Aearwen's Corner

It has been a relatively good week - so far. I have gotten some writing done - more on IDD's next chapter, a sequel to "Ghost" has been beta'ed, I've even tinkered with "Strange Melodies" a bit - and then, it happened. My Silmarillion Muse, who looks suspiciously like a very large, very scary and very determined spider (I know this because she took up housekeeping with me a while back) decided that the time had come for me to write the untold story of Dior's twin sons, Eluréd and Elurín. The first chapter of that is now being run past the gauntlet of The Lizard Council and In The Hall of Fire for concrit and commentary, and I have a healthy start on chapter 2. I'm actually pleased with the progress I've made on this.

And I tell you all this so that you don't freak out on me when I tell you that this is the last chapter of In The Hidden Valley. No, I don't intend to write a sequel to it either (although, considering the capricious character of my Muse, I don't dare rule it out.) And so, without further ado:

( Epilogue )

Here's the next chapter of this one...

( In The Hidden Valley - Chapter 8 - What To Do? )

Another week has come and gone. My writing has progressed sporatically: I've finished another chapter each on "I Dhaerlend Dadui" and "Changeling" (the sequel to "Elladaniel" - yes, I'm finally working on that one.) I also have a sequel to what I thought was a one-shot called "Return" called "Sacrifices" that is just about through the beta/concrit stage. No new drabbles lately, though.

With that, let me begin my weekend postings with the next chapter of ( In The Hidden Valley - Chapter 5 - Exchanges )

An interesting week overall. Sunday saw my youngest son marry his lady in a lovely venue situated up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. The drive up there (it was over 300 miles from here to there) was even more boring than usual; seems there's water politics going on in the Central Valley that has about half the orchards along the way dead as doornails. Highway 5 is not my favorite route to begin with, but we wanted to get there in time... so...

The entire day (once we got there) would have been perfect had it not been 103° - and the wedding held out of doors. What was more, guests were asked to be present at least one half hour ahead of time - so we stood or sat and wilted in the heat for a significant time before things got started. My hubby, whose health is not good in the best of times, had to be driven back to the motel directly after the ceremony so that he wouldn't collapse from heat prostration. He missed the dinner, toast, cake, bouquet/garter, and dancing. I managed to get back from delivering him to the motel in time to scarf down a dinner, ended up getting my champagne stolen by the caterers clearing the tables without asking if we were done with our drinks, dancing a wonderful dance with my son, and then driving the rest of our group back to the motel.

Monday saw me making the executive decision to take an alternate route home. I'd be damned if all I'd see that day was dead grass and dead orchards. I told Maraya later that I'd found where we could spend a weekend roadtrip this next spring - IF we decide not to go to AZ to the Renaissance Faire, that is.

I've spent the better part of the week getting over being exhausted from two days of driving for over 6 hours. Bill's legs did well in the SUV that Maraya rented in order to convince him to go (his doctors really don't want him traveling very much). Having gone to university in Fresno for three years, I now remember again why we moved to the coast after our marriage. Oy!

All this as prologue to the next chapter of In the Hidden Valley. Enjoy!

( In The Hidden Valley - Chapter 3 - The Morning After )

Another week has come and gone, and the time has come to unveil my newest story. I had lots of fun writing this, although it was grueling because it came all at once and VERY fast. I hope you enjoy it.

This one is entitled In the Hidden Valley. A short summary:

A single glimpse of mysterious buildings in a remote forest brings a grieving woman on a journey to a place she could never have imagined - and an adventure beyond her dreams.

And so, without further ado:

( In the Hidden Valley - Chapter 1 - Discovery )