Happy Wednesday! My NaNoWriMo novel is kind of a mess, but I think I know how I’m going to begin fixing it. Lessons learned: Don’t bother planning ahead and This is much easier with a partly-written story (which is what I did last year). I tried to have the story mapped out, and I ended up with my main character in love with the wrong person. My muse is laughing at me, and my stubborn characters need to be taught the lesson that if they go after trouble, it’s going to find them.
Today is the last of my short stories written for launch month. You can read the other snippets here, here, and here, and everything is available in the bookstore. Today’s will be up later for 25 cents until December. The last two months have been a hell of a ride, with book launch and all, and I’m grateful to every person who made it possible.
In keeping with my theme of playing with different ideas and genres, today’s story is a wedding tale. It’s my favorite—n0t because it’s the best of the lot (I think my erotic short is probably my best-written) but because I wrote it for a friend. I’ve used these characters in flash fiction before, and they’re the only married couple I’ve written about (so far). This story is set before the events in the flash fiction, but it’s not necessary to have read those.
Anyway, here are 28 sentences. 26 for the 26th + 1 + 1 (from 11). The context is they’ve been together nearly two years. Al proposed, and Chad didn’t say yes right away, which led to some tension and Al explaining.
Just as Chad thought the eggs were going to go cold, Al appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. He plunked himself down in a chair and turned to face Chad.
“At least hear me out,” he said.
“Of course.” Chad entertained the idea of reaching for him but nixed it. He wrapped his hands around his coffee mug to keep them occupied.
“I still feel exactly the same way I did before—I absolutely do not need a contract in order to know we love each other. But…” He pursed his lips, his brows knitted. “I want to do it anyway. Maybe it’s not logical, and maybe it doesn’t really matter. I’m not sure I care. All I know is, I want the magic, okay? I want the big, fucking gay fairy tale. There. I said it.” His face relaxed, and he blew out his breath. “I’m secretly the heroine of a damn cartoon movie—one with a lot of singing.”
“So…you want a wedding?” Confused, Chad put his mug down. “We can do that without all the—”
“No!” Al threw his hands up. “I mean I want the whole thing. The ceremony, yeah, but I want it to mean something. I want to have the legal right to call you my husband.” He shook his head, and a smile inched across his face. “And yeah, I want a real wedding, with cake and decorations and horrible renditions of sappy love songs and a hundred people staring at us while we stumble through a dance, trying not to step on each other.”
As always, thanks to K. L. Schwengel for making this all happen. If you want to read the other WIPpets (and I strongly urge you to do so), you can find them here. You can also add your own by posting a bit of your own work-in-progress, connecting it to the date any way you like, and sharing it on the link-up. Happy writing!
