Hooks are my weakness so I've been working to make them a strength. I entered Loose Id's Hot Hooks contest and I made the top twenty. Now I need some help. ***Edit (I got my dates wrong. Thursday, Oct. 29th is the last day to vote)Today is the last day readers can vote for the best hooks. If you have a minute and like mine, please vote for it. If you think it needs work, let me know where I need to tweak it.
Scroll Down and click the Hot Hooks Contest link. You get to vote for the ten best stories and if you leave an email address (optional) you'll be entered to win a VIP membership.
My story, The Dungeon Gourmet, was selected as one of the twenty finalists in Loose Id's Hot Hooks contest. So I guess that makes me a Hot Hooker. Anyway, the blurb and first 200 words of the story will be up on the Loose-Id website for voting, October 26-29. If my story scores in the top ten, I go on to the next round. I'll post more details on the contest as I get them.
Just joining me? Catch up on the Greyhound Summer story here.
À la Clay Pigeons, I found a woman with three kids to sit beside. Why? Because I wanted a cloaking device. Everyone keeps their distance from women traveling with little kids, but this one came with the added bonus of a nursing baby. No one wants to look her direction lest they see a bare breast, or worse -- see a need they'll feel guilty about not filling. People might glance her way, but their gaze will skitter to safer territory. Sitting next to her imparts a measure of invisibility to me. Should the other kids start acting up, those glances turn to daggers aimed at her and I'll fade out of existence completely.
A toddler gripped the edge of an orange plastic seat in chubby fists and swayed on wobbly legs. He eyed me like I was a fire breathing dragon that had plopped down between him and the woman I assumed was his mother. I say assumed because the child was a golden haired, golden skinned, blue-eyed cherub. The mother, the baby at her breast, and the little girl tucked against her side were ebony-skinned and brown-eyed. Still, there was no mistaking the worried frown of a mother whose baby has wandered just a little too far away and the toddler's anxious fixation on her. He shoved a fist in his mouth and sucked while he considered his options. She winced and I knew she was thinking the same thing I was – germs.
The little one apparently decided to make a run for it. He hurled his body toward mom, arms outstretched with that fast, tilted-forward style of a baby just learning to walk. The key was choosing a landing spot close enough to reach before he toppled over.. The little guy miscalculated and went down at my feet. He arched his back taking the force of the fall on his belly and avoiding hitting his head. At first his mouth worked soundlessly as he grew more agitated by his inability to get a breath. His feet kicked and his hands slapped at the floor. I bent to scoop him up just as he managed to fill his lungs with air and the bus terminal with a howl that turned every head in our direction.
So much for invisibility.
Good news!! The Editors at textnovel.com selected Greyhound Summeras an Editor's Pick. If you're enjoying this story, help me make it into the finals of the competition with your vote. Just click this linkand vote me up by clicking both the thumb symbol and cellphone symbol next to my story. I know it's a pain to have to create an account, but it's free and you'll gain access to all the great novels on the site. You could be helping this author toward a publishing contract. TIA
Just joining me? Catch up on the Greyhound Summer story here.
It wasn’t until that evening that I truly became my father’s daughter. Or if you want to be more accurate, I became something worse. Despite my issues with Dad, I have to admit that in the love ‘em and leave ‘em equation -- he was the one getting left. And to the credit of the wives and girlfriends, they weren’t too cowardly to say goodbye. As I recall, the goodbyes were rather loud and long and sometimes included small objects flying in the direction of his head.
My only excuse is that a growing sense of suffocation set in as the day went on. Sam talked about how happy we’d be together, me finding a job close by, something flexible enough so I could travel with the band. His words settled like a weight on my chest. The more he talked, the harder it got to take a breath.
It was that evening, when Sam dropped me at Mia’s to get my things and put my life in order. He went blissfully to work, as trusting as a lamb offering it’s neck to the slaughterer’s knife. I grabbed my things and told Mia to get me out of there, trashing Sam's love and my self-respect.
I will forever owe her for not asking any questions or delivering any lectures. You’d have to know Mia to appreciate what a trial that was for her. Maybe my shell-shocked zombie state warned her off. I mentioned not having slept, but Mia knew man troubles well enough to recognize the symptoms. She even called Brenna (next on my travel itinerary) and cleared me for arriving two days early.
I caught a bus into DC, but had a six-hour layover to sit through. I’ve sat through layovers before and I was too stressed to think the situation through with the care it required. My mind was fixed on Sam and whether he might go to the trouble of tracking me down. All connections passed through DC. This was the logical place to find me and now I was stuck here long enough for him to catch up to me.
With all that running through my head, not to mention sleep deprivation, it somehow slipped my mind that Saturday night in the DC bus station carried far bigger threats than a showdown with Sam. I should have grabbed a seat on any bus headed out of town.
Live and learn. Live being the operative word there.
Good news!! The Editors at textnovel.com selected Greyhound Summeras an Editor's Pick. If you're enjoying this story, help me make it into the finals of the competition with your vote. Just click this linkand vote me up by clicking both the thumb symbol and cellphone symbol next to my story. I know it's a pain to have to create an account, but it's free and you'll gain access to all the great novels on the site. You could be helping this author toward a publishing contract. TIA
