Just a little taste...
Now that we've been introduced, I thought we should dive right in and share a little of my writing. What will appear next is early in Chapter one of Hurry Moon. To set up the scene, my main character Dalton is a seven-year-old boy whose family has moved again, and this is his first day of school. He's a bit quiet and shy due to the fact that this has already happened many times due to his father's constant job changes. His parents want what's best for him, but have different ideas about what that is. Just before this begins, his father has made it clear that he does not want to hear his son crying when he goes to bed. It's not out of meanness, but only his sense that his son needs to grow up in order to make more friends in school.
With that as the setup, please enjoy...
Moonlight splashes the walls of Dalton’s bedroom. Both of his parents have pulled the covers close around him and wished him ‘sweet dreams’. His mother has already laid out a folded shirt and pants on the back of his desk chair for tomorrow’s school day, and turned off the light. With his father’s threat still in his ears, Dalton has held himself still, longing for the deeper silence of his parents slumber. Shadows of tree branches swaying just outside leave their marks on his bedroom wall and have kept him company during the long wait. His parent’s whispers retreated a while ago behind their bedroom door. Then the last words between them, unclear but still audible, were spoken. At last the house is quiet.
Dalton rises from his bed and approaches his own partially open door. He listens there a short while longer, before returning to his bed. The only sound he hears is a restless neighborhood dog barking nearby. He carefully sidesteps the shoes neatly settled on the floor and eases himself beneath the covers again. Only now, when he is certain that his parents are sleeping, does he let the tears he has held back roll silently down his cheeks. He wipes his eyes and relaxes now that his sadness is released. The toll of the long wait finally overtakes him. Soon his eyes are heavy and he sinks into sleep.
“Hey Sleepyhead, wake up.”
Dalton lifts his head from his pillow and blinks his eyes as he adjusts to the light. Remembering that his mother turned the lamp off earlier, it’s odd that it seems even brighter than before. As he looks around, the corners of the room have deeper shadows that seem strangely fuzzy. For a second he wonders if he should be scared, and quickly realizes that for the first time in a while, he is not. Bending near him is a very pretty girl who seems close to his age with red hair and freckles. Her blue eyes sparkle in the reflected glare.
“Who are you?” Dalton asks.
“I’m a friend. My name’s Sienna, Sienna Snow.”
Dalton is torn in how to react. He has little experience with friendship and is afraid to trust the offer right away. Still, there is something about the girl.
“How did you get here?”
Sienna has a wide-eyed, honest expression. She brushes a stray hair from her face and shrugs as she replies.
“Don’t know.”
There is something almost magical about the way the shadows seem to rise and fall, swelling and dropping like the surface of the lake he went to with his parents last summer. It’s a soft rhythmic movement. The girl seems solid enough.
“Are you an angel?”
Sienna giggles exposing straight white teeth. “No.”
Dalton rises from his bed. The floor doesn’t quite move beneath his feet, but there is still something odd about it. He rubs his eyes, expecting to find the remains of his tears, but his face is perfectly dry. He looks out the window and it is still dark. At least the stars seem to be normal enough. Now that he feels a bit more awake, he takes a moment to look at the girl more closely. Her hair is parted to one side and looks as if it hasn’t been combed in a while. She is wearing a red plaid skirt with pleats, those black and white shoes that the girls like to wear and knee high white socks. Her blouse is white and she has a red scarf around her neck tied to one side. The blouse is a bit wrinkled and there are a couple wet muddy stains on the skirt as if she just came in from a rainy day. Of course, it hasn’t rained since earlier in the day. She seems kind of like a tomboy.
“What time is it?”
“This is a dream,” Sienna replies. “Dreams don’t have clocks. In fact, it really isn’t any time at all.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just do.”
Dalton isn’t sure what to make of this girl who appears out of nowhere and seems to know everything. The dream thing explains why the shadows are acting weird and the floor isn’t quite solid. Still, it bothers him that she is taking this so calmly, not to mention the way she seems so at home in his room. He decides to react the way so many have done to him.
“I don’t think I like some boring, smart-aleck girl showing up in my room, even if it is a dream.”
“Don’t be mean. I’m not being a smart aleck, and I am hardly boring. Maybe this was a mistake.”
Sienna starts to walk away back to the shadows.
“I thought you could use a friend,” she continues directing her comment over her shoulder. “Guess I was wrong.”
“Wait, I didn’t mean it. Don’t go. Come back. You’re right I do need a friend. I could be your friend, but you might have to teach me how.”
Dalton is surprised as the girl turns, her eyes now sparkling and wet. He approaches her slowly. She stands still and lets him come close. He reaches out gently and wipes a tear away. He looks at his fingers with some surprise as the tear feels wet to his touch.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Please don’t go.”
Sienna is surprised by the boy’s quick apology and his gentle touch.
“You were crying earlier. I heard you just before you showed up.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dalton doesn’t understand how she could have heard him, much less where she was exactly when he ‘showed up’, but talking to this girl seems like the right thing to do. He looks in her eyes and sees that her interest is real.
“We move a lot. It’s hard to make friends when nobody knows you and they all have friends already. What’s worse is that I never know how long I will be in one place so it just gets harder every time. My father is always moving from job to job and it’s always to a new city.”
Sienna nods sympathetically.
“Same for you, huh?”
“Sort of,” Sienna answers. “It’s a little hard to explain.”
Dalton worries. Even though Sienna has said that there are no clocks in dreams, he doesn’t want to end up falling asleep in class tomorrow.
“Umm, you’re nice and all and I want to keep talking to you, but there’s school in the morning.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. Like I said, this is a dream. You’ll wake up just like you slept all night. Wait and see.”
“I don’t get it.”
“This is a dream and time stops whenever we’re here. When you wake up, it will be just the same as any other dream.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
Sienna smiles and Dalton takes a seat at the end of his bed.
“Yeah, so today was your first one at a new school. How was it?”
“Well the bigger boys made fun of me and all the girls acted like I was from another planet.”
Sienna sits down next to Dalton.
“I know what that’s like. Where I live, everyone thinks I’m from another planet.”
“Where is that?”
“It’s far from here. It doesn’t matter. I just meant that I know how you feel.” Sienna isn’t sure why, but is certain that telling Dalton where she lives will only make him less willing to trust her. For some reason, being here feels right and she wants to stay.
“So we were talking about Genies in class today…” Dalton explains to Sienna about the myths and legends session at school. They both agree that the idea of a magic genie is nice, but kind of silly. They both giggle.
So, there you are. Just a little of the flavor of my first book. If you find it interesting, you might want to click on the link above to go to the Hurry Moon page. It will share a few more details of the story to come without giving away the ending. (Spoiler alert: You might want to stay away from the other tabs for the moment as they might answer questions better left until you are ready for the next book.) The bottom of the Hurry Moon page has a link that will take you to the Amazon site. Still, for the next five people who check this out and are interested and contact me from the email page before November 8, I am offering a free book. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.
