CHAPTER NOTES - CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 12 NOTES

When Yelena says she wouldn’t sell secrets for money, that’s showing another aspect of her personality. Plus she smart enough to know not to anger Valek any further.

I enjoyed writing her interaction with Rand when he’s trying to guess her skill.  And I loved her comment when he thought she might be a singer. “You obviously never heard me sing.”  This is the same with me.  I couldn’t carry a tune if it had handles on it.  However, like Yelena, I used to do gymnastics. In the first draft of the book, I called it gymnastics, but thought it sounded too modern.  When I was little, I loved watching the Olympics and was inspired to do gymnastics.  I took a couple classes, but that’s as far as it went!

There’s lots of backstory here and it was a natural place to include it because she’s remembering fire festivals from previous years.  The reader gets a few more hints about what a nasty bastard Reyad and his friend Mogkan were. Hopefully at this point, readers are nodding their heads saying, “If she hadn’t killed him, I would have!”

Rand is also being protective and it’s a clue.  What the reader doesn’t know is that he sold information about Yelena to Star, telling Star that she would be at the festival.  Rand feels guilty so he wants to keep an eye on his new friend so nothing bad happens to Yelena.

Remember in chapter 11 when Yelena lands in an ungainly heap at Valek’s feet?  And how she thinks later that, “Someday I would dearly love to see him in an ungainly heap at my feet.”  Well, it happens in chapter 12.  Remember the drunk who tries to make a bow to apologies for bumping into her and lands “…in a heap at my feet.”  That’s Valek.  Although she doesn’t know that at the time and is distracted by the fire dancers.

Question 12 – In Taste of Darkness, who is Noak's "Little Brother"?

Don't answer this question in the comments!! This is another chance to win! There will be 31 questions for each chapter note published. Collect the answers to ALL the questions (or your best guess) and then enter to win a T-shirt at the end of the month (I'll post the Rafflecopter on the 31st).