Lucky Seven Meme

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I was tagged by both Helen Howell and Sonya Clark for a Lucky Seven Excerpt.

The rules are simple:

1. Go to page 77 in your current manuscript
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next seven lines as they are - no cheating
4. Tag 7 other authors (Done on Facebook)

This is from To Kill A Dead Man, the sequel to The Guns of Retribution. I know it looks like a lot but that's literally seven lines in the front I'm using!

“Boss, pardon me for sayin’ so, but you’re normally so calm and collected. Only this stuff with Miss Marsden has got you all riled up. Forget about what Marvel said we did, or didn’t do. Right now, we gotta find McEavy, get Bess back, and hopefully find Miss Marsden.” 

He looked me straight in the eye, his blue eyes all serious and earnest. I’d never seen Billy look like that, and he might as well have slapped me. I took a step backward, and shook my head, trying to clear away all the cobwebs. Billy was right. I was getting carried away, and I needed to focus. I was no good to Peggy if I went off half-cocked.


If you liked that, maybe you'll enjoy The Guns of Retribution!

Writing is...Escapism

Tweet I was tagged by Tony Noland in his meme and not wanting to disappoint, here's my answer - what writing means to me.

Writing is escapism. When you're a kid, you feel like you can do or be anything. That's not your back yard - it's the battleground for the final showdown between your band of rebels and the evil intergalactic alliance. You wait every day by the letterbox, hoping today will be the day your letter from Hogwarts arrives. You play with your mother's rings, hoping to find the one that will transport you to another dimension. And then...you grow up.

Real life and all its mundane (and often painful) concerns rear their ugly heads, and soon you're battling a hydra of gargantuan proportions. Lop the head off one worry and two more will spring up in its place. If you're a writer, though, you don't have to grow up - and battling that Hydra becomes easier because you have the imagination to fight it. Your horrible boss, whose attempts at motivating the work force succeed only in pushing people over the edge, becomes a hideous demon, and only you can defeat him (or her) by leaving Post-It notes covered with anonymous doodles all over the office. You only have £10 for food and can't decide what to buy so you spend your time dawdling in the fresh produce aisle, inventing weird and wonderful new fruits and vegetables from your very own country. Your soul destroying commute becomes the mad dash through the minotaur's labyrinth.

Sure, it's all just make believe, and none of it's real, but you know what? It doesn't matter. When I write, I can make things up to my heart's content, rewriting the laws of the universe to suit my own perverse imaginings. I don't have to worry about whether or not I paid my credit card bill, or worry about how my day at work is going to go, if I'm knee deep in a story about a dashing Cavalier, or exploring the streets of Vertigo City with Commander Liss Hunt. For a short time, I'm absent from the world and its concerns.

Writing is escapism, and escapism is good for the soul.

I'm going to tag;

Stina Vincent
Carrie Clevenger
Rob Diaz
Jen Brubacher