Category: Excerpts

A new teaser from A Boat Made of Bone!

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“I’m not just being dramatic, Kate. I was. I was awful. I never let anyone get close to me. I kept everyone at a distance. And I used people for my own ends.” He’s staring at a dresser vanity pushed up against the wall about eight feet from us. There’s a silver hair brush laying on its back upon it and a jewelry box. And the dragonfly ring. I let go of his hand, stand, and retrieve the ring.

“Am I close to you?” I ask, inspecting the ring and putting it on.

He sniffs and rubs his temple. “Yes. You know almost everything there is to know about me.”

This makes me warm inside. “Then it doesn’t matter that at one time, you didn’t let anyone close to you. Because you’ve changed.”

“What about you, Kate. Am I close to you? Do I know everything about you?”

I shift, staring at the dragonfly ring, feeling caught. “Um, no. Not everything.”

“What don’t I know?”

“Don’t forget, Will, that I’m actually alive. And things change constantly.”

“How does that change what we’re talking about now?”

“I don’t know.”

“So are you saying that you’re hiding from me?”

I think of Ty and my mouth goes dry. I don’t want to bring real-life into this, it doesn’t fit here, in the logic of the dream world. It will only upset the balance, I think, and it might scare Will away. I suddenly feel like I’m two-timing him. His eyes are narrow and staring hard at me, so I look away, aware at once of the aura of the room.

“Let’s get out of here, Will. Unless there’s something you want to show me.”

“You’re changing the subject.”

I shrug and wait for him to decide we can leave. With a sigh he stands up and takes my hand. He scans the room, his eyes focusing on the bed, then the mirrors, the dresser, and then, without warning, he lets go of my hand and charges the bed. In one motion, he tears the bedspread off and the sheets and tries to claw through the mattress, which is this very old, striped design. I avert my eyes when I begin to notice all the stains on it. I don’t want to know and I back up until I bump into the wall. Will upends the mattress and it falls against the wall on the opposite side, and then he rushes the dresser and yanks the drawers out, scattering the contents—lingerie, fishnet tights, lace nightgowns and bottles of cheap perfume—and then knocks the dresser over. All the while he yells and grunts, and screams as though exorcising the demons of the past inside him.

Add A Boat Made of Bone to your Goodreads shelf today!

I’m excited to share this with you guys! It’s a teaser from A Boat Made of Bone, my next book and the book that this Kickstarter campaign is for. If you enjoy this teaser, please take a moment and go pledge to help get the book published. Just $1 gets you a copy of one of my books. More pledge gets you more reward, of course–paperback copies, hardback copies, original artwork, and other cool shiz!

Thank you so much to friends, fans, and family who have already pledged! I’m truly humbled and awed by your generosity. I love you!

Onward:

We take two lifts to the top of the tower, transferring halfway up. When we step out onto the balcony of the top level, I gasp in stunned amazement. The city of Paris stretches to the horizon, a dark river of stars, an arm of the Milky Way, flowing away from us like a black lake filled with incandescent pebbles. The contrast of light and darkness is stark and humbling. I’ve never seen a more beautiful city. We walk to the nearest railing and Will wraps his arm around me, standing at my side, quiet and reverent like the moment seems to ask for.

Humans have created a lot of beautiful things and a lot of miserable things. While I’ve only seen a small bit of the ugly, I’ve witnessed a good share of the wondrous. I know as I stand there absorbing the experience that this—Paris at night at the top of the Eiffel tower—is one of the best. And maybe it’s just because I’m here with Will. Maybe it’s that I can smell his musk, and around it, the fragrance of summer in a city. Or perhaps it’s the imperfect mirror image of the city of light beneath us and the star speckled sky above us. Together the endless city and the eternal night sky make me feel so small and insignificant. The only thing that saves me is Will—his breath against my neck, his arm wrapped around me so that I realize I am known and perhaps even loved, that I am not just some unknown speck on a huge, seething planet of human life.

Being in such a place, we could be laughing, acting drunk with elation that we’re together at the top of the world, but instead we’re a bit somber. I feel stunned at the sight—I honestly didn’t anticipate being so prompted into silence.

“Want to see the other side?” Will whispers. His lips brush my ear and chills flash across my neck…

I should mention that while this teaser is in first person point-of-view, the finished product will be in third person POV. I began the first draft in third person, and about five or six scenes in, I switched it to first. And then, when I was almost done with the first draft, I decided third person would be a better vehicle for this story.

On the Kickstarter page, there’s a link to the first chapter, which is in third person. I haven’t finished making the POV switch in the entire thing yet. So you will notice some inconsistencies in POV. If you have an opinion or insight into this change, feel free to speak up. It’s been a difficult debate for me and I love getting input, even if I shoot it down and don’t follow it. Bwah ha ha ha!

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