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NANCY MILLER's avatar

What Portia said, Tod. This is really good, and Swane's character is being fleshed out more and more in each chapter. And while we may be worried about Nell, maybe consider having something else befall her isn't a bad idea because it adds more tension to the story. I'm not saying Nell should be killed off or go through more trauma, but life in this era was not easy for anybody. Love the dialogue! You have a good feel for the language and accents of that time frame and place. Having come from the Central Valley of California, too, I love the references to various places I know so well. Really good stuff!

And happy new year, Tod, too!

Tod Cheney's avatar

Thanks, Nancy. And Happy New Year to you.

Portia's avatar

This is good, Tod. I'm worried about Nell...

Tod Cheney's avatar

Nell's going be be fine, I think. No worries.

Portia's avatar

Thank God! Happy New Year, Tod!

Tod Cheney's avatar

Happy New Year to you, Portia !

Ruth Sterling's avatar

"He rode with the moonlight, then dawn’s crepuscularity, himself at home in the off light, living in the shadowlands of silver mines and oil sick lamplight, in depths that crushed men’s souls if not their skulls, all for the quest of riches."

Mighty fine poetic prose. The crepuscularity of dawn is absolutely a way Tod speaks :)