http:\/\/writeathon.rawr.community<\/a> or use the Paypal donate button on the right side of this webpage.<\/p>\nIn addition, I wanted to share with you a little excerpt of one of the things I’ve been working on. It’s set in my Veils universe, which is a magical dark Victorian setting. I’ve been reading on family history a little recently and in doing so I had come across a lot of anti-Irish bigotry. So fair warning, this incorporates that very strongly, as my main character in this story is an Irish hare. This is also only a first draft, before I’ve really had a chance to find period authentic insults to substitute in. But as a content warning, it contains explicit bigotry and violence, so if those things bother you in the context of a story, then I recommend skipping this excerpt. I’ll try to put something a little friendlier out sometime soon.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cGet up, Paddy O\u2019Fairy. We ain\u2019t done with ya yet!\u201d<\/p>\n
Seamus blinked up at the silhouettes of the pack of canines\u2014wolves probably\u2014that towered over him. The halo around them in his vision wobbled and shook, and Seamus had to fight back the urge to retch. He couldn\u2019t make them out.<\/p>\n
He rubbed his jaw, feeling the pain of the blows he\u2019d already taken shoot through him. He\u2019d be feeling this tomorrow. But nothing moved irregularly, so they hadn\u2019t broken anything yet.<\/p>\n
Placing his paws on the damp dirt of the alley, the hare shoved at the ground and wobbled unsteadily to his feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that the hardest you can hit? I\u2019ve fucked fennec boys in the arse harder\u2019n \u2018at,\u201d Seamus spat. He felt himself wobbling, but forced himself to remain steady and upright, fists raised.<\/p>\n
He wolf\u2014he could now tell it was in fact a wolf\u2014at the head of the group snarled. The light from the street lamps caught at a trio of old claw-scars on his muzzle. The other two silhouettes grumbled something under their breath about degenerate lagomorphs that Seamus\u2019s ears, though still better than your average canid despite the damage, couldn\u2019t quite make out.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wanna shut that degenerate mouth up, rabbit. \u2018Less you want me to put something in it to shut you up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, please. Something that tiny wouldn\u2019t even cause me to speak with a lisp,\u201d the hare scoffed. All trace of his native brogue had vanished from his speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou little\u2014\u201c<\/p>\n
The wolf took a swing at him, but this time Seamus was prepared. He fell back on his rear foot and spun, driving the full force of his powerful leg through a kick to the wolf\u2019s chest. Sensitive ears picked up the crunch of ribs snapping as the attacker was hurled backward into his henchmen. He let out a loud yelp as he slammed into the ground.<\/p>\n
Seamus gingerly set his foot back on the ground and shifted his weight. Nausea flitted at the edges of his awareness. He wiped his nose, and felt the telltale dampness of blood come away on his paw. Hopefully he didn\u2019t get it on his shirt. It was already going to have to be laundered.<\/p>\n
The wolf didn\u2019t get up. He lay on the dirty ground moaning and clutching his torso. Seamus figured he\u2019d hit him hard enough to crack a few ribs, but not outright break them, so he wouldn\u2019t be permanently damaged. He might have to see a doctor, but he\u2019d live. Seamus didn\u2019t want a murder, even in self defense, on his conscience. And as an Irishman, he\u2019d not be granted the courtesy of the benefit of the doubt if it came to court.<\/p>\n
The two others had knelt down to check on their glorious leader, but when it became clear that he was down for the count, they rose to their feet again, teeth glinting in the faint lamplight. One was a smaller wolf or some such canid, the other a large cat, Seamus could now make out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoys, I think you\u2019d best turn around and drag your friend there out o\u2019the alley and to a doctor. He\u2019s gonna need patched up and probably a good bottle o\u2019 whiskey to dull the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou ain\u2019t gettin\u2019 off that easy, rabbit,\u201d the canid growled.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hare, friend, and if you don\u2019t back off you\u2019ll be gettin\u2019 the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seamus raised his fists again, bouncing a bit on his feet. The nausea tickled at his awareness, still, but it wasn\u2019t safe to relax yet.<\/p>\n
The wolf took a step forward, tentatively, but a groan from the leader on the ground caused him to falter.<\/p>\n
\u201cYa got lucky this time. If I see you again, you\u2019ll wish you\u2019d never left that potato growin\u2019 dirt farm.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hare made no reply, and did not move as the cat and wolf carried their leader away into the London night. Only when the sounds of their footsteps on the cobblestones had died away did Seamus relax his fighting stance. As he did, the nervous energy which had held him upright this whole time drained from his body, and he slumped, catching himself on his knees before he could slump totally to the ground.<\/p>\n
The dizziness had faded at least, though the feeling that he needed to regurgitate his meager dinner hadn\u2019t. Not that it mattered much. It was only a bowl of dish-watery soup and a few nuggets of what was supposedly dried mushrooms but tasted suspiciously like remnants of chicken.<\/p>\n
And there it went. The thought of meat sent his stomach roiling, and its contents splattering onto the ground and the brick wall he now leaned against. The smell caused Seamus to heave a few more times before his body adjusted.<\/p>\n
Leaving the alley by the opposite side his assailants had departed, he found himself on a deserted street. The shops stood dark and empty, having closed hours ago. No taverns or cafes remained open in this particular stretch of road. Too dangerous and too disreputable. Some of the street lamps had been broken out and their empty, dark frames hung loosely, like some poor bastard convicted of treason.<\/p>\n
One of the shop windows that stood next to a working street lamp served Seamus as a mirror. The blood from his nose had stopped flowing and it didn\u2019t look like any of it had gotten onto the fabric of his clothes. He did his best to swat away as much of the dirt from the alley as he could, but his waistcoat was still going to require some time in the washtub, as was the grey work shirt beneath it.<\/p>\n
The hare straightened himself up as best he could in the dark, warped reflection of the shop glass and limped off into the night. Cleveland Street\u2019s owner would already be ready to bawl him out for being late as it was, and Seamus didn\u2019t want things to get worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi all. In my last podcast I noted that I was doing RAWR Write-a-Thon. I had intended to give weekly updates but I realized that I needed to pair that with real episode content. I didn’t want those releases to turn into “what I’m doing” and not much else. We’ve only got a few days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chriswilliamsauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chriswilliamsauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chriswilliamsauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chriswilliamsauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chriswilliamsauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.chriswilliamsauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"http:\/\/www.chriswilliamsauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chriswilliamsauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chriswilliamsauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chriswilliamsauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}