Nanowrimo 2022
Oh yeah, I am doing it this year, the 50k word challenge inside of a single month.
I’ve only won it once before, but I’m slaying it this November thanks to twisting my ankle really bad and being forced to stay off of it for two weeks.
I’ll be able to walk on it soon, but not for long periods of time yet.
In the mean time, the words are just dripping off my fingertips. So happy.
Today I did Chapter 4 in The Quick and the Dead, book 2 in my Psyborg series. Bk 1, Augmented, is currently with the publisher, Quanta Publishing (my own publishing company) and is being edited (slow going).
Quanta will be looking for 5-10 beta readers (not reviewers) soon. Care to be among them? You get first look at the edited, completed novel with the exchange that you will provide feedback for where it takes you out of the story.
Back to The Quick and the Dead.
I wrote 3,958 words today and attached is my favorite excerpt. Is there anything more charming than the prospect of two psyborgs awkwardly falling in love with each other?
But first, below is the image of where everything is situated in the Sol System in my series. This scene takes place on one of the Jupiter Trojans, Hektor 624.
He threw a call to her out into the void over their neural link. They had never had the chance to see how far apart they could be before the connection became too diffuse to function, but he was hoping that perhaps they were within sufficient proximity.
Eloise!
Nothing.
Eloise!
He had never personally cared about someone so much before that fear for their safety entered into his decision making. Not like this. When he was with Hurst, any worry or anxiety was repressed by his nanites lest they interfere with his decisions, and typically, he was barely aware of it.
Now, he pushed the light transport to the highest number of cycles its drive could handle. It was hardly an armored military fast attack ship, but he had thought it plenty fast enough before. Today, it seemed achingly slow.
He thumbed his com again. “Teeny. McIntyre. Come in.”
“Teeny here.”
“Where is Eloise? I was told she went down to the surface.”
“Oh, she’s around here somewhere,” Teeny said, not seeming to grasp the urgency of the situation. “I just saw her a little while ago.”
“I need to know now,” Ross snapped.
“Yes, boss. Give me a second to find her,” Teeny said. Ross hated to think he had affronted Teeny by being stern, but he couldn’t think about that now.
Several moments went by. Teeny came back on with a scratch of sound.
“Nwokocha said she went out to the mine with some of the crew on the last hover.”
Eloise, you stubborn brat!
Setting aside the fact that she had placed him in a position of having to discipline her for insubordination, had she no conception of why she shouldn’t put herself at risk?
>Why, Ross? Tell me why.
The words, her communication crossing their neural link, slipped through his helpless anger.
Eloise! Where are you? Why didn’t you respond when I called you? he asked, too incensed to bother with her question.
>Tell me why I can’t put myself at risk when you are so ready to put your crew at risk?
Because you and I are all that’s left of your kind, he said shortly.
There was a long moment of silence. Ross’ transport began its descent toward the mine.
>I may not be only human, Ross, but humanity is my kind, Eloise said, a deep sadness coming through with her words. >If something were to happen to me, I would consider it a worthwhile sacrifice to make. I’m sorry if that would leave you feeling like you are alone in the world, but you are not.
Ross didn’t know what to say. He was not okay with this. On board a starship, you did what you were told. Crew members didn’t go off half-cocked and do their own thing. On the other hand, Eloise was no ordinary crewmember. She knew more about eluridium and its instability than anyone on board and she, if anyone did, had the best ability to withstand or recover from a blast.
I know you told me not to go, but given my abilities, I couldn’t risk it any more than you could, she said, as if she could read his mind.
Ross frowned. He hadn’t told her he was going to be the primary going down into the mines on the second shift.
Nwokocha told me, she said after a beat.
The transport landed on the surface and Ross quickly shut it down.
I’m coming to you. We’ll talk about this –
There was a rumble of noise - >Ross! - and then a heavy silence.
Ross took off at a run toward the cloud of dust mushrooming out of the base of the drill frame as crystalline blocks of eluridium collapsed in on each other.
Thanks for reading and I hope you’re enjoying it so far!