Welcome to the weekly 8-10 sentence blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors Click on the link for participation guidelines, as well as the official list of participating authors. Thanks for including me in your Sunday reading! In just a couple of weeks, I leave to start my new life teaching English in Poland!
I’m sharing a snippet from an untitled Young Adult WIP, which is formerly Due For Love. Same characters, just a different plot thanks to the advice of an author friend. This snippet takes place at the very beginning of the story, with the heroine, Melissa, waking up talking about the most precious thing to her. Please note that this is a first draft and the snippet is formatted to meet the ten sentence rule.
I open my eyes, turn over in my bed and stare at a five-by-seven picture on my nightstand of my mother holding me in her arms when I was a year old. My dad used to take us to this park every Sunday, back in the good old days when we were living in my nation’s capital before life brought us to Cincinnati. During the warmer months, he and my mom would bring a blanket and a picnic basket and set up shop on the grass with the backdrop of the Potomac and the Washington skyline. One day, he decided to take a photo of her and I while we were sitting on a blanket.
Dad says it’s the best photo of us and she’s never smiled so much in any other picture of her.
It’s the only picture I have of her, and it’s the first thing I see every morning when I wake up no matter where in the world I am, and I never get out of bed without looking it. Her bright youthful smile and the way she caressed me, gives me the strength to face whatever crap life wants to throw at me that day.
I trail a finger along the glass that protects the picture from dust. “Love you, Mom,” I whisper just I do every morning for the past thirteen years since her life was taken away from me by that drunk driver. I’ll continue the tradition every morning in my new dorm at UCLA when I move there in a few months.
Not a lot of action, but we learn quite a bit about Melissa in ten sentences. For the full blurb about the novel, click here.
Thoughts and feedback are most welcome as they will help with the revision stages. I will share more next week.
Sorry I’ve been away most of the summer. Busy getting ready for the big move, but it’s been a grand summer. I plan to keep participating once I’m across the Atlantic, so don’t fret! Enjoy your Sunday!
Question for my author friends: can anyone recommend some good online writing groups? Ones that help with perfecting writing craft/promotion, cover designs, etc. Feel free to include your recommendations in your comments? And thanks!
