Okay, for today's writing sample I am sharing a snippet from a WIP I began for Young Adults. It is intended to be a series and it will be a challenge for me as I've never worked on books about swordplay, etc.
AH well. I never shy away from a challenge.
The books are based on the idea of the older television show, 'Highlander'. Malvina Campbell grew up in Scotland in 1523. Her father, William, was also an Immortal and in hiding...but the Watchers found him. The events that followed one fateful day leads to Malvina realizing she was more like her father than she realized.
It's fun bringing in century-old traditions and history into modern times. I'm sure this will be both fun to write, as well as for readers to enjoy.
The following is a sort of introduction to the story, and where Malvina came from. I'll be sharing other snippets from this story so stayed tuned!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prologue
Scotland, 1523
“Malvina! Stop your daydreaming
and put your mind on your chores,” Gwendolyn Campbell shouted to her
seventeen-year old daughter. “The sooner they’re done, the more time you’ll
have for play.”
Malvina was the oldest of her four siblings and the only girl, so
far. There would have been seven of them, but two of her brothers were taken by
a fever and the baby girl her mother had the previous year died at birth. Born
two months too soon in winter’s cruelest days, she was too little to survive
the harsh elements. So Malvina prayed daily that the new bub living in her
mother’s womb would be a girl and all the burdens of growing up female in a
house filled with men would finally be shared.
She watched her brothers practice swordplay with their father,
William, aching to have that time with him too. So what if she wore skirts
while they sported pants. She was strong and, unbeknownst to them all, she
honed on her own sword skills while they worked in the fields and their mother
rested. Her skills were equal to those of her brothers; perhaps even greater.
And yet, being female, her interest and talents were overlooked forced instead
to wash britches, clean the home and help her mother with cooking.
Stupid, lucky boys, she thought.
“Malvina!” her mother shouted even
louder, startling out of her thoughts. “I can’t see this laundry jumping up to
the line on its own, now. Please come and have it done.”
“Coming,” she said, flinging her dark, auburn hair over her shoulder.
Malvina was the spitting image of her mother with her beautiful,
waist-length curly hair and eyes as green as emeralds. She had a slight figure, but was strong from doing chores and helping in the fields when needed. William
was a doting father who treated all his children equally and believed man and
woman were team members, sharing life responsibilities. The only thing he
forbade Malvina from participating in was swordsmanship. Because she was the
only girl, he didn’t want her to participate in any of the fighting going on
around them at that time. She understood but was still disappointed she wasn’t
given the chance to at least practice with him.
She grabbed the basket of soaking wet laundry her mother had left
for her at the door and steadied it on her hip. Her mother appeared at the
door.
“Ah, Mallie-girl,” she said, placing her palm on Malvina’s freckled
cheek. “I know how much you’d like to go out there. I guess your Pa is afraid
he’ll lose you.”
“It’ll happen one way or another,” Malvina said, pressing her
mother’s hand closer to her face with her shoulder. “I have to go off to have
my own family one day, don’t I? I can’t be a maid to this lot for all times.”
Her mother laughed. “Aye. I guess you are just the dear one being
the only girl. He knows you practice out back, you know. Between us, he thinks
you are very good. He couldn’t deal with losing his beautiful Malvina should a
soldier take her in a fight. It isn’t just because you’re a girl. But don’t
tell him I went and said so.”
Malvina didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or proud that her
father knew she picked up a sword. She smiled, kissed her mother’s palm then
nodded to the clothing line running from the side of the house to the tree
several feet away. “Our secret,” she said. “You go on in and lay down while I
hang these. Then I’ll help with supper.”
“Sweet Mallie-girl. What would I do without you?”
With that her mother pushed the
door closed and Malvina lugged the basket over to the line and dropped it on
the ground beside her. She grabbed one of her father’s shirts by the shoulders,
flicked it into shape then hung it over the line. The boys had dropped their
wooden swords into the grass and were wrestling with their father. He was well
over six feet and stronger than most other men. With all three of her brothers
dangling from his shoulders and arms, he was still able to run about with
little trouble.
Malvina smiled. She was about to bend down to pick up another shirt
when something caught her eye in the distance. She squinted. A chill exploded
through her body. A massive band of men on horseback thundered across the
field. A trumpet blew and the band divided into several smaller ones, each
heading to a different section of the entire community.
Their family lived in the lowlands of Scotland in a small farming
community not far from the ocean and the city of Edinburgh. There were several
families living around them, each with their own patch of land, and during
harvest time they’d all travel to the village to celebrate
and sell their wares. At that moment, she watched as the larger group of the
band came straight at her father and brothers. As they got closer, Malvina
recognized their English uniforms.
She dropped the shirt she was holding and ran to the edge of the
field. “Da! Da! Soldiers!”
William froze, looking around them, then threw the boys in the
direction of the house. “Malvina! Get them inside and shut the door. Secure the
door and hide. Now!”
Was he insane? She wasn’t about to let her father stand up to those
men alone. But she knew she had to get her brothers and mother to safety. As
she rushed out to meet the boys, her father picked up his sword, holding it
close to his side. It had to be the size of her five-year old brother, Duncan,
if not a stone bigger. Fear paralyzed her.
The two older boys ran past Malvina into the house, screaming at
their mother to hide. Duncan, whose right leg was lame, wasn’t able to keep up
the same momentum. He kept stumbling the harder he tried to run. Malvina
sprinted to him, yanked him off the ground then hoisted him up. He wrapped his
arms and legs around her torso, hiding his face in her hair. She paused.
The leader of the group coming toward them looked nothing like the
rest of the soldiers. First, he wasn’t wearing a uniform. He was dressed like a
Highlander, the Scotsmen in the mountains who wore their clan’s robes. His
black, wavy hair hung past his shoulders and his eyes, darker than the tea her
mother brewed. His skin was leathery and rough, like a man who had spent many years in the cold weather. He held himself tall on his horse,
commanding control merely with his presence. And he scared Malvina worse than
any demon could.
He seemed to know her father. “William of Campbell,” he yelled, his
sword held out, leading the men. “You cannot hide any longer. Today is your
turn.”
No comments:
Post a Comment