Hi, everyone, I’m back! I still haven’t really gotten back into the swing of things as far as writing is concerned, with only a measly 800 words written so far this week. But on the family front, things are looking a lot better, and my head is free for creativity again. In the next few days and weeks, I will be working on reestablishing my old writing habits, and hopefully the word counts will pick up again. I still have some present wrapping to do, but I got most of that done while I was still having more difficulty writing.
I realize that I have not yet done a write-up of the Villa Diodati workshop in France last month. I hope to get around to it in the next few days.
As a result of the family complications, I am woefully behind on all of my goals. Some of the things I did get done:
– Completed Life in the Fjord Lane and published to Createspace (I’m not sure if I want to bother publishing that one to Kindle, since it’s mostly a photography book)
– Published my first erotica story under a pen name
– Created the Epub version of Ein Krieger der Wikinger, the German translation of Judson Roberts’ Viking Warrior
– Set up a Countdown Deal for Shadow of Stone, including experiments in advertizing a 99c ebook
Gosh, looking at that list makes me feel that I got more done than I’d thought! Just not much in the new words department. But marketing and formatting and publishing has to get done too.
With the update out of the way, on to WIPpet Wednesday. This week I’m returning to Facets of Glass, and an excerpt directly following the last one you may or may not have seen here. As a result of critiques at the last Villa Diodati workshop, Gaetan’s name has been changed to Gaetano, since Gaetan didn’t sound Italian enough for my fellow writers. My math for 12/17 is to take 12 away from 17, giving me 5 paragraphs for today’s excerpt:
Gaetano bowed low, honored to be called into the presence of the dowager princess for a personal task.
When he straightened again, she gave him a warm smile. It always amazed him how beautiful she still was, although she was the mother of the most powerful prince in Venice. And today she was particularly stunning. The gleaming gold of her hair, usually covered, was pulled up on top of her head in a crown higher than the modest circlet she wore. In the back, curls tumbled artlessly around her long neck. Gaetano couldn’t help imaging how long her golden locks must be to achieve such an effect. Did they reach to her waist? Her hips?
He shook himself mentally. He shouldn’t be thinking about her this way — not only was she the female head of House Foscari (since no one took the new Princess Anastasia seriously) — she was old enough to be his mother. Not that anyone knew how old the dowager princess really was, but Prince Vittore was her son, and he was older than Gaetano.
Ergo … It was wrong on any number of levels to feel lust for Her Grace the Dowager Princess Zilia of the Foscari Dynatistic Princes of the Venetian Empire, Princess of Trentino, and Dowager Duchess of Ferrara.
There, much better. Reciting even a mere handful of her many formal titles in his mind made him feel much more like himself.
I doubt if I’ll have any time to post next week, since it’s Christmas Eve, and I will have a house full of people that I’ll be cooking for. So wishing you all a Merry Christmas ahead of time! As a little Christmas present from me, my short story collection Dragon Time is free through Saturday. 🙂

WIPpet Wednesday is the brain child of K. L. Schwengel. If you’d like to participate, post an excerpt from your WIP on your blog, something that relates to the date in some way. Then add your link here — where you can also read the other excerpts.
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