Perspective is a harsh mistress.
Anyway, for those of you who are following along, I’m about halfway through reading the beta comments for my novel, The Unlit Sea. After that I’m going to rip out a few choice sections, as I’d love to get down to 150 thousand words, polish the prose one more time, maybe send it out for another read-through, and consider my submission options. I’m honestly rather sick of this novel hanging around; I wrote it in 2004 and rewrote it a few years later, and it’s been lingering ever since, not quite good enough to send out but almost there. One way or another, I’m kicking it out the door by the end of summer so it’ll stop occupying my thoughts.
I’ve reacted the same way to completely non-magical vases breaking.
What catches my attention, other than the whispy magicy stuff going on, is that Hershadatt’s body is growing skin on her jaw. And then it dawns on me that the “know my way around a cosmetic case” comment is not merely an “I don’t know about magic” comment but an “I know cosmetics can do wonders but you’re developing a non-decayed look at a rate that cosmetics won’t explain” comment!