Meredith Mansfield, Author

I’m going to post another short scene from BLOOD IS THICKER today.

Since this is not the beginning, here’s a little background. As you might have gathered from the previous scene, dragons aren’t limited to a single form. They can, for example, appear human–an ability they use heavily when spending time in our world, for obvious reasons.

Valeriah has never been here when she wasn’t working as a bodyguard. To her, Christmas just means more crowds, noises, and smells to make her job harder. Rolf, on the other hand, has had more recreational time here. This leaves them with different views of the season.

Kamara is Rolf’s younger sister, here for the very first time.

As soon as she saw the decorations on the light standards in the parking lot, Valeriah groaned. “Christmas. Perfect. Busiest shopping time of the year.”

“Well, we left here six months ago and it was June, then,” Rolf said.

“I know. It’s just easy to lose track of the dates over here when you spend a lot of time in Chimeria.”

“What’s Christmas?” Kamara asked from the back seat.

“A big holiday in the main religion over here. They all go out and buy each other gifts they can’t afford and don’t need.”

Rolf laughed. “Scrooge! Christmas can be fun. Singing. Parties. Decorations.”

“Dragging a dead tree into the house.”

“The piney smell of the forest drifting through the house.”

Valeriah made a rude noise.

“Eggnog.”

Valeriah made a face. “Yuck.”

“Hot cocoa with peppermint schnapps, then.” As the look on Valeriah’s face changed, Rolf continued, pressing his advantage. “Peppermint bark, candy canes, fudge, Christmas cookies.”

“It sounds like fun. Are we going to celebrate Christmas?” Kamara asked, interrupting Rolf and Valeriah.

“I believe a Christmas party for the employees of Goldings Bank is traditional,” Rolf said.

“Oh, good!” Kamara said, bouncing in her seat

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This is my 200th post. In honor of that and as a sort of early Christmas gift, I’m going to post the first page of the first draft of my current WIP, BLOOD IS THICKER.

“Rolf?” Valeriah pronounced his name carefully, even though it didn’t have any of the soft ess sounds that were so difficult for a dragon’s tongue and throat to produce without hissing.

“Hmm?” Rolf answered, opening one eye. He lay stretched out on the beach, dozing and digesting the cow they’d shared for lunch. They were both resting before her afternoon flying lesson.

“How long iss thiss going to take?” Damn, those esses were hard.

“Which this is that, sweetheart?”

Show off. He didn’t have any trouble with his esses. Then again, he’d been a dragon from birth. He’d had a lot more time to practice. “Learning to be a dragon.”

Rolf stretched out his huge golden wing to embrace her and reached out with his long neck to rub his chin along her back.

Signs he knew she wasn’t going to like the answer. She felt herself tensing, subconsciously balancing her weight as if she were going into a fight.

“Most dragons take about ten years to master a new form,” he said.

“Ten yearss!” She jerked, half unfolding her wings in outrage, and clunked Rolf’s jaw with the top of her head.

Rolf pulled his head back but continued to rub his wingtip along the edge of her wings. “It’s not just learning to fly and speak Draconic. You’ll have to learn dragon magic. And, because you’re a red dragon, you’ll have to learn to breathe fire, too. That’s one I can’t teach you. Golds don’t breathe fire.”

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It looks like BLOOD IS THICKER is going to end up being short. I’m at just about 40,000 words with only about three chapters left to go. Of course it will grow some during the second draft when I add in some missing descriptions, the missing background from BLOOD WILL TELL, and delve deeper into the characters thoughts and emotions in some of the early chapters.

But I doubt it will double in length. It’s not likely to make the 97,000 words of BLOOD WILL TELL. More like, about 60,000 would be my best guess at finished length for this one.

That’s outside the novella range (17,500 to 40,000 words), but still very short for a traditionally-published novel intended for an adult audience. A few years ago, this would have been a major concern. There’s no market for novella’s unless you’re a name author and next to no market even for novelettes (7,500 to 17,500 words). Very short novels (outside of certain genres) run into as much trouble (at least from unknown or debut authors) as extremely long novels.

However, the publishing world is changing. There’s e-publication now. And I’ve been seriously considering this for BLOOD WILL TELL and its sequels anyway. (Look for a final decision on that early next year.)

In e-pubs, the artificial limits set by traditional publishing don’t have to apply. That’s very freeing. It’s one of the great benefits I see from the rise in e-publication.

It would just affect the price I choose to set on the work. Less for a substantially shorter story. Or, I could choose to bundle. Maybe add a short story (or novelette) into the bargain. Or both, and give the reader the option. There are any number of choices I could make.

 So, I’m not going to worry about it. I’m going to tell the story the best way I can and the length will be whatever it is.

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