NaNoWriMo 2013 ... Formal Announcement

I must formally announce that I cannot continue with NaNoWriMo 2013.

The Great Hiatus took too much from me, too early. I thought it'd be a day surgery, but it turned into full surgery. I am still in recovery, and so I have no way of generating the momentum now, to writing the remaining words I'd need to win.

So as of tonight, I quit. I can't even tell you how many words I've done right now. It is nowhere near what it is meant to be.

The Empty Shadow will get written - in fact, it is now my main writing project, and so it shall get written. It just won't get written by the end of this month of November 2013.

Don't expect me to do it before the end of the year, either.

I'm disappointed, too. But I'd rather write a cracking novel in a few months than a crap one in one month.

The Empty Shadow - And So It Begins

Chapter 1

Shadow Play

Sunsday, 30th Darkness, 1453 T.

Incense hung in the air; a calming, reassuring scent as a hand, feminine fingers long and elegant, gently caressed the smooth, cool, polished wooden surface of the coffin lid. Silence also hung in the air, leaden and cold, leaving nowhere for the soul to go.

A door slamming open broke the mournful reverie. The hand retreated. The woman turned. A man had entered the almost-vacant room behind her. Tall. Slender, well-toned body. Brown leather jacket, leather trousers, boots. Shock of red hair. Green eyes.

'Where is he?'

The white-clad woman looked on as the man approached the coffin. She, too, was tall, her gentle eyes carrying a noble bearing, her long, blonde hair tied up in a braid behind her.

The woman's brow furrowed. 'This is the Temple of Repose, Hardie Camplin. Please show some respect for the dead.'

Hardie stopped in the aisle. Hastily, he rearranged his jacket and spat on his hand before running it through his hair.

'Sorry, Seren Mai.' He wiped sweat from his face. 'How's that?'

Seren Mai of Anfar maintained her composure for a moment. Her slow smile, in the gloom of the Temple, felt like a breaking dawn. 'Acceptable. Now, as you were saying ...?'