Hodge Podge - Anyone Doing NaNoEdMo?

ery all over the place sort of day today.

I got sidetracked in the morning by scene ideas for a story I'm not supposed to be working on until not only the current novel but its sequel is complete.


Then I got derailed by posting about my cats on the Compuserve Forum. And I still have two beta reads and two book review reads to get through, at least by the end of the week.

But enough about my lollygagging. Happy Saint David's Day! Is anyone else doing NaNoEdMo this year?

As I was editing like mad this past weekend, I discovered another WineLit snip! This one's short enough to include here...

From Out of the Water, the wedding night scene:

She was drowsing over the pages when a knock came at her door. She shook herself awake and crawled out of her bunk, holding the lantern aloft as she opened the door a crack.

"May I come in, Peri?"

She stepped back and he came through, bolting the door behind him.

"I have some wine," he offered, holding up a half-filled bottle. "The captain won a crate in a game of cards, apparently, and has been passing it around to all the hands not on duty. But I'd rather share it with you."

She buried her face in the cupboard, searching for glasses, thankful for the dimness that hid her blushing cheeks.

He poured her a glass and watched as she sipped it.

"It's very sweet," she suggested, not knowing what else to say. Shadows played across his face from the lantern light on the table, darkening his eyes to two black pools that threatened to drown her.

"It's meant to be drunk with biscuits," he advised, filling his own glass and sitting beside her on the bunk. "I'm afraid there was none left."

His body was very warm, the touch of his knee on hers like a shock of lightning, rattling her to the core. The wine sloshed in her glass as she raised it for another sip.

"Lantern light becomes you, my wife," he said gently.

She had no reply to that either, and hid her face in her cup. The wine coated her tongue and floated up her nose.

"Are you afraid of the dragon, Peri?"

"No," she whispered. "Not if you're my dragon now."