For those who haven’t been following this blog, let me introduce it a little. I am currently blogging my 21st novel that has the working title Daemon. The novel is about Aksinya, a sorceress, who, to save her family from the Bolsheviks, called and contracted the demon, Asmodeus. Her family was murdered anyway, and she fled with the demon from Russia to Austria.
Dobrushin and Aksinya married. Aksinya and Dobrushin are in Boston, and Aksinya has come to an Orthodox girl's school looking for a job. She is waiting for the headmistress to call on her, Stacy is called into the office first...
After a few minutes, Stacy exited the office. She held her features set in a look of contrition. The moment the door closed, she gave a very American, thumbs up to Aksinya, and mouthed, “It worked.” Then louder she said, “I hope you do teach here.” She skipped back down the hall to her class.
The door opened a crack, “Mrs. Aksinya Andreiovna Lopuhin, please enter.”
Aksinya stood and entered the office. The headmistress had her back to Aksinya and walked back to her desk. The woman seemed young. Very young for a headmistress. One shoulder drooped a little lower than the other, but her back was ramrod straight and her clothing was very fine, much finer than Aksinya’s.
The desk was large and filled one end of the room. The office was rather deep and had a fireplace on the left wall. Some padded chairs and a simple tea table were arranged before the fireplace. An unpadded chair sat before the desk. Without turning, the headmistress pointed to that chair. Aksinya stood beside it and waited for the headmistress to sit.
The moment the headmistress turned, Aksinya dropped her briefcase. Her mouth fell open. She couldn’t speak.
The woman before her gave a cry, “Princess Aksinya.” She rushed around the desk and embraced her.
I wanted to show you how Aksinya has gone from a person who could not intentionally help anyone to a person who could not help but help. She gives Stacy good advice. The advice pleases Stacy and obviously made the headmistress happy. The foreshadowing and the encouragement from Stacy is that she wants Aksinya to come teach at the school. Can you imagine Aksinya as a teacher--not before, but perhaps now.
Then the headmistress calls Aksinya into her office. The headmistress' back is to Aksinya--perhaps she has already written her off. I give you some clues: the headmistress is young, one shoulder droops, but her back is straight. Her clothing is finer than Aksinya's. Then I set the scene and describe the room. This is an advanced writing technique--I give you the info I want about the headmistress, then I move to the room description. This gives you time to process the information.
Aksinya waits for the headmistress to sit. Then I do give you a grand coincidence. I will admit, this could be considered a Deus ex Machina. I wanted to give a final punch to the novel and this is it. Tomorrow, who is the headmistress.
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