First Words—August 23, 2018: C.M. Simpson

- August 23, 2018

Well, Day 2 of making writing a part of the daily routine. So far, so good. In fact, today went better and I hit the 3,000-word mark that I’m trying to sustain. Here are today’s first words:

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His arms tightened across my back, but Barangail was speaking, and Mack didn’t say a word.

“What’s wrong with her, this time? It can’t be heights.”

Which gave me an idea of just how closely we’d been monitored on the trip down to his estate. I wondered whose technology he’d been using. Did he have the place wired up himself, or had he used his new friends to get the kind of access that would allow him to tap into the surveillance systems on a public structure? Or maybe he just had a hacking team, like Odyssey’s Delight.

Of all of those possibilities, only the second idea bothered me, because that suggested the arach weren’t all that new on the friendship scale of things—and, if they weren’t new, then just how far along had their plans for Alpha 9 had progressed?

“Not heights,” Mack agreed, and left it at that, making it hard for Barangail to pry without being obvious.

Right now, I wished I could see his lordship’s face, because I was willing to bet just how curious he felt would be written all over it. It was hard to do that with my head buried against Mack’s chest. By the same token, not being able to see the elevator walls around me meant I wasn’t reminded of a… other things.

It also meant I wasn’t able to watch the floor counter as we descended, and that made the journey to the mansion proper seem interminably long.

“Hang in there.”

It was an improvement on being soothed like some fractious beast. That startled an abrupt laugh out of Mack, and I felt him looking down at me.

“If the boot fits.”

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Would you like to read more?

The first three books and two short stories in the Mack ‘n’ Me ‘n’ Odyssey series: Mack ‘n’ Me: Origins, The Depredides Dance, Mack ‘n’ Me: Blaedergil’s Host, Mack ‘n’ Me: Arach and Cloud Door, are also available. The fourth book, Mack ‘n’ Me: The Transporter’s Favour will release shortly.