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A look at my sales figures suggests to me that I need to promote Hailstone Mountain<\/a><\/i>, my new novel. So I’ll be doing some snippets. Here’s the first, actually the Prologue: I sat in the darkness. The mountain-rats slept around me. I could see some of their forms in the firelight. My brown cat lay curled against my leg, purring soundlessly. They\u2019d shared their supper with us\u2014dried fish.<\/p>\n \tI felt no need of sleep just then. I\u2019d slept a lot on my high stone bed.<\/p>\n \t\u201cAre you awake, Outsider?\u201d a voice asked. At first I thought it might be the cat speaking again, but then I saw it was a boy, one of the mountain-rats. Although I could not see him clearly, I thought I knew which one he was. Sixteen winters or so, with bright blue eyes.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI\u2019m awake, my son.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cWhy do you call me your son?\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cIt\u2019s what I call everyone. Son or daughter. It\u2019s my business to be a father to people.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cI never knew for sure who my father was.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cThat\u2019s just why I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cMay I ask you a question, then, \u2026Father?\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cHave you been out in the great world?\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cAye. And mean to be again.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cIs it really there?\u201d <\/p>\n \t\u201cOf course it is. Why do you doubt?\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cI\u2019ve never seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cYou were born here in the mountain?\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cAh, lad, you\u2019ve got to see it. Blue skies. Green meadows. Wide forests. The sun in the sky, so bright you can\u2019t look at it\u2014\u02ba<\/p>\n \t\u201cIf it\u2019s so bright you can\u2019t look at it, how do you know it\u2019s there?\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cWell, you can see it out of the corner of your eye, so to speak. It\u2019s not safe to look directly on it. Most important, though, you see everything else by it. It\u2019s where the light comes from, just as what we see in this cavern we see because of that fire.\u201d<\/p>\n \tI saw the boy slump, his chin on his drawn-up knees. \u201cI don\u2019t believe in the sun,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t believe in the great world at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A look at my sales figures suggests to me that I need to promote Hailstone Mountain, my new novel. So I’ll be doing some snippets. Here’s the first, actually the Prologue: I sat in the darkness. The mountain-rats slept around me. I could see some of their forms in the firelight. My brown cat lay … Continue reading Hailstone Mountain, Snippet One<\/span>
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