The new and improved chapter one of Plain Kate is up, here. I plan to lock it up soon ... have a look now if you're interseted.
The new and improved chapter one of Plain Kate is up, here. I plan to lock it up soon ... have a look now if you're interseted.
This is great-- it gets the story off and running right away.
I see you've cut all the stuff about Kate's childhood, just left in one or two details that suggest Kate was close to her father. That works.
One or two things are a bit confusing, because of what you cut. Mainly how her booth is set up, and how she comes to sleep in a drawer (I like the inside lock, though. Shows she's no fool, not trusting, and skilled.) Of course, she never anticipated axes,
Once you mention "Father", which confused me for a moment. ("Father's nets brought up three boots.")--A holdover from the previous draft?
One other thing: Taggle's ability to speak now comes as a complete surprise, with no foreshadowing. Is this intentional?
All these, and the odd typo ("horse cat screams") are easily fixed.
You have the beginning of something wonderful here.
Oh -- I do mean to keep the two-page prologue, about Kate's childhood, etc. I just haven't changed it and so didn't repost it.
The "Father" thing is a typo. That old fisherman's name was once "Father." I decided it was silly. He's Boyar at the moment (it means something like "gentleman," and like "Daj" is a title rather than a name), but he might go to Ivan or something.
I'm struggling with how to set up Taggle's new gift so that it feels right, without having Kate put her wish into words for Linay -- as you say, she's no fool.