Rocking the 'WriMo

NaNoWriMo is so close, I can almost taste it. 13 days until I take the full plunge into Proxy, my newest novel in the Ilikarr trio. I actually hope to finish the novel (the scenes outlined in my plot list) by the end of November and then move straight to editing in the new year.

This is sure to be a wild November! :D

Proxy

Synopsis: The faeries have finally struck. After months of quivering silence and mounting fear, an unforgivable act sends the nation of Ilikarr reeling from its impact. King Keiran is proving to be less and less like his shrewd father, unable to seek out a course of action that would counter this audacious move, when his sister, the sharp-tongued Ellyn, offers a plan crafted by the only faerie human in their history. It calls for the purposeful infiltration of the Kingdom, a daring ruse that Ellyn hopes will get them close enough to Queen Athalia to assassinate her before she leads her band to war against the innocent. And there is only one candidate left.

Excerpt:

The executor cleared his throat for the seventh time. Ellyn giggled. With so many people in the hall, it was no wonder he could not get the attention of his audience.

The funeral had been the week before and an utterly bleak affair. Her mother had excused herself shortly after the speeches began, to hide the tears she could no longer repress. Time had seemed to drag on as the men and women who had had the privilege of knowing her father spoke at length of his noble attributes. Lord Elwin praised the king’s shrewdness. Master Quiggs commended his bravery in the face of his illness. By the time her brother had finished outlining her father’s character, nearly everyone was crying, some discreetly, others’ sobbing in flagrance. Thankfully, Councilor Morven told a somewhat irreverent tale of the king’s more unorthodox methods in closed sessions of council which ended the procession with laughter.

Ellyn could see the councilor from where she sat, his wild red hair flashing like a beacon through the gloom of the room. There were others present that she knew, though the majority of people that had been summoned were unknown to her. Her family was there of course. Nara was still beside herself with grief and her mother looked grim, but Wyn sat expectantly, as if eager to hear the reading of the will. Ellyn did not blame her. While she cared little for what her father had left her—what could he have to give that would replace him sitting by her side—Ellyn wanted to understand what the others in the room had to do with the life her father had led.

Her brother and his wife had yet to arrive, but Penna was there, sitting beside her love. Ellyn was glad to see her. The last several months had to have been hard on her friend, what with the public outcry at her release. The people of Redge felt that someone had to pay for all the faeries had done to the women of the village last summer. As Penna had admitted that her own faerie blood had caused her to transform into one of those terrifying creatures, in an open trial before the Council no less, the blame was easily fixed on her.

It had angered Ellyn beyond words to see her people turning into mindless, raging lunatics, so eager to satisfy their own lust for revenge that they would try to tear apart the life of a traumatized young woman, a person she had known her entire life. And so it had fallen to her to act. It was one of the last things Ellyn had discussed with her father, before his sharp mind had finally forsaken him as well. Ellyn sought out the opposing force, the grief-stricken, irrational crew that they were, and sat them down with Penna. When Penna told her story, of how she had lived terrorized by a voice only she could hear, only to be kidnapped and made to live among the faeries against her will, Ellyn watched as the people slowly relinquished their hold on hatred.

Redge had not returned to normal since then. It was still reeling from the loss of its women, for even those who had been freed were mere shadows of the people they had once been. But slowly, the land was healing. Penna seemed to have, in some small measure. The girl was certainly thinner and paler than last June, but still she smiled, her hand tight in Drewan’s. Ellyn beamed at her.