Featuring the writing of Linnea Eileen Smith, © 2005-2010 All rights reserved

Yay! Done! New story! First of all, the story is password protected. Just use the first three words of the title, case sensitive.

Second, let me explain about the story. I’ll copy the gist of what I will post at the other sites where this will go.

Last year while Linda Wells, a.k.a. booknut was posting Memory, I started to tease her about the length of the story and her lack of short stories. Seeing as how her ‘novel in three parts” became a more like “three novel in an epic story”, (Tolkein would be proud!) I was able to goad our dear authoress into a writing challenge. The goal? Write a short story that is complete in under 30,000 words. I knew from previous personal experience that it is harder than it sounds. We both had idea for stories at the time we decided to do it. All that we were waiting for was for Linda to finish Memory, which she did in June.

I started to work on my project much earlier than Linda, since she was working on formatting the beast into book formats. I also set a goal for myself of trying to accomplish the task in 10,000 words. I didn’t quite make it but I wasn’t too far off. Linda just now is sitting down to work on her idea. She’ll post as soon as it is done. It will take a while because as all parents who write know, summer is not the time to be diving into a new project. The kids are home!

In the Hall of the Elders is an original fantasy idea that was first suggested to me by my son in 2005. I loved his vision and I wrote a quick opener to remind me of the basics of the plot. This version of his idea is the stripped down model. My son had a host of characters and a bunch of interweaving plots. I could easily make a very long novel from that first incarnation. In this version, I have restricted myself to a handful of characters as well as some other significant changes with which I shall not bore you. Suffice it to say that it became a lean plot that moves along to a quick conclusion.

This is my first attempt at fantasy, but I hope it is not my last. Fantasy has its own challenges as the writer must reveal enough of an alternate world in a way that is interesting and not overwhelming in detail. In my story, elements of the supernatural and a Supreme Being are integral to the plot, but I’ve striven to express these in the terms of an alternate world. If you have read the work of Ted Dekkar and his Circle Trilogy or Stephen’s Lawhead’s Dream Thief or the Song of Albion Trilogy, you will have an idea of what I’m trying to do.

And one final warning; this is not my usual style. I’ve never written anything so dark, or so light for that matter. Janet R called it allegorical and I would have to say she is spot on. This is a story with a point, and like many lessons we learn in life, there is pain associated with such hard-won knowledge. Simply put, this is a story of good versus evil and the price that good must often pay to keep evil at bay.

Thanks go out to DebbieS, Elsa Amy HI, JanetR, Laura, Grace and a few members of my book club for their assistance. Any remaining errors are mine since they had a LOT of typos to search and destroy. A few stragglers are almost a certainty. As always, you can leave any comments on a story post here.

I hope you enjoy In the Hall of the Elders for all that it is meant to be. (Prepositions be damned!)

Go to In the Hall of the Elders

Well, I’ve certainly had a productive June writing. NOT! I was hoping I would do better this summer but it seems as though I am destined to read more than write during these hot months. However, I did send off an entire short story - In the Hall of the Elders - to my first batch of cold readers. Since this is an entirely new genre for me, I decided I needed to have a panel of sorts to read it to make sure it didn’t leave folks scratching their heads wondering what they heck I was writing about. Alternate universes are a pain that way. It also forced me to go back and do a lot of revision. First drafts are never meant to be seen by anyone other than the author. This one was no exception to that rule. I needed to do a lot of clean-up before I sent it off to people’s in-boxes. It is done now, and I hope to have their comments back by next weekend and then have a new and improved version off to the next sucker within two weeks. Goodness, this is taking a while! I hope that now that my fantasy short is in the editing pipeline that I can return to “Once…” I think that Isolene is finally ready to meet Princess Grace. She’s been pretty stressed about the occasion and not willing to leave her person chambers for weeks now. Silly girl!

We’re off to the cool country for the holiday weekend. It’s been in the 110’s around here and die as a bone. I’m ready to sleep with the windows open and the scent of pine trees in the air.

Cheers!

Alrighty peeps! I’m ready to unleash my latest writing venture. The story is called “Once…” and it is a fairy tale. You will have to enter a password and the password is the story title (don’t forget the ellipsis!) This is a different password than for my JAFF. Debbie S has done the initial edit and I’ve fiddled around with it since she saw it. I need to warn you that this is not the final version of chapter 1. It needs more work but I wanted to get something on my site for all the patient readers out there. (I may combine chapters 1 and 2.) After chapter 1, it is my intent to have more polished versions out on the first try.

I hope you enjoy something very different from me.

~Linnea Eileen~

To “Once…”

P.S. You can leave any comments here.

I’ve decided on a title for the new story I was supposed to post starting today. Its called “Once…” and I’ve created a new story page. You’ll see that I am password protecting the chapters, but that I’ve told you what that password is (indirectly) and that it is different for this story than for the rest of my JAFF writing. Yes, I really do have my reasons for the password protect, but it’s not for content rating. Straight PG stuff.

I hope to post in a few days the announcement of chapter 1 being available. It likely will not be in it’s final form, but I will tell you when it is if you want to wait. The rest of the chapters will be a lot more polished than the first try at Chapter 1.

Hope you had a lovely Memorial Day in the US. I can’t believe it is already June!

I started writing yesterday. By the time I finished chapter 1, I had 2200 words. Hey, its a start. I’m working on an original short (I hope!) story. It begins…

“Once upon a time there lived a young princess. Her name was Grace and she was as fair of face as she was of character. In her lay the hopes of her people. One day she would succeed her mother, Queen Charity, as ruler of Cleymont.”

At least, that’s how it begins right now. It is the story of three people: a princess, her brother, and her companion and how their love for each other brings them through great danger to live the happily ever after.