What We're Writing: First drafts

 JENN McKINLAY: It's always weird to me that whenever I have a book come out the next book in the series is always due, which guarantees that the manuscript won't have my full attention and neither will the work in progress. 

As I'm promoting WITCHES OF DUBIOUS ORIGIN (on sale now for 27% off at Amazon -- just sayin'), I'm madly trying to finish the second in the series WITCHES OF QUESTIONABLE INTENT(out next October!). It makes for some rather exhausting days and sometimes I forget which witch book I'm talking about. 

I have been having a grand time, immersing myself in the fantasy world. It's taken a little getting used to as there are no rules -- other than to tell a compelling story, obvy -- and when I get stuck I realize I have to look at whatever plot issue I'm having from a magical standpoint. 

Here's a snippet from my work in progress to show you what I mean. In this scene, the staff of the Books of Dubious Origin department are checking their vault for an item they believe has been stolen.

     The vault was another surprise. It was not a dank, musty cave with piles of treasured books, magical artifacts, or gold. No, it looked exactly like the safe deposit boxes in a bank vault, with one distinct difference. Instead of locks that required keys or passcodes, these drawers all had a single eye where normally a handle would be. And at the moment, all the eyes were watching us. In other words, nightmare fuel.

     “Steady, love,” Jasper whispered in my ear. “They can’t harm you.”

     “My psyche begs to differ,” I muttered. The eyes swiveled in my direction and then blinked as one. I felt my knees go slack.

     Miles moved across the room and gently placed his hand over one of the drawers, closing its eye. All the eyes faded into the flat metal front of their drawers except the one Miles had touched, which popped open when he removed his hand.

     A rush of air exited my lungs. Maybe it was my own discomfort at being the center of attention but having so many eyes on me was creepy and I could see how it would be a deterrent for would be criminals.

     “Open.” The eye closed and the drawer slowly opened as he’d commanded. Miles glanced inside and went still. “It’s not here.”

When I originally sat down to write it, I thought to myself what would be something that would freak me out in a vault? Eyeballs came to mind, no idea why, but I ran with it. This has become my method for writing the fantasy novels. I try to stretch myself as far as I can and see what happens. We'll see what my editor thinks of this scene and hopefully it will make it into the final version.

Also, after I wrote it, I discovered there are drawer pulls that are eyeballs so maybe I'm not that weird? LOL.

What about you, Reds and Readers, what are things that would creep you out in a story? Would you keep reading? Or slam the book shut and run?