Darkness is today’s #writephoto prompt from Sue Vincent. The picture is below. I took my inspiration from the word rather than the picture of dark roiling clouds over a rolling meadow. As soon as I saw the prompt I thought of tunnels.

Tunnels in the Princelings Books

Tunnels have always featured strongly in the Princleings books, mainly because guinea pigs love tunnels! They became a feature of the Realms, connecting the major castles… That’s interesting, because the tunnel to Castle Marsh was started, but never finished, before Fred and George connected it up. Or had the entrance been blocked up by a former king? Hmm, a whole new storyline opens up!

The last book in the series is nearly finished. I just have to do the chapter illustrations, and Dani has to finish the device on the cover, but the latest draft included something spectacular and it’s going to be fabulous! I keep thinking of things to improve in the manuscript rather than do the pictures. I’m not confident I can do them, that’s why. Procrastination once more…

Back to the prompt… I thought you’d like an excerpt from the new book today. Jasmine (Fred’s young but very sensible daughter, who takes being a princess very seriously) falls down a hole in the woods, with her cousin from Castle Buckmore, Princess Liska. It’s about 1000 words—I had to take out a couple of paragraphs that are a major spoiler, and then it made more sense to include the longer introduction to the tunnel bit 🙂

Darkness falls over Jasmine and Liska

Jasmine tried to ignore the tears streaming down her face, the soreness of her hands, the aches and pains in her body. She grabbed hold of the roots sticking out of the earthen wall again, fought for a purchase with her right foot, and dragged herself upward, hoping against hope that she’d manage to get further up before the roots gave way like the last ten had. The earth gave way under her left foot, leaving her dangling from her hands. One root was slipping through her already scorched palm, and she fought desperately to find another place to hook with her foot.

In a shower of earth and sticks, she fell back down, landing on her side next to Liska.

“We’ll never get out,” Liska said with that defeated tone she’d had for the last hour.

Continue reading at Jemima Pett