NJ Highlands writing retreat. One of the nice things about my friend’s house is that it’s surrounded by hiking trails. So the schedule so far today:
8 – noon — breakfast and brief chatting with writing compatriots, then three solid hours of revision, finishing up the pass on Liminal Space that I started at ICFA and didn’t quite finish there.
noon – 2:30 — long break to take a big hike through the woods and eventually down to the river and back again, followed by making a little lunch.
Now another round of writing, implementing critique notes. I’m hoping to get that done in about two hours, at which point, this book might be ready to send to my agent. Maybe? We’ll see how it goes. Aigh. A little nerve-wracking, but it will be so good to have this finally out the door.
*****
“Raj moved, swift as death, his arms reaching out to grab his daughter, pull her to safety. He was bigger and stronger than his father; on any other day, it would have worked. But Raj staggered as he lunged, his wound betraying him. Dinesh roared fury, and slammed a fist into his son’s wounded gut, knocking Raj to the ground.
Maya had reached out, at almost the same moment, but Raj fell into her on the way down, and they both tumbled to the hard wood floor. Maya landed badly on elbow and hip, and gasped with the pain of it. Arjun let out a sound of protest, but Leila was dead silent; the only other sounds in the room came from the sobbing children. Maya felt fury choking her. After all this, after every agonizing conversation, every painful decision, would sheer brute force destroy this House?”
