Odell is an interesting character and he definitely needs his own book, I'm thinking number four will be his story. When I stopped working on "Out of Darkness" last year, I ended on a scene where Odell meets Callum in Cu Sith form for the first time. I had the pack of dogs knock him off his feet and surround him. He ended up on all fours, keening in fear. Saturday I had an idea. Instead of being wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel, the wound was caused by a dog when he was in Eagle-Owl form. It would explain his irrational fear of canines and why he seldom changes form. What good is an owl who can't fly? I think he'll still be wounded in Afghanistan, only he was scouting in his alt-form and caught off guard by a wild dog. Now I need to figure out where my storyline goes from here. Sigh . . . .

Since I've mentioned several times in "Out of Darkness" that Urs throws the runes, I wrote a scene in which she does a reading for herself. She's all conflicted about her feelings for both Odell and Callum and she can't see clearly, especially in the light of Ellie's kidnapping. Since I now have wireless on Sylvi, and my own runestones were upstairs, I went to a website that does free rune readings in order to "throw the stones" for Urs. The results are below:

The left rune represents an important element of the past. Othila is the homeland. Unlike Fehu, this is the rune of immovable wealth. On a deeper level, this rune speaks to that which you inherit, be it material or genetic. Since Othila is seen reversed here, the obstacles you confront are among those things in your background that you take for granted and consider fairly stable. Problems from the "homeland", from familial inheritance, or from our own origins may be worked around, but they cannot be made to go away. Fortunately, for many problems, this is all that is required. The middle rune represents a deciding element of the present. Laguz is the rune representing water. Laguz is a strongly feminine rune, and like the ocean contains much power of an uncontrollable nature. Here the rune is seen in the reversed, symbolic of the ebbing tide. This may suggest power being drawn away, or may perhaps the start of a journey. Since this is a rune of sexual power, the reversal can also suggest sexual problems or dissatisfaction. The right rune represents the critical element of the future. Tyr was the Norse god of war. It was through his sacrifice that the great force of chaos, the wolf Fenrir was bound. Here however, you have drawn the rune reversed. This could mean that a sacrifice made will not lead to the desired result. It could also mean a loss, or a victory overturned. This rune warns against entering into conflicts or negotiations, especially ones requiring that an offering or concession be made - the wolf might take your hand and yet remain unbound. Note also that Tyr was the god of law, so there is a suggestion of a wrongdoer who will avoid justice.

I couldn't have chosen any better runes to fit Urs' situation myself even if I hadn't decided to pick randomly. Urs' past is all about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her drunken mother. Later in the story, she will also learn of her father's true nature, so this rune is perfect for her and where the story is headed. Her present is about the journey she has to take to find Ellie as well as the sexual problems she's facing with both Callum and Odell vying for her attention. And in her future, Urs will face a "wolf who will remain unbound" in the form of Callum and their relationship. The loss she'll face has to do with her "gifts" and the sacrifice she makes will be choosing to remain "human" rather than "tree." Even the last line works with my storyline since April Dawn Rose will remain free from justice at the end of this novel as well.

Creepy that a computer program can choose runes that fit a fictional character so accurately.

With my new laptop (Sylvi), I've also gotten new inspiration to write again. I know some of you are very happy to hear that. I've been going back through "Out of Darkness" figuring I should finish the second book before the third in order to keep the mythologies and story lines consistent. Hopefully I'll be posting more chapters here shortly. Keep an eye out.

I just had an idea (shock!). I'm going to make all the children who were eaten by the goblin in "Into Darkness" be descendants of the pioneers who founded Robin's Cross. More children other than just Clara Belle's had to have been fathered by Puck, only the other women and men didn't care who the biological father of their children was because they were too busy trying to survive. The goblin was attracted to these children because of their Fey blood. This will also mean that Ellie isn't as human as she thought she was which fixes my other problem - how does a human woman end up with so many half-human friends. Yay, clarity!

So I named my little make-believe town in the foothills of Colorado last year at the start of Nanowrimo and now I'm finding the name "Brookside" too pedestrian for a town filled with psychics, half-humans, shape-shifters, and such. The town is populated with numerous psychics, one now banished goblin, a Voudoun priestess, a half dryad-half human, a Cu Sith (a Faerie dog), a shape-shifter whose alt-form is an owl, two shape-shifters whose alt-form are ravens, a shape-shifter whose alt-form is a red panda, a half mermaid-half nymph, and a half selkie-half neriad. And those are just the characters who've revealed their unusual talents to me thus far.

The town is in the foothills of the Rockies, west of Denver (I haven't decided if it's north or south west, yet). There is a river flowing through the town, dividing it into two disparate communities - the poorer side is mostly fields and protected timberlands, while the wealthier side is more mountainous but it contains gold and silver mines.

I'm throwing some new names out there to see what you think. I'm looking for a name that hints at both fording the river as well as a weakness in the boundaries between the mundane world and the faerie realm. Ugh! Let me know if you come up with something else since I'm open to anything right now. I just know it needs to change.

Fey's Crossing
Bridgetown
Brighton
Carrefours (means crossroads)
Four Corners
Crossing Corners (sounds like a children's game, doesn't it?)
Robin's Crossing (like Robin Goodfellow)
Robin's Cross
Hob's Ford

I'm now trying to describe how a tree spirit "sees" the world This isn't a humanoid nymph sort of spirit but the actual "soul" of the tree - a non-physical entity that thrives or dies with the tree. I'm thinking that it will communicate with images similar to thermal imaging, though they are created with both sound and smell rather than actual vision. Scientists have learned that trees communicate with each other with pheromones and extremely high frequency sound waves but there must be some way I can express that as a visual. What would it look like to a human?

Could a tree use the creatures living in it, insects, birds, small mammals, to see the physical world? Would Urs be able to use something like that as a defensive weapon or even an investigative tool? Ugh! Things like this shouldn't be contemplated before going to bed!

This Spring I posted the first four or five chapters of "Into Darkness" on my MySpace page so that the people I stay in contact with there can get a glimpse of what I'm doing with my time (but they didn't get more than that because I still want some people to buy my books where they're published! *grin*). I started doing the same with "Out of Darkness" and have posted the first two chapters thus far (sans the prologue since there are spoilers in it for "Into Darkness"). Forty people read the first chapter of "Out of Darkness" and so far six people have read chapter two since I posted it last night. The funny thing is that today I got my first subscriber to my MySpace blog (I only use it for book excepts) and it was someone totally unexpected - a guy I went to school with from K-12! It wierds me out that he's reading excepts from romance novels - even if they are written by me. Does anyone else find that strange?

I've really missed  brightshadowsky these last two Saturday's. Today I needed someone to help me describe how green feels and there was no one there with whom to bounce ideas off (that was an awkward sentence. It's hard not to end some sentences with prepositions!). I hope she's having a good time at Sport of Kings and I expect her to pick up lots of Medieval fighting techniques so she can help me with details in "Horse's Heart" - the fantasy novel I started writing in college and still haven't finished!

So, does anyone have any idea how green feels? I'm writing the first scene where the reader sees Urs use her gift of tree spirit communication. The tree spirit pushes past her natural psychic defenses and enters her mind. It shuffles through her memories and leaves its own memories behind. I'm trying to come up with a specific enough description so the readers can understand the sensation she's feeling. So far I've come up with it's like plunging your brain into an alpine pond with green algae blooming in it. You come out of the experience feeling shocked and coated with green organic matter. It's okay as far as the point I want to make but I know there's some better description out there. UGH!

Last night after I went to bed I had an interesting idea about Urs. I found it so interesting I got up and wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it (note to self: use some of my incentive pay to purchase a digital voice recorder). Since Urs was abused by her mother from birth to her teen years, that abuse should show on her skin. Instead of the obvious cigarette burns and lash marks I'm going to have a series of keloid scars run down her back that form the of pattern a knotted tree with roots and branches. She's extremely fair skinned so I'm debating whether to have them reddish colored or more grayish or even mud colored because her mother rubbed the wounds that caused the scars with dirt. Yes, I have a sick imagination but I like the tree idea - though it's a little too much like a scene from "Beloved" and I loathed that book.

I've given myself a deadline for "Out of Darkness." I want to finish the first draft by the end of October. It should be doable if I apply myself to actually making progress in the storyline and stop getting distracted by making each scene perfect (always my downfall). Last year I wrote 50,000 words in 18 days, I should be able to write 70,000 words in two and a half months, right?

The October deadline is obviously because I have to start book three in November for this year's NaNoWriMo. I know which characters I'll be working with in the third installment of the Darkness series but I only have a rough story idea. Some time between now and November first I'll need to come up with a completed outline so I'll know what I'm writing toward. One pretty cool thing is that when my mom finally finished reading the third draft of "Into Darkness" she told me how much she liked the two characters the third book will revolve around - I'm tentatively calling it "Within Darkness." I think it's great that she noticed the two characters enough to mention them to me since they only had small walk-on roles in that novel. My major dilemma at the moment though is that despite their ESP the main characters from "Into Darkness" are human while Urs, Callum, and Odell are not and neither are Kendra nor Lochlyn. Is it too much for my readers to believe that two human cops in a small town would be friends with all these Fey and half Fey creatures? Should I add elements of the preternatural into the heritage of Ellie and Mac to make them fit in with their friends or should I make the other characters more human? Aarrgh!!!

I've been making progress this week - which is good because I've been lazy the last couple of weeks. I'm working really hard on sitting down and writing a couple of pages a day, even if it's only a couple of pages scribbled on a legal pad while I'm eating lunch. Oddly I've been jumping back and forth between two scenes which isn't something I usually do.

In the main storyline Urs is standing at the scene of the accident and trying to get involved in the Sheriff's investigation - which isn't working too well since the Sheriff doesn't have a good relationship with the city detectives (of whom Urs is one). I've been jumping from there to a scene a few more pages in with Urs back at home after a fruitless search for her missing friend. She's emotionally drained and physically injured and she has a very handsome deputy in her living room waiting for her to finish her shower. This handsome deputy is the were-owl we met on Saturday and he's intrigued by Urs, her reputation as an ice princess, and her woodsy scent. Have I mentioned that Urs is half tree nymph (though she doesn't know it yet)? Anyway right now I'm trying to decide if it's a good idea to have Urs involved with two men. Would my readers be okay with her hooking up with more than one man in the course of the book or should I send the owl home frustrated yet determined to court her away from the Scottish doctor who also happens to be a Cu Sith (faerie dog). Ugh!

I probably don't need another journal to post to but here it is: Creating Shadows. A place for me to write about my writing process and post my progress. I'm not sure if I'll go so far as to post my entire novels but pieces of them will certainly end up here.

During my writing group today (can three people be a group? Maybe we're just a writing trio) a very minor character became something a whole lot more. Odell White started out as a random deputy sheriff who was sympathetic to Urs and her plight and now he's a second love interest for her and a wereowl! Whoa! I wasn't expecting that. Thanks to brightshadowsky for the owl idea. I needed a good amber eyed creature for him to transform into and she came up with owl. I think it'll work out well with the future plans I have for Odell.

brightshadowsky asked me questions about his background and parents and I responded with, "I don't know, I just met him! I've only known him for half a page!" LOL! It's so interesting when a minor character decides to take a much more active role in a story. I'm already planning a novel around his character. Oy vey! Like I need any more plots rolling around in my mind.

We've also decided to start a LJ writing community of our own. We've named it blateration and plan to post some things from Nanowrimo 06 as well as new writings from this year. I like the idea of making story threads and having other people contribute to the story.