NaNoWriMo ’08
More than a week into NaNo08, and I’ve finally gotten an excerpt that I like. It tells nothing about my story, but that’s ok, because I’m not sure that I’ve actually told any of the story yet. Backstory is a pain. 15,000 words, and all of it backstory. Bummer.
I’ve put a wordcount widget in my sidebar, so you can see how I’m doing.
Now to the excerpt…
In the kitchen, he sat across the table from Rebecca.
‘Do you get the feeling you’re being watched?’ she said in a mock whisper.
‘Daddy!!!’ his two older children screamed as they ran to meet him. He scooped both of them up, and trotted to the living room.
‘Thomas, Margaret, Have you been eating your vegetables?’
‘Oh yes, daddy. Every night. Sometimes we even ask for seconds’ They both said.
‘Have they been?’ he asked his wife.
‘Oh yes, they ate like little piglets. But not too many vegetables.’ she replied.
‘Nooooooo!’ screamed the children.
‘The only one way to tell if children are being fed properly’ he said in an extremely serious tone. ‘Is to see how high they … BOUNCE!’ he dropped both of them on the couch.
They completed the evening ritual, including a bedtime story, when Margaret asked ‘Daddy, did you bring anything for us?’
‘You’re not supposed to ask that til tomorrow.’ Thomas whispered to her.
‘Do you know where I was?’ Stephen asked them
‘Memsis’ Margaret said
‘Memphis’ Thomas corrected
‘Memphis, Tennessee’ Stephen said ‘On the Mighty Mississippi River.’
‘The Mississippi River, the same one that Tom Sawyer rode down?’ Thomas asked, his eyes wide.
‘The very same one. And one of the things I got for you – both of you, Margret so you can suck your lip back in – is a new story about Huckleberry Finn, who is one of Tom Sawyer’s friends.’
‘Will you read it tonight?’ they asked.
‘Not tonight. It’s still in the railcar. Tomorrow night, I promise. Tonight, I have a sick friend to look after.’
‘Do we have to go to bed now?’ Thomas asked.
‘No, you can play for a while longer’ Rebecca said ‘As long as you play quietly, and nicely. We’ll be up in a little while to tuck you in.’
Stephen and Rebecca were part way down the stairs when they heard Thomas ‘You heard that, we’re suppose to play quietly. If we play real quiet they’ll forget about coming back up, and we can play ALL NIGHT!’
Rebecca looked at Stephen. ‘Did you ever do that?’ she said with a grin ‘Because I know they didn’t get it from ME.’
‘I don’t know’ Stephen said seriously. ‘All we had to play with in the old country was rocks and sheep droppings.’
‘YOU!’ she said, giving him a shove.
‘Come to think of it, they may have all been sheep droppings. I don’t remember many rocks.’
She shoved him again, propelling him into their living room.
Hope you get as much of a chuckle out of it as I did.
Capital G Geek 