OK, gang, I’m a lot better today…not well yet, but definitely on the way.\u00a0 So: last day of contest entries (in case you’ve been holding back) is Friday, January 4, 2013 with a time-stamp deadline of midnight.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I should have an answer for you by Sunday night (giving myself extra time to be sure I get an accurate count of entrants and am not confused by multiples.\u00a0 The old brain isn’t necessarily 100% yet.)<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, to celebrate being able to sleep more than an hour at a time, and cough less than once an hour (hurray!!!!)\u00a0 and also in thanks for you folks’ incredible patience with The Writer, herewith a snippet:<\/p>\n
Setup:\u00a0 Arcolin has been steadily urged to consider marriage and getting an heir–he’s been considering a group of women others proposed for him, not too successfully.<\/p>\n
……………………………………………………………….<\/p>\n
Finally one crisp autumn day, the king invited a crowd to picnic on Mahieran lands, including the women Arcolin mentioned as still under consideration.\u00a0 Arcolin rode beside Dorrin, behind the other dukes as they left the city.<\/p>\n
“How’s the wife-hunt going?” she asked.<\/p>\n
“Not well.\u00a0 Either I am too critical or they are.”<\/p>\n
“Mmm.\u00a0 Well, I can make no suggestion.\u00a0 Though as I told Beclan, Lyonya has many pretty girls.”<\/p>\n
“I don’t want a girl,” Arcolin said.\u00a0 “But surely there’s some woman in this realm who is mature enough to be a true helpmate and young enough to bear.”<\/p>\n
“You could adopt an heir, if you found a widow with a likely child.”<\/p>\n
“How do you feel about Beclan as your<\/span> heir?”<\/p>\n “He’s going to make a good duke someday,” Dorrin said.\u00a0 “But of course, he grew up in a ducal household far healthier than mine was.”<\/p>\n “I would still rather sire one,” Arcolin said.\u00a0 “But if I don’t live to see one grown–”<\/p>\n “You’re not that old,” Dorrin said.<\/p>\n “Old enough to feel it on cold mornings,” Arcolin said.\u00a0 “And your idea of adoption may be sensible.\u00a0 If I can find the right woman.”<\/p>\n “Jandelir…are you truly over M’dierra?”<\/p>\n He felt heat rise to his face.\u00a0 “You knew?”<\/p>\n “Of course,” she said.\u00a0 She did not say what he could see in her gaze, that Kieri and the other captains had known as well.<\/p>\n And probably, he thought gloomily, half the Company.\u00a0 Too late now to be embarrassed.\u00a0 “Then yes, I am.\u00a0 I am not comparing these women to her, if that’s what you were thinking.”<\/p>\n ……………………………………………………………<\/p>\n Any more than that would be spoilerish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" OK, gang, I’m a lot better today…not well yet, but definitely on the way.\u00a0 So: last day of contest entries (in case you’ve been holding back) is Friday, January 4, 2013 with a time-stamp deadline of midnight.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I should have an answer for you by Sunday night (giving myself extra time to be sure I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,115],"tags":[112,28],"class_list":["post-1753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-beyond-writing","category-snippet","tag-life-beyond-writing","tag-snippet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1754,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}