Teaser Tuesday

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An excerpt from my latest WIP:

"This third-floor bathroom of Blessed Children’s Home has become my home away from home away from home away from home.
Once upon a time I actually lived in a house with a mom and a dad on a nice cozy street in your typical neighborhood. I was dumped by the child welfare system into the home of Jim & Holly Marshall after ‘Mommy Dearest’ beat the crap out of me for smoking pot with my friends instead of her. Most girls go shopping with their moms after school and on the weekends. Not in the Kelebek house, we bonded over a fresh bag of hash. The Marshalls were really nice people. Trouble is, I despise nice. I purposely made their lives a living nightmare to take my mind off my own God-forsaken one. When the Marshalls couldn’t find the new kitten they thought would “soften” me and I smirked from behind the curtain of my raven hair, I moved here, Blessed Children’s Home or BCH. And if that isn’t bad enough, this group home for hard to place foster teens is right smack dab in the middle of ridiculous Amish Country. Just a cruel joke. Me. The Amish. Seriously?"

Back to work...my characters are waiting!
Peace.

Teaser Tuesday...

A small excerpt from my latest work in progress.
As always, I welcome your feedback...

I’m not like them. I never will be. My faded concert Ts showcase bands they would never listen to. The lyrics I find cathartic, naked and raw, they see as “dark, evil and scary.” I will never carry a Dolce &[Gag]bana purse, I will never wear sparkly blush and I will never be so consumed with myself that I step on those who don’t measure up to the standards of a magazine cover. I would cut through the tendons on the tops of my feet before I would sell out to the Pretty People. Trouble is, when you fear the attention of others, you are left alone. It’s what you want most and also the reason you cry yourself to sleep.

Post your own Tuesday Teaser and leave a comment so we can share in the WIP process!

Back to work...my characters are waiting!
Peace.

What am I reading?

I get this question a lot.

"So, if you write, do you ever have time to read?"
Yes. I do. As a writer you HAVE to read. It's all part of learning the craft, seeing what is being done, sparking new inspiration.

What I read, though, varies from week to week.

This week my nose is buried in Tina Ferraro's the abc's of kissing boys, Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls , John Ortberg's the ME I want to be and of course, my rough draft, M. Nope, no link to Amazon... not yet.

I am also always reading Writer's Digest or some other magazine about the writing process and something I read today really rang true for me. I was reading an article about Meg Cabot's writing process and how she creates her storylines. There were no strict guidelines she follows. She simply follows her muse.

She said, "If I really like an idea, I don't outline, because I've found that when I do, it feels like I've already told the story, and then I don't have the excitement about actually writing it."

This was so refreshing to me as a writer who tries to get my hands on every tried and true method of writing the best book the world has ever seen. But, that compulsion goes against everything creative in my soul. I want to live the storyline WITH the character and have, at times, felt as though that was a novice way of attacking a manuscript. Well, Meg Cabot's 15 million books sold tells me otherwise!

I am all about the writing raw and following a seemingly natural direction to get down the skeleton to make sure the story CAN get where I want it to go. I also employ my avid reading friends to take a peek from time to time.

A note to all my writer friends: Meg Cabot sent a query EVERY day for FOUR YEARS before she got a bite. That's over 1,000 of those all too familiar, "Thanks, but no thanks" letters!

Will be posting some more mini-excerpts from my latest work in progress.

Back to work...my characters are waiting!
Peace.

Another excerpt from "M"

First day, first detention. There was this kid with a smothering smile. I swear he had his own happy theme music that followed him everywhere. Well, the Happy Fairy, mistook me for the newest delicate flower he could pollinate. Luke Bennett skipped a bit too close to this Venus Fly Trap. I knocked him on his ass for invading my personal space.
“What the hell was that for?” he said with a thin line of blood dripping toward his lip
“Don’t ever twirl that close to me again, dork!”
“No worries,” he shoved a tissue up his nose and continued, “I’m Luke. Welcome to the halls of Penn Valley,” he said spreading his arms open wide like he was a host on The Travel Channel.
“Whatever,” I rolled my eyes and turned quickly to escape his pathetic obligatory cheerfulness.

Peace.