A little bit of Prodigals
Here's a bit of my other beloved work in progress, which I do feed and water and pet occasionally so it doesn't feel neglected. I will begin taking it for walks and polishing its rough scales as soon as I complete Grace's adventures.
WHEN YOSHI CHECKED INTO the infirmary to begin his week’s swing shift, Keene was busy reading instructions for repairing a diagnostic unit. He cleared his throat to draw her attention off the screen. “Hey, boss, what’s up first tonight? I see Jean’s on dinner detail. Want me to stop her from finding a new way to ruin vegetables?”“I would, if I was a merciful woman.” Keene glanced up and tugged on a wayward sprig of hair. “But I’m not. Let her destroy supper on her own.”Jean, the newest member of the Support team, felt anything other than medical support was beneath her dignity. She was not adapting well to the idea that her job included cooking, cleaning, equipment maintenance, and supply chain logistics. Yoshi said, “It’s turning into a joke, you know. There’s a pool on what she’ll manage to burn next.”“That figures.” Keene snorted. “She thinks I’ll reassign her if I get too many complaints.”Yoshi knew his boss better than that. If Jean didn’t get her ass in gear soon, Keene would assign her twelve-hour shifts cooking every meal alone until she shaped up or quit. “If I’m not helping her, where do you want me?”“Carl’s quarters. Wanda called down after his morning wash and wax to warn me he barely made it back under his own power. I don’t want him passing out on the stairs. Do a house call for me.”
In case anyone is wondering......it's time to officially admit Prodigals will be delayed until spring. I could say, "I'll aim at late winter" and live in denial a few months more, but meh. Honesty is the better part of valor. I want Prodigals to be as good as it can be, it needs significant revision--and I need to finish Heartwood.Alas, I cannot take the wide, well-traveled obvious path and revise one while writing the other. Filed under "epiphanies of the last 18 months" is this gem: I cannot world-switch. I can juggle multiple casts, and plots in one environment, but add a second whole world, and I drop pieces everywhere. Forward progress crashed to a halt in both projects unless I concentrated on one or the other.I am an efficient task-switcher, but only within a single headspace. I made the decision/mistake to dive into Heartwood while waiting for PRodigals beta reads, and now there's no turning back. Right now, Heartwood fills my imagination. (Well, Heartwood, the first full novel in that world, the short story that's percolating...) I'm dreaming in that reality now, and I'll stick with it until the current tale is done.Enough navel-gazing.