Here we are at the end of September, and it's been an odd month, in keeping with it's reputation. I banged up the bumper of my car on the garage door, ending my perfect record of entering and exiting our small garage without incident, and the suite where my office is located has been taken over by a new dept. The sooner I can move, the better. It's the end of an era as far as my job--I'm now pretty much on my own in my office, but a new beginning as well, hopefully in a new location before the end of the year.
I'm also wending my way toward the end of the contemporary romance novel I'm writing. It's been an interesting experience, since I tend to write science fiction and fantasy--about as far from contemporary romance, with no magic and no science, as you can get. As I said, an interesting experience, and I don't know if I will be repeating it or not.
Here's a snippet of the novel. First draft, please don't quote or repost. Thanks!
“The chickens are housed at the
back of the barn where they have access to a run,” Eve told Adam. “But in this weather, I’m sure they’ll be
roosting by now.”
They approached a wooden narrow
door in a partition built in the rear of the barn. Before Eve could open the door, Adam stopped
her.
“Listen,” he said. “They’re chuckling to each other.”
Eve stopped and listened for a
moment. The small, contented sounds the
chickens made did sound a little like chuckles if one employed enough
imagination. She handed the chicken feed
to Adam and opened the door.
Immediately, the small sounds of
the chickens escalated, and several of the chickens flew off their roost,
clucking urgently, and landed in a flurry of feathers to waddle in the
direction of the humans.
Eve slid inside the door and Adam
handed her the pan of feed, then attempted to slide inside as well. Even moving sideways, his chest and back were
scraped by either side of the narrow opening.
Eve threw chicken feed in swathes at the oncoming chickens, whose
attention immediately diverted to the feed, pecking at the ground in excited
little groups, some struggling for supremacy over their perceived rivals.
“Greedy beggars, aren’t they?” Adam
observed.
Smiling with mischief, Eve slung
some feed to land on Adam’s boots.
“Hey!” he said in alarm as several
chickens swooped to peck at his boots.
“You did that on purpose!” He
sounded surprised rather than accusatory, which wrung a laugh from her.
Eve finished throwing out the feed,
then checked to make sure the chickens had water. She handed the empty pan to Adam and stepped
outside the door. The chickens paced
grandly toward Adam, looking up hopefully.
“Wait,
Livingston!” Adam said in a mock terrified voice. “Don’t leave me behind in the darkest
interior of Africa! I might get eaten by
these cannibal chickens!”
Laughing,
Eve reached back inside and took the pan from him. Adam hurriedly tried to go through the
opening and stopped halfway.
“I
think I’m stuck,” he said.
“Uh,
oh,” Eve said. “The chickens will eat
well for months.”
“Very
funny. Now what do we do?”
Eve set
the pan down and surveyed his predicament for a moment. “Try to go back in.”
Grimacing,
Adam jerked and pulled his way back into the chicken coop.
“Now,
turn sideways and give me your hand and I’ll help pull you out,” Eve said.
Adam
turned sideways and gave her his nearest hand.
Surprised at the warm tingle she felt, Eve resorted to briskness.
“Ok,
come on out, slowly and carefully.”
He slid
out of the chicken coop, wincing a little as his chest and back got scraped yet
again. He stood for a moment, staring
down at her, his hand still in hers, the look in his eyes making Eve both
excited and uncomfortable at the same time.
“We’d
better close the door,” Eve whispered.
“The chickens will get out.”
