21 Chapters in this one, so we have a bit to go. Should be done just before Xmas, then I have a couple of Xmas specials to release for other books. I have one done for Return of the Sun, contemplating one for Goofball, and I am *thinking* of a Watcher's Christmas Carol :: shakes head:: I am insane, a day for it I am afraid, over dosed on eggnog, and bailey's laced coffee...
*ahem* not too much, just you know... Christmas cheer.
So I am closing in on my endgame for this book.
I am predicting around 20 chapters. But these chapters are significantly (some of them double or triple my usual length.... nature of the beast with a book this complex) longer. So it's going to top out around the 110-120 k word count of the other two.
I know how it ends, I know what comes next, and I hope it will all come together the right way. I think it will, I spent all morning writing chapters 11-13. I have two further chapters after that prewritten, there is also significant portions of 14-16 done.
Justice for Jane Heppel will also come due, for those demanding it after book One.
Sorry mental spillage as I am thinking.
**Chapter 12: The Things That Go Bump**
The night above the Mary Jane mine was not silent. It hummed with the electric tension of a storm that refused to break, a palpable dread that seeped from the very granite of the mountains. The moon was a sliver of ice behind a veil of high, scudding clouds, leaving the valley floor in a suffocating, ink-black darkness. The air was cold and still, holding its breath.
High on a ridge to the north, nestled in a cradle of granite and scrub pi
Teenagers, man... Will thought facing the American invasion was bad, he is going to have Three Teenagers to deal with, at the same time.
I think I hear the King of the North running away whimpering.
Tommy shone in this chapter. Taking what he's learned about handling Jacob, and helping Uncle Will.
I adore these kids, they each bring something to the table. Something vital.
I am rather eagerly looking forward to telling their own stories in the future.
Smith, ahhh Smith, such a magnificent moron.
Putting Andrew in a box was probably not the smartest thing he's ever done. Sooner or later Andrew's going to get out of that box, one way or another, and then there will be a reckoning. Be it at Andrew's hands, Enrico's or one very angry Will's.
I also like that you can feel the tide has turned in this one.
Enrico has flipped the game, which needed flipping.
The kids are finally protected.
Enrico knows about Rushton.
Sarah... oh Sarah, hello Sarah :: cat and canary grin ::
and Peter's home.
That poor little good boy is about to be corrupted with cookies and video games.
And considering his Mom is looking set to be the Tiger-est of Tiger mom's... this will be entertaining
The key I wanted to get across is that those kids are now protected. Xue is about as lethal an operative as Enrico has, she's the mother of Alex, she has to be, and positioning her with the boys ensures that anyone tries anything again, and they are in for a bad, bad day.
Chapter Eight
Sunday, December 8th, 2019, at 9:30 a.m.
WORLD END: T-minus 94 days, 4 hours, and 30 minutes
24 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario.
The silence at 24 Sussex Drive was oppressive, a hollow echo in the wake of abandonment. For Jacob Carter, standing at his bedroom window watching the snow bury the lawn, the whole house felt like it was holding its breath.
He adjusted his glasses, the familiar frames feeling leaden lately.
Behind him, the predictable so
Enlistment age in Canada during the war was 16
Just a heads up, running a few minutes behind my usual 6am deadline, I need to revise a scene. I will get it out as soon as I can (in the next hour)
My Grandfather was 14, he lied to enlist, and given the dire straits, he was allowed, thus the reason he was a medic. Give the kid a stretcher and let him go do his duty was the idea. This was.... very common in Canada at the time. Most of them were wildly underage.
They both know the truth, thus the whole Hang for this conversation. They know what's happening, and admitting it to each other helps them closer.
America's going to need more men if they try to hang 'em high.
**Chapter 11: The Lair of the Wounded**
The ascent was a slow, agonizing climb out of hell, a pilgrimage of the broken.
They moved in a silence that was heavy not with peace, but with the crushing weight of exhaustion and shared trauma. The frantic adrenaline of the ambush and the desperate firefight had long since burned off, leaving behind only the raw, throbbing reality of their injuries. Every step was a negotiation with gravity, a testament to a will that was being worn d