Teaser Tuesday: “Hope and Red”

So a while back (like, in June; I told you I had stuff stacked up), I was reading Hope and Red, by Jon Skovron, a novel which is sort of half pirate adventure and half urban fantasy, with a generous helping of ninja-style shenanigans.

There’s also a little bit of dancing. Or there would be, if someone had a little more nerve:

“Let’s do old Deadface a favor and get the dancing started,” said Red. “What?”

The look on Filler’s face was absolute panic. Ever since Red had gotten back from his pirating adventures with Sadie, Filler had fallen in behind Red as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He had followed Red into many dangerous, potentially deadly situations since then. But Red could tell at a glance that asking him to dance in front of people was too much a test of even his loyalty.

Lessons, Filler. You gotta take lessons.

Now, for the last, uh, decade or so, I’ve accompanied my “Teaser Tuesday” posts with a snippet from the book I was currently editing; but now that Father’s Books is finished and just awaiting its final cover, I’m not editing anything. So what have I been doing? Well, I dusted off the fantasy novel I was working on back before Dragon Stones unexpectedly became popular in the UK and I started editing/updating my back catalog (if that’s what you want to call it) for publication and got back to work on that!

I know! Hard to believe, but I’m actually working on new stuff! As it turns out, it’s a little bit, shall we say, difficult to get back into mindset one was in when working on a book ten years previously. The first thing I had to do was re-read what was there so far (about 60,000 words) so I could remember what the hell was going on and who the hell everyone was. The next question is, where was I going with all that? I do generally remember what I was up to, but as for specifics of intended future plot points … well, I don’t actually plan those in advance, so there’s probably nothing to remember. Which makes it easier to pick back up, I guess? Progress has been sporadic but I have added about another 10,000 words in the last several weeks, so at least it’s moving forward. I just have to keep in mind my main rule for the first draft, which is: Finish it first; fix it later. And so, here’s a little snippet from the scene I’m working on now:

He called out for help, hoarsely, as if there were any chance they would relent, remove the barrier, crawl in and pull him out and invite him to sit in brotherhood and enjoy a meal of tiny fish. His voice probably didn’t even carry to the opening. The debris that had once been his castle probably soaked it up, thirsty for the sounds of speech that had once filled its rooms and corridors, unwilling to let it go.

Is that person going to get out of his pickle? Yes. How is he going to get out of it? I have no idea. But I expect I’ll be finding out before long.