Second Book and Valentine's Day

Yep, today was Valentine's Day, but I tend to be one who calls it "Singles Awareness Day". Not that I really mind the day, or that it all gets to me, but it's kind of fun. Plus, being single as long as I have, it does get more noticeable every year around this day. :-P
I'm not at total loss for the day, however. My parents always get me a little something, and everyone at TLC sends greetings to each other. It's all fun.

Another point up for this post is that I've started writing my next book, already. I really didn't expect to start on it yet, but I guess my brain decided my post NaNo break had been long enough. Last night, after reading a bit of The Hobbit, I went to start on my laundry and the words for the prologue of the book started entering into my brain and wouldn't leave me alone until I had "written" it out into my computer. I haven't even begun editing my first book, and this one has decided it wants to come out! My, books are stubborn things.

This book is not a continuation off the first book, but it is in the same series. Most, if not all, of the books after the first will be highlighting the lives of different characters within the stories before the events in the first.
There is a list on the side of the books I've got right now, and what step of progress they are at in the present. -->
As I said, I only got the prologue out, so far, and I'm not going to share the whole thing here, but here is a bit of an excerpt from Faerie's Love: Naji's Story :

Naji’s reverie was broken as she was prompted by her father to respond to the courtiers’ condolences as they passed by them in single file. It seemed to Naji that the whole kingdom wanted to say they were sorry for them. She lifted her large gray eyes to each one, and whispered a small “Thank you” as they stopped in front of her. She really wished she could be somewhere else at the moment. Her feet were starting to ache, she felt fidgety and restless, and she wanted to find out why mother was empty now. Naji had overheard a few courtiers mention that the queen would be placed into one of the royal family crypts the next day- Naji guessed it was because her mother was empty. Did empty people get put into crypts? Why? Her five year old mind was very inquisitive. When there was a bit of a gap in the line, Naji ventured to ask her question to her nurse, but the only response she received was a frown and a reproving “Hush, little mistress. Have some proper respect for your mother.”

“I want to have respect for Mama, Ippy, but wouldn’t it be disrespectful to put her in such a thing as a crypt?” Naji pressed.

“No, Your Highness,” Nurse Ippy said, shaking her head and frowning further, “Not when she’s dead. A crypt, then, is the most respectful place you can put her.”

A second small excerpt:

When Naji awoke the next morning she found it was a beautifully sunny late spring day. She wanted nothing more than to put on her yellow dress and go outside and collect all the daisies she saw growing upon the hills in the castle’s parklands. Her dream was short lived, however, when Nurse Ippy told her no, and pulled out another lovely but rather simple black dress. Naji hated wearing black, and, as Ippy was tying her long golden hair back into a black ribbon, she made her feelings known.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but black is what you must wear, and will be wearing for the next month, so I suggest you reconcile yourself to it,” was the nurse’s firm response.

“But why?” Naji questioned, “Why must it be black? I don’t like black. It is the one color I do not understand.”

“Because black is the appropriate color for mourning, and you and your father the King are mourning your mother the Queen,” Ippy answered, “And you don’t have to understand it, you just have to wear it.” She gave a firm tug on the hair ribbon she had tied into a bow as she said this last statement.

What do you think, so far? :-)



Songs stuck in my head:
"All the Earth" by Parachute Band-

"Made Me Glad" by Hillsong