friday snippet

Friday Snippet #7

Monica La Porta, , 4 Comments

And, esteemed ladies and jellyfishes*, we have lucky number seven today. I took the whole week as a mental vacation and stood by it. Not a single rational thought was produced in the last seven days. If you ask me, it was a difficult task to accomplish, but I am truly that good.

Another snippet from TCOM.

Four or five more bursts of applauses and another elder, a slightly less exalted copy of the first, took her spot to tell the first story of the night.

Marie liked to hear a good tale like anybody else and her eyes and focus zeroed in on the newcomer.

“Darlene is one of the best storytellers, you’ll see.” Cina elbowed Marie. “I’m sure you’ve never heard anybody so good.”

Cina wasn’t exaggerating; Darlene had a gift. The whole time the elder spoke, not a single breath was heard. Darlene’s voice was pleasant enough, but the quality of the narration was what kept everybody glued to the story she was slowly unraveling.

“What a complicated plot, and with so many characters—” Marie shook her head in awe, unable to shush her inner thoughts. “She sure has a great imagination.”

“It is said she’s friend with one of the guards…”

“Oh, do you mean…?” Marie lowered her voice to a whisper.

“I mean what you’re thinking. Darlene has special permission to watch TV with her pure breed friend.”

“I’d give anything to watch a TV show again.” Marie’d had a glimpse of a television show once at the Institute and sighed at the memory.

*loosely stolen from Eddie Izzard, one of the funniest men on earth.

Friday Snippet #7

Friday Snippet #6

Monica La Porta, , , 2 Comments

Pax in the Land of Women is coming out this weekend. Just saying…

Just a subtle way to let you know I haven’t written a great deal, in case it wasn’t clear. But, I worked a bit on TCOM and this is a snippet from today’s effort.

Marie shivered.

“Oh, no. Marie, you’re going to be fine. You’re just fifteen.” The redhead smiled at her. “The Captain has never picked a girl who was younger than eighteen. I think there must be some kind of rule.”

“And you’re so slim. Donors are never thin. So maybe, you’ll never be chosen.” Cina took Marie’s hand in hers to give her some comfort. “Look at Verena, she’s the perfect donor.”

“And I’ve just turned eighteen. Lucky me.” Verena nervously laughed.

“Maybe you’re going to be lucky this time.” It was Marie’s turn to console the girl.

“Chances I can escape it forever are slim. I’ll be eligible for seven long years and with my physique it’s almost a given I’ll be a donor sooner or later.”

“But I heard it’s not as terrible as it was for our grandmothers. Now, you won’t come in contact with the sementals at all.” Marie blushed red as soon as she said the word semental.

“Still…”

Friday Snippet #6

Friday Snippet #5

Monica La Porta, , , , 4 Comments

It’s June! The sixth month of 2012 kind of snuck up on me. Yesterday, for the first time in twelve years, after having reminded my son he had a dentist appointment, I forgot myself. I was busy working on Pax; the last stretch of corrections is taking its toll. The document, in all its 106k words, came back proofread four days ago. I implemented all the corrections made and I went jihad on ‘that’. I erased ‘that’ like my life depended on it. I sent Pax back to my editor and she reinstated the 2% of them for clarity reasons. Pax is in my court again for the last reading. Then is out of my hands. Scary, isn’t it?

Despite a blurb I should be polishing and a document I should be reading, I took a vacation from all of it and wrote my 1k for the day. Fresh from the keyboard, here is a little something from TCOM.

Marie saw him coming closer to her, she raised her eyes to look at the same thing he was looking at, and saw the quartered chunks of what had been a big cow hanging from hooks over her hiding spot. He had already taken hold of the biggest piece, when steps resonated from far away and Marie’s name was called several times. He started running, but one of the loose sandals he was wearing slipped away and he almost stumbled. He reached the floor, but to break the fall and save his face from being smashed he had to use both hands and let the meat fall. It landed with a big thud only an inch shy of hitting Marie. He followed his prized stolen possession and found her as well.

“Where’re you, girl?” Verena called from the corridor.

Marie heard her friend, but she didn’t answer. The man had brought one finger to his mouth and was silently asking her to keep quiet. His familiar green eyes were staring at her and he was slowly shaking his head.

“You didn’t see me,” he whispered and, piece of butchered animal on his shoulders, left for the same route he had come from.

Friday Snippet #5

Friday Snippet #3

Monica La Porta, , , 9 Comments

Seven days have passed already. I’ve slept little or nothing, as my mind was busy thinking what I wanted to add in the final editing of Pax. Now that everything is done, I feel at the same time ecstatic and drained, but in a good way.

This week snippet is actually a surprise from my newest wip, one  I’ve only started last week. Here is one of the first paragraphs from the T.C.O.M.

“I can’t get away from here faster enough.” She had said that so many times, the other girls had started repeating the words to her as a joke. I really can’t get away from here soon enough. She walked to the end of the room and looked at herself in the long mirror precariously hang to the wall. A pale blond, big blue eyed, freckled-skinned girl looked back at her. “Why you so gloom?” She went back to her bunk bed and jumped on, shoeless feet dangling down toward Idra’s bed. Idra hated when she did that. “Move away those dirty feet from my face.” Marie did that on purpose, she liked when Idra got all mad at her; her dark eyes staring up, her mouth pouting. It was worth the trouble, because Idra couldn’t stay mad long. He laugh was what had attracted Marie to her. Now, someone else was going to sleep over Idra’s bed. This is what I want, a chance to better my life.

Friday Snippet #3