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Page 99 Blogfest

Page99logo 

The Page 99 Blogfest is hosted by Holly at Super Mom Writes where today writers share the 99th page of their WIP novel. My novel - I still haven't come up with a decent title for it - is a MG/young YA story about a boy named Chris who struggles to come to terms with his ability to communicate with ghosts. Among other things. Yeah, I really have no idea where I'm going with this, so just bear with me! Oh, and by the way, I've removed certain names and pronouns so as to not give away too much of what happens in the story. Enjoy!

A light tap-tap-tap at my window pulled me away from my jumbled thoughts. I crawled out of bed and went over to see Mitzie's face peering in at me between her cupped hands. I unlocked the window and pushed it up, stepping aside to let her come in.

"It's late," I said, closing the window against the bitter cold.

"I know," she said apologetically. "But I'm just SO excited about what we did today! What you did, I mean. Helping [the ghost] find [the thing he was looking for]? That was amazing! I can't stop thinking about it."

In spite of myself, I had to smile. Her enthusiasm was contagious and, I realized, very much needed.

"I know," I said. "Me, too. Kinda.”

I went back to my bed and crawled into it, shivering, and propped my back against the wall. Mitzie hopped up and sat Indian-style at the foot of my bed.

"I still can't believe you can actually see and talk to ghosts! I try and try and try and can't get anything! Not a whisper!"

I thought right then about telling her everything: How I came to have this ability, whether I wanted it or not. How everywhere I looked there were people claiming to be psychics or mediums who could communicate with spirits. How they would go to peoples’ homes and hold séances with candles and Ouija boards to contact dead relatives. I watched shows about these people on TV, thinking I was going to see someone like me, someone who could really see and communicate with ghosts, just so I could feel some connection with someone, like I’m not the only freak out there. But they were all just scams. Just some old woman pretending to be “possessed” by the spirit of someone’s loved one to get some cash out of a sad family, or “sensing” the presence of a missing person in a vacant lot or garbage dump to gain notoriety with the police and be interviewed on the local news. I could tell they were lying though. Because I could see the ghosts, right there on the TV screen, standing right beside them, and the mediums and psychics were ignoring them completely.

But I just couldn't tell her any of this. Not yet. It was still too painful to ... to go back to that night, when it all began.  I can still smell the smoke and feel the heat of the flames …

"Hey, Chris? Hello? Earth to Chris! Come in, Chris!"

I jumped at the sound of Mitzie's voice. I was so caught up in my memories I had forgotten she was there.

“Wow, you were really spacing out!”

“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry!”

 


Another Writing Blogfest

I know this is last minute but I just recently came across this new blogfest:Logo 

The basic concept is to post page 99 of your WIP novel, then invite people to stop by to read it and leave a comment as to whether or not they would continue to read the book based solely on that page. And, yes I'm cutting it close because this blogfest is happening THIS Friday, January 28th! So, I've been frantically writing - not only trying to finish my page 99, but tweak it so that it's not only readable, but interesting and intriguing enough for people to stick around! Gah! Why do I DO these things to myself?

Still, it'll be fun, I'm sure and if nothing else, it's getting back into my as-yet-untitled MG/YA ghost story novel. If I keep participating in projects like this, I might actually finish this thing this year!

 


Teaser Tuesday: House of Stairs by William Sleator

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 Houseofstairs1

This week I pulled another book of my shelf of autographed novels that I have not previously read - House of Stairs by William Sleator. Again I am left to wonder why I've never read this book (or started then never finished since I have discovered that page 57 is dog-eared) because while it's not really sci-fi or fantasy, it is futuristic and therefore should've piqued my interest. Actually, it reminds me a LOT of The Maze Runner series by James Dashner and the Gone series by Michael Grant in that a group of teenagers is thrown into a bizarre situation/landscape and there are no adults, so the kids are left to survive on their own. Interesting since House of Stairs was published in 1974 ... Anyway, here are my teasers from page 85:

Their dance was quite different now. Over the hungry days the patterns of their movements had been molded and shaped by the machine.


Just for fun, here's my autographed page:

Steatorsig 

 


Sepia Scenes: Last Bus North

Lastbussepia

Last Friday I was out drinking  ... er, ... carousing, um, I mean hanging out with some friends in SLO, and wound up catching the last bus heading north around 8:30. Yeah we're PARTY ANIMALS like that! Anyway, there were maybe five of us late-nighters on the the 9 Local. It was the emptiest I've ever seen a bus, and quite peaceful. Most of us were snoozing or reading (like me) and one guy up front was gently playing his acoustic guitar. It was probably the most relaxing ride I've ever had even though I didn't get a nap!


Teaser Tuesday: Dust by Joan Frances Turner

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Dust

Continuing my new obsession, facsination, interest in all-things-zombie, I'm reading Dust by Joan Frances Turner. It's a zombie novel told by a zombie POV, sort of like Brains: A Zombie Memoir. I am enjoying this book quite a bit more than the other one, though I can't quite put my finger on why. Anyway, here's my teaser from page 29:

I reached out and touched his face. Chit-chit, said the bugs. He grunted, almost belched the crude shape of words, a caveman with a rotten tongue - but soon as all that hrruh-hrruh-mmmuhhhh shot through my head it became waves of sound, transformed radio waves, and then words precise and clear as pieces of glass glittering on the beach.

"I'm Joe," he said. "Happy birthday."