Kathy Collier-Miehl tagged me for the Fourth Writer’s Campaign Lucky 7 meme. The Rules are:
1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they’re written. No cheating
4. Tag 7 authors
5. Let them know
I’m not going to do numbers 4 and 5, because I understand how exponentials work and I’m not sure there’s anyone left who hasn’t been tagged. If you haven’t been and want to do this, consider yourself tagged. And I have a little problem with 1, because my files are by chapters, with no consecutive multi-chapter page numbering. So I went to line 7 of page 7 of chapter 7 instead. (Which leads me to wonder what one does if one’s WIP is less than 77 pages long.)
I interpreted the start as the paragraph in which the 7th line fell, and then copied that and the following 6 paragraphs. The WIP in question is science fiction, with a working title of Rescue Operation.
Well, the horses hadn’t been that dirty to start with. Each had free access to a generous grassy paddock, and a daily session with the autogroomer. Their stalls and paddocks were likewise kept clean by robot extensions of the Big’Un. The dirt Rabbit had managed to accumulate, however, was mostly now on Crys, who was continuing to brush as high as she could reach on the mare’s hindquarters.
“Is she clean enough?” the child asked, turning as she heard Dusk’s hoofbeats. “I couldn’t quite reach the middle of her back.”
“Clean enough to ride,” Roi chuckled, and gave Dusk a firm mental order to stand still. “Here, hold Dusk for me a minute, will you, while I get a saddle on Rabbit? Dusk needs to be cooler before I put him up, and you might as well ride along while I’m getting him walked dry.”
The sheer bliss on Crys’s dirt-smudged face told him that he was finally getting to understand her. I think, he thought at Emeraude, that you’ve just lost your horse.
___________
“You really don’t mind?” Roi asked that evening, watching Emeraude brush her hair before bed.
“Of course not. I like being with you, and you like company when you ride. I’m not all that fond of horses and riding, but I know you are. If Crystal is, wonderful. With a little practice, and you contacting Rabbit’s mind, she’ll probably keep up with you better than I do. You need children, Roi. She’s already done a lot to relax you. I don’t know why the Genetics Board doesn’t want you to foster R’il’noids that need parenting any more.”
“They figure I’m too busy trying to run the Confederation. Young R’il’noids take a lot of attention.” Roi lay back on Emeraude’s bed, letting his eyes roam over the rather spare room. Like his other two wives, Audi had her own building, opening off the series of jump-gated rooms loosely called the corridor system. As a general rule she preferred Roi’s oversized bedroom to her own, and she’d put most of her energies here into facilities for her sociological research. The bedroom was adequate for sleeping and had a bed large enough for two, but that was about all.
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