Wordcount: 2, 443
Percentage: 4.9% (146% of target)
Well, I'll have to say - today has not been very productive. For a start, I decided to lie in, although to be fair, I do start work later on thursdays, so I managed to squeeze in my 1000 words before breakfast, and then reach the daily minimum goal (1,666) before heading in to work around 9am. Story has not yet begin to flow yet - I am just starting to familiarise myself with the characters and try to refrain from distractions such as checking up on notes from NaNos past or reading book reviews.
Here's my opening passage:
The fluffy kea fledging nestled in close to his mother, her long
green feathers providing him with comfort and camoflage. He felt a
shiver pass through her body, a tensing of her muscles.
“Tiriki,” she whispered, “stay close, stay quiet.”
There was a presence in the nest. Something strange and alien.
“Kiri,” Mother whispered. “Come closer.”
“I wanna see,” Kiri replied. She was always the more curious of
the pair.
The killer came silent and deadly, the stink of mammal filling the
small nest cavity. Wet fur and carrion breath. Kiri squawked and
Mother lunged. Tiriki caught only glimpses between the flashes of
feathers and in the tiny glimmer of light that shone down the tunnel
mouth. The mammal, the predator, was large – as large as Mother.
Sharp teeth flashing white in the diluted light. The rank stink of
blood. Feathers, feathers, everywhere. Mother screaming in rage,
lunging and lunging again but too late, too late. Too slow.
The mammal was gone, Kiri was gone and all was quiet once more.
Mother moved back towards him, grooming the white down that covered
his head.
“Where's Kiri?” He asked. “What happened?”
“Kiri's gone,” Mother replied. “But you are all right, my
precious? You are unhurt?”
Shaken, but uninjured, Tiriki nestled against his mother's breast.
“What was that?” He asked.
“A predator,” she replied. “A possum.” She sighed. “Your
father should never have built the nest in this tree. Listen to me,
Tiriki, when the time comes for you to build your hen a nest, make it
high, up in the mountains. Under a rock. Somewhere where the possums
cannot find it.”
Tiriki barely heeded her words. That time seemed like an awfully long
way away. He sighed and rested his head on his full crop.
Mammals, he thought, are bad.
***
In slightly humorous news, I finished reading "Crusher" by Niall Leonard today. It was an okay read, not remakarkable and rather mature for the intended audience. And... it was a NaNo novel for 2011. Rushed to get published due to the fame of Leonard's wife, which is rather a bit of a bummer cos it does read rather like something that was rushed out by someone dared to write a 50k novel in a month and then not even properly proofread - as I found one glaring error and a few minor typos. The glaring error had not been corrected in the final version (I was reading an uncorrected proof) and I have no idea if the typos had. I didn't note down what pages they were on to go and check.
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