Two weeks ago I was tagged by Marisa Cleveland, Krystal Wade, and Jessa Russo to participate in the LOOK Challenge.
According to the rules of the game, I’m supposed to search my work in progress for the first usage of the word “look,” paste the surrounding paragraph into my blog, and tag as many people as possible. Here’s a paragraph from my YA novel, 18 Things, released later this year by Curiosity Quills Press.
I notice then it looks like Conner’s not breathing. At all. I drop the phone, call still connected, inside the backpack and risk flipping the boat by pulling him up. The fourteen footer tilts and sways, almost dumping me. Breath floats around me as I pant from exertion. My mind flashes to when Conner and I were kids, obsessed with seeing our own air in winter. We’d down hot chocolate and run outside, blowing ‘smoke’ out of our mouths. Now, I can’t believe I have any warmth left in me to cause this phenomenon. One arm clings to the boat, the other to Conner as I haul him up, falling backwards. His body collapses on top of me. His face is chalk colored, like he’s dead.
What do ya think? Hope you enjoyed it:-) Now for the fun part of tagging others . . .
On a sidenote, sorry for not visiting many blogs these past two weeks. I’ve been busy editing & writing, & drowning in teacher stuff now that school’s back in session . . . which is why I haven’t posted the past 2 weeks (don’t think it’s fair to post if I can’t comment/visit others in return). But I promise to be back next Wednesday with lots of pics from the Star Wars Celebration VI. Okay, I shouldn’t “promise” since there’s a hurricane headed straight for us!
~May the force be with you:-)
Jamie Ayres 
That is intense!
Hopefully a good intense . . . I promise it’s not all dreary, lol. It sure seems that way from what I’ve posted, doesn’t it?!
Whoa. Awesome paragraph — and only one “look” in the whole thing!
Thanks, Amy! It’s gone through edits so no over-used words here;-)
Oh,wow! I just love the image of the two of them breathing wintry air, contrasted with this tense moment. So vivid and wrenching at the same time.
Thank you for the tag! I’m excited to post my excerpt, and am really curious about where I’ll find that look lurking in my manuscript …
Star Wars pix? Count me in. 🙂
Thanks, Kirsten! I’ve had your book to mail all week but I keep leaving work after the post is closed. I promise to get it out to you tomorrow:-)
I’m looking forward to reading it!
This is a nifty idea. I’m gonna search for look in my story…
Hmm. Mine was in the middle of dialog. Interesting.
Watch out for that hurricane!
Great tension – really liked your paragraph… and the memory really pulled at the heartstrings. Thanks for tagging me… this looks like a run challenge… I’m onto it;)
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Wow…each excerpt makes me anticipate this story more and more! Awesome description. *sigh* As school starts back up for the kiddies, I brace myself for which block of time I intend to give my writing. I appreciate the shout out 🙂 Pics from a Star Wars celebration you say? Intrigued I am 😉
Great paragraph to post. And I see you’ve been making edits. 😉
Agreed…intense paragraph!
And you are one busy lady. Best to you in your new school year and all the other adventures coming soon.
Thanks, Barbara! So far, so good. Tomorrow I have a school writing training all day–it’s always fun to see the difference what the state of Florida thinks is good writing vs. editors in the real world!
Great paragraph! Great pace and exciting.
Great excerpt! This is a fun tag for sure.
That was awesome, Jamie !!
Glad you enjoyed it:-)
Hey Jamie! Loved your excerpt. And I’m with you, I’ve been such a bad blogger lately. But now that school’s back in I’ve got my personal time again, so I should be a regular visitor again. Hope all is going well with your revisions. Best of luck! 🙂
Thanks, PK! You are awesome:-)
I popped over from T.F. Walsh’s blog. Fun snippet here!! Thanks for sharing 😉
Do you have a release date yet?
I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good.
I don’t know who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger if you
aren’t already 😉 Cheers!