Just A Little Taste:

Since I'm all out of craft notes at the moment, I thought I'd include a snippet of the novella I'm working on, "Arabelle Wild." I'm not that great at summaries, so I won't include one here.

What you need to know:
It has been several years since Lady Arabelle Westmore has seen her family. The majority of the Westmores (except her late uncle and brother) only care about their standing in society and that they maintain their reputations as the most beautiful people in London. So when Arabelle was born with a deformity of her leg and foot (both are twisted unnaturally) she is abandoned to the care of her uncle. Her uncle died several years before the story begins leaving her Kilmridge Manor and a great fortune in his will. The story begins with Arabelle receiving a letter from Henry, her older brother. He's coming to the country estate to take Arabelle to London at their father's request.

Arabelle and Henry have been exchanging letters since he left for University, but he has not seen her since she was seven. Henry arrives in the company of his mysterious friend, Sir Ian Rittmore. This snippet is from Ian's point of view and it is the first time he's seeing Lady Arabelle. She and her companion Pita are returning home after Celebration, a festival held by the Romani (gypsies) who live in the woods outside Kilmridge. Arabelle feels that the Romani are her true family now that her uncle has passed.

The two women are drunk and it is around 3am.

Snippet from Chapter One:

"They clung to each other in the corridor near the stairs; their laughter now silent. Ian's eyes were drawn down to their feet again. Both were covered in globs of mud and dirt, which had likely been tracked into the house. Despite the mud, Ian could see that there was something wrong with the taller one's foot. It seemed twisted and turned-in, her toes curled. He hurriedly stepped away from the door. This was Lady Arabelle, Henry's little sister. He knew the consequences of her birth, but he hadn't been expecting such a sight. In truth, any time Henry talked about his sister's condition he made it seem grotesque, something worthy of the circus, should anyone of decent standing happen to see it. A person such as Ian. These were the words that Henry alluded to but never spoke. In Ian's opinion, now that he'd seen her with his own eyes, she was not at all frightening. He stepped back to the door and peered through the crack. No, not frightening, he decided as Lady Arabelle let her head fall back with laughter. Her black hair fell loose around her shoulders and her green eyes sparkled under heavy lids. She was lovely, and it took all of his resolve as a gentlemen of good breeding to no fling open the library doors and take her into his arms."

So, there's just a little taste. I'm probably about halfway done with the novella. I didn't get to write much this week because I had family in town. Tomorrow I start a part-time job (I got the offer this past week) and then on Friday I start another part-time job (but it's only a few hours each day). I hope that I can keep writing this novella in the meantime--No, let me revise that statement. I WILL keep writing this novella. I just don't know how long it might take me now. When I finish, I plan to start new edits on "Surrender" and start researching agents/publishers and working on drafts of my query letter. Lots of stuff coming up, that's for sure.