NaNoWriMo Update and Excerpt

By the time this post is published, I'll probably be well into the ninth day of NaNoWriMo. To say that it's challenging would be the understatement of the year. My fingers hurt from typing eleven hours a day (my job involves a lot of typing), my brain hurts from thinking for at least five of those eleven hours, my back hurts from bad typing posture and to top it all off I am NOT making word count (due to busy social life. Ha!). Besides these gripes, I'm having a great time. It's such fun to write and also to be able to connect and share the experience with other writers. I'm yet to pluck up the courage to go to a write-in close to my place but am hoping to do so in the near future.

To show that I haven't been slacking off, here is a short summary and excerpt from the first chapter of Seeder's Poison:

Summary:

Aurora (Rory) Gray knows only one truth: There are no good Seeders. Six years ago the Seeders killed Rory's mother. Now they are withholding seeds and supplies from Region 4, because one starving farm boy couldn't help but take fruit from an abundant harvest. The Seeder's Rules are simple. Nine citizens from the offending region must make the journey to the Citadel where they will be rewarded with enough seed and food to last the coming year. Whether they make it there alive is another matter.
       Chosen for the Wanderer half that she has been shunned for her entire life, Rory must make the journey through uninhabitable terrain, unimaginable terrors and unspeakable truths to pay back a debt that has been plaguing her for longer than she cares to admit. Staying alive is hard enough but trying to keep her companions alive too, especially when she would sooner shoot some of them full of poisoned arrows, is unbearable.
        But Rory knows what she must do. She's trained for this moment for years. For the Citadel may mean certain death, but it also means viable seeds. Enough to undo the poison the Seeders have planted in all the forest between the regions. Enough to cut the web of dependency the Seeders have so carefully woven. Enough to start the revolution her mother died fighting for. 

Excerpt:

I grasp my step brother’s arms tightly and attempt to extract him from the clutches of the Seeder Cleansing Squad. They come for him in the middle of the night, just as they did for my mother. Shrouded in forest green cloaks, hooded and exuding despair, they clutch at him, their movements slow but purposeful. A silver fog hangs in the air surrounding them, its damp density cloying at my throat. There are four Seeders, each one at least seven foot tall and built like a brick silo. Mangled claws sit where their hands should be and a tug either way causes serrated nails to tear at Mikey’s flesh. Within seconds, blood runs slick between where our limbs meet and the Seeders pry him away. Only then does my gaze lift to their faces, half obscured in their hoods, and I’m struck dumb by the abomination of them. A mishmash of skin and cartilage, of various tones, stretched and clumsily grafted over red raw muscles. 

            In their arms, Mikey’s eyes become wide and he screams my name again and again. Confusion engulfs me because I know I should be running for him. But there is no fight in me. Below the ample folds of the now blood stained azure gown that I wear, my legs refuse to cooperate. Instead, I cover my ears from the onslaught of his desperation, but even then I can’t escape his tortured pleas of ‘Rory, help me! Rory, don’t let them take me please!’  The sound become tremulous, a quivering vibration that tears through me and suddenly it’s not my name that I hear but a jarring wail that could disturb the hibernation of a winter worn bear. Even half asleep I recognise the warning. How could I not when my chest constricts so tightly upon hearing it?

There you go guys, I'm not as slack as I thought!