Sunday, February 28, 2010

going public

K. I did it. I crossed the bridge. I posted this blog site on facebook so my friends could see it. For those of you that come to visit, I hope you like it. If you do, please pass it along. With time, I plan to give much more information about the book itself. Perhaps even post some chapters. We'll see. Please don't make fun. This is just me doing what I love!

Here's a little teaser from the opening scene:

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Leef stared absentmindedly into the fire, unaware of his brother's attempts to distract him from his thoughts. The dancing flames cast flickering shadows in every direction as though the roof of the citadel were alive. Every so often, movement would catch his eye, and Leef would look quickly only to see dancing shadows. The Seven Moons dotted the night sky in their various hues of pink, blue and white, with the closest and largest high overhead, nearly at its apex, casting a pale glow over everything not engulfed in firelight. The lights of Palithor, the capitol city of the entire First Province blazed in every direction, as far as the eye could see. Every direction but one.

Leef stared to the west, where the lights of the city abruptly stopped. In the darkness the World Wall was invisible, but he knew it was there. Everyone did. An endless cliff towering high above the clouds. Nobody knew what lie on top because the cliff extended farther to the north and south than anybody had ever travelled. Leef had spent countless hours lying at the base of the cliff, staring up and imagining what was on top.

Below, in the courtyard of the citadel, the Sacred Path of the Stones was illuminated by bright white lights, an exceptionally rare luxury. Every few minutes, Leef glanced furtively toward the center of the courtyard, though from the height of the tower it was hard to make out anything other than faint movement and lights. The sounds of the crowd eclipsed the distance, allowing both men to hear the excitement.

...

Leef wondered what it had been like on the day of his birth when he was presented to the Emperor's chief mystic to see if he would be called to the Stones. Every Kirini child born in the first province was brought before the mystic, mere hours after birth, who placed a small purple gem on the child's forehead. If the stone glowed, and it rarely did, the child was selected for alignment when he turned 17. Chaman had told Leef that it was exceptionally rare for two babies born to the same parents to both glow the selection gem.

"C'mon, brother, what's bothering you?" Chaman asked sincerely. He was watching Leef, obviously excited at the prospect of what the next hour would bring but also sympathetic having just gnoe through the ritual the previous year.

When Leef didn't answer, Chaman scooted over to sit next to his younger brother by the fire. Fires weren't necessary in the Citadel. Glowing white stones lined the outermost walls of the Citadel, creating a near blinding outline to the building which could be seen for miles around. Similar stones could be seen throughout the city, though nowhere had the concentration of the Citadel. Their glow could not be explained. It just happened. Their light never extinguished or dimmed.

Leef just liked fire. Even though his family had never required it except for cooking, he always enjoyed watching the flames when he spent time with his other friends, as his father called them. Friends who simply didn't have the money to purchase illuminite stones, and they used fires or candles for light The only fire that had ever burned in Leef's home had been in the kitchen where the meals were prepared. He was rarely allowed there, so watching the flames was somewhat of a luxury to him. How ironic, he thought, that fire, the symbol of poverty in the First Province, was something he loved.

No, illuminites defined affluence in Palithor. Every family with money owned at least one illuminite to light their homes, and even families without saved for years to be able to buy one. Virtually all illuminites were blue, though the more expensive the stone, the whiter the light. The very rarest and most precious illuminites were pure white, as the sun, and offered no blue tinge whatsoever Very few of even the wealthiest families in the province had even a single white illuminite. The cost of even a small one could exceed the value of an entire castle. Leef's family owned four, and even the bluest light in the Fildanner home was far whiter than those found in many of the wealthier homes of the province.

The Citadel, however, was full of them. They filled every room and lined the walls of the building itself. It was the mark of its power, its dominance. At night, amidst a city of blue light stood the Great White Bastion, as it was called by outsiders. Even from miles outside the city where the blue light could not be seen, far off travellers could see the white lights of the Citadel.

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That's all for now. More to come if you like it. Let me know.



JSE

1 comment:

  1. Scott, just read this, it sounds great! You are extremely talented!

    ReplyDelete