Well, yes, I got busy!

I didn't realize it had been quite so long since I updated here!

I am currently at 96,069 for Dancer and 198,154 for the month. So, yes, good month. Good books and a lot of fun. I still have a ways to go on Dancer, but I should finish soon.

Despite everything, I've had fun. I'm already starting to get back to work on other things as well. Writing on other stuff... which means my total for the month is going to be over 200,000 though not by much, I think.

So here is a snippet -- some of the last stuff I've written, in fact. It's a scene that's really post-novel since I got to the end of that plot, but I've added it in and found that I really like where it's going, and will have to work it in to the actual book, or into the next one in the series.

Snippet:

When she reached the glass cube, Epona glanced her way with a look of worry, and keyed open the sliding glass door that let the few worthy people into her office. Devlin came through with a nod and the door slid closed, leaving them in an odd, quiet little space in the midst of chaos.

"Are you all right?" Epona asked, waving for her to sit down.

"Nearly healed," she said. "It's not really that serious."

"Good." Epona watched as Devlin took the seat in front of her. "So why are you here?"

"I screwed that last case up," she said, leaning back. It was easier to say than she thought it would be.

"Not from what I can see."

"I screwed it up," she repeated. "We both know it. If I hadn't chanced on Dancer and joined with Cha, I'd still be sitting there trying to figure out how to get into the bear camp. I'd probably be sitting there thinking what a shame it was that the scientist died in an accident."

"No," Epona said. She leaned back as well. "No. You'd have figured that one out. You never believed in coincidence and chance."

She gave a little shrug of acceptance. "But still --"

"What is this really about? You've had worse cases. You've lost people on cases, but you didn't on this one -- and it was because you were smart enough to pull your two companions through the trouble."

She winced a little at that reminder of other ghosts, even though the people who had died had not been her fault. She'd always done the best she could, and she had done the same on Forest. She knew it. And it hadn't been enough.

"I think I want to quit," she said aloud.

Epona's eyes went wide. People would note that outside the cube, even if they couldn’t quite guess at what was being said.

"You can't really be serious. What would you do? Go work in some office somewhere?" she said and waved her hand at her own desk.

"You did it."

Epona sighed and sat forward this time. She pushed aside chits and her comp screen and keyboard. This was an intimate conversation, the kind you didn't share with the others who might have picked up the knack of reading lips. Damned hard working in an office full of spies sometimes. Devlin leaned forward as well.

"I had to leave the field, Devlin. I'd taken some serious injuries in my last field case. The kind where they told me that I wasn't going back out. I still don't have feeling in either of my hands or my right leg. But that's between you and me. This post opened up when Feinman suddenly retired -- and I think he did it to give me a chance at the position. But I'm not going to retire and give it to you, Devlin. I'm not ready to go sit in my room and watch things happen that I can't affect in any way. Do you want to do that? Do you want to give me that gold card right now and walk out of here and never come back?"

"Hell."

"Yes, that's what it would be. So tell me what you really want."