This scene is the very opening of the book. EJ is preparing to go to a funeral:
![woman, girl, lady, people, side, view, profile, silhouette, shadow, nature, tree, leaves, still, bokeh](https://snap-photos.s3.amazonaws.com/img-thumbs/960w/BG7CZQ5JRN.jpg)
It was almost time to leave for the service, so she was about
to give up and just go barelegged. Her dress was almost long enough to cover
her legs anyway. But something prompted her to look one last time through the
dresser. There they were, right on top of the jumbled mess of socks and hosiery
in the second-to-bottom drawer.
She looked up toward the ceiling, surprising herself by
laughing. “You’d have made fun of me for that one.”
No one replied because she was alone. It occurred to her
for the first time, really, that she truly was alone. There were neighbors
they’d known since she could remember. And the customers at The Hive. But with Mama
gone—she still hadn’t been able to bring herself to use the D word—she was now
completely without family. At least family close enough to mean anything. The
bitter anger and self-loathing was slowly being replaced by a dull hollow ache
deep inside. Where my soul used to be,
she thought.
![cemetery, graves, tombstones, death, black and white](https://snap-photos.s3.amazonaws.com/img-thumbs/960w/6QJ9XJWICJ.jpg)
As time goes on, I'll share other scenes from time to time. I'll also be discussing the experience of telling EJ's story. It's relatively early on in the process, but I'm really starting to like this smart, plucky young woman. I'm also finding it fascinating to depart, albeit temporarily from my normal voice, that of my alter ego, Harry Shalan, and genre. This book does have some elements of mystery, but it's by no means a detective story.
I like it so far!
ReplyDelete*Pepper*
Good job thus far.
ReplyDeleteExcellent excerpt!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I'm excited by this story, but it's scary to be writing about someone new.
Delete