I’m still on a blogging break, but I’m taking a couple of days off work to enjoy a long weekend while summer is still here, so I can afford a bit of time for distractions. Drafting The Ashes of Home is going well. I just breezed past 100k and feel like I’m on the home stretch.
Last night I needed to foreshadow a dramatic event I was writing, so backtracked a few chapters to embellish a description earlier on. I kinda liked the description, and thought why not share it. It is far removed from the scenes I’ve posted previously. Here, Shayla has stowed away on a massive battleship and infiltrates an engineering crew...
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Industrial ear muffs barely deadened the noise echoing back and forth in the cathedral space that rose through most of the height of the hull. She’d grown used to near silence in Blazer’s machinery space, but here the quintuplet of hulking, pot-bellied power units was anything but quiet. The curving shells that filled most of the compartment hummed an almost subsonic note that tingled her bones. Accustomed as she was to technology from the microscopic to the gargantuan, she had never been this up close and personal with the living heart of a capital ship. Despite herself, her skin crawled in awe at the unimaginable power contained a few feet away. Behind layers of armor and magnetic containment fields, humans dared to subvert the power of suns.
She shivered, and returned her attention to the job at hand and the instructions in her earpiece fighting to be heard. From her vantage point high above the deck, the shrieking din of ancillary equipment that clustered at floor level was lessened, but only just.
A narrow slice of unencumbered air ran the length of the power plant on either side, giving minimally-adequate working room. Canary yellow gantries spanned the engineering space and hoisted the two ton dead weight of the fuel injector high into the air, but it took sweat and muscle, and a constant stream of commands mingled with coarse invective to line the cylinder up with its housing forty feet above the deck.
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So, how's your summer going? Taken vacations? Ready for school yet?
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21 comments:
I've been thinking abut you and hoping the writing was going well. it's good hearing from you. Take care.
Good to read you again, Ian!
Congratulations on the milestone. 100k is impressive.
And the embellished description - worth it, for sure!
Wow! Great writing.
Fantastic description, Ian!!! "Dared subvert the power of suns." What an arrogant bunch! Can't wait to read more!
Loved this! I got a real sense of this awe-inspiring ship.
Interesting engine room! Lots of cool details...
Wonderful description! I'm glad you came back this weekend to share and that the draft of this story is going well. :)
Stephen, yep, still hangin' in there :)
Kim, 100k is the kind of word count I usually aim for.
Cara, thanks.
Nancy, I wanted to convey arrogance without calling out out explicitly. Glad that came across.
Christina, that's what I wanted.
Veronica, trying to get enough details, but not too many to bog things down.
Jessica, draft is nearing completion. Hopefully next month.
Congrats on getting those 100k words done. Isn't that "I'm in the home stretch" a great feeling? Usually, I don't like a lot of description, esp. about a room. But the way you described it kept me reading each word. Well done. Yes, we humans are an arrogant bunch. :)
That's quite a space, full of clamor and moving parts. Sounds a little dangerous, and like quite an adventure!
Oh, can hear all those sounds and it's annoying trying to hear something in an ear piece then. Great descriptions!
Fantastic imagery. Enjoyed the snippet.
Wonderful descriptions! Great snippet!
This is a great description. I can see why you chose to share it. I especially enjoyed the line about her skin crawling in awe.
Hi Ian - the description is great - I can feel the claustrophobia of that space ... and I'm so glad it's coming along - 100,000 k ... wonderful.
Summer here is now hot, hot and hot - not usual for the UK - as you know ... as another hot day dawns - we had a brief respite yesterday - but for the next few ... it is much the same: warm!
Cheers Hilary
Wow, wonderful job passing the 100k mark. This excerpt is another wow--amazing description!
Summer is winding down for me. One final week before it's back to work/teaching! Enjoy your day! :)
Diane, yes this "nearly there" feeling is great, especially after so long seeing the story evolve.
Caitlin, Shayla will find out just how dangerous :)
Rin-Rin, I felt the soundscape was an important part of the space.
Karen & Elizabeth, thanks!
Ed, I just needed to come out of hiding for this one :)
Hilary, I heard about England's heat wave. We've had something similar (30+) but that's come to an end over the weekend.
Julie, glad you enjoyed it.
I live in the Southern Hemisphere, so our summer is before us. Already hotting up and we haven't had spring yet.
Thanks for sharing your writing, Ian. You've made great strides with this book! :-)
Fantastic descriptions, Ian. It had a sort of steampunk feel to it until you got to the part about the power of the suns.
Good to see you back for a bit. Glad you shared this. Shayla is such a great character.
Summer here has been hot and muggy--still is, but I hear that a cold front is about to drop our temps from upper 80s to the low 70s.
I have a week's vacation coming up (sort of--have to go in for one day) coming up next week. I am so ready. Three weeks left to use until the end of the year. We're just so busy at work right now, it's hard to get away.
Hope you've enjoyed the long weekend. :-)
Denise, well I hope you have a good summer!
Teresa, that's the problem I had this summer - deadlines to meet so no chance for a break.
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