Friday, November 23, 2007

NaNovel Excerpt

As requested, here is an excerpt from my NaNovel. It comes from chapter 3. You'll notice that it does relate to art so it's not even off-topic for this blog! I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to leave comments.
_________

“Did you hear that?” Emily asked. They all listened. “Someone’s coming.”

“In here,” Andy whispered, throwing open the door next to the nightstand. Emily scurried through the door, into a second bedroom that was filled with paintings of sunflowers. Demitri climbed off the bed and smoothed the wrinkles from the bedspread before crossing the room in four large strides. They left the door open a crack and spied quietly.

When the entrance clicked open and a bearded, red-haired man stepped into the bedroom, Demitri drew in an excited breath. Van Gogh unhooked the leather belts that he had used to strap his easel and canvas to his back. He set the easel in the corner opposite the door and held the canvas up to consider the composition. Emily widened the slit between the door and the wall so she could better see. There was a weepy-looking tree in the center of a grassy median. A woman strolled the cobblestone walkways as a man looked on from the rail at the distant entrance to the park.

Van Gogh leaned the painting against the wall to finish drying. He lifted another, completed painting from the floor, tested with his finger that the paint was dry, and proceeded toward Emily, Andy, and Demitri’s hiding place. They stood quickly and backed away from the door as van Gogh swung it open.

Van Gogh stopped, braced himself against the door jamb. He stared at the intruders and they stared at him. Emily thought her heart would explode if it beat any faster. Finally Andy spoke.

“Hi, Vincent,” he said. “We’ve come from Paris, your brother sent us.” Andy approached the petrified artist. “I’m Andy.”

“Yeah, um...” Emily walked toward the doorway. “Did he not tell you we were coming?” She concentrated on not turning fire-engine red but she couldn’t stop her cheeks from alighting. How could Andy stay so calm?

Vincent eyed them suspiciously, relaxing his impossibly tense muscles enough to set the painting against the wall. “Theo sent you?”


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Current NaNoWriMo Word Count:

35138 / 50000 words. 70% done!

I'm not finished writing for the night
but it's after midnight so it'll count
for tomorrow. 15000 word to go!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

O.K. Now you have my interest - but I guess I'll Just Have to wait for you to get it published!! Perhaps you might post a full chapter after you finish?!? Keep going, you're almost there!

Jessica said...

On the Friday I'll post another excerpt to celebrate finishing (I hope). Thank you for your support!

Peter said...

Sorry Jessica for checking the text later than promised! This looks like a very good start!
How do you proceed when you write? Do you have the scenario and the end clearly in your mind, when you start? Looking forward to read more - and hopefully have more time for commenting!

Jessica said...

I did outline this novel but only enough to have a general idea of where I meant to go if I got too side tracked. I only looked at the outline once, though. Thanks for making time to come read it, Peter. I know how busy you are these days!