Happy Wednesday! It’s been busy as usual in our household. Only another month until the first school musical of the year. Auditions for the second one are next week already, since rehearsals start right away after Thanksgiving. Never a dull moment!
Everything is right on track to send Drumbeat to my publisher by the end of the month. I have some adjustments to make, but those aren’t going to be difficult, I don’t think. All the stuff I was so worried about seems not to be an issue. I’m sure I’m not the only one who suffers self-doubt. Though I can honestly say no other manuscript has caused me so much stress, and I’ll be glad to be done with it.
I now have about 4.5k in my new WIP, Tree of Life, and about 3k in Minuet, the last part of the Notes from Boston series. I’m alternating between the two until I reach a point where I want to focus on just one.
Today’s WIPpet is from Tree of Life. This is not going to be a romance. It’s a re-told myth (or rather, several woven together), and it’s about Luke’s journey of self-discovery. The snippet is a continuation of last week’s. Luke was reading over a letter from his ex, and now he’s reading a different kind of mail.
WIPmath: 10/18/2017 = 1 + 8 = 9 sentences
Luke pushes the scrapbook aside and draws his pile of weeks-old mail toward himself. Picking up the top item, he runs his finger along the raised lines of the elegant script. Misters Antonio “AJ” Mancuso and Adam Lansing and their families request the honor of your presence…
Of course they’ll have a traditional wedding, complete with all the bells and whistles. Their wedding promises to be the sort of thing one might see splashed on the cover of Out magazine in celebration of the anniversary of legalized same-sex marriage. They’re both gorgeous, upwardly-mobile white men in their prime—the kind of guys men and women alike drool over.
Uninvited, Luke’s imagination goes there too as his gaze lands on the enclosed engagement photo. He’s done his fair share of salivating over AJ, back before they realized they were better off as friends. Luke was AJ’s first, when they were both shy and inexperienced.
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!
Oh, I love this. I’m just over here grinning over the invitation. 😀
😀 There is actually a wedding scene in this one. I don’t usually write them because…well, a lot of weddings bore me, LOL. But it’s important to the story, so it’ll be in there. 🙂
I can see this happening. Why the heck does someone invite an ex though? Friends, I get it, but still… *shrugs* different mindset, I suppose. But I do like the memories that come with the WIPpet, and the image you included.
“Ex” is a bit of a stretch here, but that’s not clear from this context. They were teenagers when they were sort of together, and this is about a dozen years later–they’re close friends. It *is* clear in the story, just not in this snippet.
Love this snippet. It is interesting to read a bit about what goes on in Lucas’s head. Yes- I know the type of picture-worthy wedding you are talking about 🙂
That’s great to hear that Drumbeat is off to the publishers soon! I really enjoyed reading the story, and I loved both Jamie and Cian. As someone who is new to this series, I didn’t get some of the inside jokes, and I was a bit overwhelmed by the large number of characters and found it hard to keep track of them at times. However I think that makes sense because this is part of a series. I admired that each of the secondary characters seemed to have stories and relationships of their own, which made it feel all the more realistic. This was the first story that I’ve read with a polyamorous character – that part was interesting for me and I learned more about this type of relationship. I felt honoured to beta-read this story. Thank you <3 And best wishes for the publication process!
Luke! Not Lucas! Sorry about that – there are too many Lucas’s at my workplace haha :’)
Aw, thanks! An no worries on the character name—I’m terrible with names in real life, let alone other people’s fiction! I usually have to check to make sure I’ve got it right.
Thank you for beta’ing my novel. It was really good to have your eyes on it, as the other betas have read the whole series. There are some things I think I can adjust to make it easier for someone who is starting from scratch. Some things will remain, since there’s an ongoing thread. But some I can make more clear as I go through the last few edits before my publisher sees it.
No worries! It was a great read!
Even though I didn’t know the characters beforehand, I understood the main points of the story, and felt like I connected to Jamie and Cian – which is the important part 🙂
There they go, the beautiful ones… They have such glamorous names too!
I really loved Drumbeat. 🙂 I can’t wait for Minuet, though – I never thought I’d say that. (I think you need to tagline yourself as The Great Character Redeemer.)
Drumbeat is currently having a few revisions—there are some things I think I need to make more clear, and I tweaked an early scene *again* to reflect what happens later in the story. But it’s almost there! Minuet will be fun for me in the sense that I *finally* get to write a character who shares my skill set! I’m not going to have to do any research on what it’s like to play the violin. Also, Amelia is hella fun to write, and I think I can even make Mack likable. I have zero plans to redeem Sage, however. I may even let someone get in a good punch, since Amelia restrained Mack. Anyone you’d like to see do it? (It won’t be Jamie—that would break him, I think. Andre is too nice. All others are available, though.)