Jean Marie Bauhaus

I've been lagging behind on LJ lately, but that's because I've had my head down making myself a shiny new web site at JeanMarieBauhaus.com. It has a lot of bells and whistles and is primarily designed to make my portfolio look good, but it's worth mentioning here because it also serves as my "official" author site. If you take a look, you'll see that I figured out a way to incorporate this here blog into the site without having to switch to WordPress or some other self-hosted blogging platform. So I get to stay here at LJ and have the best of both worlds. Hooray!

In case you're wondering if all this focus on my new site has interfered with Dominion, fear not, it's still coming along. It currently stands at just short (about 90 words) of 65K. I skipped ahead again and have spent the last couple days working on a future scene. Note to self: if you get so bored in the middle of writing a scene that you need to skip ahead to the part of the story where all the action happens in order to keep writing, then maybe it's time to re-evaluate whether that scene even belongs in the book.
Anyway, here's a snippet from today's session:

Undeterred, Hannah got up and returned to the kitchen, where she took out a tall drinking glass and a kitchen knife. She set the glass on the bar and, without giving herself time to think about it, ran the edge of the blade across the meaty section of her palm. Paula cried out, which made the baby start to cry. She heard his sobs retreat as Paula took him to his room. Zach and Chris both walked over to the counter and watched in resignation as blood flowed from her palm into the glass.

“Did that hurt?” asked Zach.

“Not really, but I’m sure it will when the adrenaline wears off.” She looked up at Chris. “I’ve got bandages and disinfectant in the bathroom under the sink. Can you get them?”

He went without a word, and returned a moment later with a First Aid kit and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. He brought them over to the counter and tore open a large, square adhesive bandage for her. He tore a paper towel off of the roll and dampened it, then handed her that, too. Then he picked up the knife.

Hannah heard the soft hiss of air being sucked through his teeth as he cut his own palm open. She let Zach doctor her cut as Chris bled into the glass, then she dampened another paper towel and cleaned his cut as he held the knife out to Zach.

He stared at it for a moment, turning a shade paler. Finally, he swallowed, and took the knife. Grasping its handle, he muttered, “Anything for the Doc, right?” and then let out a small moan as he drew the blade across his palm. He closed his eyes and turned even paler as his blood poured into the glass.

Hannah brought him a stool so he could sit down before he passed out. “You work with blood,” she pointed out.

“Other people’s blood,” he said. “It’s the sight of my own blood that I have a problem with. Oh, and by the way,” he opened his eyes and looked up at her, “that did hurt.”

“I’ll be sure to tell Alek when he wakes up.”