My writing had been going along with slow but steady progress for the last few weeks. I’ve been almost exclusively focused on revisions for Thorns 1, and am about 3/4 of the way through this pass. I’ve been paying particular attention to Terrence’s character, and the character of the chief villain of the story, his brother Gregory. There’s been a few new scenes, and some tweaking of existing scenes.
I’ve also found a few opportunities to do more with Penelope, the heroine of my unexpected additional novel. She’s still a small character in this book, but Terrence and Rose wonder about her a little more, and worry a little more when she leaves the scene (events that lead her to her own book). Here’s an excerpt from an added scene featuring her.
Penelope always seemed to have a wall up that Terrence didn’t know how to get past. Someone else might find a clever way around, but the best he could think of was to just fling himself at it. Because there really had been something on her face, when she’d looked at him just then— “Are you happy here, Penelope? Do you…miss where you grew up?”
A long pause stretched out, as Penelope continued with her embroidery, and he thought she wasn’t even going to answer. But at last she said, “The castle in Relnyra was close enough to the shore to hear the waves, especially at night. I do miss that sound.”
That was a more personal remark than he’d ever had from her before – but it didn’t answer his first question. “That sounds nice. It must be hard, to be in such a different place,” he said carefully, not certain they were actually talking about waves.