Street Glass is my novel-in-progress. My tagline: Underprivileged 18-yr-old Latino
leaves street gang and befriends white, over-privileged rock musicians.While some of the plot is subject to change (draft two is a pretty early draft, after all) the basic elements will stay, as will the character "voices." So these excerpts will still give you a good idea of how the plot plays out and what the characters are like. The year is 1986, in Los Angeles, California.
The previous excerpts are collected here.
During the family
get-together before the band leaves on tour, people get to gabbing as they have
dinner. This scene is in Neal’s POV (Marie is Sandy's sister).
“I’m serious,” Eric said, waving his knife around. “Then, not only do more cheese cubes and carrot slices come flying at me out of nowhere, but now it’s celery sticks and mints and whatever the fuck else some idiot can grab. I knock peas out of my hair and I see Flea on top of the techs’ bus with this Cheshire cat face. Well nobody dares me like that—we emptied the damn bus all over the parking lot.”That was nice. These people had so much of everything they didn’t think twice about wasting. Marie even thought it was funny. None of them knew it was like to go hungry. Neal shoved himself away from the table and left.
Thanks for visiting my blog today, and for all the continuing wonderful comments. They really make my week :-D
Food fight! Great descriptions. I'm intrigued by Neal's thoughts. He's obviously had a rough go of things.
ReplyDeleteThat last bit was such a kick in the gut. I've been where Neal has been (and currently am, in fact). I end up scraping any leftover sugar/what-have-you off the counter and back into the container because we can't afford to waste anything. We've tried to keep our five-year-old daughter from knowing the extent of it all, but when she asks for a full plate and only eats a smidgen of it, I get so angry. I know she's too young to comprehend, but I hope one day we can instill in her a great appreciation for what she has.
ReplyDeleteGosh, your eight brought up a lot of thoughts for me. Really wonderful!
I can see why Neal is feeling uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteOh, what a turn of emotions for me in just eight sentences. At first, I'm enjoying the food fight, as I've been involved in one or two of those in my lifetime. But then, seeing Neal's reaction made me feel uncomfortable too. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteReally an excellent way to make your Readers think twice and to show completely opposing viewpoints and life experiences in one excerpt. WOW. Well done!
ReplyDeleteGut wrenching eight. Ouch. He's in with the wrong crowd. Again.
ReplyDeleteSuch a contrast in lifestyles. Makes me think of all the things we take for granted. I can understand Neil's point of view.
ReplyDeleteWow...VERY thought provoking snippet. I like this, Marcia. This story is full of such insight, such exposure to contrasts in the haves, and have-nothing-at-alls. Well done. Whew! And I'm wondering, what does Neal do now? :-)
ReplyDeleteYou showed a lot of both ways of life in this snippet. Well done Marcia! I think Neal has a lot to teach them as well.
ReplyDeleteGood excerpt this week. The contrast from Marcia's pov is quite striking.
ReplyDeleteGreat contrast between them there.
ReplyDelete