Hello! Today, I will pull a small scene from my fantasy novel, Tales of the Myths, and give some commentary/background on it! (With no major spoilers.)
The following scene is from page 129, with the characters April, her dog Teddy, and Caelestis (shown in italics to differentiate the scene from the commentary):
Teddy rolled his eyes. I didn’t smile back. “You’re overthinking it. What about the drawings?”
With more confidence than I ever possessed, Caelestis said, “Going back in time to witness the death of a star. Or it’s a metaphor. It could do with the—”
“Dev king?” I guessed.
“Yeah. Only, what the king doesn’t know about science, even science fiction, could fill a football stadium, if every square inch was filled with books.” Caelestis mimicked throwing a football. “Touchdown.”
For those of you wondering why a dog is rolling his eyes, Teddy is no ordinary dog. In this scene, they are in the middle of solving a sort of riddle. I especially love the last line where Caelestis (Cal, as I call him) pretends to throw a football and says "Touchdown". You can feel the second-hand embarrassment April would be feeling. (Remember - April and Cal are 13-years-old.)
Ironically, however, Cal isn't American. He was introduced to American football much later in life. He even says so himself on page 173:
"...I’ve been Americanized.” His smile turned wistful. “I used to call soccer football and used the metric system with kilograms and centimeters instead of your crazy pounds and inches.”
Ah, Cal. He has so much backstory potential. Perhaps one day he'll get his own book. You never know.
- Nara E.