Sarah Barnard's Blog, page 23

2010, What a year.

On the writing front, another book released: The Map and The Stone, another NaNo won, a competition lost, Portal 3 progressing and still not finished, but a huge milestone covered in it. I'm pretty much done on the first draft now and just need to fill gaps and give it the first look over to get it ready for test reading – so, test readers, get your red pens out and check they still work please!

There was also a venture into the world of Amazon Kindle publishing, and ebooks in other formats too, which was a huge success, and has inspired am embryonic idea that may shape 2011 quite nicely.

I sent out loads of free ebooks to deployed troops and I hope all the men and women out there, wherever they may be, are safe and well and finding some relief from the horrors. I hope you all make it home to your families.

I took the first steps into the idea of carbon offsetting and planting trees to balance the paper used in my paperbacks. This is something I hope to see grow and expand during 2011.

On a personal front, I saw the end of an ongoing health issue and I now feel better than I have in years. My youngest child started school and I now have that time for writing and working, so, of course I spend it in the garden, doing housework, shopping…. anything but writing.

In real life I lost a friend, and I gained a friend. In writing I cried over a character death that I never thought I'd write, and over a character birth that was just as unexpected, and I felt empty once the scene was written but then there was a surge of satisfaction that, actually, it's a sort of very relaxed and comfortable ending. I found a new muse who drives cars laden with weird technology and who laughs a lot.

2010, thank you, you've been one heck of a year filled with growth, light and love along the way. I'm sure 2011 is going to be even better.

[image error]

Solstice 2010.

"Solstice is the day when the sun shines for the shortest time. It's the day when the night is longest. From then until after Christmas the days are dark and the Earth sleeps. So when the sun goes down on Winter Solstice we light fires and candles to help it come back in the morning. We bring green branches into the house to remind ourselves that Spring will come again soon.

Without the darkest nights we couldn't look forward to the dawn of a new day. Without the cold dark of winter we wouldn't appreciate spring and summer properly.

So we bring light, heat and life into our homes to remember the last year and …look forward to the next. We give gifts to bring to mind the people we love. We feast to give thanks for a fruitful harvest, and we save seeds to plant in the spring."

(Lily, The Portal Between)

May light fill your life and heart, may the gifts of the Universe be plentiful.

Sarah

xx

[image error]

Sample Sunday – Maddox, 2007

The Unsecluded Matriarch.

This is a selection of the piece I wrote for NaNo 2007 and rereading it I think I may revisit this one, do some serious revisions and rework it into publishable shape. It's the first decent length sci fi piece I've written and the first that I actually like and can see myself finishing one day.

It's rough, raw and unedited so please forgive any typo's and bloopers – or, better yet, tell me about them in the comments.

Enjoy the space ships!

Sarah

Dr Isidro Kendrick was rubbing his eyes and thinking about more coffee when the sick bay door slid up and Maddox walked in clutching her arm. "Bloody thing sprang up and bit me!" she told him as he steered her to a bed and sat her down, noticing the trail of blood she left behind and the pallor under her olive tanned skin.

"How far have you walked while dripping blood on the floor?" He asked as he gently pushed her to lay down while he eased her clutching hand from the jagged gash in her right forearm that was still leaking too much blood for his liking. "This will need stitching." He frowned at her but Maddox could see the concern in his blue eyes.

"Oh you know me." Maddox stared at the ceiling as he sprayed anaesthetic onto her arm before starting to stitch. "I wasn't falling over so I came straight here. I was in back up storage, one of the terminals failed again and the housing sprang up as I was prying it loose. The corner caught me. OW!" Her head turned sharply to see what Isidro was doing and she passed out at the sight of a needle passing through her skin.

"Nice one Maddox." Isidro checked it was just a faint and carried on stitching while he had the chance. He got two stitches done before she groaned and began to come round again. He slipped the needle free and waited for her to surface fully. "Back now?"

"Mmm." She winced as she struggled to focus on him. "Yeah, think so."

"I'm going to finish off here and then I'll take a look at the rest of you." Isidro waited for the dazed nod of agreement before slipping the needle back into the numbed flesh of her arm. "You tough engineer types, needle phobic the lot of you." Maddox closed her eyes and tried not to think about what he was doing. Her head was spinning and she just wanted to lie there and wait for it to stop. She could feel Isidro's warm gloved hands on parts of her arm and hand but there was a numb void where she could feel the pulling and she knew he was stitching but she couldn't feel him there. After what seemed longer than it actually took, Isidro took a critical look at his work and carefully applied an antiseptic dressing over the stitches and bound it in place. Only then did Maddox allow her eyes to open and look at him. Isidro was concerned. "You're not the fainting type Maddox, what else is wrong?"

"I'm just tired, I'll be fine if I just get back to my bed and get some sleep." She started to sit up but a wave of dizziness leached the colour that had started to come back to her face and Isidro pushed her back down.

"No way." He was firm. "You stay right there while I work out just how much blood you lost."

"But I'm fine." She protested.

"You are far from fine my dear engineer, you are passing out every time your head rises above your knees." He smiled at her and punched buttons on the diagnostic console, scowled, hit it and then scowled again. "How long ago did this housing bite you?" He asked.

"I don't know, a few minutes?" she was evasive "I put the housing back first and then stowed the toolkit, but I came here straight after that."

"Straight after? No diversions?" he raised an eyebrow.

"You look like a bleached Mr Spock when you do that." Maddox smiled.

"He was the science officer, I'm the doctor, and you are being evasive. How long did you leave it before coming in?"

Maddox squirmed. "Too long?" she hazarded a guess.

"Far too long and in fact you should have got us to come and get you. Not only have you lost a lot of blood there is something in your blood I am not happy with." Isidro's scowl lessened as he hit the sequence for comms with the bridge. "Captain Quinn?" he asked and waited for a confirmation. "I have Engineer Bayliss here and she'll be in sick bay for a day or so. Just for your information."

"Thank you Dr Kendrick. I'll be down later." Quinn's cold tones came through loud and clear so Maddox rolled her eyes at Isidro.

"A day or so?" she moaned. "I'm fine, I just don't like needles." She tried to sit up and Isidro let her try until the waves of dizziness forced her to lie back on the pillows.

"Your electrolytes are low, your blood volume is low and there's an infection or something in there." Isidro told her gently. "I need to get you sorted out before I let you go again." He pulled her uninjured arm straight and began looking for a vein. "I need a blood sample for testing." He explained as he drew the blood into a small tube, sealed it and slid it into the console by the bed. He distractedly scratched an eyebrow while frowning at the screen before drawing a blanket over Maddox. "Try to rest, I'll get you something to eat and drink." He stroked her hair and walked away and Maddox slept.

The door hissed and Isidro looked up into the face of Tanisha Quinn. Old habits don't die and he snapped to a full military attention, only dropping the automatic salute when he saw the smirk creeping onto her face. "Sorry." He blushed. "It's automatic."

"It's fine Dr Kendrick." Tanisha composed herself again. "How is she?" she asked, partly the Captain asking after crew and partly a concerned friend.

"She's stable for now but the blood work can't be explained by simple blood loss from a single wound." Isidro was worried and it showed. "It's just a mess. The haemoglobin is too low, electrolytes are messed up and the white cells show some infection but I can't find anything. Blood volume will pick up now she's resting but I need to work out what is causing it. I wasn't trained for this."

"How long were you with the military?" Quinn asked, standing beside his desk.

"Far too long." He sighed.

"You were in the unit that came to Redux weren't you?" she asked while knowing the answer. He nodded but stood tall and straight, hands clasped tightly in front of him. "Where were you when the reactor went up?"

"I was there." His voice sank so low she could barely hear him.

"Does Maddox know?"

"No. She's Bayliss, I am Kendrick." He shrugged.

"And I am Quinn." Her face was frozen and unreadable. "By clan law we shouldn't even be in the same room without being obliged to honour duel."

"I know." He murmured. "But we're different aren't we?"

"I don't know to be honest." She shrugged. "It never made sense to me but we both keep the clan braids don't we? Maddox crops hers and I know they hate it on Redux, but I admire her for it. May I go and see her?"

"Of course." He stood aside to let her pass and then followed her to the bed where Maddox wasn't sleeping but was reading an engineering manual while sipping at a mug of coffee.

"You shouldn't be working." Tanisha commented dryly. "You should be resting."

"I know, but I need to do this." Maddox still looked pale and grey but was starting to regain strength.

"No you don't." Isidro pulled the book from her hands and replaced it with a mini viewer with only entertainment loaded onto it. "Nothing work related for at least a day. I might let you have this back tomorrow but now you need to rest."

"Besides, Josif is handling things perfectly fine without you." Tanisha perched on the edge of the bed as Isidro retreated to his office. "How did this happen Maddox? How did you get hurt?"

"It was that back up terminal I was working on when you asked me if I could break for coffee." Maddox rubbed absent mindedly at the dressing covering the stitches on her arm.

"I thought it might be." Tanisha gently pulled Madox's hand away from her arm. "Leave it alone. It'll heal faster. Josif said there was a lot of blood near there. He was worried about you." She pulled her jacket straighter and looked Maddox in the eye, fixed her with the Captain's stare. "Maddox, how long did you carry on working after the accident?" She held the stare until Maddox looked away. "I need to know Maddox. You didn't come straight here, you carried on working. Josif showed me what you'd done down there. We're a small crew here, I'm going to know and I'd rather you told me."

Maddox looked back at her captain and grimaced. "You know me too well. I put the housing back and thought I saw a power flicker so I rerouted the cabling and rebooted the unit. Then I couldn't leave it without testing it properly."

"How long?"

"I don't know." Maddox rubbed the dressing again and Tanisha pulled her hand away again.

"How long Maddox?"

"I came straight here when I'd done. I don't know how long exactly, a couple of hours?" Maddox shrugged and sank back on the pillows looking drained.

"It was five hours Maddox, you idiot." Tanisha's shoulders fell and she shook her head in exasperation. "You bled on my deck for five hours before staggering to here, dripping blood all over my ship. What were you thinking? Don't tell me, you didn't think. Maddox, I've known you since we were kids and you've always been the same."

Maddox grinned up from the pillows and laughed. "Remember the time we got out of the dome? When I broke my ankle but we still hiked to the cooling tower and back?" She closed her eyes as the ceiling swam. "Oh my head's spinning." She groaned.

"I do remember that." Tanisha grinned back. "But you need to rest and heal, I'll get Isidro to check on you and I'll come back after I've had my own sleep shift." With that she got up, tugged her jacket straight again and softly left the room. Isidro stepped in almost immediately and made sure Maddox was comfortable before giving her an injection, examining the dressing on her arm and then finally told her that he'd be in his office if she needed him. Maddox barely heard him as she slid easily into a deep sleep.

[image error]

Last Christmas Ordering Date.

Sorry Folks, anyone wanting signed copies of my books, I can't promise they'll be here in time for Christmas. So, you're very welcome to order books through the site but I can't make any guarantees.

If, on the other hand, you just want paperback copies without my scrawling in them for you then I suggest you either go to Amazon or into your local book shop.

Sarah Barnard's Portal Series on Amazon – in both paperback and kindle editions.

[image error]

The Map and The Stone

My first "Twitter Sample Sunday" – I'll be tracking the effect this idea has and I'm looking forward to your reactions. In the meantime, here's Chapter one of my last published book – The Map and The Stone, feel free to leave comments, pass the #samplesunday link along, or even go and buy yourself the full copy so you can find out what happens next….

[image error]

Image by Mairi Frost

Chapter One
Rhys

The boy's name was Rhys Newton and he was ten years old. He had dark curly hair and brown eyes and he lived with his mum, whose name was Lou, in a council house in a market town right in the middle of England.

Rhys found things.

He found things when no-one else could; it was as if they jumped out at him.

"Where have you put it?" Rhys''s mum asked him with that look that only mums can do. "I need my phone, what have you done with it? I know it's you. You're the only other person here and I know I left it by the kettle. Where is it?" She advanced on him across the kitchen, face turning deeper red as she got herself all worked up and he braced himself for the anger that was welling up in her. The worktop beside the kettle was conspicuously empty with no sign of the phone.

"I don't know where your phone is Mum. I didn't move it." Rhys backed away slowly, trying to think where the missing pink phone might be. He knew he would be the one to find it but he didn't know how. He also knew that would mean that she'd blame him for its disappearance in the first place.

In his last year of primary school, Rhys had already learned to be very careful. He was a bright boy with an overactive imagination, or so his class teacher said and she said he'd have to stop daydreaming when he went up to the big school, Claypits.

Rhys' dark curly hair refused to lay flat. His mum wouldn't let him have it cropped short because she said she loved his curls and liked to ruffle them when she was in a good mood, which wasn't very often these days. Rhys knew that his hair and eyes reminded her of his dad and that was also the reason she was always short tempered as well. He couldn't talk to her and he couldn't tell her that he missed his dad too, she just got angry. So Rhys kept it all inside and he could feel it building up in his head as if it'd explode out of him at some point if he let it.

"Oh go and look again." she told him as she stamped upstairs to look in her bedroom again.

Rhys breathed a sigh of relief. This usually meant that she'd given up being angry, would go and cry until her hazel eyes were red and then she'd tell him it was hay fever, even though it was November and there was no chance of pollen anywhere. Then she'd brush her short brown hair that lay flat and lifeless against her scalp and she'd pull herself together for a while.

He glanced round the kitchen and sure enough, the pink phone was laying exactly where she'd left it and exactly where it hadn't been only moments before, as if it had waited until he was alone to reappear. It lay accusingly beside the kettle and Rhys sighed. Now the phone had turned up they could go shopping and Rhys hated shopping. His mum would still glare at him as if to say he'd moved the phone and then put it back and he knew he hadn't.

So Rhys gathered up the collection of cloth shopping bags and stood at the back door gazing out into the garden which was wet and muddy after all the rain they'd had through the week. The flower beds that his mum used to slave over to keep looking nice were ragged and overgrown with more weeds than anything else now.

As the drizzle drifted down and hazed the garden into grey, Rhys thought he saw a movement under the hedge that ran along the far end and blocked the main road from sight. Not that it stopped the noise of the rumbling traffic that ran past all through the nights but at least it blocked most of the view. Rhys narrowed his eyes and peered down the garden but he couldn't see anything and he didn't feel like going out in the rain to look more closely. He often thought he saw things moving out of the corner of his eye but he didn't say anything because it felt weird and he didn't want anyone to think he was mad.

Her hand fell on his shoulder. "I'm sorry Rhys, the phone was there by the kettle with something half over it and I didn't see it. I just feel lost without it." It was an apology and she sounded tired. Rhys leaned into his mum's hand and she slid it further round him in a hug that was warm and cosy like a soft fleecy blanket and Rhys let the feeling spread through him, treasuring it until she pulled away. "Time to do the shopping," she said and she left him to lock the back door and bring the bags to the car.

He smiled as he turned the key in the stiff lock and slid the top bolt home as well. The paint was peeling on the outside of the plain white back door and Rhys's mum was always saying she'd get round to painting it a different colour one day, but one day never seemed to come. Dragging his feet Rhys wandered through the house, which was also looking grubby and shabby and in need of painting and a good clean, and he joined his mum in the car, which had another rust spot and today had decided to take three tries before it would start and stay running. He sat in the front passenger seat, mainly because he knew his mum hated that seat being empty and partly because it made him feel very grown up to sit in the front when he knew all his friends were made to sit in the back.

As they pulled into a space in the supermarket car park, Rhys thought he saw something climbing in the trees that were planted in an attempt to break up the monotonous concrete and tarmac. It was a thin trunked tree with pale patchy bark and small bright green leaves, but he had no idea what sort it might be, other than it wasn't the sort that dropped conkers. A finger poked him on the arm and he blinked.

"Sorry Mum, I'll bring the bags." He opened the car door and climbed out. The movement in the tree was catching the corner of his eye again but although he glanced at it he couldn't see anything there and he didn't look for long. His foot caught on something on the ground and he looked down. "Mum!" he called. "look, a pound, can I keep it?" He rubbed the mud from the coin and it caught the sun to shine golden in his hand as he held it out to show her.

"Where did you find that?" his mum asked as she came round the car to his side.

"It was in the soil near this tree." He pointed and she looked.

"Well, there's no car here and no-one about so I guess you can keep it." She ruffled his dark curly hair and smiled. "Could have done with it being a tenner though. Put it in your pocket."

In the supermarket, Rhys could feel the coin hard in his jeans pocket and he made sure he was extra helpful and really well behaved so he could ask his mum if he could spend the money on some sweets. She left him at the shelves filled with sweets, chocolate and other delicious things while she went to find toilet rolls. Rhys pulled out the coin and stared at it, then looked at the end of the shelves where his mum had disappeared and he reached out and selected a bag of sweets for himself and then he looked over at a shelf further on where he grinned at his mum's favourite chocolate bar. He didn't quite have enough for both so he put his own bag of sweets back and chose a smaller one. They weren't his favourites but he felt this was important. He carefully hid the chocolate bar underneath his own choice and went round the corner to find his mum.

She was looking at the posh toilet rolls, the nice soft and thick ones with nice pictures on the packaging and there was a sad look on her face as she picked up the cheaper ones and put them in her trolley.

"Can I pay for this by myself?" Rhys asked as she noticed him.

"Of course you can," she said, looking at her shopping list and crossing off the things already in the trolley and adding the prices into the calculator on her phone. "I think we can just about afford chips for tea if you like."

"Why don't we get some frozen chips and fish in here instead?" Rhys suggested, knowing that money was tight and although popping to the chip shop was a treat it would be useful to have that little bit extra just in case they needed it.

"Rhys, you're a good boy. Why don't you go and see if they have tins of mushy peas too, or curry sauce. Which ever one you want, you can choose." His mum smiled at him and it was genuinely warm and Rhys felt it wash through him, knowing she'd love the chocolate if he could manage to buy it as a surprise. He walked through the aisles to find the right one with the tins of beans, peas and similar things and he turned the coin over in his pocket as he walked. Once in the right place he chose a tin of curry sauce.

When he caught up with his mum, Rhys found her pulling a bag of thick cut frozen chips from the freezer. He dropped the tin of sauce on top of them, beside the small orange pumpkin. Then they made their way to the checkout where there were, unusually, two with no queue, right beside each other.

"I'm going to do this on my own." Rhys announced as he stepped over to the other till, leaving his mum to sort out the main shopping. He managed to pay for his own sweets and her chocolate without her noticing.

The till operator smiled at him. "That chocolate is on a buy one get one free if you want to go and grab another one."

"Really?" He grinned. "I'll be as quick as I can!" and he ran off back to get a second bar as his mum scowled at him running in the shop.

"Come back here young man!" she called but Rhys didn't hear her and he ran on, fetched the chocolate and tucked it into his bag with the receipt. Then he helped to pack the shopping as it was scanned through the till. His mum scowled at him but Rhys didn't care, he was bubbling up inside with the idea that he'd been able to buy her a present that might make her happy.

As Rhys was unloading the car at home he kept glancing round, hoping to see that flicker of movement again. But he saw nothing as he carried bag after bag through the house and into the small kitchen. He made sure that he kept his own bag separate and tucked it behind one of the chairs in the living room.

"Shall I put the kettle on and make a cup of tea for you while you put things away?" He offered and his mum looked up at him from where she was putting packets into the freezer.

"That would be lovely, thank you." She smiled and it really lit up her tired eyes. "Do you want the chips for tea tonight? Or something else?"

"Chips are good Mum." Rhys pulled out mugs and tea bags. "Can I have a cup of tea with you?"

"Of course you can, but only one or you'll not sleep tonight." She went back to putting away the last of the shopping.

Rhys made the tea and carried it through to the living room where he put both mugs down on the low coffee table that sat between the two mismatched, but comfortable, armchairs. Then he glanced towards the kitchen door to check his mum was still putting the shopping away before he reached behind the chair for the sweets and chocolate. He placed both chocolate bars beside his mum's mug and sat back to wait for her.

"You're very thoughtful today, what's got into you?" she commented as she sat in the chair beside him and picked up her mug. "Are you going to eat your chocolate?"

"I have these." Rhys waved his bag of mixed sweets at her. "That's for you. They were on offer so I got you something too. I thought that pound was a special surprise and I should share it."

His mum's hand shook a little and she put her tea down again without tasting it. "Really?" she asked and he nodded. "That's my favourite." He nodded again. "I thought you were messing about in the shop. I'm sorry. That's a lovely thing to do." She picked up one of the bars and opened it slowly, peeling off the paper outer sleeve and setting it neatly on the table. Then she tore into the foil inner wrapper and broke a piece off and offered it to Rhys.

"No thanks Mum, I don't like that one, it's too dark, not sweet enough." He grinned as he bit into the first of the sweets from his own bag, which held an assortment of flavours and textures that he knew he'd enjoy and he might even make them last a few days.

"Sometimes you are so grown up." his mum said as she popped a piece of chocolate into her mouth with a smile. "I love you to bits my big boy."

"Mum!" He protested with a grin. "I love you too. Can I watch telly now?"

"Have you done all your homework?"

"Not quite."

"Then you can watch telly when it's finished and not before." She ate half the first bar of chocolate and carefully wrapped it back up to save for later and she drank her tea slowly. "That's a good cup of tea Rhys, I think I'll have to get you to make it more often." She got up to take her mug into the kitchen and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Come on you, homework. Get your things together and sit at the kitchen table."

"Can't I do it in here?" Rhys protested, glancing longingly at the TV in the corner.

"No. You sit properly at the table, you know what Mrs Hartshorn said. You need to sit at a table to do homework, not sprawl on the floor." His mum was firm, and although Rhys scowled and muttered, he still pulled out his pencil case and books and settled down to do his homework at the table. Reluctantly he began work on maths problems that he'd only half finished the evening before. He didn't find maths easy, he didn't find anything easy at school. He tried his best but he still struggled and he dreaded going to secondary school as he was convinced he wouldn't cope. But it was approaching fast enough and at the end of this school year he'd be going and there was no stopping it. Eventually the maths was finished and Rhys pulled out another worksheet that he had to complete and he started on that.

He fidgeted and rolled his shoulders. He dropped his pencil and broke the end so it needed sharpening. He wasted more time than it took to get the work done and by the end the worksheet was crumpled and grubby and Rhys sighed. As he put the homework back into his bag a movement caught his eye near the fridge.

It was a battered and dented thing that used to be polished steel but was more scratched and scuffed now but it still worked. The movement had been near where the door opened, at the bottom, on the floor. Rhys stared at the dark space under the fridge and thought he saw something there, which didn't surprise him as there was often stuff that got knocked under there and no-one could get it back out again.

Rhys stared as a piece of paper was pushed out, just a corner, but definitely being pushed.

"MUM!" he shouted, "I think we've got mice or something!"

She came running to find him with his legs pulled up onto his chair and his school bag clutched tightly in his lap.

"Where?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly.

"Under the fridge," Rhys told her, pointing at the corner of paper poking out. "That moved like it was being pushed out from underneath."

His mum took a wooden spoon and pressed it to the paper to pin it to the floor. Then she leaned on it and pulled it towards her to drag it out. It was dusty and dirty but the edges were neat and clean.

"That's odd," she murmured, "I'd expect mice to have chewed it. Maybe it was the air from the back of the fridge just blew it back out?" She wiped some of the muck off and looked at it. "It's an envelope but there's no name or address on it. Shall we open it?"

"Mum, we've lived here since I was two and that fridge was old then. Whatever is in that envelope is ours." Rhys was still curled on his chair, refusing to put his feet on the floor.

"Here, you open it." She dropped the filthy envelope on the table and reached for the long black torch she kept on the shelf above the fridge. Turning it on she lay on the floor to shine it into the dark space where the envelope had come from. "I can't see anything." She frowned, cleared the clutter from the top of the fridge and stretched over to shine the torch down the back. "Nothing there either and I've never seen any sign of mice in the house. I don't think it was anything to worry about Rhys but I'll keep an eye out anyway."

"OK Mum." Rhys climbed off the chair and took his school bag out to the living room where he leaned it on the windowsill, where it always lived and where it would be ready for school on Monday.

"Rhys?" She called him back into the kitchen. "Are you going to open it or shall I?"

"You can if you want." He shrugged. "It's probably empty anyway."

She wiped off the dust and Rhys stayed to watch, intrigued by what might be inside despite what he'd said. The envelope had been white once and was stuck down firmly but was flat and thin and couldn't contain much, perhaps a letter that had never been sent or maybe one of those thank you letters that Rhys had been made to write every birthday and every Christmas.

She turned it over and Rhys watched, his eyes not blinking, not wanting to miss a moment in case it was something exciting. The paper of the envelope was thin and cheap but it had clearly survived under the fridge with no harm. Rhys could smell the mustiness and slight damp coming from it and he pressed up against his mum as she began to ease her fingers into the small gap at the end of the glue that held the flap down.

"It might be empty," she said, echoing his shrug from before and the paper began to tear. There was something inside, a piece of paper and Rhys craned round to try and see what it was as his mum opened the envelope fully and widened it so she could see inside before she reached in to take hold of it. Frowning in concentration she eased a finger tip and thumb into the opening and took hold of the paper.

Rhys glanced away as he heard a skittering sound under the fridge but he saw nothing and the sound stopped as he moved.

She pulled out the paper and it was crumpled and torn at the edges. There were marks on both sides and his mum started to laugh as she unfolded it.

"It's one of your treasure maps from when you were six." She grinned and held it out to him. "I bet you hid it under there and then couldn't get it out again."

Rhys stared at it. The paper was certainly a map and badly drawn, but it wasn't one that he'd made. He still had his best map tucked into a book in his bedroom and this was nothing like it but he didn't tell his mum that, he just smiled and tucked it back into the envelope and then put that in his pocket.

Thanks for reading.

Want to read on?

The Map and The Stone in Paperback.

The Map and The Stone on Kindle.

The Map and The Stone all other ebook formats.

[image error]

Musing.

Ever since I don't when, I've had Gillian Anderson in my head as Lily.  But I'm fickle.

[image error]

Lily?

Emma Thompson – What do you think?

I'm working on Portal 3 (still "Child of the Portal" at the moment) and as the first draft draws to a close there are some revelations that are wringing the emotion from Lily, tearing her apart and forcing her to see herself as less than the super human who can just waft in and save the day at exactly the right moment.  There are things happening that really test her and push her to make the choices she's been avoiding.  Lily is being made to face her own demons and the lasting effects of the actions she took and the choices she made before she knew Kate, before she left Ametsam.

Then last night, or rather early this morning, I woke suddenly with a scream in my head. Kate's been yelling at me all day and something's wrong with Lily. It's like watching a film and there's that shock scene where something bad happens to the hero and you can't quite believe that they're hurt, human, possibly fallible. It's like turning the page and hoping against hope that your hero isn't too badly hurt, that they're going to get up, any minute now…..

And then they don't and the book/film is over and you're left with that empty feeling.

Lily's giving up on me.

[image error]

Remapping

I've picked up Portal 3 again. The manuscript stands at roughly 85,000 words and is close to the first draft being finished, I suspect around the 100k word mark before I go back over it and fill the gaps, plug the holes and do that first round of editing that makes it readable. The timeline and continuity is a complete and utter mess, disjointed and jumping all over the place with little or no explanation. There are pages and pages of dialogue with no authorial voice to fill in the thoughts and motivations of the characters, or to describe where they are or what they're doing.

So, I'm going over it from page 1, with a spreadsheet for characters in order of appearance, key events in chronological order and other notes that I need to pick up. I'm putting in notes to myself to fill holes and offer more detail, more explanations, pad it and make it work. I'm remapping the whole thing.

But this is, probably, the last book to feature Kate, Lily and Sam and it's been hard to finally let them go.  So, it needs to work.

Before you all start shouting at me, they all have children, the portals and the magic still exist and you never know….

[image error]

Winner!

[image error]

Sixth year running.

Very pleased.

The story is disjointed, messy and incoherent with many wanderings off track. So, sometime after Christmas I will knuckle down and finish the last Portal book. Then I'll beat that into shape and send it out for proof reading.

And after that I'll go back to Sage and Diana and saving the screaming world with the help of alien tech, fast cars and space travel.

That's assuming Sage survives. I left her possibly dying, off world and far from the help she needs. But I've crossed 50k words and it's time to do housework, shopping, Christmas and that sort of thing for a while.

I think a small celebration may be in order.

[image error]

Catching a nap.

I had a day or two of sluggishness and the plot went nowhere. But that's normal for NaNo, and it usually hits me sometime around the half way mark. So I'm not really surprised. Interestingly it's usually around the 28k word mark, and happens at other times of the year too. I have a file full of projects that stalled around 27-30k words.

Snippet below… Enjoy!

Sage sprawled face down on the narrow bed with one arm hanging limply over the side. Her boots sat on the floor beside the bed and her jacket was thrown untidily on the end of the bed frame. The door of the room was closed and the only sound was the steady hiss of air conditioning and the rasp of Sage's breathing as she slept.

The door eased quietly open and he walked in, making no noise as he left the door slightly ajar. He was in a green standard issue t-shirt with a name tape that declared him to be Dr Smith, crumpled, but once crisply neat, trousers and soft shoes. Clean shaven, as were all personnel at the Hangar for various reasons, he had a tight lipped mouth between a chin that would have benefited from a beard and a slightly upturned nose that sat below nervous eyes that were stormy grey with hints of blue. He wore no watch and his hands had that over clean soft pinkness that doctors get from constant hand washing and held in one hand was a small device. It was twice as long as his hand with a square box at one end and there was a tapering rod projecting a couple of inches from it.

He stood by the bed, with Sage facing away from him and held the rod end just millimetres from her right ear. The top face of the box part lit up and he shaded it with his hand so it didn't shine onto her face and wake her. His gaze flicked from the screen on the box to Sage's sleeping form and back again, back and forth until part of the screen shone blue and then green and he nodded to himself and left as quietly as he came.

"Well?"

He turned at the door to see Sage's head lifted from the pillow, obviously not as deeply asleep as he'd thought.

He smiled and it changed his face. "Sorry, I didn't want to wake you. The readings are all well in the green. It's fine but you should get it checked more regularly."

Sage nodded noncommittally. "What time is it?"

[image error]

"My Car!"

I've been far too nice to my characters this year. No-one has died, yet, no-one is having any real crises and although stuff is happening, it's much more gentle than I'm used to.

It's not like me at all. I'll start writing Mills and Boon romance next…. *rolls eyes*

Oh, you wanted a snippet? OK then.. Just to prove myself wrong, I started being a bit more violent…

"Destination EarthLink control UK, arrival in ten minutes, please access landing protocols"

Sage tapped at the controls and a new display overlaid the first, showing streams of numbers and bars that filled and ebbed back, looking like an aircraft's navigational display, as Sage squirmed her way back into a better driving position. Her right hand was back on the wheel and gripped it tightly, her left rested on the gear stick or flicked to the controls.

"Landing protocols activated. Linking to EarthLink UK. Audio and visual." A screen cleared on the sunshade visor and Frost's face appeared.

"EarthLink UK, you are clear for approach. Rift exit slightly dislocated at zero point five k. Local conditions are good; wind speed is gusting at a max of eight knots and coming directly from the East. Make your approach from the West and it'll be easier, welcome home." He wasn't looking directly at her but was looking down and to one side as he delivered the information. He looked up. "Major Cooper needs to see you as soon as possible, you have two messages from G. Med, Diana Augustine is trying to get hold of you and Wilcox's mother would appreciate a call. I'll put a fresh brew of coffee on."

"Point five?" Sage watched the displays steadily.

"That is correct. No idea why, but it'll keep you on your toes Gardiner!" He laughed.

"Sage." She corrected him absent mindedly, frowning at a display that was flashing red. "Not Gardiner. Check Rift condition please."

Frost looked to the side again and his face changed, the smile dropped and his eyes darted as he read. "Sage, disengage now, Rift is RED, repeat RED the conduit is collapsing behind you. Disengage immediately."

"Oh no, Oh no, Oh no." Dr Smith panicked in the back seat. His patient snored. Wilcox tensed in her seat as the car shook violently as if gripped from behind. Sage's hands were tight on the wheel, struggling to control what was happening. The scream of torn metal and a smell of burning filled the small space.

"Rift shielding deactivating." The windows cleared.

"DON'T TOUCH THE DOORS!" Sage roared as they plunged from the collapsing Rift conduit and into empty air far too high above the ground.

"Shit." Someone swore and Sage thought it was Wilcox. She used the head wind to slow the plummeting car, the Rift technology was failing, displays flickering and erratic, and she could smell hot burning metal that stung inside her nostrils as she breathed in and made her eyes water so she could barely see where they were or what she was doing.

Then a jerk as the wheels touched the tarmac and bounced, and again and a third time before they stayed down and Sage could brace, brake and bring them to a stop. The hangar doors were open and a truck raced out to meet them, people spilling from inside before it had fully stopped, pulling hoses and spraying the back of the car as Sage climbed out. Wilcox was close behind and together they pulled Dr Smith and his patient from the wrecked car, and hauled them to a probably safe distance, as the flames and smoke were slowly conquered.

"My car." Sage gaped at the damage. The boot was mangled. The metal twisted and smoking, almost into the back seats. That had been far too close. "Is everyone safe?" She spun to check. Wilcox stood doubled over with her hands on her knees but she seemed fine. Dr Smith sprawled on the tarmac beside his patient but he was moving about and also seemed fine.

"My Car!" Sage moaned again, waving her hands impotently at the wreck, now soaked and dripping on the steaming tarmac.

A weight fell on her back. "I can adapt another car." Wilcox laughed. "We got down ok, we're all alive. That was brilliant, scary, but brilliant."

"You'll do, Wilcox, you'll do just fine." Major Cooper was beside them now. "Sage, we can get another car and have it adapted."

"But I loved that car." Sage protested. "It was comfy. It was messy. I knew where everything was."

"I think it's beyond salvage." Wilcox commented with her head tilted to one side, appraising the damage and her arms folded.

"Oh, really, you think?" Sage spluttered. The back end of the Renault was shredded, the boot mostly gone and the rear axle and wheels so badly twisted that one lay almost flat on the tarmac. Something was dripping from underneath the car and pooling in rainbow puddles in the water and foam.

[image error]