Squeetus summer book club: The Goose Girl, chapter 14
Rumors of war
This came about as I thought through Selia's plan. She couldn't hope to keep her secret unless she was certain none of Ani's family would come to visit or expect her to visit. Such separation wasn't uncommon. After teenage Marie Antionette left home to marry the French king's grandson, she never returned to Austria again. If it weren't for Bayern cutting a path through the mountains, Selia would probably have been secure. Just rumors at this point though, no saying what, if any, country Bayern plans to engage.
"Children lit noisy bucket bombs and strings of purple star-mirrors."
Hey, this line was in my original first chapter! I must have reused it here.
The javelin dancers
This was also a detail Tacitus wrote of the early Germans.
The temporary tattoo
Just, I love this bit.
The peace-keepers
These were loosely based on a group I met in Paraguay. The law was pretty rogue there, no sign of police most anywhere. (The only time I ever saw a police officer he grabbed a girl's butt.) But in one neighborhood there was this man, very charismatic, who took it upon himself to keep the peace. He had lots of friends and they would spend evenings drinking and barbecuing in the street and walking around in groups to keep an eye on things. It made everyone in that neighborhood feel safe. I wanted to expand the peace-keepers in Enna Burning but ended up cutting them out about draft 3.
Angie asks, "Do you ever find yourself in the trap of overusing and abusing the same words or phrases? If so, do you have tips on how to avoid it or fix it?" My advice is a lot of revision. The more I read through my own work, the better I know it and can keep an ear out for repetition. Often if I notice too many uses of one word, I'll do document searches for the word and make changes. The more I write and read, the more words and phrases in my head to choose from. And I do uses a thesaurus a lot, not to find words I don't know but to remind myself of the many different words there are to choose from.
Marissa asks, "I worried a bit about asking this because it's a bit spoilery, but do you know what other speaking gift Ani's mother has?" I don't think she has any. She's out of balance.
Danielle asks, "What's your favorite part of the writing process? Does it always change from book to book, or is there a part of it that you always love doing?" Any time I come up with a sentence that makes me happy, a word that fits just right, an unexpected scene that flows. There's a lot of hard, sometimes frustrating work before I earn a smooth, perfect scene, but it's worth it.