Tease?

Sunny asks if my posts are a tease for the book. I hadn't thought of them that way exactly, but I suppose they are in a way. I don't know when or even if the story about the boy with wings will ever make it into print. And I wouldn't expect many (if any) of the readers of this blog to purchase it if/when that should occur. 

Although you can be sure I will let you know. Of course.

My original idea of posting bits and pieces of the novel-in-process was to give myself something to post this month. I did not expect to have a lot of time to devote to blogging, and it seemed an easy way to put something out there on a daily basis. I do hope these fragments are tantalizing, at least a little bit. But given the nature of NaNoWriMo, even if you were to like some of what you read here, I can't guarantee any of that will be in the final product.

And of course, there is the fact that we will be moving and getting settled into a new apartment in the weeks after November ends, getting the house cleaned up to turn over to the new owner and trying to calm the cats, who have not even pretended to be okay with all these changes. I will most likely not get time to do much of the oh-so-necessary editing for a while.

Anyway, as of 2:46 CST today, Day 7, the word count is 29,370 and here are the last few paragraphs. The word of the day on Dictionary.com, by the way, is mauka, a Hawaiian word that I am not even going to try to force into the story.

“Go away!” Joanne Smithers was shouting at Angelo. “This is all your fault. What if someone gets hurt. It will all be your fault! Get out of here! You aren’t wanted around here!”

Hank stopped, just a foot or two below Angelo’s dangling bare feet. He jumped once or twice, trying to grab the feet, but he couldn’t make it. Giving up on that, he took a firm stance, drew his arm back as far as he could and yelled, “You heard her! Get the hell out of here, you freak!”

We had all been staring at Hank and Angelo, but suddenly Katie appeared from nowhere and landed on Hank’s back, beating him with her thin arms.

            “Leave him alone!” she screamed. “Leave him alone!”

Her attack had surprised Hank into dropping the rock and he spun around trying to dislodge her. She had one hand over his eyes and he couldn’t see where he was going. She kept him blinded with one hand -- whether intentionally or not was unclear -- and pounded his side with the other. All the while Belinda circled and circled them, trying to figure out how and whom to help.

Hank stumbled back against the frame of the swings and fell, twisting as he did so in such a way that it threw Katie free. He tried to regain his balance, but tripped on the rock he had intended to throw at Angelo and went down. He hit his head on the corner of a picnic table and lay quiet. A red line began to drip down the side of his face.

Belinda started to scream.