Writing - part xxxx168 Enchantment Series, Rose

11 September 2025, Writing - part xxxx168 Enchantment Series, Rose

Announcement: I still need a new publisher.  However, I’ve taken the step to republish my previously published novels.  I’m starting with Centurion, and we’ll see from there.  Since previously published novels have little chance of publication in the market (unless they are huge best sellers), I might as well get those older novels back out.  I’m going through Amazon Publishing, and I’ll pass the information on to you.

Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21^st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.

I’m using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I’ll keep you informed along the way.

Today’s Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my writing websites http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

The four plus two basic rules I employ when writing:

1. Don’t confuse your readers.

2. Entertain your readers.

3. Ground your readers in the writing.

4. Don’t show (or tell) everything.

     4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage of the novel.

5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.

6. The initial scene is the most important scene.

 

These are the steps I use to write a novel including the five discrete parts of a novel:

                     1.     Design the initial scene

2.     Develop a theme statement (initial setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or antagonist, action statement)

a.      Research as required

b.     Develop the initial setting

c.      Develop the characters

d.     Identify the telic flaw (internal and external)

3.     Write the initial scene (identify the output: implied setting, implied characters, implied action movement)

4.     Write the next scene(s) to the climax (rising action)

5.     Write the climax scene

6.     Write the falling action scene(s)

7.     Write the dénouement scene

I finished writing my 31^st novel, working title, Cassandra, potential title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors.  The theme statement is: Deirdre and Sorcha are redirected to French finishing school where they discover difficult mysteries, people, and events.

I finished writing my 34^th novel (actually my 32^nd completed novel), Seoirse, potential title Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment.  The theme statement is: Seoirse is assigned to be Rose’s protector and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with five goddesses and schoolwork; unfortunately, Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.     

Here is the cover proposal for the third edition of Centurion:

Cover Proposal

The most important scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising action. I am continuing to write on my 30^th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 29^th novel, working title Detective.  I finished writing number 31, working title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warrior.  I just finished my 32^nd novel and 33^rd novel: Rose: Enchantment and the Flower, and Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment.

How to begin a novel.  Number one thought, we need an entertaining idea.  I usually encapsulate such an idea with a theme statement.  Since I’m writing a new novel, we need a new theme statement.  Here is an initial cut.

For novel 30:  Red Sonja, a Soviet spy, infiltrates the X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s administrative clerk, learns about freedom, and is redeemed.

For Novel 32:  Shiggy Tash finds a lost girl in the isolated Scottish safe house her organization gives her for her latest assignment: Rose Craigie has nothing, is alone, and needs someone or something to rescue and acknowledge her as a human being.

For novel 33, Book girl:  Siobhàn Shaw is Morven McLean’s savior—they are both attending Kilgraston School in Scotland when Morven loses everything, her wealth, position, and friends, and Siobhàn Shaw is the only one left to befriend and help her discover the one thing that might save Morven’s family and existence.

For novel 34:  Seoirse is assigned to be Rose’s protector and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with five goddesses and schoolwork; unfortunately, Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.

For novel 35: Eoghan, a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

Here is the scene development outline:

1. Scene input (comes from the previous scene output or is an initial scene)

2. Write the scene setting (place, time, stuff, and characters)

3. Imagine the output, creative elements, plot, telic flaw resolution (climax) and develop the tension and release.

4. Write the scene using the output and creative elements to build the tension.

5. Write the release

6. Write the kicker

Today:  Let me tell you a little about writing.  Writing isn’t so much a hobby, a career, or a pastime.  Writing is a habit and an obsession.  We who love to write love to write. 

If you love to write, the problem is gaining the skills to write well.  We want to write well enough to have others enjoy our writing.  This is important.  No one writes just for themselves the idea is absolutely irrational and silly.  I can prove why.

In the first place, the purpose of writing is communication—that’s the only purpose.  Writing is the abstract communication of the mind through symbols.  As time goes by, we as writers gain more and better tools and our readers gain more and better appreciation for those tools and skills—even if they have no idea what they are. 

We are in the modern era.  In this time, the action and dialog style along with the push of technology forced novels into the form of third person, past tense, action and dialog style, implying the future.  This is the modern style of the novel.  I also showed how the end of literature created the reflected worldview.  We have three possible worldviews for a novel: the real, the reflected, and the created.  I choose to work in the reflected worldview.

Why don’t we go back to the basics and just writing a novel?  I can tell you what I do, and show you how I go about putting a novel together.  We can start with developing an idea then move into the details of the writing. 

Ideas.  We need ideas.  Ideas allow us to figure out the protagonist and the telic flaw.  Ideas don’t come fully armed from the mind of Zeus.  We need to cultivate ideas. 

1.     Read novels. 

2.     Fill your mind with good stuff—basically the stuff you want to write about. 

3.     Figure out what will build ideas in your mind and what will kill ideas in your mind.

4.     Study.

5.     Teach. 

6.     Make the catharsis. 

7.     Write.

The development of ideas is based on study and research, but it is also based on creativity.  Creativity is the extrapolation of older ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new form.  It is a reflection of something new created with ties to the history, science, and logic (the intellect).  Creativity requires consuming, thinking, and producing.

If we have filled our mind with all kinds of information and ideas, we are ready to become creative.  Creativity means the extrapolation of older ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new form.  Literally, we are seeing the world in a new way, or actually, we are seeing some part of the world in a new way. 

The beginning of creativity is study and effort.  We can use this to extrapolate to creativity.  In addition, we need to look at recording ideas and working with ideas.

With that said, where should we go?  Should I delve into ideas and creativity again, or should we just move into the novel again?  Should I develop a new protagonist, which, we know, will result in a new novel.  I’ve got an idea, but it went stale.  Let’s look at the outline for a novel again:

1.      The initial scene

2.     The rising action scenes

3.     The climax scene

4.     The falling action scene(s)

5.     The dénouement scene(s)

 

I’d like to get Ancient Light republished and the other novels in this series published.  I’m afraid I’ll have to do it independently, but I don’t think I can trust Amazon to do it. 

 

Now, to another series.  I didn’t get tired of Ancient Light, but I finished it.  Before Ancient Light was finished, I wanted another series that fit in the world of Ancient Light, but that focused on new characters and places.  The first novel was Hestia.  Actually, Hestia: Enchantment of the Hearth.  In Hestia, I developed a novel based on another goddess.  This time one of the Greek Titans.  In fact, the only Greek Titan who remained in the Greek pantheon.  I’ll explain more, next.

 

Rose: Enchantment and the Flower is another Enchantment novel.  I developed the protagonist as an example in this blog.  The point was to create and document a nearly perfect protagonist, and then I used her to write a novel.  What was so unique about Rose?

 

Rose is a nearly perfect Romantic protagonist.  She was an isolated child who lived in abject poverty because her mother left her, her father died on her, and her grandparents died before that.  I should also relate that her father mortgaged the house and used all the proceeds.  So Rose, an unwanted child was left in a house in Rousay of the Orkney Islands with no money, no supervision, no help, and no one knew she even existed—that is until Shiggy Tash came to use the house during an assignment.

 

Shiggy Tash is a member of Stela—she even has her own novel (Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse).  Shiggy’s purpose is to work to defend the United Kingdom from the supernatural.  She is well versed in this work.  Her job is also to protect the British and UK supernatural from adverse events.  When Shiggy comes to use Rose’s house, it shouldn’t be unusual that Shiggy can detect her. 

I should mention that Rose is half Fae.  Her mother was Fae and her father was from Rousay.  She can hide in plain sight, except from those who are trained or who have the second sight.  Shiggy is both trained and has some natural inclination, also trained, in the second sight.  She spots Rose right away.

 

Before I continue with the plot, I should mention some other characteristics of Rose that makes her an ideal Romantic protagonist.  The first is her bearing.  Although she was raised in isolation, her grandmother taught her to act like a completely civilized person.  She has a bearing that is remarkable for so isolated a person.  Second, the house attic is filled with books, and Rose loves books.  Rose has spent her entire young life reading the books on the upper floor.  She has read English, French, Latin, and Greek books.  You might ask how that might be.  She does have Fae powers and can understand Gaelic and the Fae languages.  She is a linguistic genius.  Third, Rose knows how to use Fae glamour and is unaccountably good at it.  She has a special type of glamour that allows the manipulation of minds and bodies of humans and the Fae.  This type of power is very dangerous, but Rose is a very controlled person.  That’s her nature and training.  Then Shiggy comes.  I’ll relate that, next.

 

Rose meets Shiggy while Shiggy is checking out her safe house.  Things might have gone very differently if anyone else had come to Viera Lodge on Rousay Island.  Rose had no reason to hide herself, but everyone else who came to the house had made plenty of noise—Shiggy is a kind of spy.  Her job is in intelligence, and the last thing she needs is a liability.  Shiggy is also the best kind of person to discover Rose, because Rose is half Fae and Shiggy knows how to work with the Fae.  This is the best for Rose, but Rose has no idea at all.  Plus, how do you approach a young woman who has hidden from the world for her entire lifetime.

 

The first step is capture.  Rose is a very slippery type of being, all the Fae are.  They are hard to catch, hard to see, harder to keep under control.  Shiggy knows this.  She also has a lot of tools at her fingertips.  It’s a little difficult to express the entire scene without giving you the scene.  I think this is one of the most entertaining scenes and situations I’ve written in my novels.  The meeting between the protagonist (Rose) and the protagonist’s helper Shiggy, should be exciting and fun.  Perhaps I’ll give it to you.  I’ll do that, next.

 

I dumped the breadcrumbs.  I hated to do it because it was partially my observations on Europe, but here we are.  I’ll give you the first scene and chapter from Rose.  This way you can see the development of an initial scene and a protagonist.  Here’s the first part—I’ll pass it to you in sections:

 

January 2028, Rousay, Orkney Islands, Scotland   

 

The once Shiggaion Tash, now Shiggy Tash, stepped out of her small and ancient Triumph touring car.  She clutched her gold Gucci bag closer to the heavy black Givenchy coat that covered her short blue Zuhair Murad skirt.  It was freezing and the short skirt didn’t help much, but that was a necessary inconvenience when she needed constant access to her special, um, gear.  She gazed up at the whitewashed brick side of Viera Lodge and shrugged.  It was the best The Organization could do on short notice, and in this area. 

Actually, the house was remarkably nice for the Scottish Orkney Islands, and especially for tiny Rousay Island in particular.  She’d memorized everything about it.  It should be very pleasant if all the information she received was correct.  The house was newly refurbished around 2024.  There was a garage, but she didn’t trust them during operations.  Perhaps if she had a second vehicle.  She glanced back at the tactically parked Triumph, and mouthed, “Old Scorch, you’ll have to make do with the cold.”

The house was two storied and pretty ancient.  She knew it was originally built around 1836.  It possessed a section at this side that held the kitchen with a large new bath above.  Every external wall of the house was freshly painted white, she had guessed whitewash.  In the setting winter sun, it certainly looked like whitewash, at least under the brilliant orange reflection of the sun. 

The rest of the house rose up beyond the kitchen and into its upper story.  The place was supposed to be haunted, but Shiggy didn’t believe in ghosts.  She took a very careful visual scan around the grounds and buildings.  She had been scanning the place since it came within sight from the road, the B9064.  She had seen nothing with her infrared scanners or visually to alarm her.  She had seen no other cars since she drove out of the Rousay Orkney ferry terminal. 

 Shiggy locked her car with the clicker, it was silenced, and held the car keys between her fingers while digging into her purse for the house keys.  She unbuttoned her coat as she stepped cautiously toward the outside door to the kitchen.  Shiggy stopped at the left side of the door and flattened herself against the wall.  She shivered and made a face, then she moved her head forward, but not within the plane of the door and listened closely.  Nothing.  With one hand she unlocked the kitchen door and pushed it open.

She waited a goodly interval listening before she slipped silently through the door and into the kitchen.  She noted, the stone walls of the house were very thick.  The door jams indicated they were at least two feet thick.  The house was cold, but not freezing, not like the outside.  She shivered again.  That stupid real estate bink had told her they checked everything and turned on all the utilities.  This was a pisser. 

The interior remained lighted well enough from the setting sun through the windows for her to see very well.  The kitchen was nicely done up in modern white and black.  A rectangular table sat in the center surrounded by simple red upholstered chairs.  The place smelled musty, and she made another face.  It was supposed to be immediately usable.  That’s what they had told The Organization and her boss, Sorcha.  Shiggy didn’t turn on the lights—no reason to alert any unexpected inhabitants. 

Her lip curled up as she ran a finger along the countertop—dust.  Everywhere dust.  She shook her head and rolled her eyes.  Well, this room was clear.  Not as shipshape as she hoped but clear of any threats.

Shiggy pulled off her heavy black Givenchy coat and laid it quietly over one of the kitchen chairs.  She needed access to her weapons and no impediments to her activities. 

With movements that were unusually quiet for a woman wearing Christian Louboutin metal shanked stiletto heels, Shiggy made her way to the open interior kitchen door.  She intentionally left the exterior door unlocked and unlatched for the moment.  The motion sensors in her car would tell her if anyone approached this side of the house from the exterior.  She had pointed one of the sensors directly toward the house.

The interior kitchen door opened to a dining room with a large dark oak table, chairs, and a sideboard.  On the opposite side of the room to the right, a couple of doors, she knew, led to closets and a water closet.  On the left, lay a vestibule.  The vestibule contained a door to the outside and the garden as well as the stairs to the upper floor.  Further to her right lay another door.  It was also open, and she knew, from the house plans, led to the front parlor—what the plans called the sitting room.

Shiggy slipped to this door and glanced through it.  She had to move further into the sitting room than she liked because of the thickness of the stone walls, but she noticed nothing that warned her, at first.  She stepped slowly and silently into the room.  It was also partially lit by the 50setting sun.  The slanting bright light shown through the two front and two windows on the left side.  Twin modern leather swivel chairs stood before the two main windows, with the front door between the windows.  The front of the house faced south toward the coast and the Eynhallow Sound.  There wasn’t much of a front entrance—only a single wooden door.  Across from the swivel chairs sat a white leather couch, and between them a glass topped coffee table.  “So, 1980s,” Shiggy mouthed.  On the right side of the room and nearly directly in front of her stood a large wooden desk.  More than once, she had to stop herself from rolling her eyes.  It was okay for a safehouse, but pretty backwoods, from her experience—even Sherwood House was more modern. 

On either end of the room lay a fireplace.  The one on her left looked like a gas hearth and the one on the right like a wood and coal fireplace.  She caught a whiff but noted no wood or ashes on the right hearth like she expected from the scent.  She took a deeper breath and smelled damp ash that was unusually fresh.  Shiggy moved silently closer to the wood fireplace and sniffed.  She definitely smelled wood ashes and a whiff of smoke.  Perhaps wood and paper smoke.  Someone had recently made a fire in one of the hearths in the building.  That was a problem with these old places when the fireplaces remained operational.  Even when the damper was closed, the smell of ash and smoke would reenter from the chimney pots.  That likely meant the fireplace in the bedroom above the dining room had recently been used.  From her diagrams and pictures, the master bedroom’s fireplace on this side had been removed to add the new bath, and the other side upper rooms had their own chimneys.  Interesting, this might mean nothing or something.

Shiggy didn’t turn on any lights.  She checked the lock and latch on the front door, then moved back into the dining room.  She checked the closets and the water closet, then stepped to the vestibule.  The back door to the gardens and garage was also locked and latched, that left the stairs and the upper floor to check.  Her heels were a couple of weapons she didn’t want to lose, but she needed to move quickly up and down stairs, so she slipped them off.  She left her Christian Louboutin stilettos at the side of the stairs where she could reclaim them when she returned. 

Now, Shiggy became completely noiseless.  She crept at the left edge of the stairs against the wall where she knew the risers would not creak.  She made her way to the top of the stairs and lay down at the last one where no one should be able to easily spot her. 

On the landing, directly ahead of her, lay double doors, now closed, she knew these entered the master bedroom.  At her left the closed door should be the second bedroom above the lower level water closet and cloakroom.  On the right, the door to the bedroom above the dining lay open.  From inside came the thin scent of wood and paper smoke as well as the flicker of a moving shadow like someone or something stirring in front of a small flame. 

Shiggy’s lip turned up in a feral smile, and she moved very quickly from the top of the stairs to the right side of the door.  She reached under her short skirt and pulled out a graphite pistol, labeled Etan Arms AR-2 on the frame and Móralltach on the slide.  It was loaded with 9mm kurtz graphite rounds.  She didn’t take the time to change out the magazine for one loaded with brass and hollow points.

Shiggy held her pistol and opened her golden clutch.  She pulled out a small camera on a transparent flexible extending stick and let it out a few feet.  Her company phone also came out of her clutch and she pulled up an already open app and nodded.  The camera showed exactly what she wanted. 

Shiggy started at the floor level and gave the stick a twist, it extended and turned around the frame of the door until she could see exactly what was going on in the room.  Her brow rose.

Through her phone, she saw a tall and slender person.  It looked like a woman, but it was hard to tell.  The woman wore a child’s dress.  It was a dingy looking brown, but the camera acuity couldn’t tell if that was due to dirt or just its color.  The dress was short and tight.  The woman’s skin was pale.  Perhaps it was the palest skin Shiggy had seen on a human being, and she had seen some beings with pretty pale skin.  The woman looked like someone who had never seen the sunlight.  She squatted in front of the fireplace.  Her hands reached out before a small fire.  That was interesting, but even more interesting was her hair.  It was long and fine with tiny curls and as red as any red hair Shiggy had ever seen.  It was so red and the woman so pale, Shiggy almost convinced herself this being had to be something other than human. 

Well, she needed to check for sure before she pushed her phone’s panic button.  Shiggy pulled another device out of her clutch.  It looked like a piece of wood with a clear stone imbedded in it and a hole worn through the stone.  Across the hole, at the very edge of perception, Shiggy blew a couple of odd and ancient sounding Celtic words.  Then she held the hole to her eye and looked through her phone at the woman again.

Shiggy let out a silent sigh—the woman was at least mostly human, and she didn’t need special backup.  The regular protections should be sufficient.  She touched her crucifix and the small cross of iron under her blouse just to make sure they were still there.  Shiggy pulled back her camera and put everything away in her clutch.  The woman appeared too interested in her small fire to perceive anything else.  Shiggy still needed to check out the rest of the house.  She wanted to get this confrontation over as quickly as possible.

Shiggy replaced the pistol in her thigh holster.  The woman didn’t appear to be armed and she was obviously unaware.  Shiggy pulled a handful of long zip ties from her clutch and slung the clutch behind her back.  The zip ties went neatly into the leather belt on her skirt. 

Shiggy took a deep breath and moved to the side of the door.  She peered quickly around the thick jam and moved silently into the room.  The woman didn’t hear her at all.  Shiggy simply grabbed the back of her neck with one hand and pressed on her windpipe with the other.  The woman gave a cut off screech that came out like a soft hiss.  It was so quiet it couldn’t have been heard beyond the room. 

At the same time, Shiggy put her knee against the woman’s back and pressed.  The woman flailed, trying to take a breath.  Shiggy let go, and the woman fell forward against the stone mantel.  Her head hit the stones with a soft crack, and she went limp. 

“Whoops,” Shiggy mouthed. That had to hurt.  Shiggy shrugged and pulled the woman’s arms behind her.  She zip tied her wrists together and then pulled her long legs together and zipped her ankles together.  Shiggy turned her over and saw it was a girl.  Likely not more than fifteen perhaps not less than fourteen. 

As Shiggy had noted before, the girl had flaming red hair.  Perhaps the reddest hair she had seen on any human being.  The girl looked as slender as a willow or perhaps a garden flower.  Thin and tall with the appearance of a wildflower.  Her very dirty face was a pleasure to behold.  A thin but noble nose and cheeks touched with rose and dirt.  Lips fine and red as if they had been recently pinched all set perfectly and delicately in a heart-shaped face.  The girl looked like fine porcelain—the face of a doll in a human frame.  Achingly beautiful, wonderfully made, but dirty as humanly possible.

Shiggy rolled her eyes, and gave a noiseless snort, the girl’s beauty was almost wasted because of all the dirt and her childish fashion.  She searched the girl.  Her clothing was not only unfashionable but filthy.  The dress wasn’t brown.  It was a grey dress that had been worn so long and under such dire conditions that the bland color was soiled almost beyond recognition.  The girl had nothing on her except a small pocketknife.  Shiggy took it.  She didn’t even wear any underwear.  “Gross,” Shiggy mouthed.

After the girl was trussed and searched, Shiggy took a look at the fire.  The girl had been holding a stick with a plucked and eviscerated pigeon on it.  That had fallen into the small fire.  She moved the pigeon out of the flame and to the side.  No need to cause more of a blaze or other incendiary problems. 

There was nothing else to do here.  Shiggy checked the girl again.  She was still breathing and bleeding, just slightly from her lips and the scrape on her head.  Shiggy pulled up one of the girl’s eyelids.  Her pupils looked normal.  Shiggy stepped around the girl and headed to the closed door across from this bedroom. 

 

I’ll give you the next section tomorrow.

 

So, we have met Shiggy and Rose—only we don’t really know who Rose is.  Shiggy found an intruder in her safe house.  The beginning is filled with mystery and secrets.  Just why is this girl in the house?  Why is Shiggy in the house an in Rousay?  What is Shiggy’s mission?  I love building a novel from these unspoken questions.  Let’s see what happens next.

 

Shiggy then made a very careful approach to the next bedroom.  She pushed open the door with her pistol ready.  No one was in the room.  Shiggy nodded and moved to the master bedroom double doors.  She silently opened the latch and pushed open the door.  Inside lay a large bed, a settee, a dresser, and occasional furniture.  In Shiggy’s eyes, the decorations and decorating were terrible.  She barely noticed them as she checked the room, the bath above the kitchen, and finally the dressing room to the far left of the double door entrance. 

Inside the dressing room, lay a door to a closet, a full-length mirror, and a woman’s dark dressing table.  She checked inside the closet.  There was nothing otherwise of note in the small room.

At the front of the master bedroom, just to the right and across from the double door entrance, lay another smaller set of double doors.  They opened to a narrow stairway and led to an attic room.  Shiggy made her way to the top of the stairs.  She found nothing except bookshelves, books, and some older furniture.  The space was completely enclosed without any windows, and bookshelves, filled with old books—they lined every wall of the room. 

This was also likely where the girl had been staying.  The bedclothes below were untouched in any of the bedrooms, but in this room, the smell of soiled human was unavoidable.  Shiggy couldn’t tell exactly where the girl had been sleeping, but it was likely somewhere in here. 

“Finally,” Shiggy let out a little louder sigh.  She felt much better about this place as a safe house and a base for her operations.  Now, to get rid of the girl and set up her equipment.

As Shiggy made her way down the stairs from the attic room, she heard scuffling coming from the bedroom where she had left the girl.  Shiggy rushed to the bottom of the stairs and the small double doors.  She arrived just in time to spot, through the large double doors of the master bedroom and the open second bedroom, the girl with her hands loose make a motion toward her ankles.  In seconds, the girl was free and standing.  She took a single backward glance at Shiggy and without a word, ran out the bedroom door directly to the stairs leading to the bottom floor. 

By that time, Shiggy stood in her way at the top of the stairs.  The girl didn’t bat an eye, she vaulted over the rail of the open stairs and down toward the bottom floor.  The girl landed perfectly at the bottom and spang into the dining room.  Shiggy was astounded that the girl didn’t break her legs.  She couldn’t but help appreciate good skills like that. 

Shiggy thought only a moment about letting her go.  Chances were, the girl would disappear into the darkness, and Shiggy would never see her again, but then again, Shiggy couldn’t allow any compromises to her position or her work.  She could always turn the girl into the local constable after she extracted any information she needed.  “No lose ends,” Shiggy mouthed as she took the stairs in a jump as far and gracefully as the girl’s. 

The girl was barely across the dining room when Shiggy caught her.  She kicked the girl’s knees from behind and grabbed her shoulder.  With a twist, the momentum took the girl up into the air forward and in a half backwards summersault.  The result would have been tragic enough if she hadn’t been running forward at the same time.  She came down on her back first, against the kitchen doorframe, and then second, with her head against the hardwood floor.  She slid just a little further into the kitchen and didn’t even twitch after that.

Shiggy ran across the kitchen and flipped on the lights.  Now, she could inspect her guest a little more closely.  Shiggy noted the zip ties still attached to the girl’s ankle and wrist.  She mouthed, “I should have guessed.”  This time, Shiggy pulled silver metal chains from her clutch and bound the girl by her arms and legs to one of the kitchen chairs.  Arms behind with the chains through the back of the chair, and legs slayed one at each side of the chair shackled with the chains attached to the back chair legs.  Not a very lady-like position.  This time, the girl was bleeding from her lips, forehead, and side of her head.  After trussing her up, Shiggy took a wet rag and cleaned her up a little.  Only a little, the girl was filthy.  Not just her dress, but her face and all the rest of her.

What we needed was a chance for the girl (Rose) to show off her skills and for Shiggy to get another chance at action.  This was intentionally set up for this reason.  We will learns, with Shiggy more about Rose, but I want Shiggy to be interested for more than one reason in the girl.  That will make more sense in what happens next in the scene.  Shiggy must see this girl as very special for more than one reason.  The point is to build to the reasoning and logic of what happens next.  Plus, I think a little action in the initial scene makes for a good novel.  I do hate writing an initial scene without it, but I’ll give you an example of that with the next Enchantment novel.  Perhaps I’ll give you that initial scene too.  In any case, we still need to find out about Rose and Shiggy.  That’s next.

 

Shiggy went out to her Triumph and extracted a couple of traveling bags from the boot.  She walked back to the house.  This time she locked the kitchen door and went around to recheck all the doors and now the windows.  She turned on the lights.  The sun had fully set by then.  She carried the larger bag to the master bedroom and began to set up her temporary sensors.  That would be enough until she could make them more permanent and hide them.  They would eventually become part of The Organization’s safe house system if they decided to keep the place.  At the same time, she turned up the heat and checked on the other utilities.

When Shiggy returned to the kitchen, the girl was struggling against her shackles and the chair.  She had moved it a few feet across the floor.  Shiggy kicked the legs of the chair and caused it to fall backwards onto the floor.  The girl went with it.  She struck her hands and arms with a thud, and her head followed along afterward.  That sounded like a melon hitting stone.  The girl lay dazed with her legs slayed to either side of the chair and her too short dress well above her naked thighs.

The girl hadn’t made a sound.  Shiggy felt a little sorry for her, but this kind of physical control was usually an indicator of a trained intel asset.  That’s the last thing she needed.  The girl did either have special skills, or perhaps she was just very well trained.  Unless aided by glamour, usually getting out of zip tie bonds was an advanced technique, and Shiggy knew how to foil all the usual techniques. 

Out of pity, and because she wanted to check, Shiggy flipped the chair back up on its legs and slapped the girl’s dress back down.  She shook her head, the girl’s wrists and ankles, where the silver chains touched them, were covered with welts and little boils.  Shiggy pursed her lips.  Well, she was sensitive.  Shiggy pulled back the girl’s hair, yeap pointed ears.  Shiggy needed to be especially careful now.  There still wasn’t a reason to push the panic button, yet. 

Shiggy sucked on her teeth.  The girl’s head lolled against her chest.  She was still out.  Not quite out cold, but she was out.  Shiggy’s stomach growled.  Time to make dinner.

Shiggy took the smaller bag and began to unpack it.  She put butter, eggs, milk, yogurt and some other stuff in the frig.  She filled one of the kitchen cabinets with dry goods.  She didn’t leave anything out that would indicate the house was in use. 

The cooktop propane gas kicked on right away, and Shiggy made scrambled eggs for herself with toast, butter, and jam.  While Shiggy was eating, the girl’s head slowly raised.  She licked her lips.  Shiggy just kept eating.  When Shiggy was done, she cleaned up the dishes and put them in the dishwasher.  She glanced around the kitchen.  Nothing showed that anyone was in the place.  That was good.

Shiggy took one of the kitchen chairs and set it across from the girl, well out of range of any possible or potential attack.  Unless the girl could make miracles Shiggy hadn’t heard about, there was no way she could get loose or attack anyway.  Shiggy was just very cautious by nature.  She hadn’t had a problems since she had been on assignment, well not since Sorcha, her boss, had allowed her to go on these unsupervised assignments.  She had a few problems at first, but she wouldn’t think about that.

Shiggy stared at the girl for a few moments.  She contemplated different means of getting information from her, then sighed.  She might as well start with questions.  First to the basics.  Shiggy sat in the chair backwards to the right of the head of the kitchen table with the chairback facing the girl.  She opened her official computer just within reach to her left on the table.  Shiggy pulled her knife out of its hidden sheath under her arm.  It was a Gerber graphite combat dagger with smooth edges on each side—perfectly balanced for throwing.  Then she made sure the girl could see the pistol in its inner thigh holster between her legs. 

The girl licked her lips again and blushed.  She held her head high with an elegant tilt to her chin.

Shiggy held the knife in front of her and pointed it at the girl’s eyes, “I’m not about playing games here.”

The girl turned her head to the side and swallowed hard.

Shiggy tapped the handle of her knife on the chair back.  It made a loud noise in the kitchen.  “I’m not that adverse to you looking wherever you please, but it does help me determine whether you’re lying to me if I can see your eyes directly.  You very much will want to convince me that you’re telling the truth.”

The girl’s lips trembled, but she stifled that and stared directly at Shiggy, “What do ya want from me?”  Her voice was light and melodious tempered with a sharpness that sounded very interesting, and in a thick Rousay Scottish brogue that Shiggy had to think to translate.

Shiggy grinned, “That’s better.  First of all, what’s your name?”

The girl raised her chin in an aristocratic motion, “I dunno why I should tell you, but it’s Rose Craigie.  What’s your name?”

Shiggy ignored her question.  She kept the girl in sight but turned to her computer on the table and entered the name in the database.  It was securely connected via a cell backfeed to London.  Shiggy frowned, “What’s your Community Health Index Number?”

“I dunno what that is.”

Shiggy pointed the knife at the girl, “Every child in Scotland is given such a number.  When were you born?”

“I dunno.”

Shiggy almost called her a liar.  She held her temper, “How old are you?”

“I dunno.”

“Really?  How old do you think you are?”

“Me gram and my paps died eight winters ago.  Me ma left soon after.  Me da died five winters back.”

“And you have no idea how old you are?”

The girl, Rose, shook her head.

“What was your father’s name?”

“James Sinclair.”

“Why aren’t you Rose Sinclair?”

The girl lowered her head slightly and blushed, “He said I wasn’t worthy of it.  My mother gave me my name.  She claimed to be a Craigie.  She called me Rose Craigie.”

Shiggy let out a loud sigh, “I’m not calling you a liar.  I can find a James Sinclair and his parents in this parish.  I can’t find your name, love.  What’s your mother’s full name?”

Rose’s mouth worked a bit, “I was never sure if she was telling me the truth, she called herself a Desert Rose.  Desert Rose Craigie.  Me da called her Rose.”

“Where did she live?”

“We lived in the barn at the back until gram and paps died.  She left soon after.  I told you.”

“I remember.  So, on to the big question.  Why are you here?”

Rose glared at Shiggy and spat out with an encompassing twist to her shoulders, “This is my house.  Why shouldn’t I be here?”

“Tisn’t your house.  I know the owners.  They rented it to me.  They had it refurnished and redone not that long ago.”

The girl trembled with rage, “It is my house.  It’s the only place I’ve ever known.  Me da left it to me.”

Shiggy sat back.  She interpreted from her computer, “Your da mortgaged the house and spent all the proceeds.  When he died, the house went to the bank.  The bank sold it.  Your da left you as much of this house as he left you his name.”

Rose cursed in Scottish Gaelic.  She cursed again, “Then what am I to do?  What’s to become of me?”

Shiggy leaned forward again.  She tapped her teeth with her dagger.  She gave a couple of thoughtful sighs.  She looked Rose up, then down, then she asked, “Can you cook?”

Rose sucked on her bottom lip, “Not well.  My gram taught me the basics.  I cooked for my father until he died.”

“You cook pigeons.”

“I can cook whatever I can get to eat.”

“That’s interesting in itself.  Let’s say I brought you chicken and rice, could you cook it?”

“I probably could.  I’ve cooked chicken, and I’ve cooked rice before.”

Shiggy chewed her lip, “Have you been to school?”

“Gram and paps said I should go, but da would never let me.  He said I was not to let anyone see me.”

“That’s very interesting too.  No education at all.  That would make you pretty useless.”

Rose squared her shoulders, “I can read and write.  I’m not uneducated.”

“Really?”

“Me gram was a teacher.  She taught me to read and to write.  She taught me some maths too, but da said it wasn’t necessary to teach such things to girls.”

“It is very necessary, that is maths.  Can you learn?  Do you like to learn?”

“I read all the time.”

“That’s good.”  Shiggy thought in silence for a long while.  Finally, with a smile she pronounced, “So, Rose Craigie, I have a proposal for you.”

The girl looked up at her.

“I am going to live in this house for a time.  I have a job to do while I’m here, and I don’t want to have to deal with cooking, cleaning, and all those other domestic details.  Can you cook, clean, and look after this place while I’m working?”

“It’s my house.”

“Listen, love, it isn’t your house.  If wishes were fishes and all that, but they aren’t.  The other option is that I…well here are the other options.  I could turn you over to the local constable.  I suspect that would not go very well for you.  You aren’t registered as a citizen of these isles.  They might try to deport you.”

“I understand deport.  You actually think they might try to send me to some other country.”

Shiggy smiled very broadly, “It’s always possible, but I suspect they would go to my second option first.  That’s to put you in the Looked After services.  They’ll put you away with a nice family, perhaps, who will look after you.  After you time out in a few years, what will you do?  You have no education, no prospects, nothing.  I can offer you a little bit more than that.”

Rose glanced down at the floor, “What do you really offer me?”

“Don’t you want to hear option three?”

“Now, you’re just taunting me.”

“I am taunting you.  You’ve already caused me some difficulties.  You’re in the house I borrowed, and I’m trying to figure out what to do with you.”

“What’s option three?”

“It’s really not up to me, but there’s always the Youth Court.  You are trespassing and have been for a while from what I can tell.”  Shiggy let the words out slowly, “You could go to prison.  They would feed and educate you there.”

The girl visibly trembled, “I dunna wanna to go to prison.  I must always keep the soil under my feet.”

“Look at you, there’s soil all over your body as well.”

Rose scowled, “I ask you again.  What do you really offer me?”

“Here it is, sweety.  I already told you, all you need to do is take care of this place while I’m working.  Cook, clean, keep an eye out.  That’s all.”

“What about after that?”

“Well, love, I can’t just leave you here.  If you accept my offer, you’re on probation.  If you really please me, then we’ll see.  You can think about my offer as long as you want.”  Shiggy stepped to the back door and checked the lock and her sensors.  She turned off the lights in the kitchen and walked toward the dining room door. 

I like subtle writing, but I hope this isn’t too subtle.  The point is that Shiggy has to do something with Rose, and she has few options that are good for Rose.  She wants a solution that give her options and works for Rose.  I hope you can tell Shiggy really likes Rose and her potential.  She knows there is much more to the girl.  I’ll finish this up, next.

 

There’s more.

 

I want to write another book based on Rose and Seoirse, and the topic will be the raising of Ceridwen—at least that’s my plan.  Before I get to that, I want to write another novel about dependency as a theme.  We shall see.

 

More tomorrow.

For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:

http://www.ancientlight.com/
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com

fiction, theme, plot, story, storyline, character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel, book, writing, information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic