Stronger than an Angry Mom

I'm almost to the super action hero bit of TMT, editing-wise. I'll bet you didn't know a 16-year-old medieval girl could be a super action hero, huh? If you do enough Bad Stuff to a character...

I guess she's not a super action hero exactly. But she is...umm...forceful.

From The Murderess's Tale, Copyright 2006 by Susan Adrian, All Rights Reserved

Robert held out his hands as if to stop me. "What sin is this?" he screeched.

I did not stop. I pushed past his hands and dug the point of my knife into the soft flesh of his neck. He flattened against the wall, his eyes bulging.

"Who did this?" I hissed. "Where is the child?"

He swallowed, his Adam's apple sliding past the knife. "What mean you?"

I shoved the knife further, drawing blood. He gasped. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a tonsured head peek through the arch, then pull back quickly. No one came to help the Prior.

I must admit these are some of my very favorite scenes. There's only so much you can take, even if you're a normal girl, before losing it. And I don't recommend messing with a woman's kid, unless you want to see the vindictive mama-bear come out.

On another note, I realized yesterday that I was severely short on description of the church in these abbey scenes, so I took a bold step and e-mailed an archaeology professor at Sheffield University who has worked on the actual site, to see what he knows. What do I risk? Having to re-write the whole section, potentially, to fit "reality". But if I can make it more real from known information, I certainly will. And this is the perfect time in the process to do that. (Okay, it probably would've been better in the First draft, but then I just wanted to get this part of the plot done!)

Not much else of interest at the moment. Readying for the weekend, and vacation next week. A blasted squirrel apparently bit through our transformer this morning and knocked out power for a while, but obviously we're back up...

Medieval Word of the Day: Chichevache: The proper name of a fabulous monster said to feed only on patient wives, and hence, from the scarcity of the diet, to be always lean and hungry. Cf. BYCORNE.

(Man, I love these old tales.)