Sorry I missed last week. We were on vacation. This week, my kids are away at camp, and the house is eerily quiet.
I’m no longer posting from Leaps of Faith because…it’s LIVE! Today is its “book birthday.” It also happens to be my 20th wedding anniversary. We’re going out for sushi and to see Wonder Woman later.
I’m technically supposed to be getting about 1/3 or so of Drumbeat written during Camp NaNo, so I’m back to using that as my WIP. I think I’ve introduced both Cian (hot Irish dancer who is also deaf) and Jamie (adorable drummer with a zillion piercings).
A little background for the snippet: Jamie grew up homeless (couch-surfing variety, not on-the-street variety). He left home at 15 and eventually found his way to his cousin’s family. Here, his mother has a slightly more stable living situation, and Jamie’s visiting her in Rhode Island. (Geographically, this is not that far from Boston.)
WIPmath: 7/12/17 = 12 sentences
Jamie tried not to judge his mother’s church attendance; she was a born-again, and she maintained that it helped her stay clean, so he didn’t question it. He didn’t have any memories of her when she’d been using, so he had no idea what did or didn’t help her. If church meant so much to her, it wasn’t his place to tell her his feelings on the matter. But he wouldn’t be welcome in the church she attended, no matter how much they embraced and accepted her.
He pulled into the crumbling parking lot behind her building. A group of preteen boys were there, laughing and shoving each other. One of them had a bag full of bang-snaps, and they were tossing them at each other’s feet and shouting. A woman with a toddler in a stroller passed by and glared at them before going back to her loud conversation on her cell phone and pushing the stroller with her free hand.
Jamie pressed the buzzer, and his mother let him up. He ascended to her fourth-floor apartment and opened the door. Inside, it smelled like a combination of cooking food, her cat’s litter box, and stale cigarettes. For Jamie, those were all familiar, comforting in the same way as his mother’s embrace when she put her arms around him.
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Sometimes the love of family dulls the sting of the things they do. We’re all guilty of it.
I’m looking forward to reading more.
Yep. Jamie’s Mama is truly a good person, but she struggles. She never meant to hurt him, but not being able to manage her problems caused trouble.
Ahh, Jamie. Sounds like he may have very messy feelings, which can be so fun to write/read about. 🙂
He does indeed have messy feelings about a lot of things.
I really admire Jamie for the way he accepts his mother’s faith/church – it says a great deal about the kind of guy he is (and how much he loves his mom). Those home comforts are so unique to each of us. The stale cigarettes reminded me of the yellow walls in my gran’s living room. I never noticed the smell of smoke, but the carpet-muffled sounds of the TV and the particular light in that room…yeah, you took me back there. 🙂
Jamie’s mama is how I wrote my bestie into the story (she’s the one who passed away last fall; I’d always promised her I’d write her in someday). I think I’m in a minority of non-smokers, but I like the smell of cigarettes–to me, it has that same sense of comfort Jamie feels here. Not just from my friend but because of other memories of family and things I associate it with.
Jamie accepts her faith despite her church being the anti-gay type because she accepts him regardless of what they say. He didn’t leave home for that reason.
Hello!
I love this snippet. I think this is my first time reading something from Drumbeat, and I already find Jamie to be a fascinating character. I am interested in seeing how his relationship with his mother develops over time. I wonder if he will make it big as a drummer one day, although that’s totally fine if that’s not the point of the novel.
That is very cool that you have a character who is deaf (and a hot dancer!) I am looking forward to reading more about her in the future!
Sophie
I’m glad you like it! I haven’t posted from Drumbeat in about 6 weeks or so.
Jamie’s quite a character, and I do like writing about his relationship with his mother. I mentioned in another comment that she’s based on someone I knew.
I really like the way you convey what is clearly a complicated relationship. Even things like the comforting smells really say a lot about the atmosphere and surrounds, and Jamie’s reactions are really telling.
I’ve been to a few churches like that. Heck, the one we go to right now is kinda like that, but since we’re hopefully moving soon, we don’t see the point in church shopping. They’re very frustrating.
Great scene – I really loved the description of the apartment smell and how it’s comforting even though it sounds gross as all get out.
Yep, we were at a church like that for a long time and finally left when I didn’t feel like I could raise kids there.
Heh, the apartment smell is really gross, but I’m in the minority that I like the smell of cigarette smoke. It has a nostalgia for me of people I grew up with. That was the feeling I was going for here.
Gorgeously detailed description.