This is a place to post a little info and/or the first 13 lines of our current WIP. Hopefully, instead of being buried several weeks back in the NSG thread, it will be here and easy to find when new members join the NSG. That's the idea, anyway.

I'll start off.

THE SHAMAN'S CURSE:
Fantasy. Approx. 113,000 words. First in a series. Currently being polished and hopefully soon to be sent out to agents again. So far, it has racked up 21 rejections.

Update: I have decided that this needs some severe cuts. Hopefully to bring it under 100,000 words.

First thirteen:

quote:

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A jubilant whoop escaped Vatar’s lips as he cantered away from the herd with the other two boys. Torkaz returned Vatar’s grin, confident that his plan would work.

Vatar leaned forward, urging his horse to go faster. Torkaz and Fenar recognized the challenge to a race. The three boys galloped across the open grassland. Fenar leaned forward until he lay along his horse’s neck and flew past the other two boys.

“Great idea, Vatar!” Torkaz said when they reined in their horses. “Now we’re almost far enough away from the herd and the herdsmen don’t suspect a thing.”

Vatar didn’t tell his friend that he had just felt like racing for the joy of it. He just grinned back.

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New Start:

quote:

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The boys stood on top of the river bank, fascinated by the flowing water. Vatar followed the ripples with his eyes as the current split and churned around the large rocks in the middle of the river bed. All the water he had ever seen had been in quiet waterholes. He watched as a small, leafy branch floated past, carried downstream by the current.

“Let’s get closer.” Torkaz was already looking for a way down the bank.

“I don’t know, Torkaz,” Vatar said. “I’m not sure we should. It feels wrong.”

“After all the trouble we went to to get here? I’m not leaving without a closer look. It’s just water. So it moves. What’s so dangerous about that? We’re not going to get another chance, you know.”

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THE IGNORED PROPHECY:
Fantasy. Approx. 110,000 words. Sequel to THE SHAMAN'S CURSE.
About to receive a major revision to the first five chapters.

First thirteen:

quote:

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Vatar closed down his forge for the day, satisfied with what he had accomplished. It felt good to be able to work with iron and steel again after being away for a year. He stretched and went towards the Lion Clan village to find his family. He stopped to watch his children at play with the others of their age, chasing each other and giggling, ducking around the sod huts. His contentment was complete when Thekila came and put her arm around him, her hands still dirty from working in the vegetable patch. That was one part of Dardani life that she was having no trouble adjusting to. She loved working with growing things.

The ground beneath their feet gave a violent shudder. Vatar took a half-step bracing both of them, as Thekila grabbed hold of him to keep her feet.

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BLOOD WILL TELL
Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance. Approx. 87,000 words. Just finished the first revision. Soon to start the second revision. I've also started to work on the synopsis. Two possible openings can be seen in the F&F forum.

Update: As soon as I make another pass through the query and synopsis, this one is ready to start making the rounds.

First thirteen:

quote:

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Valeriah left the trail and pushed through the thick brush in the back corner of the suburban nature preserve, ignoring the signs warning about rattlesnakes. Her eyes were fixed on two ancient oak trees. She walked around them until she could see the slight shimmer between the trees. She stepped into that shimmer and through the portal, barely registering the tingling sensation on her skin as she passed through the barrier between the worlds. One more step carried her into Chimeria, in a forest clearing just a hard day’s ride from her grandfather’s tower.

Two members of the Watch stepped forward out of the trees to stop her. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, she knew she looked like she didn’t belong here.

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DREAMER'S ROSE:
Fantasy/Romantic Fantasy. Approx. 75,000 words. First draft completed (finally) and resting before revisions.

Update: Currently in revision.

First thirteen:

quote:

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Lerian watched the little cottage from the shadow of a huge maple tree. He was all dressed in browns and greens himself, so he was sure that the woman and her daughters could not see him. He watched the three of them plant their tiny garden plot and go about the daily business of a small, isolated farmstead.

They were new come to this place and not used to such a life. What hardship had brought them out here? The woman’s clothes proclaimed her city-bred and used to better. A merchant’s wife or widow fallen on hard times, perhaps. She was not careful enough of her charges so close to the forest.

There were other men in the forest, rougher men, with less to lose. Well, no. No one had less to lose than Lerian did. But men who would take what they could lay their hands on.

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New Start:

quote:

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Lerian sat back at his ease, idly scratching Cat’s silky ears and waiting. What else was there to do, now? He and his brothers had scoured the mountainside, stopping up every hole large enough for anything bigger than a rabbit to slip through. The dragon would have to come out of this cave sooner or later. They’d placed sharpened stakes in an arc facing the cave mouth to bottle it up when it did.

“You seem awfully relaxed for hunting a dragon,” Cordan said as his pacing brought him to Lerian’s side of the clearing.

The boy was nervous. Lerian shrugged, deliberately casual. “Why not? What’s different about hunting dragons than hunting anything else?”

“Well, they’re big. And they breathe fire,” Cordan said.

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SEVEN STARS:
Fantasy. Approx 20,000 words so far. First draft recently started.

Update: Shelved for the time being. Just not working.

First thirteen:

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From this vantage point, Marcian could look back across the valley. There was no mistaking it; Kondar’s army was gaining on them with no one to oppose them. The rear guard must have fallen already. That meant his father was probably lying dead back there somewhere. Marcian shook his head, blinking back tears. Don’t think about that right now. Father had charged him with this one task--save the women and children, save the future of their people. How was he supposed to do that? They’d never make it to their sanctuary in the mountains at this rate.

Marcian wheeled his horse around. Slowly, the other young men turned and came back to him in no particular order. Farm boys, mostly. They looked to him as their leader because of his training. Really, he was as green as they were.

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Metzgerhund Empire
Young Adult - approx. 70K words
Stand-alone novel...although I've got plenty of ideas for sequels

quote:

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Excerpt from the query letter:

...Billy---and an increasing number of fans---had little doubt that he would lead Metzgerhund to his ideal musical utopia.

Except, the closer Billy inched towards that utopia, the more he became his own doomsday weapon. He neglected his commitments to play small-scale concerts in order to spend time scouting larger opportunities. An adrenaline-induced jam session inspired him to recruit his Algebra tutor to take over the band's rhythm guitar duties, leaving the friend he promised an audition to hanging out to dry. His single-minded pursuits caused him to miss every piano recital his girlfriend played, leaving him to watch her jump into a relationship with a member of a rival band.

Billy fought back against the setbacks. When concert opportunities became scarce, he 'stole' another band's spot in a show at a rec center Metzgerhund was banned from. When interference from home became too unbearable for everyone in the band, he got all of them hired at a summer park thirty miles away, for a boss who encouraged them to practice after their work shift....

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Agents of the Fourth Wind
Science fiction – approx 90K words
Stand-alone novel...in progress

quote:

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Excerpt from the synopsis:

Nevvias is the only known Earther who has seen glimpses of a higher spatial dimension than the one on which his species resides. Nobody else believes him.

Jacoby Billis is the only Earther to have discovered how to traverse that higher dimension. Nobody else can follow him.

Ehldur is the only one of his species who believes that three-dimension-bound beings have every right to enter their higher dimension. Nobody else from his species will allow this affront to go by unpunished.

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THE GOOD SAMARITAN - 85K science fantasy, currently in the revising stage. And yes, I do mean science fantasy. Invading aliens with psychic powers fight amongst themselves about whether or not they can stay, after they realize humans are intelligent life forms.

STORMBORN - second world fantasy about a world devastated by psychic storms and a girl who develops the power to control those storms, about 2/3 complete

MUDLARKS - historical fantasy set in Jacobean England, expansion of a novella I'm shopping around, about 1/3 complete

I have two projects that I am "working" on at the moment.

The first (Project: Hero) is a rewrite from a project I finished well over a decade ago. This one has changed so much from the initial version that it has very little left from what I wrote long ago. This project is currently on hold as I had difficulty finalizing the final 25% of the book. Project: Hero started out as a basic quest that I have tried to expand into something more.

My second project (Project: Life), which I started about a month or so ago, is another quest of sorts but this one I started from scratch. It has some aspects to it that will certainly stretch my skills. It is somewhat of a quest but I often think of it as a love story. My intention is to make it more character driven and have the quest be more of a back drop to the characters.

Right now I have not been as active with my writing as I would like. I hope to change this soon, someday, maybe. Yes, soon.

Joi and her friends try to find a cure before they turn into dragons. Spoiler alert. They do!

Joi waited in the dark for the dragons to attack her village. Her leg trembled against the long tablecloth that hid her and her brothers underneath the family’s table, like the fort she used to play in as a child, when dragons were a myth only half-believed. Not creatures that stalked the night and took her father.
The village was silent, waiting for the signal from the guards that the dragons were within the walls. Joi laid her head back against the wooden table leg in the dark, and listened to her mother sing Caleb’s lullaby and the wind rage outside.

Closing the door (lame title)
LDS Chick lit. 27,000 words unfinished

Whitney was born to be a bride. Kelsie was born to be a star. Yet when Kelsie finds love, and Whitney’s love goes horribly wrong, each finds their own path to happiness going in a different direction than either of them planned.
As they shut the doors to their dreams, they find open windows to blessings beyond what they could imagine.
Closing the door explores friendship, love, youthful exuberance, and the downtown streets of Ogden Utah.

Dragon Beginnings
7,000 words YA Fantasy
This prequel to dragon Fate shows how the dragon threat started. Hopefully.

Sweat dropped down Queen Elsa’s face as she clung to the thick leather strips in the birthing room. Her sweat mingled with her tears, for she had such hopes for this one. It was month’s too early, she had barely begun showing, when the clenching pains came and the blood appeared on her white gown. It was tradition for the queen to wear white until the first child was born, but never before had a queen stayed in the white for seventeen years as she had.
The pains came again, clenching up her stomach like a fist around a barb.

Book of Moons ( Nano project unfinished, and unedited)
11,000 words and counting.

Fourteen year old Will Shakespeare finds a demon book that taints everything it touches and leads him on his lost three years.

In the shadows, we hide. Fliting watching, like the flames from a candle. Our master is on the stage, and we watch him perform. His face is distorted in the flickering of a candle. His voice is loud, and full. Every eye is caught in the spell of his speaking. He speaks of death and we see it. He speaks of Ceasar and we wept. We are one with the audience, one in weeping. Except for the boy, a boy, who is… laughing. We are weeping, our souls are weeping from the masters words, and a boy dares to laugh.

Motes & Meddles - A contemporary fantasy where 'guardian angels' are really humans working in behalf of the 'Planners' who are passed spirits working for what I don't know yet. This story ends up being a secular treatise on the nuts and bolts of miracles and may extend into the afterlife. I'm about 30K in. I wrote this in the early spring when I was just starting out writing and shelved it until my skill level increased. I wrote it 1st person and just converted it to third.

First 13 (which is admittedly awful):

Life was taking some awful turns for Larry Randolph. His latest girl friend, the one he really felt might be the one, jilted him. Trying to rationalize, Larry felt that was all to the good, because lately, he began to receive some bad vibes from her. His only commercial client decided they needed a DC law firm to represent them, depriving him of a third of his income as a rural Virginia lawyer. A number of his private clients had left for dubious reasons. Halitosis? Body Odor? He didn’t know. In his mind he was at the top of a professional and personal death spiral.

To add insult to injury, Larry's father lay on his deathbed. Hank Randolph refused to go to a doctor when his weight started plummet and it just kept plummeting.

Panix - a nearly steampunk fantasy set in a world where all magic (which is centered around the manipulation of materials) is of limited range. The hero comes to terms with his talents as cultures deal with combining nascent technology with magic. This is currently complete at 90K and is steeping while rewrites are contemplated.

First 13 (which is part of the prologue):

Dawn brushed the high clouds of the Plain of Morven with a brilliant red. The battle lines of the Royal Korvannan Army and the Second Army of Mella still grew as the men ran to their positions.

Mellans employed triangles for their battle arrays, the Korvannans used rectangles, but only the Generals sitting high enough above the plain could appreciate the grandeur of advancing armies. Down below men's eyes were wide with fear and trepidation, their breaths bellowing mists as thoughts of the conflict to come raised a primal fear of death. Would this be their last day on the world of Dornna? Could they dare think they would see the sun set that night?

Bellian's Journey- a heroic fantasy morphing into an epic fantasy. This is my NaNo novel and the first draft currently sits at 57K and rising. My goal is to finish this by the end of the month. Estimated word count is 110K. Will be first volume of a trilogy. UPDATE: First Draft finished 11/20 at 105K words.

First 13 (due to the nature of NaNo, this has not been touched since I wrote it Nov. 1st.):

Bellian sat on the edge of the porch, dangling his legs. He gazed out at the vast almond-colored hills of endless sand spread out below out to the sea, merely a darker blue line separating the dunes from the sky.

"Bellian, you know I don't like you sitting on the edge. Get in here." His father stood behind the shimmer of the air curtain with one hand on his hip and another clutching one of his thousands of scrolls. When his father pulled his reading spectacles down to talk to him, Bellian knew it was time to obey.

"Is Mom going shopping today?" he said as he moved from the hot air of the desert into the enchanted coolness of the House.

"I am. Perhaps you would like to come along?" she said with a crooked smile.

Writing Plans:

My plans are to finish Bellian by Nov 30th. In Dec., do a clean up edit and set it aside.

Jan will be a major rewrite for Panix.

In between, I need to develop a new outline for the story arc for Motes and Meddles. It was written totally from the seat of my pants and I'm to the point where I have to decide where this one is going to go.

[This message has been edited by Owasm (edited November 11, 2009).]

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I glanced out of the plasma-shield windows. It was a hot summer day, the snow almost melted through to the ground. Dad had decided to make the trip to Crater Town, and I quivered with anticipation. It wasn't every day we went to town, and I got tired of tending his hydroponic gardens and maintaining equipment. At the end of summer, I'd be sixteen, and old enough to make the journey on my own--old enough to begin training as a ranger. A fact I kept to myself for fear of Dad's temper.

Dad didn't like leaving the cave and he stalled over every detail he could find. Was the generator burning fuel at an economic pace? Would the melt-off aqueducts perform efficiently with no one to tend them? Were the traps set? His herb garden, a massive underground complex, was everything to him. It was the

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I'm nowhere near comfortable enough to post my first 13, so I'll just put a couple lines about mine.

Here is mine.

I am on a rewrite of a fantasy novel with romantic elements.

Here is my first thirteen.

When she saw Petri enter the bakery, Caylen slowed. The cold spring air filled her lungs as she tried to catch her breath. She did not want Petri to know how desperate she was, how she battled the festival crowd in a panic to get to him. But she was desperate. She needed to hire someone she could trust, who would respect her authority despite her age and gender, but mostly she needed someone who had worked with father before since mother opposed hiring outside help. If she brought home someone mother knew and liked, mother might not kill her.

Project: RITN
Young Adult Science Fiction. Much of the rough draft is in longhand, but I think about half of the story has been written. On hold.

Projects: DrWa and Dragons' Will
Fantasies in the world-building phase. I have an incomplete synopsis for DrWa and an outline for Dragons' Will.

Here is my hot off the presses synopsis for San Francisco (working title).

Veronica snorted her way through college in the ‘80s one line of coke at a time, exiting with a baby daughter, no degree and a determination to never screw up like that again. So several years later, job in place, and her life firmly back on track the last thing she expects is to be caught up in the October 1991 Oakland Firestorm . Actually it’s not, the last thing she expects is for that firestorm to catapult her back in time to 1850, where she can invent some new mistakes, but this time in a corset, stays and a gold rush bordello.

A burning sensation in 1850 San Francisco, she becomes the latest acquisition in the arsenal of social climbing madame, Daisy Elliott’s war to establish herself at the pinnacle of the city’s not-quite-yet society. This was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. True, it dropped her in the middle of everything where she had the best chance to figure out which of the whores might help her and which would sell her to the local villains. And it also bumped her up against the clipper ship officer who would love her and might make it possible for her to get home, if he was willing to sacrifice his own dreams, and perhaps his life. Last but not least, it also placed her right in the path of her only other relation in that time, Ana, who knows the way home. To both her's and Veronica’s but only one of them can go and to only one place.

Here is my first 13 as best as I can make it and as it stands today....

John Hughes never imagined a scene like this. Molly Ringwald was not going to stride on long booted legs in those double doors and plant a diamond stud in the ear of Judd Nelson, promising both her virginity and to love him forever, or at least until next detention.

No, this was bad. These people stank. Really stank. And needed dentists really bad.

She could leave. Just walk out those double doors and keep going. Where?

Veronica wiped the rough surface of the bar with the dirty rag. A joke, she needed a joke.

A gold miner, an Australian and a clipper ship’s officer walk into a bar…and then what? She eyed the two men who sidled

[This message has been edited by LAJD (edited March 19, 2010).]

[This message has been edited by LAJD (edited March 19, 2010).]