Weekend Writing Warriors 5/26/13

Street Glass is my novel-in-progress. My tagline: Underprivileged 18-yr-old Latino leaves street gang and befriends white, over-privileged 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.

All the previous excerpts are collected here.

Last week, Sandy and Razor made a narrow escape from the gang. I’m skipping the part where Razor tries to stop something pretty bad from happening to people he knows but he’s unable to. He and Sandy are both deeply affected by the awful events, Razor more so. I’m skipping it because it’s pivotal and I have to save some stuff for the novel itself!

The guys make it back to Sandy’s car. They take a few minutes to collect themselves then Sandy asks Razor what his real name is. Razor hesitates—that’s not something he tells just anybody—but says his name is Neal. Sandy expected something Hispanic and Neal explains that he’s named after his grandfather who was Anglo (white). Sandy observes,

“So, wait, all that time you picked on me for being white, and you’re part white yourself. That’s not fair.”

“Nothin’s fair, what happened tonight ain’t fair. I always been in the barrios so I ain’t Anglo, I’m Latino—people like you spit on people like me.”

“Not all of us are bad.” He stuck a hand out and said cheerfully, “Neal, I’m Sandy. Good to meet you.”

“Liar.”

“I met kind of a scary guy called Razor, but I think I’ll get along with you better.”

Tag along at Weekend Writing Warriors as we blog hop all over the world, reading fabulous snippets from works in progress, works just published and some just about to be. It's interesting to read comments and see who had the same impression as you and who read the snippet a different way. Personally, I not only love the kind things people say about my own story, but the 8 sentence limit forces me to think about what needs to be said and what doesn't. That's very valuable for a writer!

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Comments gratefully accepted :-D

Weekend Writing Warriors 5/19/13

Street Glass is my novel-in-progress. My tagline: Underprivileged 18-yr-old Latino leaves street gang and befriends white, over-privileged 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.

All the previous excerpts are collected here.

After last week’s snippet, Razor and Sandy had to run (in the rain) from the gang. Razor thinks they’re safe now but they hide in between a couple of trucks parked in the street. 

Reminder: Sandy parked his car in an unfamiliar neighborhood and walked around to cool off after a nasty argument. He “met” Razor while looking for his car.

Sandy wiped a hand across his face. Crouched in the street, stuffed between a couple trucks, wet and out of breath, he shuddered as a wave of cold crept over him. How the hell had he gone from rehearsing for a tour to this? A thought hit him. “Hey, I remember where I left my car. It’s in the parking lot of the restaurant at Rosewood and Florinda.”

 Razor cut short a laugh. “You was only four streets from there when I found ya.”

Join us at Weekend Writing Warriors. We're a pretty friendly bunch. We'd love to see what you're working on and we hope you have fun blog hopping all over the world reading bits of what we're working on.

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Comments gratefully accepted :-D

Weekend Writing Warriors 5/12/13

Street Glass is my novel-in-progress. My tagline: Underprivileged 18-yr-old Latino leaves street gang and befriends white, over-privileged 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.

All the previous excerpts are collected here.

Part I’m skipping: Razor explains that he really wants to find somebody from his past. Sandy says he should be able to get a private investigator to look into that. Eventually, Razor agrees to go with Sandy and leave the gang for good. This section is in Sandy’s POV and he’s the first one speaking.

(Razor has previously explained that if he leaves the gang and they see him again, they’ll kill him. He also mentions that he’ll have to get another car because the gang has taken the only one to go on their “job” that night.)

“Hey, if you really can’t come back, maybe you should let a few of your friends know.”

Razor shook his head. “No time, an’ they safer if they don’t know.”

“Well, is there anything you want to take, something to remind you of anybody?”

Razor seemed about to answer but didn’t; he rubbed an earlobe and kicked at something in the dirt.

His head snapped around to face the door leading to outside.

“What?” Sandy said.

“You deaf? Car’s back.”

Join us at Weekend Writing Warriors. We're a pretty friendly bunch. We'd love to see what you're working on and we hope you have fun blog hopping all over the world reading bits of what we're working on. 

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Comments gratefully accepted :-D

Weekend Writing Warriors 5/5/13

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Street Glass is my novel-in-progress. My tagline: Underprivileged 18-yr-old Latino leaves street gang and befriends white, over-privileged 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.

All the previous excerpts are collected here.

Part I’m skipping: Razor explains that one gang member did get away and couldn’t be found, but Razor doesn’t have anybody to hide him. If he leaves the gang and they see him anywhere, they’ll kill him. Razor also says he’s given thought to how to support himself if he ever did get out. Sandy points out that the longer they stand around talking, the greater the chances that the cops will start looking for him. This scene is in Sandy’s POV. 

Razor gritted his teeth and wandered off. He looked like he might be thinking about it. He disappeared into the dimness at the edge of the room but just for a minute. He walked in slow circles around the fire, sat on the edge of a chair and leaned his head into his hands, then threw himself against the back of the seat.

It seemed like a pretty clear-cut decision, really. Sandy turned his wrists in the cuffs and rolled his aching shoulders. Look at him, twitching like a finger on a trigger. I’ve never seen anybody so afraid to trust.

Join us at Weekend Writing Warriors. We're a pretty friendly bunch. We'd love to see what you're working on and we hope you have fun blog hopping all over the world reading bits of what we're working on. 

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Comments gratefully accepted :-D