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Yesterday, my daughter got a dog from the SPCA. It’s a beautiful mix of… puppy bits. Maybe some pit bull, maybe some boxer or maybe even chocolate lab. She’s sweet, and quiet. And introductions to my cat didn’t go well. At all. Dagmar, the cat, was outside when we got home, waiting to come inside. One look at the dog, and much hissing occurred. And a bolt for safer corners (in between the porch supports). At least my daughter isn’t staying at home with the dog for long, as she’s just waiting for her new place to be painted.

So for today’s prompt, think about character introductions. As a new character enters, how do others react? Hiss and spit? Circle around warily? Effusive greeting with a belief that whomever you meet must automatically be your new best friend? Not everyone will react the same around a new person. And although a person may behave a certain way around one person, they won’t necessarily react in that manner with the next person they meet.

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Once again, here is another six sentences. Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment. You can find others on the Six Sentence Sunday website.

This week, I offer a snippet of dialogue that shows some of Nikolai’s thinking:

“We all have our unique abilities. Centhia appears to be under the illusion that yours is more significant than what the rest of us possess.” One shoulder rose slightly, and he swallowed a mouthful of coffee, eyes slightly closed. “Some of us are stronger than others. You know you aren’t one of them, and because of that I must spread out my resources to ensure your safety while you insist on living outside my protection. I only do this because I care for you, but I might not choose to do this forever.”

This is from a later scene.

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Skipping ahead just a little from the last scene. Just to refresh your memory, the troll asked for a dime. Well, and a penny.

I stepped in front of Nikolai, flinching as his black eyes bored into mine. The pain almost felled me, but I didn’t back down. So prove you have more honour than you think he has. Let me buy him. You can kill him if he steps out of line and tries to harm me.

As Nikolai’s eyes faded to brown, I quickly searched my pockets, found couple quarters and a penny and practically threw it at the troll.

You can read other entries on the Six Sentence Sunday website. So many great snippets, it’s hard to get through them all :} Thanks again to everyone that stops by and takes time to leave a comment.

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I’ve got an extremely large personal bubble around me. Along with that, my sense of personal boundaries is quite sensitive. And the older I get, the more it seems that my tolerance for encroaching my boundaries shrinks. So we’ve got a new guy at work. And he comes around on my side of the desk to talk to me. Ooh, so many possible reactions, but I try not to turn into a puffer fish and spine him to death. Really I do.

So for today’s prompt, what boundaries does your character have? Do they get up inside other people’s personal space when they talk? Try to maintain a set distance from people at all times? Imagine both perspectives. If your character likes to get inside another person’s boundaries, why do they do it? What reaction do they get? If your character is someone like a cop or detective, invading personal space could be a tactic to garner information. Would it work? Write a scene where you can explore issues of personal boundaries and the conflict/tension that can result from not listening to someone else’s body clues.

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Well, it’s Sunday. And you know what that means. Here are this week’s offering for Six Sentence Sunday. Again, thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment. You can find other submissions on the Six Sentence Sunday website. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, last week Nikolai was about to kill the troll and Tavi tried to stop him.

My mouth thinned into a hard line. I turned away, hurt, offended, and unwilling to watch.

“You have dime?” The troll’s voice came out more as a strained gasp than speech. No one responded. “Lady…”

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Ooh look, a writing prompt. I know I’ve been lax with these, but on the plus side I’ve also been writing again! Well except Christmas happened in there and writing got left for making gifties. But it’s January and time to get back to writing again.

So back to the prompt. Take a list of words that inspire you (maybe joy, thoughtful, kind, courage, etc.) and put them in a cup. Make a second list of nouns (house, shoe, box, etc.). Put them in a second cup. Draw one slip of paper from each cup. Now write something from those two words.

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Did everyone have a great new year’s eve? Hope you all had fun. I stayed home for a change and enjoyed a nice quiet evening with my knitting and a bit of spinning. And some hot chocolate. Everything is better with hot chocolate :} And Happy New Year! Wow, can’t believe it is 2012. Isn’t this the year time ends?

Here is this week’s six. Don’t forget to check out other offerings at Six Sentence Sunday. (Just to clarify, last week, it was the troll that said “stop”.)

He sagged in front of us, slumping to the ground like a big pile of rubble, clutching his shaggy head.

“You don’t have to kill him.” I laid a hand on Nikolai’s forearm.

“It would be better to let him kill you?”

“No. That’s not—”

“So stop interfering.”

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Time for another six sentences. For more great entries (er, not to say mine is great), check out the Six Sentence Sunday blog. Carrying on from last week:

Knowing what was coming, I closed my eyes, but not before pain razed across my temple. I plummeted to the ground in an ungracious heap. Still somewhat dazed, I skittered away from the troll, backing up against one of the few tombstones. As I blinked away the distortion in my mind, I could see the troll staggering in circles, a grimace distorting his features. He tried unsuccessfully to unsheathe his axe.

“Stop.”

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The semi-finalists are up for the “Can You Guess My Character’s Age” contest on Brenda Drake‘s blog. I’m not one of them, but it doesn’t surprise me much. You see, when I first wrote the story, I had mid-twenties in mind for my character. I also had in mind that she wasn’t a vampire, but that changed as the story progressed. Through several revisions and changes, the main character’s voice stayed consistent. And thus her age.

But based on certain feedback I’d received, I thought I had to change her age. But you can’t just do that arbitrarily without fixing the voice that goes along with it. And guess who didn’t do that. Truthfully, I entered the contest more to find out how old people thought my character might be so I knew whether to fix the voice or the age. In fact, when I sent in my entry, I sat for a long time trying to figure out what age she “should” be, and just slapped a number on. It didn’t work.

Although the age most people guessed is closer to my original intention, my main character is a vampire. As some guessed, she is newly turned (or recently), and I see her age as somewhat unimportant. She would have been about 24 or 25 when turned. This is about a year later. But she’d still think somewhat like a 25-year-old. The ancient, haunting way of thinking that comes with vampires wouldn’t start to set in until she’d been a vampire for most likely decades, if not centuries.

So here’s a big thank you to all of you for helping me sort out this detail.

 

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Okay, here are the next six sentences for Six Sentence Sunday. Just to clarify one little bit, the last line from last Sunday’s entry, Nikolai was the one to order the troll to let Tavi go. That might not be clear, and with the line break it wouldn’t be apparent that that sentence and the start of this entry go together. Again, thanks for all the feedback!

Nikolai appeared to increase in size so he seemed to loom in front of the troll. His coat rippled and swirled around him, heightening the illusion.

“You not hurt me.” The troll clutched me tighter to his chest, as if to use me as a shield.

“Really?” Nikolai raised one eyebrow and stared at the troll.