Snippet Sunday: July 26, 2015

Welcome to Snippet Sunday!

Where writers come together to share a few sentences (8-10) of their current project — whether it’s a recently released novel, a WIP (work in progress), or an older manuscript that’s being revived. Intended to hook readers, gather feedback and build an author’s fan base, Snippet Sunday is the FB group that does all three.

Keeping things consistent again while I am working on Darkness Becomes Her for Camp NaNoWriMo this month (only five more days left!), I am posting some excerpts from a story I already have finished and posted to Wattpad, titled Rivers of Black, a short paranormal story.

Picking up right where I left off from last week’s snippet. My main character had been thinking about wanting to take her own life, but her fear of being found had stopped her. Now, she is out wandering the woods, looking for no place in particular that would be her place to sit in peace at last, coming across an old, scarred, and battered oak tree.

A bit of background on this story as well: This story is rather dark and depressing. It deals with a topic some people would be hesitant to read; which is self harm and suicide. I don’t sugarcoat this either, I write it raw on how someone in my character’s state feels. Just be forewarned with that. I hope it doesn’t deter you from reading, but I know others cannot deal reading these kinds of things. (This snippet has nothing bad or dark to it though.)

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Sunlight filtered through the remaining branches, dancing on my face as I stared up at the old oak. For a split second with the sun on my face I thought that maybe I could too, that maybe I wasn’t completely broken either. It felt like one of those interventions that people always say changed their outlook on their problems. Only this time it wasn’t a group of people giving a long ass speech about how they actually care about you; it was a tree, swaying in the breeze.

I must really be out of my mind if I’m thinking a tree can give me an intervention. Still, a part of me wistfully wished that a tree could do just that.

A passing cloud abruptly snuffed the sun out, sending up a powerful breeze. The old oak swayed mournfully in the gust, but held its own against it. I thought that if this broken tree could withstand the hardships nature threw at it, then I could withstand the hardships life threw at me. I was changing my mind, I wasn’t sure I was going to go through with it anymore, and it was all because of a tree.

Cover made by @_teenagers on Wattpad

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If you want to read the whole story, it is available to read on Wattpad! I love to hear any and all feedback on my work as well. Comments are greatly appreciated, as are the reads.

And if you’re looking for some other great snippets of fellow authors,

hop on over to Facebook and check out Snippet Sunday!