Sample Chapter #5 Available
This is the penultimate sample chapter I will make available on the website. Hopefully by now, those who have read what has been posted have made a decision about ordering the full book.
Chapter 6 will be available tomorrow.
This is around the time of the story when the romantic aspects are beginning to assert themselves. The book is a bit of a slow-burner in terms of ramping up to action. There's eventually a lot of that - and quite a bit of death - but not at this stage. Hopefully, until then, you enjoy the interplay between the characters as well as the hints at where the story is going. Yes, the immediate trajectory is rather obvious (and intended to be so) but there will come a point when it will begin to go in unexpected directions. For now, though, it's about Alicia and Sorial getting to know one another as Sorial starts to ponder who he might be.
Chapter Five, "Cooling Off", begins: "The night after the pivotal conversation with his mother, sleep eluded Sorial; for hours, an overactive mind denied his tired body rest as he tossed and turned on his lumpy straw bed. The next few days were days spent in a sullen funk. He did his chores but avoided contact with others, including his friends. Even the sunrises failed to provide their customary comfort. His mind churned, trying to figure out how things connected. But the evidence was too scant for him to piece together the fragments of a puzzle that would answer the most basic question of his existence: Who was he?"