I growl and force my anger into my next swing. The puck completely misses the net, bouncing off the cement wall.
Audrey’s not leaving this town. Yeah, she’s trying to care for Hannah, but she’s leaving me.
My hopeful heart drops and I kick the bag again, using the blade of the plastic stick to set up the new line of victims. Each puck has a different face.
My father.
For leaving us the way he did for another woman.
He gets another.
He broke my mother’s heart to the point that she’s not even the same woman she was five years ago.
He started this domino effect of bullshit, and for that, he gets a third.
My mother.
For letting a man break her down so badly that she can’t function properly.
She gets another.
She’s forgotten that she’s a mother. I’m not old enough to care for my baby sister properly, not in the parental way she deserves. I still need a mom, but at least I’m old enough to figure things out on my own.
My mother gets another puck just for hurting my baby sister by ignoring her like she does. It smashes into the wall.
Another puck with her face, because it’s her fault that Audrey wants to stay here. Audrey can see that Hannah needs a mother. So why can’t Mom see it?
I kick the bag again, lining up another row.
She gets one more, for bringing another man into our house, causing a whole different world of shit for us.
I tap a puck forward, glaring at it.
This one’s for Ted.
I purposefully miss the net this time. Smashing the puck into the wall so hard I hear it crack as it rattles across the floor.
One more for Ted.
His alcohol addiction nearly ended everything I know and love in one night with his drunken rage.
My mother gets another puck. This one’s for bringing the man that beat her, almost to death, in front of my baby sister last year back into our home. I purposefully crash it into the wall again.
I smash yet another into the cement wall.
For bringing the man who hit my baby sister because she wouldn’t stop crying, back into our lives.
Todd.
For asking my Audrey out and kissing her.
My stick hooks around the last puck.
It gets my face.
For being a coward and not asking my girl to be my girl, for not telling her how I’ve felt for years, for lying, and for hurting her feelings. This puck gets my face for not being a stronger man and calling the police to press charges against Ted.
The puck glances off the post and flies my way.
On instinct, I drop to my knees so I don’t get hit, and hear a soft gasp followed by an echoing thud of a body hitting the floor.
Today I’m welcoming Rachel Walter to chat about writing, life, and their current project. Welcome! Let’s talk a little about Pucked.
What inspired you to write this story?
I don’t know actually. This wasn’t a story I had planned on writing. I was doing the dishes and listening to music when the characters came screaming at me. I was a powerful moment for me because I’ve never had an idea come to me and leave me sitting on the floor trying to process what just happened. The more I picked at the story and dug into the characters, the more I learned and needed to write them. Plenty of times I wanted to stop writing it, to move on to something else entirely; something safe, but I couldn’t shake the characters or the story. Parental Alienation is something that happens every day and it’s completely heartbreaking. That fact alone pushed me to finish when I wanted to give up.
Is there a character you feel especially connected to? Why?
Probably Audrey. She’s misunderstood sometimes and loves hockey and mud.
What was the hardest part of writing this?
Pretty much all of it. Parental Alienation is terrible. It’s when a parent knowingly ruins the relationship with the other parent for the child. It’s a form of mental abuse and has devastating effects on all involved. Some parents never get to be reunited with their child and sometimes the pain of that (for parent and child) can lead to depression… Writing a vile woman was probably the hardest part. All of the lies she told, manipulating tactics, and everything else involved was brutal on me, as was the emotional responses from the children involved.
Choose a favorite line or short passage. What do you like about it?
The beautiful relationship they have, one full of love, makes me wish he could see past whatever is blocking him from everyone else.
In a soft baritone voice, he sings to her. It’s just Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but it’s full of concern and love.
I like that it’s a sweet moment witnessed for Audrey. It’s when Audrey realized things aren’t always as they seem on the surface, there’s a lot she doesn’t know or realize even if she knows more than others. She found beauty and light in darkness and wreckage.
Tell us a little about any upcoming projects.
I’m currently working on the third book in my YA paranormal romance series: The Soul Mate Series (Twisted Destiny).
What are some of the jobs besides writer that you’ve held?
When I was a teenager I babysat, was a cashier, and worked in a dog kennel. I tried to work on a farm with horses and goats, but we found out that I’m allergic to hay and that the allergy meds I was on at the time did NOTHING to help me through that…I also had a string of bad luck when I couldn’t breathe or see and somehow managed to break a toe. I still don’t know how that happened. After graduating I studied to be a veterinary assistant and got a job at a local vet’s office.
What do you consider to be your best accomplishment?
My best accomplishment (personally) would be my family. We aren’t perfect but we make it work. My kids (step and bio) are amazing humans. Blended families are difficult to navigate, but I think we’ve all been pretty lucky. Going through the things I’ve went through, I wouldn’t trade the last 12 years for a second chance. I couldn’t go on without any one of them.
What do you see yourself doing in another 1, 5, and/or 10 years?
In a year, I’ll still be writing for sure. I’ll also have one kid in first grade, one in tenth, a senior, and one a freshman in college, so probably the same thing as normal-ish. In 5 years, I’m positive I’ll still be writing. In ten years, hopefully we’ll have moved to a better location than current, but definitely still writing. Plans can change in the blink of an eye, and because of that I’ve learned to not plan so far in advance. I’m a planner at heart (unless I’m writing for some reason) so this is kind of hard for me not to detail a plan for the years ahead. LOL.
Word Sprints!
Coffee or tea? Coffee
Musical theater or rock concert? Rock concert!
What’s your favorite movie? The Nightmare Before Christmas and Fried Green Tomatoes
What was the last thing you read? Whiskey and Gumdrops by Jean Oram
What’s on your playlist? Frank Sinatra, Halestorm, Maroon 5, Beastie Boys, Bon Iver, Eagles, Twenty One Pilots… I’m eclectic
Thank you for the interview! It was fun! 🙂