Last SSS Ever and New Historical Beginnings

A bull-baiting in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (thirteenth century).

For the last Six Sentence Sunday ever, I submit a snippet from Seven Noble Knights showing the medieval version of that most Spanish of pursuits, bullfighting. Lambra and her pals have climbed into a second-floor balcony to gaze into the plaza below. Without all the preceding paragraphs, it might be a little confusing: people are closing off the plaza with stacks of timber so the bull will have no means of escape, creating a bullring.

Be sure to check out all the excerpts here, for the last time!

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She hardly had time to ask, “When does it start?” before the last downstairs door was barred and the beast lumbered into the plaza ahead of a couple of boys waving sticks and shouting as they herded it. They dropped the sticks and helped several other men close the fourth timber stack as if it were a door, and the bull was isolated. His black mass heaved mighty breaths and his horns looked so sharp they almost cut the air while he tossed his head and pawed at the ground. Doña Lambra looked deep into his eyes. “Oh, Justa, oh, Álvar! Have you ever seen such an enormous bull?”

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Thank you, readers and participants, for making Six Sentence Sunday such a roaring success, and thank you for stopping by my blog in particular. I wish all the best for SSS's founders.

As for new beginnings: a new blog hop of short excerpts, just for historical fiction, will commence with signups this week! We'll call it The Backward in Time Blog Hop -- or something better.

Check back on Thursday for the complete rules and to sign up! I have a short roster of great authors already, and I'm not afraid to chase you down!