September Novel Essential Information

Novel Title: Treachery

Time Setting: 1897

Genre: Historical

Minimum Word Goal: 90,000

Timespan: May–July

Location: various towns in central Texas

Main Characters: Edward Thorne, Adeline Welling

Background Information:

Edward was born the third son and twelfth child of fourteen to a farmer in central Texas. He was the only son his mother, who was his father's second wife, bore to his father, out of the five children she gave him. When Edward was four years old she died in childbirth, the child also dying not that long afterwards. His father never remarried.

His older siblings, especially his sisters, helped care for him and his other younger siblings as they grew up on the farm, where Edward had plans to stay and help his father, if not start a farm of his own someday.

He was sweet on one of the local girls in town and eventually they were engaged, with the whole town looking forward to the marriage. However, on a trip to Corpus Christi with her mother to visit her aunt who'd volunteered to make the wedding dress, his fiancée met the fiancé of one of her cousins and the two found they loved each other. They thus called off their engagements and married each other on the day she and Edward had been planning to marry.

Heartbroken and angry, Edward left his hometown, not wanting to be reminded of her in any way, and headed southward, where he got a job at a ranch near San Antonio and fell in love with one of the foreman's daughters. Soon they were making plans to marry.

One night, however, he returned to the ranch intoxicated after a night of drinking with his fellow hands. His fiancée, following in her mother's footsteps as a bastion of the temperance movement, was appalled and broke off the engagement despite his pleas and promises that he would control himself.

Furious at being rejected again, Edward quit his job promptly and has given San Antonio a wide berth since then as he travels around Texas, mostly working with people's problem horses because he's become renowned in his horsemanship skills, compared to his youth. He has no plans whatsoever to get married.

Born the youngest child to a wainwright and his wife in West Virginia, Adeline lived a normal childhood for the first six years of her life. Tragedy struck her family in her seventh year when her father and brothers were caught out in a blizzard while hunting and ended up freezing to death.

Her mother, distraught and heartbroken, moved with Adeline and her older sister to the town that her sister lived in. They lived there for a year before Adeline's mother fell ill and her aunt declared that sea air would aid the recovery, promptly moving them all to Indianola, Texas.

There Adeline's mother met a beguiling man who had extensive knowledge of Native medicines and they were married in rather short order. Adeline's mother was convinced she married an angel, Adeline and her sister, however, believed their mother married the Devil incarnate.

As nice as their stepfather was nice to their mother, he was unkind to them. For even the things that looked like they may have turned into mistakes he beat them both savagely, and it didn't matter how profusely they apologised.

At this time they were living in Victoria, Texas, and as they'd been brought up, Adeline and her sister attended the local church, doing their best not to let their stepfather's abuses be known. However, one day the pastor's wife asked Adeline's sister why her face was bruised and her sister tearfully confessed the abuses.

Their stepfather quickly uprooted the family to San Antonio, where Adeline and her sister were forbidden to attend church. However, Adeline's sister went to the police for help, but their stepfather again moved the family — this time by cover of night — to Del Rio.

There their stepfather forced himself upon Adeline's sister, who conceived and bore a child their stepfather paid the midwife to murder. Overcome with guilt, however, the midwife confessed to the police, who eventually tried and executed her while Adeline's stepfather moved the family into Mexico before going northward to El Paso.

Their stepfather then tried to sell Adeline's sister to a house of ill repute, but her sister ran away. Their stepfather, enraged, found Adeline's sister and bludgeoned her to death while Adeline was forced to watch — in hopes of dissuading her from running.

Adeline didn't try initially, but she couldn't bring herself to remain either, and so enlisted the help of a young man, but he tried to take advantage of her. She managed to escape him and is now determined to go alone and finally get free of this terrible man who has so deluded her mother, as well as murdered her beloved sister.

Next post will be on September 5 due to computer maintenance procedures required.

Intimidating Adversity: Day 15

Word Total: 90,025

Year to Date: 780,110

Summary of Events:

Lane thought about the media sensation the championship final had become because Kannapolis had made it as they got set to play game one against the best team in the league, the Augusta GreenJackets, he then went out batting and scored a home run against Augusta. After winning game one and suffering a rally by Augusta to win game two, the Intimidators returned to Kannapolis and played well, which pleased Lane. Before game four Lane went to apologise to Mr. Quilley, who would have none of Lane's apology, instead himself apologising for his poor treatment of Lane. After winning game three and dropping game four, the series shifted back to Augusta, where Lane was nearly tagged out until it was discovered a fan's autographed ball had been used for the tag. Despite winning game five, Kannapolis dropped game six at home in extra innings, leading to game seven, a scoreless tie at the top of the sixth with Lane up to bat and the bases loaded . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"Lane didn't move for the first two pitches, both relatively strong, but too far off to the left for him to get a solid hit. He either wanted a solid hit or no hit at all.

The pitcher swore at him and threw a hard pitch that struck Lane right in the middle of his upper arm.

Throwing his bat to the ground, Lane swore and grabbed his arm. The umpire stepped out from his place and walked over to the pitcher, who went into a profanity-laden rant that Lane clearly understood to be his frustration that Lane couldn't be fooled.

To the infuriation of the Augusta crowd their pitcher was ejected from the game for intent to injure and a replacement pitcher was to come up and throw.

Lane flexed his arm and rubbed at the sore spot. It would probably ache more after the game, but he didn't care. The relief pitcher threw a weak pitch and Lane got a walk.

Even though Mr. Quilley was worried, Lane told Mr. Quilley it was fine, and it was his right arm anyways, he used his left arm more. He could ice it after the game and deal with it during the offseason.

Lane pitched the bottom of the sixth scoreless, walked again — unable to bring another run home — in the top of the seventh, whose bottom he held scoreless as well. The eighth and the top of the ninth also went scoreless for respective teams.

Now Lane needed a perfect inning to win the game, and that was something he desperately wanted to do, for Kannapolis as a city, and for Kannapolis as a team. They needed this, and he kind of needed it too.

His entire body trembling, his heart pounding to drown out the crowd, Lane went out and threw pitch after pitch, striking out GreenJacket after GreenJacket while the crowd slowly got quieter, their chances shrinking as each successive player returned to the dugout.

Lane shifted his hand on the ball as the last batter, Augusta's last chance, stepped into the batter's box. He, like Lane, had made it on base every single inning of every single game, naturally their best player.

Even though his getting a walk wouldn't be risky, Lane wanted a strikeout. He threw the first pitch, a good deceiver that got the batter to swing and miss. The crowd cried out in horror.

Lane come off that pitch fast with another one that the batter swung and missed, causing the crowd alarm again. 

For the next three the batter didn't dare move. To get his strikeout Lane needed one more swing.

He threw what, regardless, would be the last pitch of the season. The batter watched it, swung at the last second, and missed.

Lane dropped to his knees, the sound of his exuberant teammates filling his ears. He, and Kannapolis, had succeeded. They'd faced a lot of trials, but had succeeded in intimidating adversity."

The next post will be on August 30.

Intimidating Adversity: Day 14

Word Count: 84,014

Summary of Events:

Lane watched Spencer pitch a strong game against the West Virginia Power, their second round opponents, and thought about how his relations with Spencer had improved. Lane was then visited by Spencer, who apologised and explained himself, Lane accepted the apology. Lane then watched Spencer pitch some more, before himself pitching the fourth game against West Virginia, which sent them into a fifth game with the opportunity to eliminate West Virginia from the playoffs and become Division champions . . . 

Excerpt of the Day:

"Spencer successfully held off the second last Power onslaught. Lane could feel his pulse acutely almost everywhere in his body. It was like his entire body was throbbing. He was totally focused on the game. They had to win.

Glancing over at Mr. Quilley, Lane wondered if he would say anything about trying for some more runs to get a bigger margin and stave off extra innings — or a loss — but Mr. Quilley remained silent, his face drawn and intense.

One by one each of the Intimidators' batters went up. Several got hits, but all were tagged out before they could make it to home plate. The rest got struck out — although Lane was proud to note that more got on base than were struck out.

The score was still two to one for Kannapolis, but West Virginia was up to bat last; they could tie, if not win the game. The crowd, unsurprisingly, knew this, and cheered all the louder, Lane could barely hear the psyching message Mr. Quilley delivered in tense monotone to his players.

Lane watched as they hurried out onto the field to a raucous chorus of boos. When the Power batter came out, however, the boos instantly changed to loud cheers of the batter's name.

Still, though, the right fielder up hitting first hadn't gotten onto base, and despite the backing of his home crowd, once again, he failed. In his frustration he smashed his bat on the ground, breaking it, and stormed off to the dugout.

Successively each batter went up. Several got onto base, but none of them got very far thanks to aggressive fielding — and one spin-move by Spencer that tagged out a batter getting ready to steal a base as soon as the pitch was thrown.

The last batter came up. The fans desperately chanted his name. The bases were empty. He needed a home run to tie the game. Spencer needed to strike him out our walk him to win the game.

Spencer wound up and pitched. The batter didn't move. He didn't move for the second pitch either, and the third one he swung and missed. The fourth one he didn't move on either. One more and he walked.

He swung and missed on the fifth one. One more strike and the game was done. Lane desperately clutched the rail, his body trembling as he waited for Spencer to throw the sixth pitch, which, more than likely, would be the final pitch.

Pulling back, Spencer threw the sixth ball. The batter didn't move. It was a walk, but instead of walking to first base, the batter just walked straight to the Power dugout.

Lane, on the other hand, vaulted out of the dugout screaming and joined the mob that'd jumped onto Spencer. They had, in five games, eliminated the third best team in the league, one less game than it'd taken to get the fourth out."

Intimidating Adversity: Day 13

Word Count: 78,026

Summary of Events:

The city of Kannapolis had a parade sendoff to celebrate the Intimidators making the playoffs, which Lane was surprised by. Their first opponent, the Hagerstown Suns, came out shaky, and Lane and the Intimidators capitalised. The series was tied at one game apiece when it returned to Kannapolis, where the fans nearly rioted because Spencer was starting; Lane calmed them and got into a confrontation with Spencer. There was a slight improvement in Lane and Spencer's relationship, and Lane encouraged Spencer after he ended up giving up two out of a possible four runs with the bases loaded allowing Hagerstown to force another game and keep their playoff hopes alive. At home in Kannapolis the Intimidators were being held scoreless in a 1-0 game and getting frustrated . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"Campbell swore and threw his batting gloves down as he stalked into the dugout, having again been struck out.

"You can tell who's the better team," Frasier said quietly.

And Lane hated it. He clutched the rail. He wanted to do something to throw the Suns off their game, but there was nothing he could do. He knew there wasn't anything other than to hold the Suns scoreless so that they could come back.

Once again Hagerstown held them scoreless. Lane swore in frustration. He was madder than ever and he didn't know what to do about it.

A hand settled on his shoulder, both calm and firm.

"Settle down Rookie," Spencer said. "You can do this, but no murder charges, alright?"

Lane took a trembling deep breath and let it out with just as much tremor from the raging tension in his shoulders.

Spencer slapped his shoulder. "Let's do this."

Lane led the way out onto the field and pitched strong, holding the Suns scoreless; Spencer was standing, watching them as they came in from fielding.

"Good job, now let's take risks those grannies aren't willing to," Spencer said. "Steal those bases. The risk takers win. Let's go out and show them the grannies they are."

Everyone nodded and they went out batting aggressively, running aggressively and they got a run home against the aggressive fielding of the Suns. The game was tied and the fans' cheering rose to a fever pitch.

Two innings. One run. Then the second round was theirs to play.

Lane went out and pitched strong, holding the Suns scoreless, although the Suns — despite the continued aggressive play of the Intimidators — held the Intimidators scoreless in the bottom.

Pitching the top of the inning, Lane was strong again and held the Suns scoreless.

"Alright," Spencer said when they returned. "One run. Let's get it done."

"Hashimoto sit," Mr. Quilley said. "Get your batting gloves Sheenan."

"But the doctors said–"

"To heck with them," Mr. Quilley said. "Your jaw's fine."

Lane hurried to the dressing room and fetched his gloves. He watched his teammates go out and bat and run for their lives. The Suns, unfortunately, tagged them all out. Lane could feel the tension rising. He hadn't batted in a long time, he'd be coming in cold.

It was his turn. Lane stepped out of the dugout to a near-deafening roar of the crowd who instantly took to chanting his name.

Lane swung the bat around a bit to get used to its weight. He then stood in the batter's box and waited. He let the first three go by without swinging, which caused the crowd to chant all the louder. Lane surveyed the loaded bases. He put the bat over his shoulder.

The pitcher readied. Lane swung the bat and connected with the ball. Releasing the bat instantly, Lane ran with all his might while the crowd roared. The ball was hopelessly out of reach for Hagerstown's fielders, and the Suns' season was over."

Intimidating Adversity: Day 12

Word Count: 72,022

Summary of Events:

Lane was feeling stressed before the game in which he could tie the franchise record for most consecutive individual wins, and so called Erv. After winning that game, Lane was looking for the win to break the record and nearly thought he'd lost it until a four-run play for the opposition turned into a foul ball that outed all four runners. Lane and Campbell then went out for ice cream and Lane saw a kid wearing a jersey with his name on it — something he'd never seen before — which Campbell talked him into signing. Having broken the league record for most consecutive individual wins, Lane was watching Spencer pitch the game that would clinch a playoff spot for Kannapolis, unfortunately the pressure was too much for Spencer and he was pulled, Kannapolis with a five-run deficit . . . 

Excerpt of the Day:

"As Spencer walked past him, Lane wished he could say something to pick Spencer up, but it hadn't  been a good game for Spencer, so he knew saying that wouldn't be a good idea, and that was the only idea he had, so he said nothing.

The Intimidators were held to one run at the bottom of the seventh. They headed out to field for the top of the eighth.

"Am I in?" Lane asked. He didn't want to go crossing Mr. Quilley, even though he felt he should be in.

Mr. Quilley gave no answer. 

It didn't take long for the umpire to come over and ask Mr. Quilley where his pitcher was.

"There," Mr. Quilley muttered, pointing at Lane.

Lane got his glove and walked out with the umpire to an exuberant cheer from the crowd.

"I didn't want to cross him and he didn't say I was in, otherwise I would've come out right away," Lane said to the umpire, who nodded as they parted ways.

Meeting the eyes of the batter, Lane stared him down until the batter looked away, then he pitched and the batter missed.

With relative ease — although it felt odd coming in mid-game — Lane managed to hold the Power scoreless for an inning. The deficit thus remained four runs.

"You know what we need to do to clinch a playoff spot," Lane said as they all switched catching gloves for batting ones. "Go and do it. For yourselves as much as for the fans. We all need this."

They all nodded.
"We want to get arrested for robbery tonight," Lane said. "Base robbery."

Campbell smiled and winked and everyone else, after getting it, smiled as well.

Lane rolled his lips between his teeth and pressed down on them as he watched his teammates go out there and hit. They managed to half the lead to two runs by getting two home — very much by the base robbery technique, which did prompt West Virginia to put up a bit of a fuss.

Finally it was the top of the ninth. Lane went out to hold the Power scoreless and leave the rest of it up to his teammates. He succeeded in holding them scoreless, although he did let some onto bases.

The crowd was slightly excited, but mostly tense, waiting.

"The game's in your hands guys," Lane said. "I can't do any more. Bring it home."

His teammates nodded and went out. Lane watched as they again went vigilante base-robbing, getting one run in early, heightening the tension in the crowd.

They got a second run later on. The crowd was even more tense and excited. Lane clutched the edge of the dugout fence.

Ozuru, the last batter, went up. The bases were loaded with Rolando, Dainon, and Campbell. To get even one home would win the game.

The pitch was thrown. Ozuru connected. The ball went high. The crowd roared. All four runners made it home. Kannapolis was in the playoffs."

Intimidating Adversity: Day 11

Word Count: 66,015

Summary of Events:

Lane went on a date with Serena that ended in an argument Lane thought was honestly unreasonable, being as it'd been about pedicures. Lane pitched another game while feeling slightly bothered about the argument, but not sure what to do about it. Lane was called by Mr. Borys, who told him the White Sox General Manager would be stopping by for a visit and wanted to meet him. Lane went to meet with the White Sox GM and was quite flattered by the commendation he received. Lane was pitching another game — which the White Sox GM was watching — and struck out the first batter of the game . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"The Kannapolis faithful roared their approval as the second batter came out. He and the third batter were struck out, but the fourth succeeded in getting a hit. His bat flew out of his hands before he even left the plate.

Lane threw himself to the mound and winced as part of the bat struck his ankle.

Quickly he popped to his feet to catch the ball at his face from Ozuru. The batter was approaching Campbell.

"Camp!" Lane screamed.

Campbell looked at him and he released the ball. Just as the batter left his feet to jump for the plate Campbell caught the ball and tagged him out before promptly dropping the ball, taking off his glove, shaking his hand, and kissing his fingers.

Lane bit his lip and jogged over. "You okay?"

"You served that one with a little Frank's Red Hot and Peruvian death peppers," Campbell replied, shaking his hand again.

"Sorry," Lane said. "I wanted to get it here before he passed."

"Next time I'll borrow Gresh's glove," Campbell said, smiling.

"You'll be okay?" Lane asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Campbell replied. "It's more stinging than anything else."

"Are you sure?" Lane asked.

"Yes mother," Campbell replied. "Here's your ball."

"Sorry," Lane said, smiling slightly before jogging back to the mound.

The next batter was ready and Lane managed to strike him out. A couple of other batters got onto base, but nobody made it completely to home plate. The crowd roared and Lane thought he even heard a group chanting his name.

It didn't take long before that suspicion was confirmed as he soon heard the entire crowd chanting: "Shee-nan! Shee-nan! Shee-nan!"

Lane waved his hand as he headed for the dugout and the crowd roared before settling down to watch as his teammates sought to get some runs off of the Grasshoppers.

Mr. Quilley glared at Lane severely as he stepped into the dugout, but said nothing; Lane had a feeling it was his acknowledgement of the crowd that'd upset him. He sighed and sat down.

"So that bat was coming at your head or something?" Frasier asked.

"Yeah," Lane replied. "And the doctor doesn't want me taking hits, so I dropped. It nicked my ankle too."

"I saw that," Rolando said. "You okay there?"

"It's kind of throbbing a bit, but it's alright," Lane said, rubbing it with his other foot, although it hurt when he did that.

He pulled up his pants and rolled his sock down to look. Already there was a deep red mark that looked rather bruise-like.

"Ooh," Frasier said. "Should I get you some ice?"

"Well it's not that big," Lane said. "But probably better safe than sorry."

Lane rubbed at his ankle and winced. It'd been hit a lot harder than he'd initially thought. Gently he rolled his sock back up and let his pant leg go back down."

Pronunciation:

Ozuru: awzooroo

Intimidating Adversity: Day 10

Word Count: 60,018

Summary of Events:

Lane pitched his first home game and got an enthusiastic welcome from the crowd, which he really appreciated. Lane went on a local radio station to be interviewed by the morning show personalities who opened things up to the fans once their interview was done . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"Now we've got our first caller here, Dave," Jason said. "How're things going Dave?"

"Good," Dave replied, from wherever he was, Lane wasn't sure.

"So what do you have for Lane?" Jason asked.

"Well, I was wondering, what's the best thing that's happened to you this season?" Dave asked.

"Hmm," Lane said. "Probably getting to pitch, and getting a shutout. I mean, I was totally freaked out the whole game, paranoid they were going to get a hit off me, but I wanted to shut them out. I wanted to absolutely smoke the Legends and get revenge for all the beating they've done of us, and getting that done, once the realisation that I had actually done it hit me, that was the greatest thing. And, I mean, even though my stepdad got me totally mad before the game, that's what I needed, the best encouragement I've ever been given was to be called a coward by the man I trust the most, as weird as it sounds."

"Alright, now we've got . . . um, Queenie-Lee?" Jason said.

"Yeah," a very black female voice replied.

"Okay, what do you have for Lane?" Jason asked.

"Well, I was wonderin' what your favourite thing 'bout bein' in Kannapolis was," Queenie-Lee replied.

"I mean, aside from the baseball stuff, probably the people, well, aside from that one old lady, she was a little bit freaky, but everyone else has been great," Lane replied. "The fan support is fantastic, because I came off a really bad finish to my season in Montana, and Mr. Quilley and I didn't get off the best in our relationship — as evidenced by the fact that he considers this string of wins all flukes — having the fan support has been great, having you guys all get behind me has really been great."

"Now we've got Harlem," Jason said. "What's your question Harlem?"
"My question is, what do those drag chute things do for you?" Harlem asked.

"Well, you strap them on and then run and they build up resistance, and so then you have to build muscles by fighting against the drag, and then, when you go in-game, without the chutes, you run faster because you've built up the strength," Lane replied.

"That's cool," Harlem said.

"You've got to be careful with them, though," Lane said. "This winter I'd put mine on and was going to run laps in my stepdad's one barn and I didn't have them properly secured shut, and it was a miserable, windy day, and the wind caught all my chutes and just about I was airborne and flying hard for Saskatchewan. That was kind of freaky, and yet hilarious at the same time. I definitely tested my strength there.""