I’ve come to conclusion kid will probably be better off homeschooled, so I’m feeling better.
And I’ve decided to do a totally gratuitous snippet of Heart Of Light, the novel JUST delivered to Bantam a couple of weeks ago.
Right now I’m revising proposals for Baen AND working on the next one of this series, Soul of Fire.
Without further ado, the opening of Heart Of Light:
The twenty Eighth of August Eighteen-Eighty-Nine. The countryside outside Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. Midnight.
The town was closed for the night, and the shops selling the famous pork pies and Stilton cheese were firmly shut and dark, as were the homes of the good burghers. All the estates on the outskirts were quiet and dark.
Here and there, only, the occasional candle shone or mage lantern flared in an otherwise silent night, heralding a sick room being checked, or a nurse looking in on a child, or perhaps a reveler returning late from some private party and tracing his way back to his room.
These lights appeared like trailing comets in the greater darkness and vanished, leaving only stillness behind and the great silent, sleeping night.
No light shone at the foursquare, many-chimney crowned home of Lord Widefield, friend of the Queen and – it was rumored – the head of her magical secret service. The house stood dark and closed against the pernicious night air, respectable and silent from the servant quarters to the upper stories. There, startlingly, one window was flung open to the night, the white curtains fluttering in the warm nocturnal breeze like a flag of surrender.
But for Lord Widefield, plucked from his bed in the middle of the night, grasped by a many-teethed mouth and flown to a nearby field, it was too late for surrender.
He lay in a meadow, not far from his house, a meadow across which he’d walked just that morning. It seemed so far away – that man who could stride across the meadow, that man in control of his own destiny, that man who had for fifty years stood astride the politics of magic in Great Britain.
Right then, Lord Widefield, in a pool of his own blood, on the soft grass, could only think of breathing, and breathing again and desperately holding onto the life that was ebbing away from him. He could only feel his heart beat, rasp one more breath in, one more out, and try – try – not to scream out the pain that wracked his shattered, torn body.
Through a haze of sweat and blood, he saw the dragon’s snout hovering, bloodied, over him. Those teeth, those claws, had taken his pride and his self-sufficiency and his life. Bite by bite and tear by tear.
Till nothing remained.
Now the reptilian mouth opened, showing the sharp teeth, and the forked tongue flickered at the blood-spattered muzzle.
“Have you told me all?” it asked, its voice more hiss than speech.
Desperately, fearing only an increase to the pain, all thought of honor and integrity forgotten with the dreams of power and empire, Lord Widefield nodded.
“Good,” the dragon said.
As the bright flashing teeth descended for the coup de gras, Lord Widefield spared a last thought for Nigel Oldhall. And hoped against hope the young man wouldn’t suffer too much.
According To Hoyt 
Homeschooling is great, especially through middle school. I was, and I don’t regret it a bit! You learn more and faster, and when you have to deal with all the really awful bits of growing up, you can do so without the interference of your remarkably asinine, melodramatic peers. Socially, it can be a bit challenging – I lived in a really rural area, and that was hard – but there are ways and ways around that, especially if you live in a place with lots of other kids. And it also helps to develop interests beyond what is fashionable… if you have no idea what is fashionable, you have to think for yourself.
Interesting… I wonder who Nigel Oldhall is? I have no idea, and it’s most intriguing.
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Oh, oh, if you think you can homeschool your kids and keep your own sanity, do it. I was homeschooled from halfway through fifth grade to fifteen years old (I started at a junior college then), and I can only shiver in horror at what I’d have gone through in junior high. There’d probably have been knives involved (and no, I’m not joking). High school . . . likely anorexia.
I am grateful everyday to my mom for keeping me sane, secure, and in an environment where I could learn without interference from totalitarian teachers and brainwashed peers.
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If you want some curriculum advice, feel free to ask. I’m working on my 2nd 12 year old now and can speak from experience.
You might also, if your school system is permitted, use his current school books. Many states, but not all, allow for homeschoolers to use the public school books. Some of the books are crap, but some aren’t. YMMV.
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*sigh* More dragons!
Btw, DOitD is making the rounds of my family (not just immediate family, either) and it’s a big hit! I loved it, recommended it, and may never see it again…
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We homeschooled our son for two years, and then got him back into public school after the new principal came along. There’s a lot of books out there for curriculum ideas, and lots of stuff on teh intarnets too. As long as you document his work, the local school system will be happy with his progress.
You get a lot of freedom with homeschooling — we took trips to NYC in December, Florida in August (got chased out by hurricane Charley), to Bar Harbor, Maine in October, and to Ireland in April. It was about two hours each morning for the math, science, social studies, and reading. Of course, that was an elementary school curriculum.
We have just three and a half months to endure of elementary school, and then he’s off to a lovely performing arts middle school where — word from other parents is — they have a much better approach to behavioral issues. We can hardly wait.
Good luck with your homeschool, Headmistress!
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what is it with girls fighting?
Hey,
What is it with girls fighting?
BigMike
[url=gross-videos.com]gross-videos.com[/url]
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Heart of Light
Heck of a way to treat Her Majesty’s Head of magical Services! Is this perhaps the Black Ops witches story? Or something else?
And I suppose it’ll be at least a year before it hits the shelves?
MataPam
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