Weekend Writing Warriors: Snippet 49- Arryk
It’s time for Weekend Writing Warriors! Every Sunday, a bunch of writers post 8-10-sentence snippets from their WIPs on their blogs. There’s a lot of reading, commenting and great writing. Click on the link to see the full list.
Since I’m still busy wrangling Valley of the Shadow into some semblance of a reasonable timeline, I thought we’d continue with Arryk‘s pov a bit longer. If all goes well, he’ll get a character profile on this blog in the coming week. After barreling through the guards and into his sick father’s bedchamber, Arryk got nowhere very fast. His father the king is comatose and Count Classen, his adviser is not interested in getting involved in Gwynneth and Kendryk’s problems. So Arryk barges in on his younger brother, Aksel, who’s hard at work in his baby mad scientist lab.
Aksel looked up over the rim of his spectacles and said, “Stay right there and don’t move until I say so.”
“Good day to you too,” Arryk grinned.
“I’m not joking. This compound is highly volatile.” The boy poured a yellowish substance from one beaker into another, looked at it closely, then scrawled something into a book that lay open next to it. “Interesting,” he said, then pushed up the spectacles that had slid down his nose.
“Boring,” Arryk said.
Aksel shook his head, clapped lids on several jars and asked, “What emergency brings you here?”
Arryk handed over the letter.
Aksel read it quickly, frowning as he went, then said, “Poor Gwynn; I can’t imagine how she must feel right now.”
Previous snippets are here.
It’s been kind of a wild week, which means I’m refreshing my Amazon sales page several times an hour. I’m running a five-day free promo and so far have given away over 500 copies of Rise of the Storm. Be sure to grab one for yourself if you don’t have one already. Also, I was interviewed on fellow Weekend Warrior Amy Braun’s blog. She has also kindly reviewed Rise of the Storm there. While you’re there, check out her books. I’m most of the way through Demon’s Daughter and it’s amazing!
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He’s definitely a mad-scientist type.
He doesn’t care who he blows up!
I’m so curious to see what happens!! Yellow liquid, huh, wonder what he’s up to. Great snippet!
Brothers! You captured the very essence of them in this snippet.
Terrific dialogue, you really paint a great picture of their relationship in just a few words. =D
Hee! I love the sound of Aksel. Totally easy to picture him as the kooky scientist. Wonderful excerpt! 🙂
I hope he was wearing his lab coat!
Armor would be even smarter!
Great interaction between these two. I wonder if he knows about the dangerous part from personal experience? He seems the type! I wanna know what happens next 🙂
He’s been at it long enough to have had a few accidents!
I can sense his distaste with the sciences. He probably didn’t enjoy math, either! Arryk seems much more arts-oriented 🙂 Great snippet, Christina!
Arryk wasn’t very good at school. He’s more about the outdoor pursuits, and girls. 😍
What a beaut of a snippet, Christina. Fluid, and your descriptions bring the characters to life. “Aksel looked up over the rim of his spectacles…” For me, that made the scene pop. 🙂
Thanks, Teresa!
I like the younger scientist (alchemist?) brother – a terrific addition! Great snippet…
I couldn’t believe I didn’t have any nerds in my story, so I had to remedy that!
New characters! Yay! Love the dialogue, as usual, and really hope these two can do something to help Gwynn and Kendryk. Lord knows they need it!! :O
Great dynamic between the two brothers. This scene brings up a lot of interesting questions, like what’s in the letter? What’s in the test tube? What is science like in this world? Very fun snippet.
Boring–unless everything explodes on you. Then it would be exciting!
Yes, Arryk just doesn’t realize the explosive potential!
Wow, love this snippet. Mixing madness. It’s bound to get explosive!
At least you didn’t create Askel as so involved in his research that he cannot care what happens to his brother and sister. But… I do sense a bit of extra distraction there.
He’s a good guy- just not interested in politics.
I must have missed this one. I like getting to know the characters a little bit up front. I wonder if that’s easier than encountering them for the first time in the book when you buy it.
I don’t know. My own characters always seem fascinating to me, but often when I read something about a character in a book I haven’t read, I don’t find it that interesting. Once I “know” them, it’s more fun. Of course, I do find myself getting attached to various characters in the snippets I follow regularly on this blog hop, and sometimes end up buying the book when it comes out, so maybe it does work that way more than I realize!