Oh, Six Sentence Sunday, we meet again. How I’ve missed you so.
Don’t know the rules to play our little game? Click HERE and prepare to be dazzled. There are many brilliant authors waiting for you to sample their six.
As for mine? Oh, it’s a tough one. I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t like anything I’ve written. I realize that sounds a tad depressing but it’s kind of a good thing. When I look back and re-read, I come across a million things I’d like to change. I’m seeing mistakes that I’ve made that I’m itching to fix. Perhaps what I’m trying to tell myself is that it’s time to sit down and do a little rewriting? Make those stories shiny and new?
Perhaps.
Let’s begin with The Between World, shall we? It is my first (and at this point only) self-published novel and is essentially the story of a woman lost in life who suffers a terrible car accident, which for all intents and purposes, should have killed her. Her handsome rescuer, it turns out, is not from this world and for reasons, which even I can’t explain as the author, she gets all needy and clingy from the start. Whew! High maintenance this one. Not only, Yalen, will you have to save her boring life as saleswoman but then she’s going to refuse to hit the road when she’s well enough to do so. (ha!) How is that for gratitude when you’ve just broken the rules of your world to save this crazy girl in the first place?
Yalen needs to forcibly send her back to the earthly world where her injuries force her to move back home with her dad and face the small town that she tried to leave behind. She also must confront former best friend / love interest Neil that Dad makes it clear that he still desperately wants her to hook up with. Good grief, Dad, worry about your own life, would ya? Nina doesn’t remember Yalen but she knows there was someone… she’s left with strange longings she can’t quite explain. Settling for a mere mortal just isn’t good enough anymore. And geez Louise, Neil is engaged anyway.
Yalen ruffles the feathers of his superiors and because he works for a sadistic bunch, they send him back to earth to seek and destroy. Now he’s forced to kill the crazy woman that he wasted all that time saving. How is that for a thankless job? Nina senses something the moment he sets foot in the bookstore where she works. She wants him bad because he makes her tingly but she’s also terrified of him. I guess rightly so since he’s planning to kill her and all. All in a day’s work. Just in case Yalen decides to chicken out, Charlie is keeping a watchful eye. We’ll find out later that Charlie was in on the whole conspiracy.
And just in case you didn’t guess it, Yalen does indeed have second thoughts when he sees this hot chick. He’s falling in love with her. Gosh darn it, leave it to love to get in the way of killing a girl and moving on with life, right? Good thing Yalen also catches a whiff of the conspiracy going on here so he’ll at least dig a little deeper before following through on orders anyway. He lures Nina into the woods and then tells her that her mother didn’t actually commit suicide. Now, I don’t know about you but if I had to move forward after my mother’s suicide when I was only 17, I might not appreciate some stranger showing up at my door years later to tell me that it was all a joke and I might not to be feeling so romantic when the psycho tries to kiss me out here in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know. Maybe that’s just me?
I guess I shouldn’t give away the whole story. After all, now that you’re enticed into reading it (?), you’re going to want to find out for yourself how this crazy mess resolves itself. Trust me, it gets weird. But there are good things as well and I hope that since I’ve distanced myself a bit that I can focus on pulling out the parts I like and creating a better story.
You with me?
Good… Now here are my six for the day. I’ve stolen these from the end of chapter two after the accident and after Yalen and Nina’s initial meeting. Happy Reading!
***
They were pictures, frozen in time of events either past or yet to come. Were they real or imagined? She continued to watch until it occurred to her the one thing that all of the images had in common: not one of them included her. The revelation left her feeling unsettled and she managed to turn her attention to a darkness that existed just beyond the slideshow. Her mind went quiet and she relaxed. Only Yalen’s face lingered in her memory.
Very creepy “memories”. I want to know why they don’t include her at all. Great 6.
Leaves you wanting to know if it’s real or just the slide show. Hope you post again next week. Very well done. 🙂
Sad and beautiful. A wonderful six!
Hmmm, fascinating story setup and a very evocative excerpt. Terrific six!
Calm but eerie. she seems very accepting of these images. Very good enticing six.
Hi Stephanie,
I came by to see your October Memoir and Backstory blog. Have you decided not to participate in the challenge? It’s only the first day, so you’re not behind, and we;d love to have you join us. But if you’ve decided not, please let me know so i can take your name off the blog hop.
Thanks,
Jane Ann
Hi Jane,
It was only the first of October and I was under the impression that the challenge was to write at least 25 posts in October, not 31. If this is not the case, then yes, I suppose I should be removed. Otherwise, I hadn’t changed my mind. I just didn’t start on day one.
I quite enjoyed the wording in your first sentence. Excellent six!