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Patricia Reding
a book bubble about
Oathtaker
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author Insight
Research
When I write, I always keep four windows open on my desktop: the first, to the document I am writing; the second, to a document that keeps track of all my characters, places, and so forth (for my ready reference); the third to a great online tool, the Visual Thesaurus, for when I'm searching for that "perfect" word; and finally, the fourth, is a window for searching the net. Whenever I come upon something I don't know how to readily identify or describe, I can go right to my search window and put in what I'm looking for. For this part of the opening scene, I needed to know the sounds that a horse in fear, might make. I discovered that they "snort" and "scream." That was helpful. As to this encounter between the grut and the gelding, I ended with a description showing how awful the beasts were, as they left of the gelding, only bones and "tufts of hair that drifted in the air."
Book Excerpt
Oathtaker
Nearby, lumbering between the surrounding brush, sting weed and rock, several grut spread out in a ring around a fine russet gelding, imprisoning the animal. Repeatedly darting and withdrawing, teasing and taunting, the grut toyed with their captive. Its eyes wide in terror, it snorted, then screamed. Coming up on its back legs, it dropped down upon the beasts, but they continued their attack. They tore at the equine’s flesh, hideously delighting in their torture. In short order, a killing grasp brought the animal to its knees. It went still.
Pulling and ripping, the grut quickly consumed the gelding’s remains, leaving only scattered bloody bones and tufts of hair that drifted in the air, then settled down upon a few travelers’ bags of coarse burlap that littered the ground, their contents tossed aside.
The smell of blood filled the air.
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