Hi! I’m
Kim Fielding and I have a confession to make about one of my pet
peeves. It really bugs me when people say, “Wow! I don’t know how you
find the time to write.”
Now, I realize that people who say
this aren’t trying to offend me. In fact, I’m pretty sure that it’s
meant as a compliment. But it bothers me anyway, because the truth is
that time to write isn’t something you find, like a lucky penny on the sidewalk. It’s something you struggle for, usually at great expense.
I love writing, but it’s not my only job. Most weeks I spend way more
than 40 hours as a university professor and administrator. I write
textbooks too (fun, but m/m romance is much more fun
to write!). I’m also a parent. My kids are 9 and 13, which means I get
to be chauffeur, homework tutor, chore taskmaster, housecleaner, cook,
counselor… well, you get the idea.
So, how do I make time to
write? Well, I have to say that I’m fortunate enough to have a very
supportive husband. He works long hours too, but does more than his
share of the parenting and housework when he gets home. Therefore, my
first tip on making time is to choose your partner wisely.
My second tip
is to write whenever and wherever you can. Don’t wait for that perfect
moment when the coast is clear and the muse is singing, because it
will never come. I do most of my writing on a laptop at the kitchen
table, often with the currents of life eddying around me. At this very
minute, for instance, my younger daughter is sitting across the table
from me, humming and coloring a picture of a turkey—a task that
apparently requires much noisy rearranging of colored pencils. My
husband is a few yards away watching football. And my older daughter is
in the living room, periodically shouting requests for advice on
zombie control. I write at doctors’ offices, in the car (not while
driving!), while eating, on airplanes, in hotels, and, if I can get
away with it, during boring meetings.
The third tip might be
difficult for some people, but you have to make your priorities. In my
case, that means I watch exactly one hour of TV per week (Dexter, Game of Thrones, or True Blood,
depending on the time of year). I play only one electronic game—Word
Welder—which has the advantage of being playable in small bursts. I’ve
had to give up on knitting. My house is usually messy and I can’t
remember the last time I saw a movie. Even my reading has decreased
since I began to write.
And finally, make time to write by
writing fast. Until the first draft is complete, don’t spend time going
back, tinkering and editing what you recently wrote. My writing is
never perfect in the first draft anyway, so why waste time attempting
the impossible? When I just let the words flow instead of struggling
for perfection, I get a lot more done. And I think the finished product
is improved.
I do all this work for the same reason all
writers do: because the stories are in me, clamoring to get out. And
this month I get to enjoy the fruits of my labors because I have three
new releases. The longest of these is Brute, a novel about a giant with much more serious challenges than finding time to write.
Brute
by Kim Fielding
Brute
leads a lonely life in a world where magic is commonplace. He is
seven and a half feet of ugly, and of disreputable descent. No one,
including Brute, expects him to be more than a laborer. But heroes come
in all shapes and sizes, and when he is maimed while rescuing a
prince, Brute’s life changes abruptly. He is summoned to serve at the
palace in Tellomer as a guard for a single prisoner. It sounds easy but
turns out to be the challenge of his life.
Rumors say the
prisoner, Gray Leynham, is a witch and a traitor. What is certain is
that he has spent years in misery: blind, chained, and rendered nearly
mute by an extreme stutter. And he dreams of people’s deaths—dreams
that come true.
As Brute becomes accustomed to palace life
and gets to know Gray, he discovers his own worth, first as a friend
and a man and then as a lover. But Brute also learns heroes sometimes
face difficult choices and that doing what is right can bring danger of
its own.
Buy links at Dreamspinner Press:
E-Book
Paperback
At Amazon
Kim Fielding’s blog
Kim Fielding on Facebook
As
part of the Brute Blog Tour, Kim Fielding is running a contest. All
you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this entry, stating what
you find hardest to give up in order to make writing time. Please leave
your email address in your comment. You can comment at multiple blog
tour entries for multiple chances to win! Click here for the full list of tour stops. Winners will be chosen on December 25. One person will receive a paperback copy of Brute and another person will receive an e-book copy of Brute.
Excerpt from Brute:
Time passed achingly slowly. Sometimes someone would pop out from one
of the little doors and take one or more of the waiting people back in
with them, but nobody ever came for Brute. New people came through the
large entry doors, did a double take when they saw him, and sat far
away. They were eventually escorted through doorways too. His ass grew
sore from sitting on the hard bench, his stomach gurgled and growled,
and worst of all, his bladder began to complain quite insistently. He
knew it was impossible for the giant with the ugly face to have been
forgotten, and yet none of the people who worked there even glanced his
way. Maybe they thought he was a new and especially unbecoming statue.
Just as he was about to give in to desperation and ask where he might
find a place to relieve himself, a round woman with a feathered hat
and the widest skirts he’d ever seen appeared from the far left door
and sailed in his direction. “This way,” she commanded.
His hips and legs had cramped a little as he sat, and he limped very badly as he followed her.
The far left door led to an office smelling of tea and crammed with
books and papers. The woman went away and shut the door behind her,
leaving Brute alone with a man who was a few years older than him. The
man was dressed in rather plain clothes and was tiny—barely five feet
tall and probably one-third Brute’s weight—but he managed to project an
aura of such powerful authority that he was almost terrifying. He stood
several feet away and looked Brute up and down slowly. “You have a
letter?” he finally said.
“Um, yes sir.” Brute produced the paper from the folds of his cloak and held it out, but the man didn’t take it.
“You will address me as Lord Maudit. You may call me milord or Your Excellency as well, for variety’s sake.”
“Yes, Lord Maudit.”
Lord Maudit rolled his eyes and snatched the paper out of Brute’s
hand. He tore open the seal without ceremony and scanned the contents.
When he was finished, he considered Brute again, this time appraisingly.
It reminded Brute of the way Darius would look over a mule he was
considering buying. “So you’re a hero?” he said at last.
“I—no. I mean, the prince, he—”
“Needed to be rescued from his own foolishness. Again. And rather dramatically, I understand.”
Brute didn’t know how to answer that. He licked his lips nervously
and fought the urge to shift his feet. His bladder was full to
bursting, and the glimpses of the sea he could catch through Lord
Maudit’s window weren’t helping.
“Not very chatty, are you?”
the lord said. “Good.” He folded the paper and slapped it against his
thigh before tossing it onto his desk. “Wait here.”
“Please!”
Lord Maudit was nearly to the door when Brute blurted out his plea. The little man turned, eyebrow raised. “Yes?”
“I need to—is there an outhouse? Milord,” Brute added hastily.
“Garderobe’s through there,” the lord said, waving at a narrow door
in the corner. Brute made what he hoped was a dignified dash for it
while the other man left through the main door.
To reach the
garderobe he had to climb a set of very narrow, winding stairs. The
stairs dead-ended in a rounded little chamber with tiny slits for
windows. The room contained a wooden seat with a hole in it and a small
table bearing an earthen pitcher of water. Fumbling his laces open
one-handed seemed to take forever, but eventually he managed to get his
trousers undone. He emptied himself with a long groan of relief. At
least he hadn’t lost his good hand, he reminded himself for the
thousandth time. The gods only knew how he would have managed to get
himself undressed then.
Lacing back up again was even more
troublesome, but at least his need was no longer quite so urgent. He
just wished he could have managed to find a way to pour the water in
the pitcher over his hand to cleanse it.
Lord Maudit’s office
was empty when Brute descended the stairs. Brute resisted the
temptation to poke around—he had an eerie feeling that the man would
somehow
know—and instead admired the view from the windows and then a large painting of a hunting party chasing a stag.
“Hideous painting, isn’t it?”
Brute jumped at the voice and whirled around. Lord Maudit had
returned, but it was his companion who had spoken: Prince Aldfrid,
attired in riding clothes and smiling broadly. The prince showed no sign
of limping as he crossed the room. “I’m glad you’ve recovered enough
to make the journey,” he said to Brute. “How are you managing?” He
seemed genuinely concerned.
Brute pulled his stump out of his
cloak pocket, which made Lord Maudit’s eyes widen. Apparently the
prince’s letter hadn’t mentioned that Brute was maimed. “Your Highness,
are you certain—” the lord began.
“Yes,” the prince interrupted sharply. “Completely. He’s the man for the job.”
“The job, Your Highness?” Brute asked.
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? I could just give you a sack of
gold and send you on your way—you’ve earned it—but I’m guessing you’re
not that kind of man. You want to be… useful.” His laugh sounded a
little sad. “More useful than a king’s fourth son.”
Brute took
a moment to consider the prince’s words. A sack of gold. He’d never
have to worry about his livelihood again. He could buy a little cottage
somewhere, have some clothing made that actually fit. He could eat
decent food every day. And then… what? Sit by himself and wait to grow
old and die? “I would like to be useful,” he confirmed. “But I don’t
know what I can do for you, sir, not like this. I’m sorry.”
“Have you any skills at all?” Lord Maudit asked. “I suppose it’s too much to ask that you know how to write.”
Brute hung his head, ashamed. “I wanted to. Had no money to pay the
schoolmaster.” After his parents were dead, when his great-uncle would
send him scurrying around the village to fetch this and carry that,
Brute used to pass the little schoolhouse now and then, and he’d pause
long enough to gaze at it enviously. Once he’d even dared to ask his
great-uncle to send him—Brute had promised to work twice as much to pay
for it—but his great-uncle had cuffed him hard enough to send him
sprawling, then growled that Brute was too stupid to learn.
“Doesn’t matter,” said Prince Aldfrid, pulling Brute out of the bad memory. “I have something perfect for you.”
“Aldfrid, you’re taking an enormous risk.” Lord Maudit sounded
irritated with the prince, but in a resigned sort of way, as if he were
used to conversations like this.
“He’s the one, Maud.”
“But the king—”
“My father, if he notices at all, will see that a very large and not
especially bright man—sorry, Brute; I know you’re no idiot—has been put
in place. That’s all.”
Brute stood there mutely, slightly
surprised at the obvious familiarity between the men and not having the
vaguest clue what they were talking about. But then the prince clapped
him on the arm and grinned. “It’ll all work out. You won’t be seeing
much of me, Brute, but if you need anything, just get word to Maud here
and he’ll take care of it.” He smirked at Lord Maudit and sped out of
the room.
Maudit briefly closed his eyes, as if he were in
pain. “Scrambled your brains a bit more on those rocks, didn’t you,
Friddy?” he muttered. Then he glared at Brute. “Follow me.”
It seemed that everyone was saying that to him today. But Brute shrugged and did as he was told.
He was led through another dizzying arrangement of corridors and
stairways. Once he caught a glimpse of an enormous room—by far the
largest he had ever seen—with a polished marble floor, gilded pillars,
and a ceiling fresco considerably more elaborate than the one he’d been
admiring while he waited. But he didn’t get a chance to enjoy it,
because Maudit dragged him along at a pace surprising for a man with
such short legs. Guards saluted when Lord Maudit passed, and various
well-dressed functionaries and servants all tried to look more
industrious. Maudit ignored them.
They eventually left the
building—through a different door than the one by which Brute and the
guard had entered—crossed an oblong grassy area where several women in
colorful gowns sat and embroidered, and entered a narrow passageway
between two buildings. The passageway dead-ended at a grim little
building of dirty stone. The windows in the building were simply narrow
vertical slits, and even those were covered by iron bars. The door was
iron as well—arched and sporting a heavy bolt—with a bored-looking
guard stationed outside. The guard snapped to attention when he saw
them coming.
“Has everything been readied?” Lord Maudit snapped.
The guard nodded sharply. “Yes, milord. The maids just left.”
“Good. This is… well, Brute. Obviously. You’ve been told of his duties?”
“Yes, milord.”
“If he needs anything, make sure he gets it. I’ll be checking on him.”
The guard looked slightly horrified at the prospect but nodded again.
Then he unlocked the door and waited for Maudit and Brute to enter.
This time, Brute found himself in a small hallway with a ceiling so
low he almost had to stoop his head. The walls were rough plaster, dirty
and cracked, interrupted now and then by doors made of thick dark
timbers. The building smelled of damp and age, with a faint sickly sweet
undertone, as if something had rotted long ago.
“What—” Brute began.
“In here.” Lord Maudit pressed the latch on one of the doors; the
hinges squealed in protest. Brute stepped inside and saw, to his
astonishment, a somewhat dim but comfortable-looking apartment. The
ceiling was higher than that of the hallway, although he could still
have brushed it with his fingertips. The room contained an oversized bed
piled with quilts, a chest of drawers with an actual mirror on top, a
solid table with two equally solid chairs, and a matching wardrobe and
bookshelf. The window was tiny, of course, but the walls were hung with
colorful tapestries that depicted scenes of beasts in the forest and
creatures under the sea. A small stove with dark green tiles was tucked
in one corner, but not lit today because the weather was far too warm.
And in one wall, over near another corner, was a door constructed of heavy iron bars, with only darkness visible behind it.
“Welcome to your new home,” said Lord Maudit from the doorway.
“But… what?”
“His Highness has decided that you will be a very specialized sort of guard, with only a single prisoner to watch over.”
“Prisoner?” Brute’s eyes strayed back to the barred door.
Maudit twitched one shoulder. “See for yourself.”
With some degree of trepidation, Brute crossed the room.
The bars separated the apartment from a small cell. He had to squint
to see inside—there was no window slit in the prisoner’s space—but
there wasn’t much to see. Bare walls, bare floor, and in the corner, a
dirty pile of rags. But as Brute stared, the rags shifted slightly and
chains clanked, and a matted mass of hair appeared from under the edge
of the fabric. A man, Brute realized. He was looking at a man huddled
under a blanket. Chains sounded again, and Brute noted the metal collar
around the man’s neck, manacles on his wrists, and shackled ankles
fastened by chains to bolts in the floor. It was impossible to make out
any details of the man past his rat’s nest of hair and tangled beard
until the prisoner lifted his head slightly. Brute gasped at the man’s
obvious blindness: eyelids closed over sunken, empty sockets.
Lord Maudit sighed. He still hadn’t actually entered the room. “Brute, meet Gray Leynham.”
