Thank you AJ. I appreciate that. It is only a rough draft but I like the story line. It is still in the works.

I am about to do the same AD. Have a good night.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jt. I hope you are having a good one and I hope you have many more.

Thank you AJ. Like I say this is just a rough draft. It still needs work. I will post future chapters right here.

JT...be like me and try writing. I am trying to write a fantasy romance novel.

You are so sweet Mirror

So what did you think of my writing? I know that it is just a rough first draft that still needs work but I hope that the story line is good.

Sounds like you are having a rough night.

Did you find it AJ?

Hmmm. It is under General Topics on the main forum page.

Thank you Kev!! I see you found it.

It is in the poems and creative writing forum AJ.

Thank you Mirror. I appreciate the feedback.

I have posted the first two chapters of the first draft in the creative writing thread. Go look at it and let me know what you think of it so far.

Here is chapter 2 so far.

Chapter 2
After Irene and Lala say goodbye to their mothers they meet up at the place the stables in town. The women pack their horses and prepare to set out on their journey to Keenan to find their new husbands. Lala looks at her friend with a big smile on her face. “Are you ready Irene”? Irene looks back at her with a look of excitement and says, “I am as ready as I will ever be. I just can’t wait to get out of Fallon for the first time in my life. I just know that this is going to be a great adventure”. The women mount their horses and set off down the road to an adventure unlike anything they have ever imagined.
In Keenan, Johan and Toby are spending a normal night on patrol. They break up an occasional argument at one of the inns in town and they make sure that some of the ones that have had a few too many ales to drink make it to their homes. Toby looks at his friend and asks him, “Johan, have you ever thought about getting married and settling down”? Johan looks back at his friend wondering where this subject came from. “You know Toby, I really haven’t thought about it very much. I am enjoying my single life. Why? Have you been thinking about settling down and getting married”? Toby responds back to him, “I am tired of being single and going from one woman to another. I need to settle down and have a family”. Johan just looks at him with wonder as he has never heard his friend talk like this before. “Toby, does this have anything to do with the other night at the Grey Pony? I thought you handled yourself quite well with that situation”. Toby just looks at him and grins and says, “I guess it just made me think about my mortality and the fact that I have no one to carry on the Grayson name”. “Ah, so that’s why you are thinking like this isn’t it my friend? You are wanting to have children and no one to have them with”, Johan says with a hardy laugh in his voice. “What about that one over at the…”. “That is about enough Johan! I would never even think about letting that wench be the mother of my children. She is too worried about where her next gold piece is coming from”. Johan just laughs and says, “calm now Toby, I was only kidding”. The two men continue on their rounds of the town laughing and joking about marriage.
Irene and Lala ride out of town smiling and laughing about how they are going to find a husband in a strange town. “Lala, just how are you planning on finding a husband in a strange town? I know that you have a cousin that lives in Keenan, but what if he is too busy with his family to show us around”? Lala laughs at her friend saying, “Johan is not married and has no family there that I know of so don’t worry. He will have plenty of time to show us where to find the good men of Keenan”. Irene just looks at her with amusement thinking that, if Lala’s cousin is not married and he is one of the King’s guards then maybe he would be a good catch. “Lala, when was the last time you saw your cousin”? Irene asks. “I have never met him”, Lala responds with a luagh. “Why do you ask”? Irene just looks ahead at the trail and responds, “oh, no reason really”. The women ride down the trail towards the forest that seperates Fallon from Keenan.
The winter was a very harsh one and the wood elves are busy repairing the damage that the season caused. While they are working on fixing up their homes one of the elves spotted the two women approaching the forest. Arinon, the head elf of the forest, warns the rest of the wood elves of the women’s arrival. The elves scatter so that they can not be seen but Arinon stays put so that he can find out what they are doing in his forest. Before the women could even see Arinon he steps into their path and forgetting that he is speaking to them in the language of the wood elves says, “what are you doing in my forest”? Of course the two women can not speak the elvin tongue, so they are startled by Arinon and just look at him with fear in their eyes. Arinon realizing what he has done and knowing the language of the humans he speaks again, “what are you doing in my forest”? The two women look at each other and Lala speaks up to Arinon, “we are just passing through on our way to Keenan. We mean you no harm”. Arinon never having seen human women before is quite taken by their beauty. “We do not allow strangers to pass through this forest”, Arinon says to them. Lala tells him, “we were told by pur people that this is the shortest way to Keenan. May we not pass through your forest”? The other elves wait in the background unseen to the women awaiting Arinon’s decision. “I say again, we do not allow strangers to pass through our forest”, Arinon recants. Lala then asks Arinon, “what price can we pay to pass through your forest? We have gold pieces or we even have food that we have packed in our bags”. Arinon thinking about what the woman has offered and luckily for Irene and Lala Arinon accepts the food that Lala has offered them. “Will you join us for the food? We would much like to have you join us as we are ready to quit working for this day”, Arinon offers to the women. “We would love to but we have a long journey ahead of us. We must reach Keenan before the sun goes down or we will never find our way”, says Irene who speaks to Arinon for the first time since they were stopped. Arinon says the the women, “if you will join us for the food, I will show you a shortcut to where you seek to go”. Irene and Lala look at each other as if each is asking the other what they should do. Irene speaks up and says to Arinon, “if you will show us a shortcut to Keenan so that we may reach there before dark then I guess there is no harm in joining you for the food”. Arinon smiles at them and leads them off into the forest to where they will eat. The women are thinking that it will be alright as long as the wood elf shows them a way to reach Keenan before dark. They thought wrong.

This is only the first draft of a book that I am trying to write. I would like to know what you think of it. It is a fantasy romance novel in the works. Be kind now!!

Chapter 1
Spring is starting to set into Fallon as the days are getting longer and the nights are not so cool. Irene takes advantage of the warmer weather and walks out to her garden to check out how her roses have survived the winter. She looks at the roses thinking to herself, “this is the beginning of a whole new year and I am getting no younger. I have not even seen the world outside of Fallon”. She starts to trim the rosebushes back so that the branches of the bush can begin to sustain new life.
“Hello Irene”, says her friend Lala as she is walking in the gate. “How are you doing on this wonderfully warm day”? Irene startles as she is not expecting anyone this morning. “I am doing just wonderful Lala. And how are you”? Lala wonders if Irene is telling her the truth, as she saw her pondering over her roses. Lala wanders over to Irene and kneels down beside her. “I am wondering if you will do me a big favor Irene. I am going to be doing some traveling and I need a companion to go with me”. Irene looks at her friend and asks, “and just where would you be traveling to Lala. You are but only seventeen”. Lala looks at Irene and says, “I am going to Keenan to look for a husband. My mother says that I am going to be an old maid soon if I don’t find a man There is no one here in Fallon that sparks my interest so I am going to go and look in Keenan. I hear tell that there are some wonderfully single men there”. Irene ponders what about what her friend has said and tells her, “Lala, I am but only seventeen and I do not have a husband either. Maybe I should go with you and find myself a husband as well. I do not want to be an old maid either”.
Irene continues to work on her roses as Lala watches her and Irene wonders about just what kind of men are in Keenan. Irene asks her friend, “Lala, do you think that we will be able to find good men in Keenan? I hear that Keenan is a pretty rough town. I hear that there are elves and dwarfs in that town that do not like humans”. Lala tells her friend , “don’t worry about them Irene. We will be just fine because I have a cousin that lives in Keenan and he will watch over us. His name is Johan and he is one of the King’s knights in Keenan. He will take care of us and see that we are safe”. Irene stops worrying so much and tells Lala, “if you think that we will be safe then yes of course I will go with you. I have never been anywhere except for Fallon. I am looking forward to seeing other parts of this world”. “Good Irene, I will go and tell my mother that we are going then”. “You do that Lala and I will go and tell my mother the same”. Irene watches as her friend gets up to leave and says, “Lala, are you sure that Johan is still there? Will we be safe”? Lala responds, “yes Irene I am as sure as one can be. The last anyone heard from Johan says that he is still there”. Lala goes out the gate and down the road back to her mother’s house.
As Irene finishes trimming her rosebushes she thinks about what she is going to tell her mother about what she and Lala have planned. She thinks about what her mother is going to think about all of this. Her mother will probably say, “Irene, just where did you come up with such a notion that you will find a husband in Keenan? That town is full of nothing but a bunch of ruffians”. Irene is wondering how she will be able to talk her mother into letting her go.
That evening after dinner Irene goes to her room and starts to pack for her trip. There is a knock on the door and Irene just knows that it is her mother. “Come in mother”, she calls. Her mother Nala opens the door and starts to walk into her room and stops. “Irene, what are you doing”? “Mother, I am packing to go on a trip to Keenan with Lala”. Her mother looks at her with wonder as she is trying to figure out just where Irene came up with this idea. “Irene, why are you going to Keenan”? “Well mother I am going to find a husband so that I don’t end up an old maid”. Her mother now knows just where this idea came from as she had heard Lala and her mother talking about Lala becoming an old maid if she did not find a husband soon. “Are you going alone”?...her mother asks. Irene responds,“No mother I am going with Lala. She says that there are plenty of eligible men in Keenan and that we will find ourselves a good husband there”. Nala knows that the likelihood of her daughter finding a good husband in Keenan is next to nothing. “Irene, I know that you and Lala have your hearts set on finding yourselves a husband, but why do you not look here in Fallon”? Exasperated, Irene looks at her mother and says, “mother if there were a husband here for me, do you not think I would have already found him”? Nala nods her head at her daughter because she has to agree with her. Irene is now seventeen and has not even had the slightest interest in any boy in Fallon. “Maybe you are right Irene. Maybe you will find a good husband in Keenan. If you do find one Irene, do you promise to bring him here for the wedding”? Irene looks at her mother and says, “of course mother. Where else do you think I would get married”? Nala hugs her daughter and goes back out the door into the hallway. As Nala walks back down the hall to the kitchen where she was cleaning up after dinner, she thinks to herself, “be safe my little daughter. My love will go with you”.
“Keenan is a rocking town tonight isn’t itToby”?...Johan says as he and Toby are touring the town on guard duty. The night is warm and the rain that they had had earlier in the day had the streets all muddy. The town was bustling with all kinds of life. “Yes it is Johan. I wonder if there will be more trouble tonight”? Johan knows what Toby is talking about when he says trouble. He remembers that the night before last there was a terrible fight at the Grey Pony Inn that Toby is still paying for.
The brawl between Shiloh the Elf and Tawny the Dwarf started over nothing more than which one of them was the taller. Well we all know which one that was. As the brawl was taking place Johan and Toby were passing by on guard duty. Toby said, “Johan, I think I hear something going on in the Grey Pony. I think we should check it out”. Johan followed his friend into the Grey Pony to back him up with whatever was taking place in there. Much to their surprise Tawny had Shiloh up on the bar begging for mercy as Tawny had a spear poked at Shiloh’s chest. When Tawny saw Johan and Toby standing in the doorway he moved the spear away from Shiloh’s chest which gave Shiloh the upper hand. Shiloh jumped onto Tawny’s back yelling, “I have you now you tiny little man”. The brawl then ensued into an all out fight. Toby looked at Johan smiling and says, “I can handle this one my friend. They are not enemies, they are just trying to find out which one is bigger”. Johan smiles at his friend and moves to stand in the corner to stay out of the way. Toby stepped into the middle of the fight to break it up and did not see what was about to happen. Tawny still had the spear in hand and was ready to run Shiloh through with it when Toby stepped in the way. Luckily Tawny saw what was happening and pulled back just in time enough to only catch Toby in the arm with the spear. Toby stunned, looks at Tawny with the surprise still in his eyes and blood running down his arm and says, “Tawny, give me that before somebody really gets hurt”. The dwarf hands Toby the spear and backs out of the door before he lands himself in more trouble. Meanwhile Johan sees that his friend is bleeding and comes to help him as the bartender brings a towel to him. “Toby are you alright?...asks Johan. Toby wincing from the pain in his arm says, “Yes Johan, I am just fine. Let’s get out of here and go home before I stand here and bleed to death”.

Sweet dreams Pat

No Kev.. It is a romance novel set in a fantasy land. It is kind of like Tolkein with a little romance thrown in.

It is sort of a fantasy romance novel.