We survived Easter. Barely. The dinner itself was totally fine. It’s just that touching up the cabinets and changing the hardware turned out to be a much bigger ordeal than either myself or my husband expected it to be. It took up most of the day before Easter, in fact we didn’t finish until after the Boyo went to bed, and then we still had to clean, do his Easter basket, and hide a couple of eggs for him to find. The later was a bit of a waste of time, since the Boyo found one and then promptly decided that it was far more entertaining to try to fit it through his ball game.

Silly goose.

Then right before Easter dinner, some of the cabinet doors started pulling away from the cabinets. I guess when we put the cabinet doors back on we somehow found the old screw holes (we had puttied up, sanded, and painted everything) and since the new hinges screws are just a tad bit smaller than the old hinges screws there was nothing for them to grip on to. So there was some last minute re-positioning going on.

So most of last week was spent was recuperating from all that drama and vowing to ourselves that the next time we host Easter we won’t start any DIY projects two days before because they always turn out to be WAY more involved than we expect them to be.

They look really nice though!

While I’ve been recovering from that madness, I’ve been mulling over my writing. Specifically the first book of the Descendants. Currently it takes place in and around Pompeii during the time of Mount Vesuvius blowing its top. A part of me has been seriously tempted to change the entire series so that it takes place entirely during the times and setting of book two. I’m more familiar with that world, and I’m more excited about the events that happen then too. Book two is originally where the whole series started to begin with. However, book one sets up some character growth and events that happen in book two, so I feel like I can’t just abandon it.

Has anyone else been in this position before? What did you do?

Also troubling me is that I have two great openings that I can’t decide between. There’s the original opening that takes place at a graduation party where Vivian turns down a proposal. Then there’s the new opening that takes place at a wedding rehearsal that I have shared snippets of on here in the past.

A poll I ran on twitter says that I should stick with the wedding rehearsal opening. I just worry that that involves too many characters that will never be seen again.

Anywho, enough of that. It’s time for the fun stuff! It’s time for WIPpet Wednesday again!!!

WIPpet Wednesday is run by the lovely Emily Witt. It’s where writers share a snippet of the project that we are working on that somehow relates to the date. So, if it’s August 8th, you could share 8 lines from chapter 8, or 88 paragraphs (that would be a long snippet), etc etc etc.

For the past few weeks I’ve been sharing pieces of the Star Wars fanfic I started way back when I was in college. Since interest in it seems to be waning, I’ll be moving that to Fridays. This week I’ll be returning to sharing snippets from The Descendants on WIPpet Wednesdays instead. When last we saw Tesni and Vivian, Tesni surprised a late night visitor to the servants quarters at the Villa. You can read that here. Since today is the sixth of April, here are ten paragraphs (4+6=10).

“Then, since I am obviously not Vesta, I would suggest marching yourself back to your bed, wherever that may be.” Tesni laid back down and turned on her side so that her back was towards the midnight intruder. Next to her, Hana, the other servant girl conscripted to meet their owners culinary demands, snapped her eyes shut. Tesni sighed; she would be the talk of the household as soon as the sun rose.

Despite her dismissal, the intruder didn’t move. “I thought she and I had an agreement.”

“Well, Vesta is very popular. Goodnight.”

“I can see why you are not allowed in the main parts of the house.”

She rolled over to glare at him. “Excuse me?”

“If you were a little nicer, the mistress of the house might promote you.”

“I am nice. I’m just not happy about being woken up in the middle of the night by a strange man.”

“You have no idea who I am, do you?” He was smiling, his teeth glinting in the dim light. She could see why Vesta was attracted to him – he was extremely easy on the eyes. He was tall and tan, with a boyish face that was topped by an unruly mop of blonde hair.

“No, and I really don’t care.” Tesni hissed.

The intruder introduced himself anyways. “Felix Aurelius Aquila.”

To read more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here.