Working on the draft

I'm back to working on the Sword and Scabbard draft. Scott's deadline is today, and I thought I had some things to work on, but I couldn't remember what they were. I haven't looked at it since I got back from our work session early in December. I figured it might be a good idea to get going on my parts so when I get his, I can insert and edit. Yesterday I was reading through what we had and I came to the scene where Sieger arrives to visit her father for the Spring Solstice, and it hit me: that's the scene where our readers meet Sieger for the first time. It was a revelation to me, so I went back to the beginning of the scene and read it more slowly, taking note of what your first impressions will be. I was almost entranced, and a little annoyed when I had to shut it down to go to work!

I know it doesn't make any sense that I would be surprised by that, but let me tell you the back story. After we finished The Dragon's Lady, Scott started working on Gravity's story and suggested that I do Stephan's story. I was hesitant to take it on; Stephan is a character he made, but he told me what I thought I needed to know and I got started on it. Half-way through, it became clear to me that what I was writing wasn't about Stephan. I thought it was her mother, so I kept going. Further along, I realized it wasn't about Stephan's mother, that Stephan wasn't in it at all, but I kept writing to see what would happen. What I came up with was Sieger's story--the story of the first female Dragon Lord in Temeer. That was about eight years ago, before we even got started on Sword and Scabbard. I revised it once, and then the Sword and Scabbard plot fell apart before my eyes, so I put it away. I already have to re-write the last third of the book, and there's no sense re-writing until we get S&S ironed out.

Hence the reason it surprised me when I realized that scene is where you'll get to meet the young woman who's been knocking around in my head for years, the girl who refused to be Stephan. ;-) It's OK, she and Stephan are friends.

I think I like this world again.