Hello Risky Folks!
It’s been a week of recovery, following the Yukky Unnamed Ennui/Illness. I’ve been editing my Regency-set historical, the one with the opium-addicted marquess and the illegitimate vicar’s daughter. It’s got an new title–Her Wicked Desire–and a few new scenes. My Champion Agent will be sending it out when I’ve finished the revision.
I know these characters so well that editing their story is really kind of easy–I know what they should say, often opposed to what I originally wrote. I thought I’d share some of their conversation. In this scene, they’re at an inn, eating dinner. They don’t know much about each other except that they think they can help the other in some way. She doesn’t know yet about his addiction.
She rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward, an interested look in her eyes.
“Your mother—where is she?”
“Dead.” Chew, swallow, chew.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Your father too, of course.”
He nodded in agreement. “Dead.” Stab another bite of food onto the fork.
“Oh.”
“And before you ask, my brother’s dead, too. You already know about my wife.”
“Oh.” She uttered the word in a soft voice.
He couldn’t bear her sympathetic expression. He dropped the fork onto the plate, where it clattered on the ceramic, pushed himself away from the table and strode back to the bed.
“I’m sorry for your pain.” Her quiet words sent skittering prickles of irritation across his skin. He lay down against the quilt, resting his feet just off the edge of the bed.
“Don’t apologize. That’s all anyone’s ever done.”
“Well,” she asked with humor edging her voice, “what else would you expect? People feel sorry for other people, they express sympathy. What is wrong with that?”
Alasdair flung his arm over his eyes. “Nothing. Of course, nothing. People utter platitudes that mean absolutely nothing because it’s what’s expected. I never apologize.”
“I’ve noticed,” she replied. Now she was definitely amused.
He removed his arm and glared at her. “Are you trying to aggravate me now?”
“If I were, is it working?”
He put his arm back. “No.”
“Then I’m not.”
What I like about these two is that they are both difficult in different ways. He, of course, is an arrogant aristocrat; she is a managing woman whose life has been thrown into chaos. That they’re together is purely chance, but of course, eventually, they fall in love.
That, and two separate freelance projects, plus the continual integration of the Boy into middle school has kept me well-occupied. I’ve barely had time to notice the cooler weather and fall vegetables!
Hope everyone’s Friday is going well; does anyone have something they’re looking forward to? What’s the last book you read? What’s your favorite fall veggie?
