deeper.

“What you want this Keirne for?”

“I have a witch friend.  A bane witch.  He’s looking for the Keirne.”

“You have a witch friend,” Faldo repeated slowly.  “He here in Verdeneth?”

“No.  He’s at Castle Hardraste.  Or what’s left of Castle Hardraste, after the ground troll pulled it apart.”

The men had heard of the event, and they pursued the fall of Hardraste and the attack of a ground troll on the castle as Dagger got up.  Keeping her cloak close, she tossed the coin for her drink to the tavern girl then made her way to the door and into the cold night air.

She couldn’t get distracted from her goal.  Faldo would know which one of the men had possession of the Keirne.  She had to get that information from him.  She had daggers and a sword that she wouldn’t hesitate to wield.  She had a magicked medallion that the old hill witch had sworn would blur her appearance for a hundred and one hours.  Once she had the Keirne, she would stuff the magicked stone into its lead-lined box and return it to the Red Tower.  And collect her reward.

No fool wizard would take it from her, no matter how good-looking a specimen was.

What I'm Reading Now

Actually, I just finished this book.  And I have to recommend it.  It's well worth your time and money.

I love a good mystery.  I love a good snarky voice.  I especially love a local well-drawn setting that is necessary to the story.

Last October I purchased a first book by one of our classic mystery writers Christianna Brand.  I'm on a mission to read the first outings by writers who became great.  Brand authored two dozen mystery novels.

Death in High Heels was Brand's first mystery, inspired by an irritating co-worker that she dreamed about killing.  No lie!  It's in the biography.

I didn't get to the book until New Year's, and I've just finished it.  And I was surprised--pleasantly so.  Why?

Well, for a book that was dreamed up as a fantasy about killing a co-worker, it was hilarious!

The puzzle was even better.  For most mysteries, I can figure out the puzzle before the first third of the book is complete.  I figured out this one, too, but I kept reading for the snarky voice of the protagonist.  Then Brand cleverly re-wrapped the puzzle before she unraveled it all over again.  Surprised me!

Here it is:  Death in High Heels, well worth the $7.99 price tag.  Enjoy!

While the link takes you to Amazon, I don't receive any monies or anything else from my recommendations.  I never do.  I'm just recommending what I enjoy.  Someday I might recommend against purchasing a product.  Not yet, though.

Surviving Winter: Recommended for January

For an Afternoon Cuppa to keep you Warm

I brew my coffee (freshly ground, filtered water, slow perk) every morning and limit myself

to 2 cups of caffeinated daily. Sometimes, though, I just want coffee in the afternoon. One cup, that’s all.

Prerequisites: Organic. Decaf. Quick. Good tasting. This hits those four marks, and the taste is better than good.

I like my coffee black, but sometimes a bit of cream is an indulgence. This stands up to the cream: the coffee flavor becomes smoother but isn’t overwhelmed.

It also is a great base on which to build Irish coffee (a spoon of whipped cream, a few crystals of turbinado sugar, a splash of Makers Mark, and this: now that’s Irish coffee!). The coffee flavor doesn’t get lost; all the flavors come together for divine relaxation on a winter’s evening.

This is a repeat buy.

If traveling and needing decaf (or caffeinated), Mount Hagen offers little convenience packets as well. Thank you, Mt Hagen, for making travel still organic!

Oh, and while I recommend this, I don't receive any affiliate perks for doing so.  I just want to share what I love.

Transformation is the Goal in 2019

A Planned Transformation?  Easy enough . . . with the 2 * 0 * 4 Lifestyle Planner.

7 cover versions:  Mountain River, Woodland, Meadow, Floral, Teatime, English Cottage, and Cityscape.

The Mountain River cover

Need more information? 

Available exclusively on Amazon, $1.-- for each month for a total price of $12.00.  What a bargain!