All right, this is my current pet project, a novel which I've been promising some of you for a while. To those of you who've never read anything but my poetry and my first book: this is nothing like those. My poetry may still be as weird and nonsensical as ever, but my prose has improved a lot in the ten years since I finished the first book of The Child of the Races. I have here the first few chapters, all that's done in chronological sequence. Unless I change my mind about the sequence. I have a lot more done, as in a hundred pages - well, all right, two hundred with decent margins and font size.

It's Cherry again. No, she isn't all I write about. Look at my poetry if you doubt me, or take a gander at my Elfwood page. This time, I get to star in my own story. ;) Do you wonder why I like it? Yes, it's blatant self-insertion, but I hope it's good anyway. Of course, it's not much of a story if the characters are just having a good time all the time, so Cherry wants to get rid of me so I can't write about her any more. And of course, someone wants to destroy the universe, to give it a properly fantastic plot. However, it's mostly by accident, to make it properly me.

If you surfed in directly to this page and have never met me - I'm addicted to reading and writing fantasy novels. I have to read and write, and I can't stop. Beyond that, I enjoy music, magic, mice, travel, and languages. I like thinking in circles around the box and skipping over normality. There are frequently subtle puns and inside jokes in my writing. I am definitely improving as time goes on, but I have yet to determine a way to write a brief story. They always evolve into something much more complex, because I want to explain everything while still leaving people hanging, which results in a vicious circle. This is why I like poetry. I actually finish it. Sometimes.

1. Wherein the history of the universe is explained in three paragraphs.

2. Wherein the first two prophecies occur and a little blood is splashed.

3. Wherein occur an escape, a car crash, and the invasion of a hospital.

4. Wherein two threats are made and a baby is kidnapped.

5. Wherein a game of chess is played with a child's life at stake.

6. Wherein occur housework, babbling at a clean child, and plans for the future.

7. Wherein a spell is miscast, and half an unclear vison of something lost rears its ugly head.

8. Wherein the other half of the vision is discounted.

9. Wherein are detailed the history of the world from a Western perspective, and the history of a clan of mice.

10. Wherein the queen runs away, and King Baslon is both furious and wounded.

11. Wherein occur an assault on the olfactory sense from two fronts.

12. Wherein occurs some swearing, and then the story-teller for the first time learns to laugh.

13. Wherein a fake prophecy is brought forward, and the king ignores it.

14. Wherein an argument is resolved, and so is the history of the mice.

15. Wherein occur a broken heart and some creating.

16. Wherein poetry is hurtful and the twins do not reunite.

17. Wherein the storyteller encounters one of her characters and averts disastrous results.

18. Wherein another old friend is met for the first time.

19. Wherein occur teenage heckling, computer lessons, and a ridiculous threat

20. Wherein Raloz has a broken arm and Amarantha argues with herself.

21. Wherein two personalities in one person are introduced, and more magic is not done.

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