Conal collapsed back onto his pallet and moaned, “How can I see her like this?  I’ve nothing left, she deserves much better.”

“I can tell her that you can’t see her yet, but you know Niamh, she will be out to see for herself sooner than later and that’s nothing I can stop.  She will.”

Conal lay still, he nodded to let Rhaury know he’d heard, but made no further move.  Iamerge saw a tear run down Conal’s face, past his ear and onto his pallet.  Rhaury reached out and patted Conal, a familiar and kind gesture that surprised Iamerge almost as much as learning that Conal was married.

“Well, the other fellows seem to be sleeping, I’ll have to see them another time it seems.  You think about Niamh and get word to me when you’ll see her.  But if it isn’t soon, expect to see her at your door.”

Rhuary turned and made for the door, his business finished apparently.  Iamerge scrambled to follow, “Mr. UiBirlinn, a word.”  UiBirlinn was already out the door, but he paused and turned back, holding the door.  Iamerge followed him out and Rhaury closed the door behind them.

“It’s hard to see men you command so. . .” UiBirlinn shivered and glanced back at the closed portal, “I might not have come except for Niam always being at my door asking after Conal.”  UiBirlinn kept his eyes on the door, looking away from where Iamerge stood.

The conversation had made another odd turn leaving Iamerge without an easy way to broach his subject, desperately wanting to bring the conversation around to his hold stake.  The awkward pause widened, “uh, well none of that is your fault.”

“No? Perhaps not, but in the end they are my men.  I did not anticipate these creatures, monsters, demons, whatever they are.  That’s why I advise you, the monastery, to invest in strong doors.  I doubt those monsters will be satisfied with raiding trade caravans.  In fact, there are likely to be no more of those while this is at issue.  Without caravans to attack they are likely to come looking for plunder, perhaps they but wait the day.”  Rhaury turned back, looking at Iamerge with intensity, “What do you think?”

Iamerge wrestled with the question and how he might turn it back to his hold stake, “I hadn’t thought of that. . .” He began, but he didn’t get to add to that ambivalence before Gospels arrived and Rhuary turned away to greet him.

“Ah, master UiBirlinn,” called Gospels.

“Gospels,” greeted UiBirlinn, “You look well.”

“True, I’m not dead yet.” Gospels nodded to Iamerge before stepping closer and smiling up at Rhaury UiBirlinn

Iamerge cursed his stupidity, he’d waited too long and missed his chance, he stepped back into the periphery, wondering how best to make a graceful exit.

“Well, I came to see my men.  As I was telling Iamerge here, I’m sure many men survived because of your care.  I’m grateful, of course.  Thank you.” Rhuary cleared his throat forestalling Gospel’s response and plunged on, “More to the point though, you’ve helped them, perhaps you should look to your own safety as well.”

Gospels looked puzzled, “In what way”

“Doors wouldn’t hurt, some sort of defensible position, what if the kind of monsters that tore up that caravan came against your monastery?  I shudder to think of the carnage.”  Rhaury glanced away toward the town, but the guesthouse and the hill too would have blocked his vision.  “We are trying to make the town more defensible, beyond reinforcing the walls we are adding strong-points along it and closing and guarding the gates at night.  Surely you need to make such preparations, abbot.”

Gospels smiled thinly, “Thankfully I do not carry that responsibility in these dark days.  I do appreciate your concern, but we have protections that you do not know.  Our God will supply all our needs, even if it is needful that we die martyrs for his cause.”

“That would be a very great waste and confirm much of what my mother has said of your order.  She is not very complimentary I fear, but if you would not protect yourselves for your own sake, I would beg you to consider the good you could do the citizens of the town.  If war comes, as I fear, we could use your healing hands much more than your martyred corpses gloriously scattered around this hill.  There will be death enough, I think.”

Iamerge slipped through the doorway into the guest-house.  Mostly he wanted to think, and think hard about how to speak to UiBirlinn about his hold-stake and further, from the conversation going on outside, it was clear that he ought to consider getting far gone from this place when he’d secured what was his.  But when he looked up, Conal was sitting and looking to him.  Iamerge knew that time to think was hard to come by and that Conal’s need would not allow it yet.

The girl hammered a stake into the ground with practiced grace and quickly tied her goat to it.  With that task complete she marched directly toward Lugh where he sat beneath the tree. 

Lugh felt certain she hadn’t seen him, but perhaps the shade of the tree was as inviting to her as it had been to him, she marched straight as an arrow toward him.  He began to wonder how he should greet her as it was quite certain that she was heading right toward his resting place.

Suddenly there was a rumbling.  The tree shook and he was so surprised that he let out a yelp of alarm.  Almost as soon as it began the quaking stopped.  When he looked back it was clear that the girl had heard his outburst and was now aware of him in the shadows.

“Who is that sitting on my giant?” yelled the girl.

Lugh got to his feet and reached up to pull down his pack and then down to gather his things.  “So this tree is yours is it?” offered Lugh.

The girl snorted, “Not the tree, its the Giant ‘neath that I’m hunting.  You’re not from around here then are you?”

“Pardon me, my dear little giant hunter, I had no idea.”

“Don’t believe I’m hunting a giant or that a woman can, huh?  That just shows what you know.  You’ve been sitting on one and I bet you didn’t know that either.  So who are you?”

“People call me many things,” began Lugh.

The girl laughed, “I’ll just bet.”

“You know, I think I’d sooner believe that you are hunting giants than that you are a woman.” Lugh answered the girl in her own tone as he stepped out of the shade.

“Blind too, good thing I ran into you or you wouldn’t stand a chance out here, especially with a giant fix’n to wake.”  The girl shrugged a bed roll off her shoulder and tossed it on the ground.  Then with a twitch and grab she took hold of her shift and dragged it off over her head, dumping it in a pile with her bedroll.  “Better get away from that giant if you know what’s good for you.”

She was bare to the waist before Lugh realized what she was doing.  He couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t exagerating her claim to womanhood.  She turned as if he wasn’t even there and untied what he’d taken for a bed roll.  She was sun brown on her torso and her legs and Lugh noticed what the shift had hidden, that she had the generous curves of a lovely woman. With a flip of the wrist she unrolled a small mat that held in it what looked like a threshing tool.  She grabbed it with practice hands and turned back to face Lugh.

“I’ve been called Fionn,” He said.

“Uh, huh”  said the young woman nonchalantly despite standing naked except for a beaded loincloth and her split staff. “Well, I’ve been called Oatey because of my hair.  Only difference is that it’s my name.  What’s your real name?” 

Lugh’s jaw probably dropped at her impertinence but with her dark brown eyes staring straight into his he answered though it wasn’t his intent, “It’s Lugh.”

“Lugh.” She seemed to roll the name around on her tongue to get the taste of it.”  Well, stand back, Lugh.  I’ve got work to do.”  And with out another word she began to dance, whirling the staff around her and smashing it rhythmically against the ground.  Lugh was forced to step back as the wooden links whirled very near his head hissing through the air as it passed him.

He stepped away to watch her dance.  The sun and her effort had put the sheen of sweat on her lithe form, she glowed, Lugh thought to himself.  He could not tear his eyes away from her and was totally unprepared for the earthquake that rocked him off his feet. Stunned, he looked over at the little hill and saw the old oak tree bending at an odd angle.  He looked back over at the girl, she was crouching and looking at the hill.  The quaking stopped and the girl stood up and gazed at the hill appraising. 

She began her dance again.  Faster and faster she stepped, her threshing staff raised a thin curtain of dust around her as she spun and leaped and thrashed the ground.  At the first sound of rumbling the girl smashed the staff once more against the ground and crouched, looking at the hill.

Lugh turned and looked at the hill,  the ground shaking was coming from the hill itself.  The tree bent even further, tipping toward them so that the lower branches nearest them already rested on the ground.  Lugh saw that parts of the hill were actually rising.

“Lugh!”  The girl shouted, “It’s time to go, now”

Lugh turned back and saw that the girl had grabbed up her things and, with only a glance to make sure he had heard, she ran back toward the goat that she’d staked out at the edge of the meadow.

Greetings!

This page is where I’m assembling links to posts and any other item that goes into the writing of the first draft of my online novel, “The Abbott and the Djinn.”  I was planning to get it done before my birthday, but I am failing to do so. It occurs to me that I have a birthday in 2011 as well. Hmmmmm.  (And also 2012.)

This is a true rough draft.  I have only 15 or 30 minutes to write at a time.  I glance at the previous section and then just write.  You can argue about my process, please do, but for now and to get words on the page I think it is the best. (advise solicited and desired) 

Too long I’ve wanted things to be perfect before proceeding and so I hardly begin.  Well, the Abbott and the Djinn is begun.

Below you will find dated notes on my progress and afterward a partial outline linked to what I’ve roughed out so far.  At the bottom you can look at older notes.

August 15, 2011, Today is a long time from when last I posted an update to this page.  I have added a few posts, but not many and I think what I’ve done is not so good.  I need for Iamerge to speak to Rhaury about the stake he hopes to get from him, the investment he left with Rhaury’s father Roderick UiBirlinn.  I need to give Rhaury time to send everything out of Bellton so that Iamerge will feel he has to remain with the the monks and Gospels.  I don’t like what I’ve written, but this is supposed to be rough.  I fear my frustrated perfectionism has driven me away from this work.  I need to get back to it and hurry.

14 Dec 2010 – Beginning Chapter 8.  This is what I had anticipated doing awhile ago, but the trouble with the Gobli (oops, don’t tell anyone) intervened.  Here then is yet another character, Conal McKendrik, who will continue with Iamerge for awhile.

30 Nov 2010 – Iamerge and Conal on their way back.

26 Oct 2010 Decided to wrap up this installment and get it out. 

15 Oct 2010 – I’m well into a chapter seven that I hadn’t planned on writing at all.  In it I have introduced a character and I’ve also imagined where he might be employed in later chapters.  I fear that I’ve engaged in some sloppy writing.  I have one portion (7.2)where I switch point of view back and forth between Iamerge and Conal, the new character.  You may recall that I did that at the very beginning.

Well, as promised, this is rough first draft work that you get to see before it is cleaned up.  Lucky you.

Anyway, I believe there are links to everything I’ve done on A&D to this point.

LSO

Here is an outline of the story: (linked for easy navigation to what is available so far.)

The Abbott and the Djinn (Outline)

I.  Intro (I have an intro posted)

II.  The Skellig

     A. The Storm (I think Chptr. 1.1 fits in here)

          1.  The Storm from Gospel’s perspective. (by the way, Smoke refers to a monk he thinks of as “White Hands” until the men make a personal connection and he, the monk, reveals that his name is Gospels.)

          2.  Waking from Smoke’s perspective (Chptr. 1.2.)

     B.  Recovery

           1.  Smoke wakes Chp. 2.1

           2.  Conversation with White Hands Chp. 2.2 and Chp 2.3 AND Chp 2.4

           3.  White Hand’s wealth Chp. 2.5  (Sad to say this important connective tissue has not been written. Conversation’s three volumes  above need to be reworked I think and THEN we reveal the wealth.  It is a book or books, the very one mentioned in the introduction of course.

     C.  The Meeting of Different Worlds

            1.  Two friends (after the exciting and insightful chp. 2 that doesn’t yet exist, Smoke and Gospels) sit and talk setting the scene for the arrival of the contingent from the abbey.  Chp. 3.1

            2.  The monk goes to offices as Smoke thinks.  Chp. 3.2

            3.  Gospels discovers that he doesn’t know very much about Smoke.  Smoke tries to reassure, but raises more questions with his selection of “Iamerge” for a name.  Chptr. 3.3

             4.  Introductions.  Chp. 3.4 I jumped over this, skipping ahead to:

             5.  Boat ride to the Abbey

                   a)  Chp. 4.1 (Notably absent and I think essential are the monks chanting offices as they travel and Smoke’s glimpses of the nearby town, his anticipated destination before being wrecked on the Skellig. I think these items are important enough to add if not as narrative at least as notes here and likely in a revised 4.1.  Yes, I know what I said, give me a break.)

                   b) Arriving at the Monastery Chp. 4.2

                   c) Gospels remembers Smoke Chp. 4.3

                   d) Discussion in the guesthouse (not yet written)

              6. Smoke (Imerge) in the town

                    a) Initial impressions  (Chp. 5.1) as Smoke (Imerge) enters the port town seeking to find the agent holding his hold stake.  Iamerge Meets Ol’ Jim Cooper, the mayor of Rat Town.(Chp. 5.2)   Iamerge nearly gets run down by armed guards of the man he is looking for, but Roderick Ua Birlinn being dead, his son Ruaridh Ua Birlinn will have to do.  All this he discovers from Cooper.(Chp. 5.3)

                    b) The talk of the Tavern begins with Cooper tending bar and talk of the situation. Gospels is brought up. Conversation in the basement. (Chp. 5.4) The rest of that conversation, (Chp. 5.5). . .           . . .that does not include this part (Chp. 5.6)

                    c) Iamerge walks the streets (Chp. 5.7)

                    d) Speaking to the force of nature (Chp. 5.8)

              7.  Iamerge returns to the monastery and then leaves.

                     a) Iamerge falls asleep beneath a tree (Chp. 6.1)

                     b) Gospels talks to Iamerge (Chp. 6.2)

                     c) Hebrews and the walk to the ambush (Chp. 6.3)

                     d) Iamerge and Gospels meet Rhauri Ui Birlinn (Chp. 6.4)

               8.  The ministry of the Monastery’s Brethern

                      a)  Iamerge and Gospels reach the disaster.  Conal McKendrick (7.1)

                      b)  Iamerge and Conal in the night (7.2)

                      c) Iamerge in the blue morning (7.3)

                      d) Iamerge and Conal on their way back to the Monastery (7.4)

III.  The Monastery, Among the Merciful Brothers

     A.  The Brotherhood (specifically a brotherhood of the wounded.)

           1.  Iamerge’s discontent (8.1)

           2.  Meeting Ui Birlinn

                        a. Iamerge meets a rider, Rhaury Ui Birlinn (8.2)

                        b. The question of Niamh and Rhaury misses his chance (8.3)

                        c.  Council and consolation for Conal (8.5)

                        d.  Leading to recovery (8.6)

           3.  What Iamerge overheard at the refectory (Chp. 9.1)

     B.  The Twelve

     C.  A Thirteenth Brother

IV.  The Journey Begins

Well folks.  Until I get a little farther down the road I think that’s all the outline I’m ready to put out.  Meager, I know, but there is more rattling around in my head, not to mention the odd plot twist that keeps cropping up.

Hopefully the progress page will progress better than it has resently, but even more I hope to put more electrons to page and really get this whole thing underway.

Wish me good luck,

LSO

 past posts:

28 Sep 2010 – My last update was in April.  Yikes!!!  I HAVE added more to the novel, slowly but surely, but this progress page has languished.

The story has made a turn I did not previously outline, so it seems that Iamerge and Gospels have surprised me again.  It seems there was a Goblin attack.

19 Apr 2010 – And a little bit more.

8 Apr 2010 – A little bit more and I introduced the name of Smoke (Iamerge) ‘s Factor, Ruaridh Ua Birlinn.  We also learn that Jim Cooper is the town nose, if we didn’t know that already. 

5 Mar. 2010 – Oiye, a whole week and so very little to show for it.  I’m interested in the Jim Cooper character and where he will lead.  I don’t particularily like them talking so much again, but I threw some action in at the end.  I think I should stop criticizing it now and just let you read the little that there is.  Read it.

25 Feb. 2010 – I’m finally back at it.  I made a little change to account for Chapter 5, Iamerge goes to town, and started writing that part.  I haven’t yet wrapped up the meal and conversation that Gospels and Iamerge have, but there has already been too much talking so I skipped ahead this little bit.  No guaranties I won’t do that more.  Let me know what you think of that.

8 Feb. 2010 -  Decided to post this beginning of  Chp 5.  Also added a little to the “Child of Moss” saga. Read part 2.

2 Feb. 2010 – Had opportunity to get to the second half of Chp. 4.  I’m still planning to rewrite 4.1 to add some elements.

1 Feb. 2010 – I have to say that hope of finishing the first draft of this novel by my birthday are dimming.  I did do a little bit of writing today, but sad to say it wasn’t focused on The Abbott and the Djinn. Instead I started a new story, I only meant for it to be a brief little vignette, but again things got away from me.  If you want to see what I did, read THIS (Child of Moss).

28 Jan. 2010 – I’ve been chiselingaway at this for too long.  I had to get it out and begun.  Having escaped the Skellig, Smoke, now naming himself Iamerge, comes to the Abbey.  I jumped over the introductions as those monks will be in seclusion, perhaps for longer than Smoke and Gospels will remain near the Abbey.  The three other monks who returned with the boat are of immediate interest. 

I am leaving the 21 Jan. post because it contains my apologies for this format.  I am roughing out a story and would be very appreciative of your help.  I fully realize that I am putting it out raw in part so that you can make comments and I won’t feel invested in work delivered with much blood and sweat.  I also want to offer a glimpse of my process.  Most of all I just want to write something down.  Names may change, place, time, order of events, facts, geography, all are malleable

21 Jan 2010 -  Sadly it has taken so long for so little.  What I have of chapters two and three might be edited down to the first half of a better 2, but that is for rewrites.  I think the momentum is stalling and so I have trouble getting things written.  In the end I have them chat. (hardly riveting)

Dear reader, please forgive me. sequentially there is an even wordier section as the group of monks meet their abbott and this new stranger.  It may not make the editing, but as I imagine it, these conversations must take place.  Once imagined they may be discarded to be remembered as needed, flashed back upon, or if they are simply insipid, left on the bone pile of events never reported.

Again, I apologize.  I am both inexperienced in writing novels AND intentionally putting things out as they come to me largely unedited.  This I do because of time, firstly, but also as a sort of writer’s seminar.  Feel free to comment, telling me what you think is of value, reveals character, effectively foreshadows (or you think might, if you guess I’ll tell you), should be kept or moved or retold.  I also value criticism up to and including matters of spelling and grammar, but also let me know what doesn’t work for you as narrative.  You are the reader who I seek to entertain, your opinion matters.

10 Jan 2010 – I’ve left Chp. 2 a mess and pressed on.  In order to get something started beyond the disaster I began Chp. 3

22 Dec 2009 – Currently there is not much of it on the site, nor much on this page.  I’m planning on getting it done before my birthday so I better get busy.  Beware the Ides of March.

4 Jan 2010 – I am unhappy with my last post, Chp 2.4.  I’m not exactly sure how I need to proceed. 

I’m sure that I will run into many such pauses.  Initially I feel like I want to resolve it right now, but I suspect a better idea would be to press on to Chapters 3 and 4, which I have in mind, instead of going back over the old material.

So, let me argue it out here before you and hopefully come to a decision that both resolves my delema and offers you insight into my process (AND has me writing if only on the progress page instead of real progress.)

This is intended to be a first draft.  In addition to being a novel it is, or will be, a bit of a foundational document that touches much of the world of Tir na Nua by speaking to the Biblious Monastics and the idea of long lived people and their impact as well as the impact being different has on them personally.  These are very important issues not only to this story, but to many or likely most of the rest of the stories.

Clearly, I want it to be right, and yet in this format I’m throwing it against the wall and seeing what sticks.  And then perhaps finding what stinks. 

In other work on Tir na Nua I have focused on characterization and have jumped from scene to scene in a story, ignoring the intervening narrative, and leaving it to the future to tie the scenes together.  I think that is a good approach. 

My plan is to rely on this progress page when editing becomes necessary.  If I leave 2 as it is, look for explanations and revision notices on this page.  Going forward, I may leap ahead and actually post chapters ahead, but I will try to at least tie such leaps together with outlines of the intervening plot.