book launch

It’s Wednesday again! I’m doing well with NaNo, keeping up. I’m over 30k, right on track to finish in plenty of time. The only problem is getting my characters to cooperate. This story is not going at all the way I planned. My MC has more chemistry with his roommate than with his supposed love interest. I’m so tempted to write the other guy out of the story at this point. We’ll see. I’ll finish NaNo, give it some time to marinate, and decide in January when I go to edit.

Playing around with different styles–fantasy, family drama, etc.–has been fun. For this week’s story, I chose to write a YA. I don’t typically like first person present tense, but for YA, it often works. It makes it possible to be in the character’s life sort of in real time, living their moments.

I often draw on my life or that of people I’m close with to create realistic characters and situations. Although the specific events in the story are not things I’ve experienced in exactly that way, the feelings are and the questions are. AJ, the narrator, is struggling to understand his emerging feelings. He has some people in his life who are patient and some who are not. In this scene, a kid who’s been giving him unwanted attention takes advantage of AJ’s confusion. (There is nothing graphic, but if it bothers you to read about a boy kissing another boy, especially uninvited, then maybe skip this one.) As always, it’s in the store on this web site for 25 cents this week.

WIPmath: 9 from the 19 for 9 paragraphs.

After school on Monday, I’m on my way to meet up with Keira. I haven’t been able to get the thing with Luke out of my mind. There’s not much chance I’ll see him again, but that’s probably better. It’s the other stuff—the feelings I had—that bother me. I wondered if I should tell Keira. I decide I don’t need to, since it’s not like I want to break up with her or anything.

When I open the door to the art room, it’s Connor, not Keira, waiting for me. He has his project out on the table, but he’s not really working on it, and I can tell something’s up. I put my bag down and go to the project shelf to get my own, but I keep my eyes on Connor. He stands up and walks over to me.

“I saw,” he says.

I scrunch my nose. “Saw what?”

He’s in my personal space, and he’s moving so my back is to the wall between the door and the shelf. My palms start to sweat, and I want to get away from him. I try to slip sideways, but he puts his hand on the wall.

“I saw the way you looked at him.”

I know what he means, but I’m not going to acknowledge it. Connor’s scaring me. This doesn’t feel right. He leans in and presses against me. His breath is hot on my cheek. “I’m going to kiss you,” he says.

“N—”

He ignores me and crushes my mouth with his. Without stopping to see if I’m okay, he pushes his tongue into my mouth. I’m not really kissing him back, but he doesn’t seem to care. Everything is confusing for a few seconds while I try to process what’s happening. Some small part of me doesn’t hate it, and it’s taking a minute for that part to catch up to the rest of me. This isn’t how I wanted my first boy kiss to be. Connor stole something that should have been mine to give.

As always, thanks to K. L. Schwengel for hosting us. If you want to read the rest of the entries, visit this page for all the links. Be sure to leave some love on the entries you read. Happy writing!