7/7/77

No, it's not the end of the world as we know it, or the new date for Rapture, or Ragnarok, or the giant asteroid hurtling toward Earth...

It's a game of sorts, especially for writers, called "The Seven Line Challenge."  It's intended to give you a chance to interest folks in your writing, and gain a larger audience.  Here's how it works:

First, choose a work-in-progress (some of us have more than one, depending on how soundly the squirrels let us sleep at night).  Next, find page seven (or you have the option of using page 77 if you're picky like me and page seven is BO-ring).  Now, scan down to the seventh line and copy/paste the next seven lines you see into a blog post.  Don't forget to mention the person who tagged you.  Now, finish up by tagging seven more people to play.  (Don't you just LOVE being "it?")

From page 77 of book two of The Straight Path, tentatively titled, "Book of Gates."  Note: "work-in-progress" does not mean this section will ever be included.  Work-in-progress is unedited and unabridged ;)

The Nightingale’s hair was not even mussed but he did leap backward instinctively, cursing, to land on his back and scramble away.

“May lions gut you and hyenas eat your liver,” Mustafa spat through clenched teeth.  “May you live a thousand days while buzzards pluck out your eyes and feast on your entrails!  May you--” His voice chopped off again as his windpipe constricted at a small wave of the man’s hand.

Did he plan to strangle him?  Good, Mustafa thought smugly, and actually wondered if it meant the man had been raised in the Way and was subconsciously averse to shedding blood.

Thanks to Chris Andrews for sort of quasi- semi- halfway-tagging me (or at least letting me tag myself from his post).

(I'll add tags as they're accepted.  If they're not linked, they're not official.)

Mark Morris (or Martin Green)