Sarya's Song Cover, and Silas Quote of the Day

I now have in my hot little hands (on my hot little hard drive?) the cover illustration for Sarya's Song. I think I said something once about "luciously dark and romantic," and oh my, it is! It's gorgeous! I'll reveal the cover on Saturday; watch for it!

For my Camp NaNo project, Book 4 of Daughter of the Wildings, I'm up to 23,252/30,000 words. Like I've mentioned before, the drafts of these books are fairly short, but I tend to "write short" in my first drafts and then fill in when I revise, so I expect them to end up in about the 50,000 word range by the time I release them.

Silas is always good for a quotable quote, and here's today's:

"Lainie, wait."

She looked back at him, anger in her face.

Silas didn't know what to say that he hadn't already said. That however badly the Mage Council might want him, whatever they might do to him if they ever got their hands on him, they would want her even more and do even worse to her? That he was going to drag her to safety by her heels, kicking and screaming? "Do whatever you want," he finally said. "But if you get yourself killed, I'll hunt you down through all the heavens and all the hells, and then give you the whupping your Pa would want me to give you for getting yourself killed."

She grinned now, a hard, challenging grin. "Same to you, Vendine." She heeled Mala in the sides, sending the mare galloping back to the camp.

Now, I really hate it when in books there's some kind of dangerous situation that has to be faced, and the man says, "I am the man and you are just a girl and I must protect you and keep you from going into danger because I am a manly man, and I don't care that having you along might actually be helpful or that you'll feel as bad if I get killed as I'll feel if you get killed." And the woman says, "Silly man, you can't tell me what to do because I Am Woman and no stupid man can tell me what to do even if it means I put myself in danger unnecessarily and make things harder for you because then you have to worry about me in addition to yourself."

I mean, I really hate that.

But I don't think that's what's going on here. Lainie and Silas are both in a pretty precarious situation with the law (as represented by the Mage Council), and a dangerous confrontation with some other mages is coming up. Lainie believes that Silas is in just as much danger as she is, plus she has certain skills that can really help in a situation like this (that is, saved his butt more than once before), and yes, she would feel just as bad if he was captured or killed as he would feel if something happened to her. On the other hand, Silas has reason to believe that Lainie has seriously underestimated the danger to herself, and that any display of these special skills will only make her situation worse. He has no intention of getting himself killed; he just wants to deal with this situation as quickly and efficiently as possible, and then take Lainie and get the hell out of Dodge (if Dodge City existed in their world). She, however, has equally compelling reasons for not wanting to run away.

Anyway, I was trying to come up with a satisfactory way to top off this argument, and that quote from Silas kind of came out of nowhere (as Silas's best quotes usually do), and I like it, along with Lainie's rejoinder at the end - she can give as good as she gets. So I really really hope I'm not doing that thing that I hate.

Author spotlights coming up Thursday and Friday, and then don't forget, the Sarya's Song cover reveal on Saturday!