December is halfway over, there’s a week left in round four of ROW80—and there’s still so much to do. All the holiday shopping is done and I’m about halfway through wrapping presents, but I still have packages and cards to send out. And my little 13K novelette keeps getting longer and longer. I’m determined to finish a draft by the end of the year. We’ll see how long it ends up being.

Here’s a little more of that handsome, blond-haired stranger who was featured in last week’s WIPpet: Gwynn, bard of the Seelie Court. The math is simple: Three paragraphs for the month: 1+2=3. Click here to check in with other WIPpeteers.

And then he sang, words haunting and painful and beautiful. His voice broke my heart and then put it back together. He sang of love lost, of a fae man who said goodbye to the woman he loved too soon, of her journey to world beyond, of her lover’s broken heart. In that moment, caught up in the spell of his voice, I suddenly understood him better than I ever had. I saw a man who’d lost and was having trouble finding peace, moving on. In that moment, I saw the side of himself that Gwynn kept hidden, the vulnerability, the pain. I knew intuitively that this wasn’t just any song. It was his song, and I drank in every word.

When the song ended, the air seemed to buzz with the remnants of the last note. Slowly, Gwynn came back, as if awakening from a trance. His eyes locked on mine for an instant before they traveled to the darkening world outside.

“That was lovely,” I said, wonder in my voice.

ROW80 check-in:

Writing

1.) Make measurable progress on one of my WIPs. Wrote 2,183 words in “Stolen by Magic.”

2.) Read three books on the craft/business of writing. Two of three books read. Continued reading “Write. Publish. Repeat.” by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant.

Social media goals:

1.) Check in on Twitter or Facebook daily. On track to meet this goal.

2.) Blog twice a week. On track to meet this goal.

3.) Comment on three to five blogs per day, Monday-Thursday. On track to meet this goal.

A Round of Words in 80 Days is the writing challenge that knows you have a life. Click here to cheer on fellow participants.

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