Palladium – Chapter 42

Tomorrow sees the release of the ebook version of Tangled Magic. It has developed so much since I was running it here on the blog as Onesong. In fact, it still continues to grow and change as I discovered another scene that I wanted in Walk the Path, the coming sequel to Tangled Magic. It’s fascinating to watch a story expand and deepen.

While Tangled Magic is still a day away from release, you don’t have to wait to get a story fixed. Let’s get you to Palladium.

**Cover and layout copyright © 2019 by Morning Sky Studios**
**Cover design by Dawn Blair/Morning Sky Studios**
**Cover art copyright © Rodjulian | Dreamstime.com, ©**
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Palladium

Chapter 42

by Dawn Blair

Chapter 42 has now turned back into a pumpkin. If you missed it, click on the banner above to go to the current posts for my blog. There’s another free story or story excerpt somewhere around my blog – I try to post something new every week. Hunt the story down, read, and enjoy!

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If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Cover design by Dawn Blair/Morning Sky Studios

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This excerpt is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

January 20, 2020June 9, 2020 dawnblair

Palladium – Chapter 41

I’m trying to write and my faithful dog, Merlin, would rather have me petting him. This is a good problem to have. I’d rather have this than a lot of other dramas I see people inviting into their lives. Why a person would want to create that kind of stress is beyond me. I’d rather keep my life simple and let my characters have the drama.

Okay, I won’t go getting up on my soapbox today. The sun is shining, something we haven’t had a lot of the last month or so. I like my light. I couldn’t live somewhere that didn’t have a good amount of sunlight. Now if only the snow would melt off.

I discovered Merlin shedding today. Both him and my black cat, Coville, are trying to get rid of their winter coats. I tried telling them that it’s a little premature on their part; we still have more cold winter ahead of us. But do you think they listened? Nope! I think they both had the sun of their black fur and got a false sense of the warmth.

I hope my tulips are smart enough to keep their heads down for a while longer. The snow hasn’t melted yet and there’s more in the forecast. A little sun doesn’t equal spring! Even though I am also craving it very badly. I must wait too. Bring on summer. I had someone comment to me this last week that “didn’t the weather know that it was supposed to go Thanksgiving, Christmas, summer?” That’s almost a true story for Idaho weather, but I find it’s more like cold, cold, warm-ish, cold, cold, cold, flip switched, blazing hot! And I use to be one of these people that preferred the blazing hot to the cold. Not so much since I had heat stroke many years ago; hot weather saps my strength fairly quickly, but I will still take it over the cold. Everyone is always telling me that when it’s cold they can put on more layers, but when it’s hot they can’t take anything else off. I reply that I can always go jump in a pool but I hate being the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!

Well, enough chatting about the weather. Feel free to let me know what it’s like where you live in the comments below. Meanwhile, let’s get you to the story.

Palladium

Chapter 41

by Dawn Blair

Chapter 41 has now turned back into a pumpkin. If you missed it, click on the banner above to go to the current posts for my blog. There’s another free story or story excerpt somewhere around my blog – I try to post something new every week. Hunt the story down, read, and enjoy!

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www.books2read.com/tangled-magic

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If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Cover design by Dawn Blair/Morning Sky Studios

Xneo | Dreamstime.com, and © Gualtiero Boffi| Dreamstime.com

January 13, 2020January 9, 2020 dawnblair

Tangled Magic

Ah, yes… in the post of my weekly chapter last Friday, I did mention that I would talk about why I’d been absent. Look at how well I dodged that!

Hehehehe!

Okay, well, if you figured from the not so discrete announcement, I’ve been busy getting Tangled Magic up. I had so wanted to let it have a longer pre-order time, maybe get some hype worked up for it. But after finding it delayed for nearly a year, I couldn’t do that. I just didn’t want to wait any longer.

So, I finally had to draw the line in the sand and say that I was getting it done.

I wish this here was even a better announcement, but I’m going to leave it at: the ebook for Tangled Magic is now available for pre-order (releasing January 28th) and the print book is out now. You can get an author signed copy here (Sorry, I’m not Amazon, I have to pay for shipping and this is a very heavy book — so heavy that it qualifies automatically for the priority mail).

Rivic’s story starts now.

Read it before the Sacred Knight story starts towards its conclusion with The Missing Thread (more on that to come!)

In case you are wondering, this story has changed significantly since it here on the blog under the working title of Onesong. Which, honestly, it should because the chapters I release here are merely work in progress to keep me moving. By the time I make them into a book, they should be worked out and cleaned up. It’ll be familiar, but (hopefully) delightfully different.

Let the adventure start anew!

January 10, 2020June 9, 2020 dawnblair

Palladium – Chapter 40

I didn’t mean to disappear. I’ve been very focused. More about that below the story.

Let’s get you to the story.

Palladium

Chapter 40

by Dawn Blair

Chapter 40 has now turned back into a pumpkin. If you missed it, click on the banner above to go to the current posts for my blog. There’s another free story or story excerpt somewhere around my blog – I try to post something new every week. Hunt the story down, read, and enjoy!

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www.books2read.com/tangled-magic

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If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Cover design by Dawn Blair/Morning Sky Studios

Xneo | Dreamstime.com, and © Gualtiero Boffi| Dreamstime.com

December 23, 2019June 9, 2020 dawnblair

Palladium – Chapter 39

For those of you with celebrations this week, happy holidays. May you have fun and stay safe. Those of you that choose not to celebrate, I hope you have a good week.

Since it is a festive week and people are gathering, I’m going to keep this week’s portion of the story short too. I also won’t babble on (a gift I’m sure you’re glad to receive!) (grin).

Let’s get you to the story.

Palladium

Chapter 39

by Dawn Blair

Chapter 39 has now turned back into a pumpkin. If you missed it, click on the banner above to go to the current posts for my blog. There’s another free story or story excerpt somewhere around my blog – I try to post something new every week. Hunt the story down, read, and enjoy!

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If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Cover design by Dawn Blair/Morning Sky Studios

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December 16, 2019June 9, 2020 dawnblair

Palladium – Chapter 38

I feel like I’ve spent weeks working on the plot design for five different novels.

Oh, wait! I have.

One of many of my whiteboards – blurred to prevent spoilers

So the whiteboard above is just one of many that I used to help piece this story together. This board is actually directly tied to Palladium. So many decisions to be made.

Now I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to line out Walk the Path. I feel that once I have it lined out, then I can start listing Tangled Magic for pre-order. It’s hard to keep the cart before the horse. I admit that I’m having trouble staying focused on that plan. However, considering the magnitude of this story, I need to.

I just hope I don’t have to divide Palladium up into two novels too. (grin) Of course, my chapters are a little longer than the “chapters” I list here because I’m trying to keep it bite-sized for readers who don’t have the time to read through thousands of words each week. But still, I see how much I still have to go in this story and, while I’m certain there are parts that I can take out, I want the tale to be solid.

Let’s get you to the story.

Palladium

Chapter 38

by Dawn Blair

Chapter 38 has now turned back into a pumpkin. If you missed it, click on the banner above to go to the current posts for my blog. There’s another free story or story excerpt somewhere around my blog – I try to post something new every week. Hunt the story down, read, and enjoy!

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If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Cover design by Dawn Blair/Morning Sky Studios

Xneo | Dreamstime.com, and © Gualtiero Boffi| Dreamstime.com

December 2, 2019June 9, 2020 dawnblair

Palladium – Chapter 36

This “chapter” starts to get into one of my favorite sections of the story.

It also makes me glad to say that I was wrong last week when I said I thought we were getting to a choppy portion of the story because I realized that we have a few more weeks before that happens. For some reason, I thought this came earlier but I couldn’t remember when. Then I was reading through this during the last week and saw that it was this upcoming scene. There’s a lot of work to be done — remember, you are seeing this as raw story — but I love the potential of this scene. It even makes me wonder if I need to rework a scene or two in Tangled Magic quickly before its release.

I am currently working on a scene where Cirvel goes to Plenelia, the area of this world where there is no magic. Because I have another Plenelia story in the works, I’m discovering a lot about this side of the world where I haven’t yet spent enough time. Oh, I’ve spent some, but that was nearly 30 years ago. Wow. I need to get back to work on that story, now that I know how I’m going to jump-start it (this was the other half of the NaNoWriMo story I did 4 years ago that got created when I pulled Rivic’s story, which became Tangle Magic and Walk the Path, into two stories. Don’t worry if you’re confused; I’ve got this! (grin) That’s just the way my brain works sometimes).

Well, now that I’m done writing confusing sentences, let’s get you to the story.

Palladium

Chapter 36

by Dawn Blair

Chapter 36 has now turned back into a pumpkin. If you missed it, click on the banner above to go to the current posts for my blog. There’s another free story or story excerpt somewhere around my blog – I try to post something new every week. Hunt the story down, read, and enjoy!

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If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Cover design by Dawn Blair/Morning Sky Studios

November 26, 2019June 9, 2020 dawnblair

Palladium – Chapter 35

I’m reaching the choppy point in the story. From here on out, it might be a bit of a bumpy ride. I’ve been working on this in bits and pieces and I have yet to thread them together into something coherent, mostly because I’ve been busy doing that very process on Walk the Path.

Cirvel has been such a fun character and I know I’ve barely scratched the surface where I’m at. I realize that I’m going to have to get very seriously on his bad side in books 5 and 6 of the Sacred Knight series. But at least now I have understanding of his deeper motivations.

Well, enough chit-chat. Let’s get you to the story.

Palladium

Chapter 35

by Dawn Blair

November 18, 2019June 9, 2020 dawnblair

Palladium – Chapter 34

I’m currently writing this on Sunday though it will post on Monday morning. I’ve spent several hours raking up leaves in the yard and driveway — my second round this year and I swear I have twice as many bags as I did last time. And, of course, the city did their courtesy fall clean up bag gathering last week, so I’ll either be making a separate trip to the dump with the bags, or getting rid of them slowly over several weeks in my garbage can. Ah, the joys of home ownership!

Bellyaching aside, my arms are actually what’s really sore. I’m too tired to write at the moment, so I thought I’d come and set my blog up now so it could be ready to go. Novel idea, right? (grin) Hopefully, doing this much work will spur me into wanting to get back to work on Walk the Path.

I’ve been reconstructing the first few chapters. There was part of it that just kept nagging at me that it was overly complicated and I needed to kick part of it out. Yet doing that makes a big change to the story early on. Oh well. I know I’ll like it much better when I’m done fixing it and the nagging goes away. Until then, I have to smooth out all the places in the story that it upsets. It’s just words, I remind myself often.

Okay, so let’s get onto the story, shall we?

Palladium

Chapter 34

by Dawn Blair

November 11, 2019June 9, 2020 dawnblair

Palladium – Chapter 33

I am hoping that the maelstrom of drama that my life has been the last three weeks is over and that now I can get down to work again.

While I don’t want to discuss all of the roller coaster I’ve been on, I will say that I nearly made some decisions that would have made my life sheer panic for the short term, but would have given me a new dynamic for the long term. I just wasn’t certain that new dynamic would have been sustainable. So, some agreements were made and I’ll work toward that new dynamic in a way that feels more comfortable and balanced for the long term. It did help me clarify my own personal agendas and what I enjoy doing in terms of support for my writing.

Bad explanation I’m sure, but that’s how it is.

But wait, there’s more!

My oldest son, who is in his 20’s, decided to get his driving permit (though it was nearly a week after he got it before we actually got to go out to start learning — seriously, who waits a several days after getting his permit before jumping excitedly into a car to learn to drive? My son!) He wants an electric car so badly, so we’re trying to make that happen.

It was also show week for him and he was performing in Legally Blonde. That always makes a long week for both of us, and why he had to delay.

I also decided to synchronize my workflow between my computers, so that I don’t have to stop working on something when I’m charging one of my laptops. It’s been a growing problem, so I started testing options so that I could keep working. While my current plan isn’t perfect, at least I managed to finally get Tangled Magic all edited and done.

And while I working on the edits, I got back to dictating, mostly for Palladium. Of course, because I had to move my profile from a laptop which I had to replace because it was so slow and reinstall the software on another laptop. Because I can no longer get the updates for the program and I was encounter minor irritating problems with the software, I had to update to the newest version of the program. At least I didn’t have to retrain, although this is the 3rd version of Dragon which insists on making “Steigan” as “Steve again.” Okay, so I do find some humor when someone shouts my character’s name in the dictation and it comes out as “Steve again!” It’s almost like, “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!” (Brady Bunch reference)

So between those things, I’ve been whacking back computer gnomes left and right as well as editing up Tangled Magic, but that’s done now. I hope my reader doesn’t find too many issues with it. I don’t know if she’s read any of the Sacred Knight series, so I’m hoping she’s not completely lost. I’d like this story to be a good entry point into my world.

There’s more, but due to time, I’m going to cut it here and let you get to the story.

Palladium

Chapter 42

by Dawn Blair

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If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Palladium

Chapter 41

by Dawn Blair

***

***

If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Palladium

Chapter 40

by Dawn Blair

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If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Palladium

Chapter 39

by Dawn Blair

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If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Palladium

Chapter 38

by Dawn Blair

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If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Palladium

Chapter 36

by Dawn Blair

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If you have enjoyed my work, please tell a friend about my stories. Thank you!

Palladium

Chapter 35

by Dawn Blair

Palladium

Chapter 34

by Dawn Blair

Palladium

Chapter 33

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