Lucky Seven

Coming late to a meme. And actually, no one tagged me on it, but who cares, I'll play anyway.

The idea is to go to page 77 of your current WIP, count down seven lines, then post the next seven.

Being me, I made this more complicated than it is. First I had to decide whether page 77 meant page 77 single-spaced or page 77 double-spaced. I write single-spaced, so I went with that. And I didn't want to have to do actual math to figure out what page it would land on if it was double-spaced.

Then I had to figure out exactly what "current WIP" meant to me, because what I'm currently working on is the final section of what will likely be the third volume of a trilogy, even though I persist in thinking of the thing as one manuscript. Besides, if I use what will be Vol. I, the seven-line thing straddles a scene break, which is awkward. And do I count the white space as lines?

OK, so maybe it's better to count from the beginning of Vol. III, though it's not been settled exactly where Vol. III will begin. I suppose I could count in from the beginning of the final section...

What the heck. I'll do both.

From Vol. III (untitled)

The Elder lowered the whip. Yakoba tried not to flinch from her eyes, which were knife-bright, slicing into his very soul.

"I made you," she said between clenched teeth. "I forged you, honed you. And now you are a tool broken and fit for nothing. Why have you done this?"

 A formless panic began to coalesce, closing in. He groped through the wool in his mind, hunting for something solid to grasp, something that would help him make sense of the situation, which had deteriorated into the inexplicable with the swift madness of an evil dream.


From Vol. III, final section:

Snowflakes landed in the fire with soft hisses, a sound that pleased her, as did the crackling and popping, and the quiet percussion of flames beating at the air. The smell was a feast of burning pitch and wood; she even welcomed the biting, acrid smoke that made her eyes water whenever a stray draft wafted it her way. Best of all was the heat. It was a miracle. Ecstasy. She crowded as close as she dared, until her skin grew hot and rosy, and warmth at last seeped into her bones.

The one drawback to the fire was the way it illuminated dark corners, and in particular the dark corner that harbored the ugliness that was Yosi's head.

So at this point I'm supposed to name seven others bloggists to take up the challenge, but I need to get busy and write, so if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!