Writing: A Conversation Without Interruptions

Yo! What a week it’s been. The last one of the holiday (for some) so next week back to normal. I got to go back to my peer support training and my parent and baby group as well as signing off at the job centre (YES!).

Basically, this has all put me in an AMAZING mood which means that it will be much easier to edit the story I’m working on. Your comments have all been fabulously helpful, so I’m going to give you the next 250 words, immediately after last week’s snippet.

“Where were you?”
“Shops. We ran out of milk.”
The policeman made a note on the tatty pad of paper before him. “Did you leave anything on when you left?”
“What do you mean?”
He spread his hands in what was supposedly an explanatory gesture. “The oven? The kettle? The TV? Anything that could have started a fire.” His voice filled the room, lapping against the walls and rolling back into the space within like cresting waves. “It all started very quickly from what I can tell.”
Shrugging, Laicee returned her attention to the rough knot of wood on the table. She used her forefinger this time, picking at the wood as if the lever the rough spot free.
Small flakes of ash drifted to the surface as she lowered her head, falling from her hair like grey rain. She smeared it against the backs of her hands. “We ran out of milk.” She repeated. “So I popped out. I was only going to be five minutes, so I left everything on. Even the oven.”
Laicee looked up again, her gaze skimming past the officer sat opposite to his companion in the corner. She stared at him, willing him to speak. His silence made the hairs on the back of her neck prickle like ant’s feet. A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek and off the end of her chin. When it hit the table, she saw that it too was stained with soot.
“And you’re sure there was no one in the house?” The first officer leaned over the table. “Your husband?”
“No one.” She murmured.

As always thank you for stopping by and thank you for your comments. I’m deeply grateful for any and all suggestions, ideas and nit-picks you have; I welcome them. I hope my words in return as as useful to you as yours are to me.

Don’t forget to check out what other hoppers are doing this week and to visit here if you’d like to join us!

http://mermaidssinging.wordpress.com/

http://caitlinsternwrites.wordpress.com/

http://ileandrayoung.com

http://jennykellerford.wordpress.com

http://jennifermeaton.com/

http://richardleonard.wordpress.com

http://jordannaeast.com

http://itsjennythewren.wordpress.com/

http://wehrismypen.wordpress.com

http://jlroeder.wordpress.com

http://letscutthecrap.wordpress.com/

http://ashortaday.wordpress.com

http://mandyevebarnett.com/

http://www.michellezieglerauthor.com

http://joeowensblog.wordpress.com/

Good mooooooorning everyone!

I feel somewhat more chipper than last week. Loosing the sleep and making it back (ish) over the course of the week hasn’t done me much harm. In fact, if I think about it, I’m still getting more sleep these days than I was eleven months ago. :p

Yes, my lads were eleven months old yesterday. They’re not yet sleeping through the night consistently, but they go for faaaaaaaar longer stretches now meaning that Dave and I are significantly less zombie like. In fact, we’re barely zombies at all! It’s all very encouraging and makes projects like the one below a deal easier than I might have expected.

What project, you say? Glad you asked!

My Subs Group have decided to inundate a competition. We’re all (that’s all eight of us!) are going to write a story for a competition that closes at the end of this month. We’re hoping that one or more of us will get a prize. Hell, we’re hoping that one of us will win! That would be fabulous, but more than that, we’re trying to get into the habit of submitting our work. You don’t make progress in the ‘getting published’ stakes unless you make the effort.

So, my snippet today is the opening 250(3) words of my short story. It doesn’t have a title yet (I’m awful at that) but I’m hoping to get that settled in my mind when I start editing.

The limit is 2,000 words so I don’t have a great deal of wriggle room, but I bashed this out last night after putting the kids to bed, hoping that my slowly relaxing state would add an edge to the writing. I’ve no idea how I’ve done since I haven’t looked at it since, other than picking out the first 250 words to put them here. So… I’d love to know what you think. LET ME HAVE IT!

The billowing clouds of smoke, stung her eyes, made them water. Thought she might have taken the moisture for tears, Laicee knew better. She watched the flames pour out of the shattered windows and felt nothing but the faint tingle of warmth against her soot stained skin warring with the chill of the drizzle.
A frantic voice called for help, another exclaimed that a fire engine was on the way. The sounds reached her through the stuffing of shock in her ears, blocking her hearing as surely as wads of cotton wool.
Rough hands grabbed her shoulders, tugged her away from the flames. Laicee spun around striking with both ineffectual fists before she succumbed to the inexorable tugging.
The stranger bore her away from the fire, to the side of the road. He stood beside her, one hand resting on her shoulder as if he knew that she might bolt back at any moment.
They still stood that way, side by side, when the first blue lights flashed into view, accompanied by the wail of sirens.

***

“Can you tell us what happened Miss Shaw?”
Laicee gazed at the table, picking a ridge of rough wood with her thumb nail. “It’s Mrs.” She whispered.
“Mrs Shaw. What happened?”
“There was a fire.” She lifted her head and gazed into the eyes of the policeman sat opposite. After observing the wry lift of his eyebrows she continued. “What’s to tell? My house burned down.”
“Where you inside when it began?”
Laicee bit her lip. “No.”

Done and done.

As always thank you for stopping by and thank you for your comments. I’m deeply grateful for any and all suggestions, ideas and nit-picks you have; I welcome them. I hope my words in return as as useful to you as yours are to me.

Don’t forget to check out what other hoppers are doing this week.

http://mermaidssinging.wordpress.com/

http://caitlinsternwrites.wordpress.com/

http://ileandrayoung.com

http://jennykellerford.wordpress.com

http://jennifermeaton.com/

http://richardleonard.wordpress.com

http://jordannaeast.com

http://itsjennythewren.wordpress.com/

http://wehrismypen.wordpress.com

http://jlroeder.wordpress.com

http://letscutthecrap.wordpress.com/

http://ashortaday.wordpress.com

http://mandyevebarnett.com/

http://www.michellezieglerauthor.com

British Summer Time. -_- I bleeding wish!

I’ve lost an hour of sleep with daylight savings and the snow is coming in hard, fast flurries. It’s so cold that I can’t go out without a hat and scarf and all the snowdrops in the front garden have died! BAH!

I know! I’ll cheer myself up with some lovely Sunday Snippets, posing my own and darting around the blogosphere to see yours. I hope you’ve all had a good week and that you’ve been able to achieve all that you were hoping.

This week, we’re still looking at Walking The Razor’s Edge and this 250 words comes directly after last week. Shawn and Ileandra continue their conversation with regards to kissing. Ooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Ileandra abruptly stopped walking. She felt Shawn’s pull on her arm as he continued half a step before stopping and leaned back slightly on her crutch to compensate. “You want to kiss me?”
“Very much.” He might have been discussing what he wanted for dinner. Shawn’s voice was mild, not in the least bit pressuring or pushing, but the light behind his eyes was anything but. It was hot and searching. “I thought when you dropped that sauce down your chin was a good moment, but you didn’t even notice it. Or outside the cinema when you hugged me; that felt like a good moment. But before I could even lower my head you’d turned aside to stare up the street. You looked like you seen a ghost.”
“Not a ghost,” Ileandra murmured softly.
At the least, she hoped it was not a ghost. But the little bundle of sensations and feelings that were not her own, tucked away at the back of her mind had suddenly come alive again, and with it a feeling that she could point directly to source of that feeling and hit it within a metre.
“Well whatever it was, you looked scared.” Shawn raked one hand back through his thick, black hair. “So I thought maybe it wasn’t the best time. But since then you’ve not said anything about it. It can’t be that bad?” He tugged on her arm, not roughly, but the same way one might tug on the lead of a reluctant puppy.

Thanks folks! I’ll try to get round to more of you this week, since work has calmed down a little. No promises though, since if I get any more work in I’ll have to give that priority. *waves* see you round!

Here are the other bloggers taking part, by the way. Be sure to drop by and say hello!

http://mermaidssinging.wordpress.com/

http://caitlinsternwrites.wordpress.com/

http://ileandrayoung.com

http://jennykellerford.wordpress.com

http://jennifermeaton.com/

http://richardleonard.wordpress.com

http://jordannaeast.com

http://itsjennythewren.wordpress.com/

http://wehrismypen.wordpress.com

http://jlroeder.wordpress.com

http://letscutthecrap.wordpress.com/

http://ashortaday.wordpress.com

http://mandyevebarnett.com/

http://www.michellezieglerauthor.com