Saturday, April 19, 2014

Weekend Writing Warriors 4/20/14: Might not be a prize behind that door



Happy Easter, everybody J If you don’t celebrate Easter, happy Sunday to you J I’m skipping ahead in my WIP, tentatively titled Night Shift. Collected excerpts for this story are here. Kazimir has explained his plan to capture the demon Thaumiel in the basement of Devorah’s synagogue. In order to lure the extremely cautious Thaumiel into the basement, Kaz and Devorah have come up with a plan to bring together a bunch of religious leaders whose souls Thaumiel would love to grab.

Mind you, this is all fully explained in the novel. For now, what you need to know is that Kazimir has set up a special trap in one of the basement rooms. He and two of his Crosser friends are waiting for Thaumiel to arrive and get caught in the trap. The religious leaders are leaving the main room for a tour of the synagogue and Devorah is trailing behind them. Before she goes through the doorway, she hears growling coming from across the basement. She knows Kaz and his friends are in one of the smaller rooms.

Outright howling and snarling erupted, as if a whole pack of dogs was caught up in a fight to the death. I shut the door behind Father John and jammed a chair under the doorknob. If Kazimir and his friends needed help, the small ability I had might be enough to tip the scales. I ran down the hall. The unearthly howling came from one of the two doors.

Closing my eyes, I pictured lake waves glinting in the moonlight and splashing at my feet. Cool water, part of me, my own energy. I popped my eyes open and opened the door. 

Come join us on our merry blog hop at Weekend Writing Warriors - I guarantee more than one story will grab you! If you like romance, you’ll find plenty; if you lean toward sci fi, we have some of that too. Think you’d like to be part of all this writerly fun? The linky list is posted every Monday morning US Eastern time, and you have until that following Saturday at midnight to sign up. Then be sure your 8 sentence excerpt is live on your blog by 9 am Eastern time. Easy peasy!

Thanks to everybody who stops by my blog. I’m tickled pink that you decided to visit me!

Wishing everybody a wonderful spring, the season of renewal :-)



22 comments:

  1. I like how she pictures the moonlight and lake water as a way to help overcome the fear she's experiencing. Good snippet!

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    1. Thanks, Frank. I appreciate that, and I'm glad you like it.

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  2. I'm with Frank, loved the idea of her picturing the symbols she needs to keep herself moving forward to help. This is really a different story inagoodway. Great snippet!

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    1. So glad you're enjoying this, Veronica :D :D

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  3. What Frank and Veronica said!! Definitely an attention-grabbing snippet and I have my fingers crossed for the MC.

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  4. The sound of dogs fighting taps into deep-rooted ancestral fears, so she would definitely need a moment to gather herself. From the way you describe it, though, I think the mental image conveys far more than just calming, it sounds like she's reaching for the source of her powers.

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    1. You got it, she is - she doesn't know what's behind that door but it can't be good. She needs her mojo to deal with that!

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    1. I'm working to show that. I don't really care for female leads who wring their hands and look for somebody to save them!

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  6. Wow, it's such a unique and fantastic story you're telling. The first person narration adds that extra little something in suspense to grab and pull the reader in Devorah's world. And the ending is quite powerful as well, I hope we'll find out next week what lies behind the door. :)

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    1. Thanks Dana! I really appreciate that. The interesting thing is, this is one of the rare snippets I didn't have to tweak or edit at all. I'm so glad it's connecting with a bunch of peeps.

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  7. Cliffhanger ! Cliffhanger! Ugh you're killing me. Great snippet Marcia!

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  8. You're tapping into some good imagery, Marcia. The calming water in the moonlight, the snarling noise like a pack of dogs... Good way to grab the readers' emotions. :-) Good snippet. :-)

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    1. I want to scare people in this scene and don't have much experience writing truly scary stuff, so it's an experiment. I'm so glad you like it!

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  9. Oh Marcia, you've written it all in eight. Your audience awaits next week's snippet. And thanks for some great imagery and an unusual story.

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    1. :D Thanks so much. I'm truly grateful for the wonderful comments today. Everybody is so sweet and helpful, you guys give me the impetus to continue the first draft. I'm determined to reach The End :)

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  10. Waves splashing at her feet, very good imagery and evokes a calming feeling to the reader. Good 8.

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  11. Marcia, I'm loving this, it's very cool. Makes me wonder what this demon is going to look like.

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    1. Well, I might offer a peek at one of the demons ;-) Thanks, Millie.

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