Currently Untitled NaNo Write Project
an excerpt

So the end of NaNo 2007 is here. I've fallen short of the 50 000 word count. Very, very short, unfortunately, but I had fun and I learned a few things about myself as a writer so I'm happy that I participated in the challenge.

I'm definately going to do this next year, but hopefully I'll be better prepared then. This being my first year doing NaNo I didn't really know what to expect. I figured it would be something like the creative writing assignments that I used to get in school. A little bit lengthier, sure but otherwise not that different. But it was quite a bit more challenging and time consuming than any school project I ever had to do.

And I didn't put as much time or effort into it as I should have. That's one mistake I won't make again.

I also went into it thinking that it didn't matter what I wrote about, as long as I was writing. That was my second mistake.

I think if I cared more about the story I was writing, if it was a story I really, truly wanted to tell, I would have been more dedicated to working on it and that's something I'm going to try for next year.

Despite those shortcomings, NaNo got me writing seriously again, for the first time since the release of my e-book and that makes it all worthwhile. It reminded me how much I enjoy the process of crafting a novel. The challenge of creating characters and resolving conflicts.

Chances are I'll keep working on the novel I started for NaNo because while I may be a procrastinator, I'm not one to give up completely.
I'll be posting chapters on my website, http://stacey-lee.cjb.net/

Currenly Untitled NaNo Write Project

Chapter One.

Looking back after everything happened, Skylar realized that it all started as a chance encounter. One of those things that relied on everything falling into place just so and any one thing different would have changed the outcome.

If Skylar hadn't needed a new lense for her camera she never would have been in the city that day. If she hadn't asked her brother Christian for a ride and he wouldn't have been with her. If Mackenzie hadn't been wearing her brand new suede jacket it wouldn't have mattered quite so much that it looked like it was going to rain at any moment.

But Skylar had needed a new lense and Chris had given her ride and Mackenzie had worn her suede jacket and was now requesting that they duck inside one of the shops or cafe's that lined the street as the first of the rain drops started to fall.

Even though they had to get back so Chris could be at work for three, Skylar didn't exaclly relish the idea of getting soaked walking the rest of the way to Chris' car which was parked three blocks away in a pay lot beside an office complex.

As the drops started falling, cold and stinging against her face, Skylar sidestepped an elderly couple walking together, sharing an umbrella and opened the door to a cafe then turned her gaze beeseachingly on her brother, hoping that the smell of coffee and fresh baked pastries would entice him.

He hesitated on the sidewalk, his shirt darkening in the uneven pattern of the rain and his hair matting against his head.
.
"We'll stay for a cup of coffee and see if it dies down but I'm leaving after that. Whether you two come with me or not," he said after a moment. "You can take the bus home for all I care."

Mackenzie, who had been huddled under the overhand during this exchange, gave Chris a one armed hug. He rolled his eyes and brushed her off.

"My hero," she teased, exchanging a knowing glance with Skylar behind his back as they followed him into the cafe. He wouldn't leave them stranded in the city, even if the rain didn't let up He'd go get the car and bring it around for them, if it came down to it. They'd never hear the end of it the whole ride back but he would to the gentelmanly thing.

"I'll order us some coffee, you get us a table?" Chris suggested.

Skylar nodded agreement and scanned the the interior of the cafe as her crossed to the counter.

"Over there." Mackenzie pointed to a spot in the near corner and they wove their way over to it.

"Ugh, gross. Some people are such slobs," Mackenzie commented gingerly poking at a discarded napkin and the crumbs strewn across the chipped wood surface of the table.

"Maybe there's somewhere else to sit," Skylar suggested, glance around once again.

For the middle of a weekday, the place was crowded. There was an elderly couple at the stools by the counter and a group of surly looking pre-teens took up two tables in the corner but for the most part the place was full of middle-aged buisness men still in their suits and jackets, the women in their power suits, their briefcases at their feet and Blackberries in hand.

Almost all of the tables were occupied, the only free one's being a few single person one's lining the window.

"Never mind." Mackenzie grabbed a handful of napkins from the dispenser and swept the mess of crumbs onto the floor then balled the used napkin into her pile and carried it over to the trash by the door.

She returned a moment later and announced she was going to go wash her hands. Probably several times over. With disinfectant soap.

Skylar propped her leg against the table's frame and leaned back in her chair, looking idylly around. She watched the teenyboppers for a moment, two of them engaged in some kind of contest that involved stuffing biscotti in their mouths while the rest looked on and took pictures with their cell phones. Her gaze roamed over the serious faces of the suits, their fingers working rapidly on their pda's or laptops.

Christian was still in line waiting to order and Mackenzie hadn't returned yet. She got up and snagged one of the papers out of the tray by the window, the local daily, a little wrinkled and torn around the corners but still readable with no visible stains then returned to the table and began flipping through it.

Chris and Mackenzie returned at the same time, her with her cell phone out, texting away him juggling three styrofome cups of coffee and a brown bag of something.

"Brownies," he explained, tossing them to her. "So you won't complain that your hungry on the ride home."

She caught the bag against her chest and got a whiff of warm chocolate through the bag.

"Thanks, Strife." He rolled his eyes at her use of his old nickname but didn't comment or protest.

"Milk or sugar?" he asked Mackenzie. She shook her head and he dropped down into the empty chair.

Mackenzie was still texting and Chris was hassling her, trying to peek over her shoulder.

Skylar divied up the brownies and turned her attention back to the comics she'd found at the back of the paper, between the personals and the classified.

"What you reading?" Chris asked, boring of his harrasment of Mackenzie and turning his attention to her. "Trying to find yourself a man?" He peered at the column of adds.

"No, trying to find you one."

"I bet the guy for you is in there," he persisted, ignoring her comment.

"Well, take a look. I'm sure you'll find the one for you."

He scowled at her and leaned back in his seat, sipping his coffee. Skylar finished the comics and let her eyes travel aimlessly over the page, half-reading some of the adds, until a picture in the left hand corner, the obit section, caught her eye. She glanced up at the name, Clayton Pierce. Didn't sound familiar. She studied it for a moment more then turned her attention to the next page. But something kept drawing her attention back to the obituary and the picture.

With a sigh she pushed the paper away and picked up her coffee. Then gave a yelp of surprise as Christian pulled the paper towards himself.

"What the hell, Chris..." she complained, shaking a few drops of coffee off her hands and wiping at a wet spot on her leg. The next words died in her throat as she looked up and saw his intent expression as he stared down at the page in front of him. The same page she'd been looking at a moment before.

"What?" Mackenzie looked up in confusion, her eyes taking in the look on Chris' face and turning to Skylar questioningly. "Sky?"

Skylar shook her head. "Strife?" she laid a hand on his arm and shook gently, finally regaining his attention. "What is it,Chris?"

He looked at her, more like through her for a moment, then blinked, coming back from wherever he'd been. He pointed to the page. To the obituary Skylar had glanced at and dismissed, even though a niggling feeling in the back of her head kept calling her attention back to it.

"Don't you recognize the name?"

She glanced at it again. Clayton Pierce. "No. Should I?"

His voice was so low when he answered that she almost didn't catch what he said. "That's Dad, Sky. Clayton Pierce. It's our father."