The Quiet Boy and the Heart of the WorldPrologueBran tore the longest branch loose from a tangle of brush. He lifted it high over his head and brought it down hard on the sharp edge of the big rock jutting out of the ground before him. A piece as long as his arm broke neatly off the end of the dry wood. He struck the rock two more times and bent to pick up the pieces of wood. He had a good hatchet and even an ax and a saw, but breaking the dry wood was faster. Bran had many things. He even had an entire tavern in town, unusual for a boy his age. He had many things but he felt as if he had nothing. He carried the wood to the middle of the little clearing stepping carefully between the many wide circles of ash. He arranged the pieces neatly on the large square pile he was building. He checked the wind. It was from the west. He went to that side of his pile and sat down. Taking out his knife he began to split off smaller pieces of wood until he had built a cone of kindling there. His fingers were cold and numb as he struck his flint with the back of his knife and blew a small flame to life, fanning it carefully until he was sure it would take hold. Bran rose quietly and looked at the sky. There was an even layer of gray clouds, but they were too high. They wouldn’t bring any rain. They only made the sky feel sullen and monotonous. Bran saw two small birds far away, flying east. Probably starlings, he thought, or robins. It was too cold for swallows or bluebirds. He watched them disappear in the distance and he felt trapped, tied down, held to this place. He didn’t want to stay here any longer. He didn’t want to do what he had to do now. The fire was beginning to crackle. He lifted the pale, lifeless body of his young sister onto the pyre and walked quickly away without looking back. SynopsisAnna is resentful of Bran, the headstrong and perhaps less-than-bright young man that her mother has burdened her with. Bran is resentful too. He is resentful of the new responsibility he has been tricked into accepting. The last thing he needed was another person to take care of, especially an emotional and critical girl like this one. When the garbled prophecy of a suicidal witch urges them to find the ailing Fisher King, they seem to have no other choices left. They have both lost everything they once cared for; their families, friends, and homes are gone forever. Together they must cross a plague ravaged countryside full of thieves, gypsies, and survivalists, and must steal from the most feared and powerful man alive. What they seek is not where they expect it, what they find is not what they wanted, and the key to the evil that has triggered the environmental collapse of their world is something they thought existed only in dreams. For Bran and Anna, their old world is passing away forever. Now they are finding themselves to be the awed observers of the birth of a new age. Bran Witch Bones Anna The South Road Taxmen and Barons Alone Thieves' Camp Hiding Moonlight Gypsy Smuggled Empty Streets Stake Out Hot Cross Buns Cards Castle Sewers Walls The Quiet Boy Farms Bone Head Clan Chief Leftover Boys Hilltop Forest River Stone Soldiers Dwarves Into the Pit Heart Of Darkness Around the Mountain Fisher King Release Through the Mountain Under the Mountain Dragon Slayer Knowing Rain Forty Days and Forty Nights |
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Status: Finished. I submitted the manuscript to a publisher in New York in October 2001. As you might remember, that was at the peak of the anthrax-in-the-mail scare. They sent me a nice card saying that they were currently throwing away all submissions unopened. While waiting for the revised submission instructions I decided that I was not ready to send it anyway. At the time, I had been advised that Young Adult Novels should be no more than 50,000 words. Since then I have found that very few books are actually kept to this length. In fact, many Newbery Award winners are twice that long. Sooooo,,, I have decided to hang on to the story, finish the one I'm working on now, and then go back to it and write a longer version. I think that if I'm not trying to keep it brief, I will be able to achieve much better character development and make it a more memorable story. Well anyway, it's worth a try. I like the story too much to let it go without developing it as completly as I can. |