Kate Warren

I have so much enjoyed being part of this tradition.  Even though I know many of us will continue it in some form, it is still a melancholy occasion to have the official SSS over.  Thank you to all the friends I have met, all who have visited, all who have commented, through Six Sentence Sunday.

This week I will continue from last week, in Chapter 18.  Prince Gregory seems to have struck a chord with everyone.  He's a charmer, so that's not really a surprise. :o)  We join him as he readies



          He moved back three paces to the next line, tested the second dagger, studied the target for a moment, and before anyone expected it he had flung the weapon straight down the field.  This time the blade struck where the heart would have been had a man been standing in the dummy’s place.  
          The approbation was deafening—clapping and cheering, and none was louder than that of the prince’s own family.  Maksim jumped down from the royal box to congratulate his new brother. He was indeed honored that the boy had wished to pay tribute to him.  The people cheered louder at this.



 
For reference, Prince Maksim of Muscovy is betrothed to Gregory's sister, Princess Sylvia, and Gregory very much looks up to Maksim.

That's my six.  I'll see you all around the web as I make the Six Sentence Sunday rounds one last time.  Thank you for letting me be part of your Sundays.

Kate

Thank you to all my visitors last Sunday.  I enjoy going around to the blogs of other authors and reading the wonderful excerpts, and I greatly appreciate that you have taken the time to visit mine.

Can you believe it is the penultimate Six Sentence Sunday?  I haven't really been participating for very long.  I know there are many of us who will continue the tradition unofficially.  And Skye Warren has a sign-up on her blog to gauge interest for continuing it on a less informal basis on a different site.  Still, I will miss the original SSS.

On to this week's Six.  I shall once again be employing my random scrolling method.  We're in Chapter 18, at the tournament, just before the dagger throwing competition and the impetuous youngest member of the royal family, thirteen year old Gregory, has talked his way into being allowed to throw.  He is not to participate in the competition but is allowed to exhibit his skills, however, he will have only two daggers instead of the three that competitors are allowed.  His mother the queen is holding her breath.

      
          The prince took his place and a hush fell over the crowd. He stared hard at the target, ignoring all else, and then lifted his first dagger from the nearby table. He tossed the instrument gently twice, testing its weight and feel. He grasped the dagger firmly by the blade, took a breath, and pitched it toward the target without hesitation. It found its home deep in the belly area of the dummy. The applause was great, but he had still one more dagger to throw.


Ah Gregory!  He's such a character, no pun intended.  He lucked out on this stunt.  Any other time he might have gotten a royal punishment.  Lucky he chose his sister's betrothal celebration and paid tribute to her betrothed with his request.

That's all from me for this week.  See you on the other Six Sentence Sunday blogs.

Kate

Hello again friends and internet neighbors.  Welcome to another Six Sentence Sunday in KateWarrenLand.  And a great big thank you to everyone who came to visit last week, those who read, those who commented, those who landed at the wrong website and immediately left. 

As comments have been so lovely and supportive and several have expressed a wish to know how the tournament ended, we will continue where we left off last week for this six.  Though next week I fully intend to revert to my random scrolling method.



          It seemed that Sir Anton had made an error and Lord Allemande was pressing his advantage to the full.  Just at the last second, a shift of balance by
Sir Anton reversed the deficit and gave him the victory.
          The crowd roared its approval for a match well fought and a triumph earned.  Both men lowered their weapons wearily.  Anton raised his arm in acknowledgement of the spectators’ admiration.  Geoffrey exhaled in a
pungent mixture of misery and relief.



That is all for me this week.  I'll be visiting off visiting the other Six Sentence Sunday authors throughout the day, and I hope you will be too.

Kate

Here we are on the first Sunday of the new year, the first Six Sentence Sunday to be precise.  And sadly, one of the last as well. I've enjoyed meeting so many talented authors and reading their words each Sunday.  I've noticed a few people talking about continuing the tradition and I might do that as well.  Nothing formal of course, just posting sentences on Sundays.  Some weeks this is my only blog post.

But enough of that.  On to more pleasant topics.  Thank you to my readers and commenters from last week.  I value your words and encouragement more than I can say.  This week I shall continue from last week's six.  I forget which chapter we're in, but two men are fighting for a championship.  Last week's six touched on the fears and hopes of Sir Anton DuClerque's betrothed, Graciela Galindez (her name is much longer but I can't remember it all).  This week, we turn to Lord Geoffrey Allemande's admirer, who also happens to be a princess.


          Katarina braced herself for the ending she knew must be imminent. Either outcome would be a relief to her now. She felt as if she had been holding her breath, and holding herself rigid for an age. If only it would end. Win or lose, but let it be over, she cried in her mind.
          In a moment the viewers were all on their feet.


That's all for me this week.  Next time it will be back to random scrolling.  See you all around the web as I do my Six Sentence Sunday visits, assuming the kids will let me use the computer.

Kate

Greetings, fellow Sixers!  Thank you so much for coming to visit today, and for coming to visit last Sunday as well.  I'm happy to report that most of my family is much better.  Husband and I are still pretty wiped out from all the illness, but mostly good.  The final member of our family may be coming down with it (no! he had the flu shot! it's not fair!) or maybe he isn't.  Time will tell.

Anyway...last week's Six Sentences got such a great response that I thought this time I'd just pick up where they left off.  That and my random scrolling put me in the middle of mindless ramblings of a blocked writer, and I wasn't about to share six sentences of that.



          The queen hardly drew breath.  The king himself remained riveted on
the combat.
          This cannot go on for much longer, Graciela thought desperately, certain that every moment spelled her betrothed’s injury or defeat, yet equally certain that every moment also held his triumph.  She did not try to understand the contradiction in her mind.  There was no time to consider, to ponder, there was only her knight locked in struggle on the field.  Her Anton.



That's my six for this time.  Next week I'll share Katarina's thoughts, or you know, something else.  See you around visiting all the other awesome Sixers!

Kate

Welcome and thank you to those who gather at my humble blog to read my contribution to Six Sentence Sunday.  Thanks also to those who not only read, but comment too!  Your words are invaluable to me.

So, here I am using my random scrolling method once more.  I may alight upon something ridiculous.  Just so you know, this is the first draft, completely un-edited and thus far unfinished as well.

Today we are in chapter... 21, apparently.  The scene is the championship round of swordfighting in a tournament.  The competitors are fairly well matched and this has been going on for a while.


          "It seemed like hours since the bout had begun and still both men fought on as if possessed of serious ego issues.  Neither would give any quarter, and the spectators were yet unsure of who would be their tournament champion.  First Sir Anton would appear to have the advantage, then Lord Allemande.  Feints and lunges, parries and cuts, all in a primal rhythm, an age-old cadence of sweat, something I can’t think of right now, and battle.
          The crowd was deadly silent, listening to the tang of steel catching steel, the grunts of the combatants, even their footfalls on the field where a day of tramping boots had worn the grass away and dirt and dust stood sentinel in place of the green blades that had once reigned in peace over the ground. Two young ladies nearly opened wounds on their hands from digging their fingers into their palms."


In case anyone is wondering, the young ladies are Sir Anton's betrothed, Graciela (you may remember the two of them from previous SSS entries), and Princess Katarina, who has a major thing for Lord Allemande--a man who has been forbidden to her and is ignoring her, two circumstances guaranteed to stoke the passions of her fifteen-year-old heart.

That's all from me for today.   I will apologize in advance if I don't get to all my favorite Sixers' posts.  Feel like I'm coming down sick and I'm hoping to spend as much of the day as possible resting.

Kate

Hello all.  As you probably know by now I did not post for Six Sentence Sunday despite signing up for it.  I just couldn't.  Too much heaviness in my heart, and I was actually asleep past the deadline.  I have a migraine today and my daughter is sick and was up in the night.  Not fun, but at least I have her and my boys.

I keep thinking about the little girl from Sandy Hook Elementary school named Emilie.  She had the bluest eyes and was only a year older than my Emily.  I keep thinking about Victoria Soto, the first grade teacher who hid her students in closets and cabinets and told the shooter that they were in the gym, giving her own life to save theirs.  I keep thinking about the parents, the siblings, the pets even who won't see those smiling faces again.  Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and neighbors whose lives will be forever changed.  A community in shock and in mourning. 

There is no good time for such a thing to happen, but the holiday season is by far the worst.  Presents will go unopened and decorations have even been taken down.  Celebrating anything in such an atmosphere will be difficult, if not impossible, for those who have lost loved ones.  Some families will pull together because of this tragedy, and some will be ripped apart, adding more heartache and more tears.

I pray for everyone affected.  My heart aches for the lives cut short and the families devestated.  I imagine those beautiful children being gathered into Jesus' loving and protecting arms and it eases a little of the sting. 

There weren't six sentences in any of my work that felt appropriate to post today.  I'm sure you understand, and I hope you will visit the other authors who did post for Six Sentence Sunday.  I will.  I'm hoping some of them posted their funniest lines because I could use a reason to smile or laugh. 

Kate

Ah, Six Sentence Sunday!  Feels like home.  It's been a long time since I've participated, but I'm back now.

Well NaNoWriMo was a busy time, as usual, and many of my usual internet-based activities fell by the proverbial wayside.  However, I managed to win, so I'm happy.

While my latest release, Bridging The Gaps makes a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year's or other holiday or birthday gift, since I've been working on something else this week's six will be from my current WIP. 

Ladies and gentlemen I give you six sentences from the as yet incomplete first draft of The DeFord Chronicles, Part II, sequel to (that's right, you guessed it) The DeFord Chronicles, Part I.  I will choose this week's six via my random scrolling method partly because it has worked so well in the past, and partly because decision making is not one of my strengths today.  So from chapter 13 I give you the following:

Scene: Chauncy DeFord and his friend Sir James Quinly are preparing to leave the home of Chauncy's cousin in France.  James is complaining that Chauncy did not warn him about the ladies of the house and their enthusiasm for male company.  Chauncy speaks first here.   (please note this takes place in the year 1422)



          "How did you manage to put them off?”
          “I told the first that I had taken a vow of chastity, and breaking it would result in my immediate death. With the second I invented a dread plague that could be caught by kissing.  The third nearly overpowered me.” James shuddered at the memory.  “It was only feigning that her uncle would be arriving presently that saved me from Lady Chrestienne.  Praise God she did not stop to wonder why Monsieur Baricaud would be visiting my chambers [at night].”



That's my six for the week.  Be sure to visit all the other wonderful authors at Six Sentence Sunday.

Kate

Ladies and gentleman, National Novel Writing Month has commenced.  What does this mean?  It means I will actually be writing every day.  It also means I will not be participating in Six Sentence Sunday during the month of November, unless by some miracle I finish my WIP early.  I will miss it, but I won't likely have time.

On to the fun.  If you've never participated in NaNoWriMo, you might want to give it a try.  If November doesn't work, you could try one of the summer Camps instead. 

Or do your own personal NaNo.  Just take 50,000 words and divide by the number of days in the month to get your daily wordcount goal.  Write that many words or more each day and you will have a novel-length work by the end of the month.  Granted most novels published these days are longer, but the traditional minimum wordcount for a book to meet the definition of "novel" is 50,000.  You can write more if you want to.

What do you win?  Really cool bragging rights, a neat certificate, special offers from select sponsers, and the fact that you've written every day for a month.

I've posted a Guide to Genres specifically for NaNo participants.  It has its own page on the site.  It's somewhat tongue-in-cheek.

Must grab some breakfast before I get down to the business of seeing what I'm going to write this year.  That's right.  I don't decide until day one.  I sit down, start typing, and see what comes out, and that's the story I go with.  Not very smart perhaps, but its worked for me for the last three years.  I have a feeling I'll be continuing last year's novel, but I never know for sure.

Updates will be posted here, on my Facebook page, and on Twitter.  Happy NaNovember everybody!

Kate

Here it is Sunday again.  How does that keep happening?  I'd like to thank everyone who drops by and everyone who comments.  Your words are like sunshine on a gray day.

Let's get right to our Six Sentence Sunday, shall we?  This week we're in Chapter Thirty Three.  Ellen, Doug and Stephanie have staged an intervention about DJ's drinking.  DJ has just left in a nasty temper after promising to see a couselor.  



          Ellen sat down and buried her head in her hands.  Doug stood and put a hand on her shoulder.  She looked up.  Their eyes met for a second.  Both were remembering the day he was born, his first bicycle, his little leauge games.
          Other less pleasant recollections were there too: the night Doug had told her about the way his father had destroyed his mother's spirit with his constant verbal and physical abuse; his fears of turning into the same kind of man; the night his mother lay dying in the hospital, pleading with him to forgive his long-dead father, still loving the bastard after everything he'd done to her.


Not a happy six this week.  I hope to find some funny while I'm visiting my fellow Sixers today.  Come along with me, we can laugh together.

Kate