Happy Wednesday! One week until we go pick up the kids’ schedules at school. Two weeks until school starts. I’ll have a high schooler for real! Also, lessons, classes, the school play…whew. I’m officially signed up to start taking the adult beginner Irish dance class at my son’s studio. I’m nervous! Child #2 has decided to continue her voice lessons, which her teacher will do via FaceTime. How cool is that?
Still plugging away at Drumbeat, now more than 2/3 done. I’ve also outlined and started plotting for my next novel. I’m usually a mix of pantser/plotter, but this one is going to need much more structure. I’m moving away from more romantic-themed novels to general fiction. The next one is a road trip/re-told fairy tale type story, though I hope it’ll be less cliched than it sounds. Ha!
Today’s snippet puts Cian and Jamie in the same place at the same time. Jack the bartender is a creation of my son’s, and my son wrote the dialog between him and Jamie. Charity Bang-Bang (the drag queen) was the name I got from one of those “this would be your drag queen name” quizzes. Haha! Quick poll for next week: More of just Cian, more of just Jamie, or the story of how Jamie got his piercings? Let me know in the comments.
WIPmath: 8/23/2017 = 23 (for the day) + 2 (for the number of weeks until school) = 25 sentences
Cian stepped inside just as Brunhilda the Great, the emcee, finished introducing someone called Sister Charity Bang-Bang. She didn’t quite look like any of the nuns Cian had ever known. He might have enjoyed attending his parish school if there had been a bit more crossover.
He slid onto a bar stool, paying no attention to anything except Sister Charity and her swaying hips. It was much quieter over here, away from the stage. The gentle tap on his shoulder brought him out of his trance. Denver, the bar manager, smiled and asked what she could get for him.
“Rum and Coke, please.”
He watched her for a moment, but then his gaze traveled past her to Jack, her second in command for the night. Only one stool separated Cian from the man Jack was talking to, and when Cian saw who it was, he froze, watching them converse.
“Just a Diet Coke,” Jamie said.
“You want it with a flavor shot?”
“What do you have?”
Jack grinned. “Anything you want. I can do chocolate, vanilla, lime…I wouldn’t recommend the banana, though.” He grimaced, and Jamie laughed.
“Tried that one yourself, huh? Thanks for the heads up. I’ll have the lime.”
Still not drinking alcohol, Cian noted. It wasn’t a big thing, but he supposed it struck him as unexpected for some reason. It didn’t seem like part of Jamie’s overall persona. Then again, Jamie couldn’t really hide the shine of sweet innocence even underneath all those piercings and black clothes.
Like what you read? Be sure to check out the other entries and add your own. Just post a bit of your WIP, connect it to the date, and link up with us. Many thanks to Emily Wrayburn for giving us this space. Happy reading and writing!
I love Cian’s thoughts in the first paragraph. And, ooh, I’d definitely like to know more about Jamie’s piercings. 🙂 Or more Cian or Jamie or anything really. 😉
Heh, for no good reason, I particularly like drag nuns. I think I projected that a bit onto Cian. 🙂
I was going to post about the piercings this week (since I just wrote it yesterday). But I figured I’d at least let these two be in the same place at the same time before I get them in a position where Cian can see all Jamie’s piercings! LOL.
That’s really cool that your son helped to write part of this snippet! And congrats on being 2/3 through your manuscript so far!
I love that Jamie and Cian are in this scene together (I think the previous snippets have been either about Jamie or Cian but not both!) And Charity Bang-Bang is an awesome name for a drag queen 🙂
I would love to read about Jamie’s piercings!
Cian and Jamie meet up from time to time, but this is the first scene where they end up talking to each other. The bartender appeared in a previous book in this series. My son (now 14) asked to be written in. So I let him create his fictional persona. This time, I asked for input on the scene, and he role-played the dialog with me.
I’m thinking I’ll post about those piercings next week. 🙂
Piercings!
I just love this club so much. Reading this is like sitting at the bar and watching the action. It’s also good to see a bit of Cian’s sense of humour poke through – he often strikes me as overly serious.
Irish dancing! 🙂 Not long now, eh?
Ha! Yep, that’s a good description of Cian—he takes things very seriously. I like this bar too, and I wish it were in my neighborhood! LOL. We do have an everyone-is-welcome place, but it’s more of a club than a bar and definitely aimed at much younger people.
Less than a month until my first class. Fingers crossed! Possibly various limbs crossed too, given my lack of coordination. 😀
Please don’t give Jamie a bullring piercing. I can handle snake bites, nose, tongue… even a bridge or corset piercing but please no bull piercing. My daughter has one and… ugh. It’s ugly. It’s something they do to cattle and… ugh.
And banana flavored anything other than an actual banana… ugh again!
But please tell Jack I said bravo on his bit of dialogue. He’s already got a natural flow down.
No bullring. Jamie has a tasteful nose ring. He has a lot of piercings–ears, nose, eyebrow, angel bites, tongue, and…other places. He has stories for when and why he got them.
I’m in complete agreement on the banana flavor. I’m not all that fond of actual bananas unless they’re baked into bread, but I definitely don’t like artificial flavor.
I read the comment to Jack, and he was pleased to the point of blushing. He just finished his first short story, too. It’s really good! Better than anything I wrote at his age. It’s specific to a fan community he’s in, so I told him to post it there for others to enjoy. (I’d share, but this is the one thing he’s kind of private about.)
Intriguing story snippet!
Thank you. 🙂 These two have been nothing but trouble, LOL.