Sharkbait Writes

Over the past week two beautiful women in my circle of writerly friends, Nikki McCormack and Miranda Gammella, tagged me with The Lucky 7 Meme game.

The rules of the game are:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP (If you don’t yet have 77 pages of your current work in progress completed, just choose the first seven sentences.)
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they’re written.
4. Tag 7 authors, and let them know.

Since two of my fellow authors decided to tag me within the same week, I decided to have a little fun with this and break the rules a little bit. I’m going to use both my current work-in-progress AND post from my book that is already published. That way both of these lovely ladies don’t have to fight over who gets credit for the post…not that I’m complaining about them fighting over me. I’m thinking mud wrestling match to declare the winner. No wait…CHOCOLATE PUDDING! I love chocolate pudding!

For some reason that I simply cannot understand Nikki and Miranda declined the invitation to settle this in the pudding ring and decided to play nice. Now what am I going to do with all of this chocolate?

Back to the game…

The first Lucky 7 Meme excerpt comes from my debut novel Pursuit of a Dream (Book One of Victory Lane: The Chronicles). This is the book that I’ve been promoting and donating royalties to Indies Unite for Joshua. Sticking with the whole “7” theme, I’m going to shake it up a bit. I’m going to start with seven random snippets that include the word “dream” since the book is titled Pursuit of a Dream. Okay, it’s corny, but it’s the best I could come up with at one o’clock in the morning. So, here they are:

1. I would also like to thank my sister Linda for her encouraging words and belief in me as a writer as I pursued my own dream of publishing my first novel. (Oh, wait, that’s from the acknowledgments. Next search…)

2. Stephanie asked, “Have you ever seriously considered Caleb’s dreams?”

3. John frowned, “I know. It’s… I just think it’s way too dangerous. I’m not sure if I could handle him pursuing that type of a dream, knowing that there would be even a remote possibility of him getting hurt or even killed in an auto racing accident. I don’t think I could live with myself if—”

4. Dr. Williams clicked the top of his pen and placed it in his shirt pocket, “I think that’s a great dream for a kid to have. Who knows? He may wind up being the next Dale Earnhardt or Richard Petty.”

5. “And if that’s really your dream, then I’ll support you a hundred percent. You just keep on pursuing that dream and never give up… no matter what.”

6. The closest he had actually come to pursuing any of his childhood dreams was when he drag raced his car down Congress Avenue. He had nearly wrecked the car in the process. John smiled as he remembered that he had also won that race.

7. John looked at his older son. Now there was a kid who did not have a complicated goal. John knew what he needed to do to help satisfy Jared’s athletic dream. First he needed to sign him up for Little League, then Jared could play on his high school baseball team, go to college on a baseball scholarship and play college ball for the Longhorns. If everything turned out in Jared’s favor, he would then play AAA ball and then work his way up to the major leagues. That was a chain of succession that John understood, but he was completely lost when it came to Caleb’s dream.

And now for the main event…

The following excerpt is from The Devil’s Nightmare, a novel in the horror genre that I hope to publish in October. I will be using the first paragraph, which just so happens to be exactly seven lines. I have 155 pages complete, but Line 7 of Page 77 currently has a scene that I would rather not reveal. Well, I could, but then I’d have to send the forces of darkness after you and…oh, never mind!

(This post is a bit longer than I had anticipated…)

If you’re still with me here is the Lucky 7 Meme excerpt from The Devil’s Nightmare…

Cody Sumner ran frantically past rows and rows of tombstones in the dark cemetery. His lungs burned with each frenetic breath. Several times the boy lost his footing, whimpering in fear as he picked himself up. He then heard a bloodcurdling scream in the distance behind him. A loud explosion of thunder and lightning startled him as he looked backwards and then lost his footing, collapsing onto the wet, muddy ground. He pushed himself backward, his hands splashing in puddles of water and mud as he noticed a large dark shadow approaching from fifty yards away. In the darkness of the cemetery, the shadow concealed its true identity, but the boy knew exactly what the evil was that stalked him.

And now for the ceremonial tagging of seven fellow authors…

Christina Esdon
Carolyn Arnold
Eden Baylee 
Dannie C. Hill
Cara Michaels vV””Vv
Rebecca M. Senese
Karen DeLabar

You all shall be properly informed of your esteemed Lucky 7 Meme invitation via Twitter or carrier pigeon, depending on what my mood is and whether or not I’ve had any caffeine when this publishes.

Cheers!

Update: On Wednesday, April 11, another talented young author named Spencer Brokaw tagged me with “The Lucky 7 Meme”, but since the ladies and I already ate all of the pudding (including the chair), I’ll have to come up with something else to recognize the recent tag. In the meantime, check out Spencer’s “Lucky 7 Meme” post here and his first book The Impenetrable Spy on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Update (11/11/14): I ended up dropping “The” from the title of Devil’s Nightmare prior to publishing my first horror novel on January 6, 2013. It went on to be an Amazon Best Seller in two horror categories, and as of this writing has over 100 reviews with an average 4.1-star rating. I think I’ll celebrate with some pudding. :-).