Part 6, Chapter 6

Chapter 6. Council in Hiding

“Treace’s followers killed the sentry at the foot of the trail to the council ledge first,” said Halvery, “to prevent Arcove from getting a warning. Roup and Ariand’s clutters were stationed in that part of the boulders. I’m sure Treace’s cats were trying to kill them quietly. They probably ambushed a few before anyone knew what was going on, but Lyndi saw what was happening and ran to get me.”

Click to read more ...

Hey, this book has an end!

Hello, Hunters Readers!

I just typed "THE END" on Hunters Unlucky. 213,499 words, and it will be a little shorter after polish. Part 6 has 28 chapters (unless I decide to split one of them...which I might).

The book took me 16.5 months to write, which is embarrassingly slow. I believe the original took me 14 months to write when I was 14/15. Ack! I'll blame part of that slowness on starting the book at the end of my first travel job. I've had to re-train myself to write while traveling. I also wrote 2 novelettes during that time, so I wasn't 100% focused on Hunters.

Anyway, the book is done. It needs final tweaking for the last few chapters, and then it will be put away to marinate. I'm thinking a month. Then I will go back through it for a continuity edit, taking into consideration comments on this site. That will probably take 2-3 weeks.

Then I'll send it off to my primary beta readers - the ones who give me content feedback. I'll also send it to my cover artist, along with a synopsis. Hopefully by the time all the rest of the edits are finish, she'll have a cover for me.

I'll implement any suggestions from the primary beta readers that seem good to me. Then, depending on how much material I've changed and how I feel about it, I may do a final edit for typos and correction of any continuity errors that I may have introduced with my edits.

After that (or if I feel good about it already), I'll send it to my typo search-and-destory team. I'll fix the many typoes they are sure to find. Then I'll format it for ebook and print, and it'll be available for purchase! I will also set some sort of audio plan into motion. I haven't decided yet what that will entail.

While all this is happening, the chapters and commentary will continue to appear weekly on this blog until the whole book has been released, which should happen in October. At some point before that, I may begin taking down the early chapters, so that I don't get in trouble with Amazon when the book goes up for sale. When their bots find one of their paid books free online, they send the author love notes threats.

After all of you who've been reading along with me have a chance to finish the story, I will take it down off my site. I plan to make the chapter commentary (including some of the comment threads from readers) available as a free PDF download on my website, but not the old text of the story. If any of you do not want your comments preserved and included, please let me know.

If you would like to be part of the typo search-and-destroy team, ping me at abigail dot hilton at gmail dot com, and I'll put you on the list. If you are one of my regular typo hunters, you'll get an email about it anyway. I will send out another heads up when I'm ready to have the final manuscript typo-edited, so you could just wait and speak up then.

I hope you're enjoying the story. It does have a satisfying conclusion (well, it satified me, anyway). :D

Best,

Abbie

Part 6, Chapter 5

Chapter 5. Loyalty

In the chilliest time of night, just before dawn, Charder crouched on the cold stone near the northern mouth of the tunnel. He wrapped his tail around his legs, and tried to stay awake. He was thinking that this all felt familiar—as though the past and the future were colliding. I have waited, hungry and cold, in such caves before.

Click to read more ...

Part 6, Chapter 4

Chapter 4. The Fiord

Their run took them along the foot of the cliffs into creasia territory, through mazes that Storm did not know well. Roup said that this was technically Sharmel’s territory, though it was riddled with telshee caves, so close to the Garu Vell. No cats denned here.

Click to read more ...

Part 6, Chapter 3

Chapter 3. Run

A young male creasia lay sprawled across the path, eyes glazed, chest soaked with blood. Deep scratches cut into the muscle and meat of his flanks. Roup bounded forward. “Nevin?”

The cat did not answer. Roup was bristling all over as he bent to sniff him.

Arcove growled and started running. “Roup!” he bellowed over his shoulder. “With me! Now!”

Click to read more ...

Part 6, Chapter 2

Chapter 2. The Truth at Last

The traditional council ledge was on the ferryshaft side of the waterfall. The trail ascended the cliffs from a point just north of the trees and climbed to a ledge about a third of the way up the cliffs.

Storm followed Roup and Kelsy out of the trees and across a grassy patch of plain to the boulder mazes. He glanced back once and saw the ferryshaft herd scattered over the plain to the east. He turned towards the trees and saw Myla, looking small and alone, and Tollee, a darker shape behind her. It’s for the best, he told himself again. Our species don’t mix.

Click to read more ...

Part 6, Chapter 1

Part VI. Treace

Chapter 1. Winter Conference

Storm walked along the Igby beneath the tall riverside trees, through mounds of fall leaves, and thought. It was a perfectly clear day with a fathomless blue sky, and a crisp breeze that parted his winter coat in ripples. Teek bounded along ahead of him, scattering leaves and pouncing on anything that scampered or fluttered out of them. He was as large as a lamb now—robust and healthy with a dense winter coat of his own.

Click to read more ...

"Hungry" - a Hunters Short Story

So...I've got a short story for you. But not for all of you.

I wrote this vingette last August with no intention of showing it to anyone, but, by-and-by, it got polished and finished, and I ran it by a few beta readers, and they were not horrified, so...here we are.

Click to read more ...

Part 5, Chapter 18

Chapter 18. Mistakes of the Past

Over the next few days, the ferryshaft herd drifted in, and Storm almost forgot his worries for the future. The air was warm and the water of the lake delightfully cool. Frogs and insects filled the evenings with sounds that Storm associated with contentment and plenty. Fireflies winked under the trees at night. The grass was sweet and tender, and small game was plentiful in Chelby Wood.

Click to read more ...

Part 5, Chapter 17

Chapter 17. Teek and the Lowland Curbs

On the day that Storm left the cliffs, he came to the curbs’ den to say good-bye. He’d not been hunting with them for most of the spring, but they greeted him warmly and introduced him to seven puppies, who were now beginning to hunt outside the den. Storm could not tell most of the puppies apart, but Teek remembered a few of their names, and they seemed to remember him.

Click to read more ...

Part 5, Chapter 16

Chapter 16. Poison and Cream

Later that night, Treace sat on the edge of the lake and stared, unseeing, towards the little island where Moro sometimes tested new ideas. Two of his officers had expressed concern after the visit from Arcove, but Treace didn’t answer to them, and he hardly heard what they said to him. He wondered who had spoken to Arcove about Moro’s history. He’d lost control of some of those cats as they’d shifted into other clutters.

Click to read more ...

Part 5, Chapter 15

Chapter 15. A New Solution

On the evening Arcove went to visit Treace, he took Halvery and a dozen of his cats, but he did not tell them what he intended to do. He told Roup, although he won’t let him come along. “I should be there,” complained Roup. “If this works, it may be the most important thing you do as king.”

Click to read more ...

Part 5, Chapter 14

Chapter 14. Spring

Deep beneath the earth, in the heart of a warm and glowing pool, an egg the size of a ferryshaft foal began to undulate. Valla and Sauny watched from the edge of the pool as two telshees circled the egg—anxious, but not ready to interfere. Their bodies flickered beneath the surface in the green light of the acriss. The egg itself glowed as if lit from within. Half a dozen of its sisters and brothers lay on the bottom of the pool as well, and they all had a faint, green luminescence.

Click to read more ...

Part 5, Chapter 13

Chapter 13. Instinct and Reason

Storm taught Teek to stalk mice and rabbits on the edge of the boulder mazes. He was wary of taking the cub too far from the caves. What would I do if we met a creasia clutter?

Click to read more ...

Part 5, Chapter 12

Chapter 12. Friendly

Storm and Shaw emerged from the rocks to the unlikely sounds of giggling. Storm caught sight of Teek on the edge of the stream, in the act of executing a half-flip. He came down with all four paws spread, tail fluffed, glancing about wildly. He began to lift one paw at a time, looking cautiously under each as though expecting to find something sinister. Valla and Sauny were standing to either side, along with a couple of the curbs.

Click to read more ...