Excerpts

[Spiderwriter]

Okay. Kim and I decided it would be a good idea to make a thread purely for Excerpts. NOTHING ELSE. That way it will be easy to find them when we need to. I am going to make a separate thread for responses to the Excerpts. And keep it all neat-like, if you please.

So, PLEASE DON'T POST ANYTHING IN THIS THREAD BUT EXCERPTS.

It will make everyone's lives easier.

Love ya'll!

Spider

[Spiderwriter]

I'm pasting this directly from Melissa's comment.




I'm not sure if I shared this before, but in light of the Niall comments elsewhere.

NOTE: Okay, this sequence would go back in the book if I had a way to make it fit.  Their friendship matters in Fragile Eternity (book 3), but this section took away focus from the plot of Ink Exchange.  I'd considered following up on this & the few bits in FE that show they used to have a relationship, but I'm not sure where that text belongs.  I may write it just for the sake of writing it, but for now . . .


Slender arms slipped around him.  Siobhan--one of the Summer Girls--held him. "You look sad, Niall. I saw you from the dance--" she slid around to block his view of the window "--and came to fetch you."

"I'm well enough."

"That's too near a lie. Sometimes, it's not about feeling happy, but courting happiness," she said, offering him a surprisingly lucid answer considering she'd been at the dance for a good while already. "Come dance with me. Believe in me; pretend I'm the mortal. You've played pretend for us often enough."

And he looked at her, this once-mortal girl he'd taught the ways of Faerie when she'd refused to try to be Summer Queen, when Keenan had abandoned her to resume his search. She understood how he felt better than his oldest companion, his king. She understood feeling lost.

Keenan's two queens had begun to suggest that Siobhan and the others shouldn't be in Keenan's arms, that his relationship with Donia was reason enough to not lie with the girls. Neither of the queens considered what it meant to the Summer Girls to be rejected so easily.

"Keenan still cares for you," Niall assured her as she began to dance in his arms.

"He does. We are of his court." Siobhan's skin shimmered in the moonlight that fell through the window, giving her an ethereal cast. "But soon he'll stop resisting the queens' suggestion. We thought we'd have time since Aislinn doesn't take him for herself yet."

"She's still too mortal to--"

"We're okay with it, Niall. He's a king. His queen--and his lover--both want us to rely less on him. Their accord means more to him than ours." She had led him away from the window, away from the frolicking fey.

"He should put his faeries first. He's not thinking of the consequences, the cost . . ." Niall let his words drift off, criticizing his king, thinking not just of the Summer Girls but of the pain he faced each time he saw and could not have Leslie.

Beautiful pain though.

"Just believe in me." Siobhan looked up at him, wearing Leslie's face, love shining in her eyes.  She held on to him until he couldn't look away. "Talk to me the way you'd talk to her. Dance with me as you would dance with her. Pretend with me so you have the strength to not break your vows with her."

So he pulled her closer and whispered the things he wanted to tell Leslie, promises and dreams he had told her when he walked invisibly by her side, and Siobhan-as-Leslie gave him back those promises in return--not a lie, but pretending as he'd once pretended for her when their king turned his face away.

Just as he will do again.

[Spiderwriter]

Quoted from Melissa's post:

Hmph. They were to send it out . . .   *shrug*

It's short though, so I'll post it here (FIRST & ONLY PLACE ONLINE SO FAR)--

Donia glanced away from the window when he walked in. "You aren't to be here."
"Actually, I am."  Keenan smiled, wicked and lovely and beautiful. "This is exactly where I'm to be, Don."
"No. I need time. I'm still angry with--"
"So tell me to go." He looked happier than he had in forever, rainbows bounced around her room illuminating shadows with bands of vibrating colors as he leaned against the wall watching her. "Your guards told me to go. Your fey tried to turn me away at the door. Again."
For weeks, she watched him walk to her door, only to be denied entrance.  He looked up at the window then, laughed and shook his head.  It had been several months since she'd seen him, since she'd told him to stay away, since she'd told him she loved him.
"They are supposed to deny you." She forced herself not to look at him, not to give in. "It was my order."
"And I've walked away each time they told me to go, like some denied suitor. Is that what you wanted? To make me wait?"
She didn't answer. Lying wasn't a choice, and truth wouldn't help her case.
"I'm growing tired of waiting, Don."
"I've been tired of waiting for years, Keenan."
"So stop. Dine with me tonight? Walk with me under the stars?" He moved closer with each word, and she had no where to run.
Why run? She'd been waiting for this for more years than she cared to admit. But having him so near, so willing to try to have a relationship terrified her. What if we fail?
She looked at him then, and admitted, "I want to."
"So do I. So what's stopping us?" Keenan sat beside her, not touching.
"I don't trust you." She'd thought about it a great deal in the past months. She'd dated once, before him, but since then she'd been alone. It had been years--years in which Keenan dated girl after girl, years in which those girls were in his arms and between his sheets.
He raised his hand to touch her cheek. "Let me try to court you. This is what you said you wanted. Remember?"
She nodded. "But I need to go slow this time."
"If that's what you want."
It wasn't what she wanted, but it was what she needed: her fears had grown fierce as she'd considered--truly considered--what it would mean if they failed at this. To spend eternity required to deal with each other, but aching at the inability to be together.  Is it better to have a dream untried and keep it or to take the risk at destroying it by trying to make it real?
"I don't want us to fail this time," was all she said.
"So we don't fail." He pulled her closer, holding her as tenderly as he did in her dreams, cradling her in his arms as he had when she was mortal so long ago.
"Promise?"
"Promise," he agreed.
And it didn't taste at all like a lie.       

[Spiderwriter]

Quoted from Melissa's post:

I don't remember if I shared this, but I thought I'd give you the original start of the Epilogue.



NOTE: This was the first start of the epilogue.  In retrospect, I wonder if I should’ve pulled out some of Leslie's POV for the epi anyhow.  Of course, if I had done so, I'd be wondering if I should've left it out. I opted to NOT give Les an epi section b/c I wanted to signify her absence from the world of Faerie at this juncture.  She walked out. She's done with them. Having her in the epilogue felt like it took away from her choice to leave.
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Leslie saw them watching her, knew that faeries from three courts checked in on her, knew that Niall and Mada [character who was cut from INK] still watched.  But only one faery made herself known.

The white-haired girl was eerily calm as she approached. "Are you well?"

One of Leslie's new classmates, Michael, was walking with her. He didn't react when the faery spoke: she was invisible to him, as hidden as the ivy-wrapped girls that lived in Keenan's loft.

In Niall's former home.

"Michael? I need to run back upstairs. I'll meet you at class." Leslie caught and held the faery's gaze. "I'll see you there?"

Both faery and mortal said, "Yes."

At the top of the stairs, Leslie shoved her key in the lock and opened the door to her tiny efficiency.  Fortunately, the narrow hallway was empty because the faery became suddenly visible then.

"Are you sure you want me in your home?" Her voice was a cold whisper, but she didn't frighten Leslie.

Much.

"Are you here to hurt me?"

The Winter Queen widened her eyes with a mildly shocked expression. "Of course not."

"Well, then . . ." Leslie motioned her inside. "It's not much, but you're welcome."

There weren't any nice chairs to sit on; Leslie hadn't used the gifts certificates or credit cards that Niall and Irial had both sent.  It really was plain, thrift store furniture and not much of it, but it was hers.

And safe.

She spent most of her money on living in a better neighborhood, a safer neighborhood where she could walk to the high school she'd transferred into when she moved--and close enough to catch the train to the college next year.

"I assume you know who I am?"

"The Winter Queen." Leslie's voice didn't falter; she had no real reason to be afraid.  The slender faery wasn't going to hurt her--she'd said so, and Leslie knew enough about them to know they didn't lie. Niall and Irial had both made certain she knew far more than she ever wanted to know about the fey.

"Donia. My name is Donia."

"Donia. Right."

"Do you need anything?" Donia asked.

Leslie laughed, but it was a weak sound. "Nothing you can give me."

"Your friends--Ash, Seth--they think of you often."

"I know." She hadn't returned their calls, although she expected they knew where she was.  She just needed space, from them, from all of it.

"And Niall--" Donia lifted her hand as if she would reach out, but didn't "--he grieves."

"I saw him a few times. We talked and . . ." Leslie missed him, but she missed Irial too in some perverse way. She missed a lot of things that she'd lost--her family, her old life. "I need time."

After a gentle smile, the Winter Queen said, "If you need anything I can offer you, speak my name into the air. My faeries will tell me. The other courts will not hear; the solitaries will not hear. No strings, Leslie. Just an offer from someone who's been as confused as you are--far too long and far too recently."

Leslie nodded. "I'm good."

And she was. Things weren't ideal, but they were better than they'd been in a very long time. She needed time and space to figure out her own life before she started trying to make sense of her mortal and faery friends--or deal with any entanglements from the two faeries who kept watch over.

"I need to figure me out first, what I want and need and . . . you know?" she said.

"Yes, I do," Donia said with a sad smile of her own. "I know exactly what you mean. It's why I came. Just remember my offer, Leslie. Not all kindnesses come with strings and pain."

And with that, the Winter Queen left.


Reply

[Spiderwriter]

Quoted from Melissa:


Rowan people--named from one of the sacred woods (Rowan, AKA Mountain Ash).  Grey-ish bark-like skin, typically faithful to the Summer Court.  Evan, a Rowan, leaves to lead the guard of the new Winter Queen at the end of WL.

But I write a world where choice is always central, so they're not JUST Summer.

DELETED SCENE:

The following excerpt was written for a version of Ink Exchange wherein Donia was one of my pov characters. It was a first draft (i.e. is very flawed still), but there's no reason not to share it at this point. I don't know if I'll ever write the rest of the story this set up, but here is a snippet of it. By the end, it was not Donia I was interested in following in this section, but Evan . . . whose story I want to tell but haven't yet . . . or maybe it was abt Donia As Queen.



"[Donia] was restless now, eager to get out of Pittsburgh and head home. During winter, she'd had to travel. Now that spring was coming, she felt disconcerted when she was too long away from her home.

Evan motioned to the other guards, winter fey all of them, and they moved further away, all but three disappearing into the night at his command. The last three, white-winged hawthorn girls, never wandered far from her side. Their red eyes glowed like beacons in the poorly lit street.

Once the others were out of sight, Evan murmured, "Have you ever wondered about the secret [Irial's] court hides?"

"Secret?" She hadn't seen that remark coming.

Evan led her around a group of junkies on the stoop of an abandoned tenement building. Keenan always sent a cloud of warm air to such mortals when they'd walked. Unlike him, she couldn't offer them any comfort.

"I forget how young you are," Evan began.

"No, you don't."

"Perhaps." He grinned, looking pleased as he always did when she argued. He took such perverse pleasure out of her objections.

The slight rustling of leaves revealed his moving closer. "My kin used to tell me of the strange habits of the dark fey."

"They're no stranger than our court." She let frost trail in her wake, giving in to the growing pressure inside. It was still early enough in the year that she could justify frosting the burgeoning blossoms.

Evan was watchful as they moved, not looking at her. "The Rowan chose fealty to the Summer Court, but like some of the other fey we are not of any court. Some argue that we once belonged to the High Court, but in swearing fealty to the Summer Court we've become prey to their weaknesses. If we swore to another court--" he did look at her then "--perhaps that, in time, would change."

"So, is this an experiment, choosing my court over Keenan's?"

"In part." He led her down another street, motioning for her to step around several more sleeping vagrants. "But after so long watching over you for Keenan--"

She interrupted, "Could the rowan-men join the Dark Court?"

"Perhaps, but none have. They're the only of the courts my kin haven't joined. We've walked among them, but our words of fealty weren't asked. Ever."

"Why?" On the not too distant street, she heard the pop-pop-pop of gunfire.

"That, my queen, is a question worth asking." Evan's red eyes darkened until they barely glowed, like the last flare of coals in an ashy fire. "If he's trying to convince you to ally with him--as Beira had--it'd be wise of us to see if there are any among his fey who'd be willing to answer that and other questions."

Donia knew he was right, but it seemed too like Beira, too like Keenan to ask Irial's fey to break their oaths of fealty. "It makes sense."

With another rustling sound, Evan nodded. "You lack proper advisors, but I shouldn't presume . . ."

[Tiger]

You geniuses! I was about to ask Maria for this very thing. Now we can find and reference them with relative ease. *Squees*

[Melissa_Marr]

Those are all extras, deleted, or alt sequences.  How about an excerpt from FE?

There WILL be proper excerpts (I always do excerpts), but none are out yet.  It's waaaaaay too early, but, yanno, if I were to post . . .say, page 6, it would say this:

"The High Queen walked toward the lobby with a sense of trepidation.  Sorcha normally required that visitors be brought to her, but in this case, she'd make an exception.  Having Bananach roaming the hotel was far too dangerous.

In the past few months, the High Queen had moved her court to the edge of the mortal world, taking over a city block and re-making it as her own.  Stepping within that city block meant one had left the mortal realm and entered the edge of Faerie.  Her domain stood separated, divided from all else.  The rules of the mortal world—their sense of time and place, their laws of nature—were all moot within Faerie, even in this space-between where she’d brought the High Court.

It was the closest to the mortals' realm  Sorcha had brought her court in centuries, but now that the other courts were shifting, Sorcha couldn't stay quite so far removed.  Her being in the mortal realm too long was untenable, but living at the edge of mortality wouldn't alter their world.  It was the reasonable path. The boy king was enthroned with his centuries-missing queen in the Summer Court.  His beloved was holding the Winter throne. And Niall, Sorcha’s almost-temptation, had taken the Dark Court throne.  None of it was unexpected, but all had changed in barely a blink" (Fragile Eternity pg 6-7).
 
That's the start of Chapter 1.  I'd share the first 1-5 but those are Seth & Ash, so I'm more likely to get reprimanded if I post those this early.  A proper excerpt (including pages 1-5) will be posted as soon as I get permission.  We're 70+ days from release still, & I'm not usually given permission to share until 30 or so days before.  I asked last week abt when I could post & when they'll post the "Browse Inside" . . . but I am thwarted by the Powers That Be.   Hope that little bit gives a glimpse.

(x-posted from the FE excerpts request/inquiry thread)

[Tegan]

one word, everyone will laugh when they read the book, it gives noting away i am not even saying who says it. but i need to put this because its been a really crummy day,

"Woof"

[dusty]

FROM MELLISA'S BLOG


Fragile Eternity

Prologue


Seth knew the moment Aislinn slipped into the house; the slight rise in temperature would've told him even if he hadn't seen the glimmer of sunlight in the middle of the night. Better than a lantern. He smiled at the thought of his girlfriend's likely reaction to being called a lantern, but his smile fled a heartbeat later when she came into his doorway.

Her shoes were already gone. Her hair was loosened from whatever arrangement it had been forced into for the Summer revels she'd been at earlier that night. With Keenan. The thought of her in Keenan's arms made Seth tense. She had these all-night dances with the Summer King every month, and try as he might, Seth was still jealous.

But she's not with him now.  She's here.

[dusty]

From Sentence Sunday on Melissa's blog:

This is  from page 12 

Smoke and haze filtered into the room.  Half-shadowed figures of faeries and mortals reached out bloodied hands.  The sky grew thick with illusory ravens' wings, rustling like dry corn husks.  Bananach smiled.  The not-yet-there shape of wings unfolded from her spine.  Those wings had spread over battlefields in centuries past; to see them so clearly outside a battlefield did not bode well.

[Maria]

The first six pages of Fragile Eternity will not be posted here, but you can see them via Amazon's Browse Inside feature:

http://www.amazon.com/Fragile-Eternity-Wicked-Lovely-Melissa/dp/006121471X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236308978&sr=8-1#reader

[dusty]

Alt/extra scenes
http://www.melissa-marr.com/melissa_marr/graphics/ink_excerpts.pdf

[RedRaindrops66]

Taken directly from Melissa's LJ.

So on the USB bands I fling at you during events, I have these excerpts (along w bunches of other stuff).  The contents aren't to be posted in public until Summer Solstice.  That's the rule, but . . . well, I'm in a mood.  . . which means that I'm posting one early

CUT from Fragile Eternity

NOTES: I cut this because it slowed the pacing.   This is a “it did happen but it’s not in your book” excerpt.

 

Donia was out walking when Seth found her.

"I wouldn't pursue this path.  I gave my mortality for him . . ." She let her words drift away, but the meaning was still there as if she'd pronounced it.

"She needs me."

"It's a mistake."

Seth paused, weighing his words, hoping he wasn’t telling Donia anything she didn't already know. He toyed with the ring in his lower lip as he tried to formulate the right words.  "They grow closer every day. He has some sort of pull over her . . ." 

            "That is to be expected," she murmured, gently.

            "I don't want to lose her."

            "Sometimes what we are determines who we can love . . ." Her voice didn't reveal any change in emotion, but a shard of ice glinted in her eye, a frozen tear unshed.

            "If I were faery--"

            "I won't help you make this mistake, Seth."

            "Even if it helped you keep her from him?" Seth watched Donia as she weighed her words.  She was every bit as terrifying as Niall could be, but the Winter Queen was calculating in a way that Niall seemed to lack . . . in a way that reminded him of the last Winter Queen.  He shivered at the memory of icicles driving into his skin.

            It was as if Beira's visage lay atop Donia's face when she asked, "Would you throw yourself on my mercy for her?"

            "You know that answer."

Donia sighed. "I do.  It’s the same answer Keenan would give, Seth."

[RedRaindrops66]

More FE Deleted Scenes  Taken directly from Melissa's blog.



NOTE: Cut for pacing reasons.  This happens before the sequence when Seth & Keenan are alone at the table threatening each other.

 Aislinn blushed. "He's just not used to--"

"You can defend him to me or to Glenn." Seth glanced over at the bar where  Keenan waited--not in his club, but in Seth's preferred club, surrounded by mortals who looked at him like an enemy.  "I'd suggest going for Glenn.  I'm not going to provoke him from over here.  Glenn will. . . plus, I'm not interested in your trying to find a way around the lying bit so you can say Keenan's not irritated with me. We both know that's not true."

He loosened his hold on her. "Go save him."

"Right." Aislinn walked toward the bar.  Seth was right: Keenan would be less than pleased by Niall's violence. And Seth's role in it. She knew that, but she didn't want to admit it.

She walked up as Glenn sat a bottle of one on Seth's preferred beers on the bar.

"For Seth,"  Glenn said.

Seth might be under-age still, but in the Crow's Nest he often got a pass on that detail--unless there were people in the bar who would cause trouble.  It was far from the most illegal thing that happened openly in the Crow's Nest.

"Ash's."  Glenn put a bottle of water beside the beer, and then he put up a glass of water with a visible lipstick ring on it and no ice in it. He smiled nastily at Keenan. "Yours."

Aislinn put a hand on Keenan's wrist. "Hey."

Keenan's lips were pressed tightly together as if to keep words from escaping.

"Can you take Seth's over?" She handed him the bottle of water. "And yours."

"I wasn't trying to make you follow me." Keenan's entire posture was tense. "I wouldn't resort to such a base tactic for attention."

"Please? Can you just let me try to make things normal?" She felt tears of frustration prick her eyes.

"Things aren't normal. You can try for the illusion, but we're-- . . . I'll take these over."

Once Keenan stepped away from the bar, Aislinn called out, "You being slack tonight? You only gave us two of our drinks. Where's mine?"

Glenn's entire expression changed as he noticed her. "Hey, you. You want something other than water?"

"No, but I figured I'd say hello while Keenan carried the other two drinks over."  She didn't chastise Glenn. It wouldn't help.  She just wanted to set things to right, so the night could be easier, as if fixing the little errors would make the big stuff manageable.

 

NOTE: This section was cut because it took the story in the wrong direction at the wrong time. So, in my mental schema, this section did NOT happen.

 "I could come to the school. Wear a glamour, be an altogether different student this time." He gave her ones of those delicious smiles, a promise of warm summer nights under cloudless skies.  "You could spurn me.  You could crush me if it would make you smile more."

"You're twisted." She laughed though.

"Is that what you need?" His eyes held island waterfalls in lush jungles. "Tell me . . ."

"No." She let him hold her though, let him tangle his fingers in her hair.  Her sigh caught between pleasure and remorse. "I don't know what I need, but games and hurting my friends aren't it."

He stroked her hair, letting sunlight slide down the strands until she was languid, at peace as she rarely was these days.

[dusty]

NOTES: This next section was cut because it was off topic. It’s from when Seth & Niall are at the Crow’s Nest. I had referenced the fact that Niall had called Leslie, but it was off topic so it had to go. Again, this is a “it did happen but it’s not in your book” excerpt.

. . . except now he was able to enjoy affection without killing his partners. In theory, Niall should be happier.
Except for being in love with two people he can't be with.
 Niall's melancholia was unsurprising and very effective in luring partners; he exuded ennui with a healthy dose of trouble. For a guilty moment, Seth was grateful that his friend hadn't set his sights on Donia. If the Winter Queen found the resolve to spurn Keenan, he'd be far more of a threat to Seth and Aislinn's relationship.
Which is stupid. If Ash wants him Donia's presence or absence won't change anything. He tried not to think about it, but there were times when he knew that Keenan was trying boundaries. She doesn't love him. She was tempted though. Seth knew that; he wasn't stupid. But she hasn't done anything about it. He forced those thoughts away and caught Niall's gaze. "Are you going to tell me what happened with . . . the stranger? Or Devlin?"
"No." Niall frowned. He lit another cigarette before resuming the discussion he wanted to have. "I thought we could be friends. Leslie and me. I'm not suggesting we . . . date."
"Bullsh*t." Seth shook his head. "You don't want to be her friend. Try to tell me you just want to be a friend. Go ahead. Say it."
"I don't think that--"
“It would be a lie, wouldn't it? Telling me you want to be just her friend would be a lie. You can't say it.”