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Jehanne: First page copyright (c) 2009 by Freeman Ng This is the first page of a young adult novel about the life of Joan of Arc that I'm currently shopping around to publishers. You can read a chapter outline with more excerpts from the book here. I've also written a second book, a retelling of the Quest for the Holy Grail, which you can see here. The girl dances in the meadow, her only companion a breeze that wafts her this way and that. She lifts her face to the sky and stretches her arms wide. One step and a turn, two steps and a turn. Her feet swish through the tall grass of the field flecked with color from the ragged wildflowers that thrive in its dense mane. As she dances, she sings a song whose simple cadences match the rhythmic rise and fall of her steps: Orléans, Beaugency, Butterflies gather around her, fluttering just outside the sweep of her arms or tumbling crazily inward to cling to her rollicking shoulders. You have never seen them in such numbers and wonder if this is how they normally behave, or if there is something about the girl that draws them. She herself seems hardly aware of them, though she occasionally laughs in delight, possibly at their antics. At intervals, she breaks off her singing and whirling to gaze at some far sight, or to pick up a fallen leaf or living beetle for a close examination. Then the energy of her dancing is so thoroughly transformed into utter attentiveness that you also hold yourself perfectly still for fear she will detect your presence by your slightest movement, forgetting that, on this occasion at least, she will only be allowed to hear your voice. Her dark hair gleams reddish in the sun like yours used to, and her eyes are a startlingly solid green, also like yours. Her face, turned now upon a blade of swordgrass she holds between her fingers, exhibits a concentration so intense as to resemble ferocity. For a moment, you wonder, Is she me? Am I not dead, after all?
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