NaNo day 13 - roadtrip!

- Chapter one -> fourteen = complete
- Chapter fifteen = begun

Word Count: 28,335/25,000 *
Story = 113% complete
Art = 1%

(*I kind of cheated as it now sports a glossary defining some of the Maori words I've used as bird names and also an Aussie Slang glossary so you can understand the magpies)

Today my husband and I went exploring. We drove west from Christchurch with notebook and camera in hand, and I took a number of photo references for my illustrations.

Here's a selection of the 100+ photos I took. Many of which are of rocks.

Whilst the intention was to make it as far as Brunner, in truth we only got to Aickens before running out of time. The weather was much more pleasant on the west side of the pass, rather than the east. Too hot over here!

In actual story news... Aroha hasn't got far - she's ditched the potential mate already (but he'll be back, don't fret) and met up with some old fiends in an earthquake damaged homestead. Does this particular homestead exist? No. Or at least, not that I've seen! It's based on the three around Hororata that were damaged in our quake, but this one is on the West Coast.

Writing magpies on the rampage is too much fun!

Extract:

Ringleader ran along the dresser. With his beak he picked up one of the little glass perfume bottles. These tiny, colourful bottles had survived the earth rattling, dancing closer to the edge, but not quite making the plunge. He tossed it in the air, lobbing it neatly at the bedpost. It struck the wood and smashed in a lavender-scented spray of liquid and broken glass.

“What fun!” He chortled, bouncing up and down before picking up another one and repeating the process. SMASH – SMASH – CRASH – SMASH! The room smelt like a flower garden – lavender and rose, lily of the valley, vanilla now overlay the stink of mildew and mould. Tiny broken bottles littered the floor. Dim sunlight shone through the rain and made them sparkle.