Monday 16 April 2012

Lucky 7 Scan

I have three children. I'm not talking about my daughters here, no, the children I refer to are my paper ones. The ones that have a beginning and an end and about a hundred thousand words between. 

Number One, I am sad to say, I'm greatly ashamed of. In fact, I'm so embarrassed by her I can't even bring myself to look at her. I had her when I was much younger, when I was naive and clumsy, when I wrote before I thought. I wasn't really ready to have her, and well, she wasn't quite right: poorly formed, over-excitable, a bit simple, and on occasion deathly boring. I had to shut her in the attic and lock the door. As the old adage goes, out of sight out of mind. Don't feel sorry for her, for all our sakes, it's best this way.

My second child, Number Two, I love very much. She's special to me. All my hopes were once pinned to her and for a while I thought she was 'it'. My glory girl. The one who'd look after me in my dotage. Finally, I thought, after all those years spent nurturing her and her attic-bound sister, I would get some reward. She was my X-factor auditionee. She did well in front of the panel of agent-judges. One was particularly taken with her and picked her for her team. After a fairly extreme makeover (a head-to-toe edit, two rewrites, and a lot of spit and polish) she was perfect in my eyes. Sadly, she didn't make it through to the live final. Now she lives under my bed, her beauty gathering dust, her voice ignored. I know, I'm a dreadful, neglectful mother, but what could I do? By then I had a new baby and I didn't have time for both.

I'm not supposed to say this, but Number Three is my favourite. We shouldn't have favourites, should we? It's just this one is that much more successful than the other two, and well, I find it difficult not to love her the best. Her debut is in August and we're both terribly excited. I'm nervous too - though I would never say this to her face - and every now and then (in fact, more often than not) I panic: I worry she's not that great after all, that, perhaps, when paraded in front of the world she might let me down. But my fingers are crossed. 

I'm right behind you, baby! 

Good luck, poppet!
 
And now I'm pregnant again. I know. I know. What was I thinking?! Don't I ever want to sleep? I've just got my life back and, BAM!, I'm doing it all over again. What can I say? I'm a floozy. I can't keep my pen in its lid. I just love the creational process. (And innuendo, I love innuendo, too.)

So when my friend, and talented writer, Cathy Dreyer tagged me with the Lucky 7 meme, which asks authors to provide an extract from their current work-in-progress, I thought, what better opportunity to share the first peek of my infant child. This is the equivalent of a twelve-week scan: 50,000 words in, narrative structure in place, and if you look carefully you can see a tiny heartbeat.

[The rules of the Lucky 7 meme are:
Go to page 7 or 77 of your current manuscript
Go to line 7
Post the next 7 lines or sentences, exactly as they are - no cheating
Tag 7 other authors to do the same]

He drew his eyes away from Jess and locked them on Will. Will's heart thumped, the heat of the midday sun beat down on him; he felt faint. It couldn't be him, could it? But there he was, standing right front of him, infecting this easy Sunday lunch with that darkest part of Will's past. Marcus smiled and held out his hand. Will didn't move.

"What a coincidence!" Amelia said. "When did you last see each other?"

I know, she looks like an alien mush - there's a lot of growing left to do - but I hope (fingers crossed) that she'll be pretty and healthy when she arrives. 

If not, there's lots of space in the attic with her older sister...

24 comments:

  1. Cor! She is stonking gorgeous! I love her brilliant hook, or whatever, device thingy, the unexpected meeting. Woo. Write it sistah. I''m buying a hat for the baptismal brunch. Cathy x

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    1. A hat - what a fab idea!!

      She's developing slower than her sisters, though, which is frustrating. Already I like her a little less. Hopefully, you won't need a purple rinse and a zimmer frame for the brunch-thing too. x

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  2. You are SO mean, I snippet of number four when we are already waiting with baited breath for number three, she sounds wonderful it looks as if you will have plenty of well rounded amazing children to look after you in your dotage.
    I am desperado to meet number two, second children are wonderful and often over looked.

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    1. I love Middles too. Maybe if Number 3 does ok, Number 2 will get a chance to get out from under the bed on the back of her coat-tails!!

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    2. that would be very exciting an extra book we were not expecting, come on number three, number two is counting on you!

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    3. and so am I need a good book (or two, no pressure) while I travel to the olympics.

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  3. How very Jane Eyre of you to lock the mad one in the attic!

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    1. Isn't it?!
      Except I also throw her fish heads to eat every now and then, which is a trick I learnt from the Simpsons, and poison-coated doughnuts, as in Flowers in the Attic.
      Poor Numero Uno...

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    2. Flowers in the ATTic. I have crowdsourced how to do heavy breathing on twitter but no one knows. Still Flowers int he ATtic. I may have had wine.

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    3. I think you may have had wine. However, it's made your word formatting very comtemporary. Perhaps you could write your novel this way. Original, cutting edge, would say the reviewers...

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  4. Think you need to make sure the attic kids come out again every now and then too - may be room for them in the family now you are an expert in the re re write!! Looking forward to all new arrivals! xx K

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    1. Thank you!! I just bloomin' hope there ARE new arrivals (if my editor and agent are reading this, then that was a joke...ahem)

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  5. Love the numbered names of the children, is number eight going to be Octavia?

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    1. Number 8?!!!!

      My pen just dried up at the thought.

      *faints*

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  6. I think your new arrival sounds perfect - she may look a little like a Tim Burton animation at the moment - but she will flesh out beautifully in the coming weeks. And when you finally get to hold her and look into those big beautiful, bound blue eyes, you will feel such a huge sense of achievement. Plus, you can start drinking gin like a trucker. Good times!

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    1. I think with your 'Tim Burton animation' you praise her too much - however, you are right, drinking gin like a trucker is a worthy goal!!

      Loved your post this week, Melissa. Hope you managed to get that workload done (wanna drink gin with me soon?!)

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  7. OK - I have recovered from my initial shock of it all.... you can now commence with No. 4, the book.

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    1. I was thinking about having a baby all last night - I hold you partially responsible for putting the seed back in my head. Your excited response got me all broddy!! x

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    2. Don't do it.... it'll interfer with the slightly dark, unique and unusual baby

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  8. The lengths to which a person will go to avoid cleaning the house...but this helps me - I now know WHERE I went wrong - but still without cleaning the house...LOVELY Amanda

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  9. A couple of you have asked for a Lucky 7 of Sworn Secret, child Number 3. I'm not giving this any trumpeting because, well, it seems silly to do so, but for those interested, here is an extract, the 77th page of writing, 7 lines down, next 7 lines:

    '...they would go to the shed and sit and chat, away from the eyes
    and ears of grown-ups. Anna would light a Marlboro Light and the air
    would quickly become unbearable with smoke and dust, and Lizzie
    would stare at her delicate fingers holding the cigarette, envious of
    her perfect nails. Anna had always had perfect nails, even as a small
    child. They were long enough to look grown-up, but not tart-long,
    and neatly filed with a flawless white tip. Lizzie’s own were...'

    Goodness. I feel naked. Or, maybe not 'naked' but perhaps a little exposed. ;-))

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  10. excellent - it was a shed scene, but not THE shed scene... tantalising :-)

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  11. Our babies are due this year around the same time. How exciting :) We're right behind you, too! xxx

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  12. That was fab, but now I want more, I think Lizzie has bitten nails. Gosh do we really have to wait three whole months to find out? I'm sure it feels as fast as a run away train to you but for me it is more leaves on the line. I love this lucky 7 so glad you were tagged two glimpses of my summer reading,

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