Can y’all believe we’re a week into March? I finally managed to score a Qamber Designs planner (not kidding, my fav so far, and I’m not saying it cause I love those ladies). I re-discovered this year that I am not functional without a planner of some kind. Simply making notes in my OneNote aren’t enough. Hence my fresh attempt to organize my twisty life. It’s already making a difference this past week and I’m hoping to see higher productivity all around. But especially with Silver Hollow rewrites. I’m well into Part 5 and just working to bridge what was with the fresh content. So bare with me. Or you know, spur me on with likes & loves and “you can do it!” ;p
Silver Hollow 2018 Edition Teaser
For a time, there was only the soft swish of parting grass and their shallow breaths. If only she could pull Nimue’s abilities from thin air at will. This would all be so much easier if she simply remembered how to move like predator. Amie didn’t want to recall anymore her Uncle’s teachings but heard his words clearly nonetheless.
“Let the stillness come from within first…do not fear the silence.”
Daring to cast out her awareness once more, Amie listened. Life continued with the singing hobgoblins as they finished their supper in the gooseberry fields. Pixies danced in the garden and the forest ahead while flobbergidits rustled beneath her hands. Cook washed his pots in the kitchen tub with Underhill’s help as she guessed the secret ingredient to his latest recipe. A multitude of sounds swept with each push the wind gave to the trees. Somewhere in the castle Henry and Dameri were discussing matters not meant for her ears.
“You shall have to do it when the time comes, Meri. I am not strong enough and far out of my depth.”
“How can you even ask me this?” her mother rasped.
Henry sighed. “Because I trust you, my love… You know I never stopped.”
Embarrassed as the sound of kissing followed, Amie focused on clink of metal from the stable ahead. Arthur caught her eye, then lifted a finger to his lips while motioning off to the looming treeline. She followed and remembered to breathe back in, until she was herself again, eager to leave Wenderdowne behind.
Soon they passed the last light of civilization and the sound of a blacksmith’s hammer was swallowed by the forest. Rain heralded their arrival, a light sprinkling to accompany ever-freezing seasonal winds and cover the sound of their escape.
Escape?
Amie stood with Arthur and trod carefully after him through tangled roots. Rain clouds hid the moon and stars, leaving soft pixie lights as their only lumination. “I hope you know where we’re going.” Amie whispered while attempting to close the distance her grandfather made with his longer legs.
He paused and lifted his head to catch stray raindrops on his tongue. During the past week of lessons with the man, she had come to expect these moments of madness. Amie kept her eye on the shadows around them, half expecting Grimwich or worse to catch them.
“Be at ease, magpie.” Arthur faced her with an odd blend of wild Zen. “The forest surrounding Wenderdowne has a way of flummoxing magic users,” he explained. “Drives Seelie and Unseelie mad.” He chuckled darkly and set his hand on the pommel of Excalibur. The family steel sang and white-hot pain seared up her arm. His eyes tracked her motion, smile widening as he beckoned. “Follow me, Jessie. Though it has been a bloody Seelie age since I last tread these woods, I have something the good folk do not.”
Amie shuddered as the edge of his sword brushed her leg and stepped away. “What might that be?”
“I have you, little princess,” Arthur replied, laughing as he lifted his free palm to the rain. “Lead the way.”
Amie tugged her hood forward as it slipped past the crown of her head. “You don’t know where we’re going.”
“Well of course I do! We are going to find Merlin and you shall lead the way.” Before she could follow with more questions he stepped forward. “You have been linked to him since the moment you were reborn, Nimue. Open your heart and follow his shadow.”
Amie pressed a hand to her chest, until her family crest brushed the scar Emrys had healed. “I’m supposed to channel moonlight, grandfather.” Puck’s suggestion still loomed with sinister intent over her thoughts.
It’s best we get away from the house a while.
“What is moonlight without her shadow? Even she is shrouded in darkness much of her life. His shadow is part of you. Trust him.”
The darkness loomed closer, as if sensing the turn of her thoughts. “That’s the problem,” she confessed. “I don’t know if I can.”
Arthur hummed and tilted his head back. “Suppose we could wander about until a worthy foe crosses our path.”
Déjà vu washed over her with a vision of a boy king and his long-suffering companion for the journey, forced to save his scrawny neck from golem and dragon alike.
Amie stepped forward with renewed desperation. “I’ll trust the shadows.”
to be continued…
Goals: aka Morphin’ Time
- Finish and submit Part 5 for editing rounds in two weeks or less.
- Begin to order bookmarks and fun swag 😉
- Schedule re-launch events
- Send out ARCS & set up Goodreads page w/giveaway
- Publish in May (ish) -lol wish me luck!
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Jennifer Silverwood 