Rebecca Yarros Writing Fourth Wing
I listened to 7 hours of the Fourth Wing audiobook for 3 consecutive days and it has done irreparable damage to my psyche. This is how I imagine the dragon queen gears up for a night of immensely profitable writing. I apologize in advance.
One arm in, then the next. Now the legs, she thinks, not before softly chiding herself that she really should put the legs of the Snuggie on first.
The QVC is on a light murmur, anything louder and her husband will be forced to relive his 6 voluntary tours overseas. Kuwait. Now that, she ponders with a hint of jealousy, is a name for a rebellious southern territory.
Slowly, she lifts the clamshell lid of her M1 MacBook Air, its wedge shape dwarfing that of its smaller cousin, the slice of Kirkland Brie sitting tastefully on the coaster. She should really use a plate, but the life of a military wife is nothing if not frugal, and old habits die hard.
But now she is reminded by the flashing lights of QVC that life is no longer so precarious. The scarves, the lotion, the non-stick pans always felt like a mirage of an impossible life. Ironically (she has given up on the correct usage of irony), her beasts of fire have brought her to an oasis in the desert.
This particular scarf on screen is quite cute, and she checks her balance before making the call. Her next advance has been deposited: 2.4 billion dollars. She will have to ask her agent to stop agreeing to these incessantly lowball offers.
Her hands, which have typed out her love, her loss, her pains, her dreams, reach for the glass of wine and for a handful of cool ranch Doritos. Unlikely allies, but it is the dragon who chooses the rider, and these two have chosen her. Nice to be desired by two at once, she blushes, making a note to offer the same indulgence to her narrator.
The Dorito first, then a sip (if she’s honest, a gulp) of the Bordeaux. But she’s misjudged the timing and distance, and the last flake of seasoned corn starch flails off the parapet and into the murky red waters below. She takes a gulp anyway, the two opposing treats now bound together for eternity. Enemies to lovers. The writing must begin.