All glam’d up for a Halloween Party. I was a character from a science fiction movie I can’t even recall now. And yes, that’s Simon Le Bon behind me. Oh to be 13 again…not.
The Back Cover
It’s early fall in a town forty miles south of Seattle, where thirteen year old Quinn McCarthy spends his time on sports, video games and the occasional drawing. Being the new kid in town, he isn’t very surprised when his cousin and friends dare him to sneak out in the middle of the night and break in to the abandoned house in their neighborhood.
What Quinn finds in the house throws him for the ultimate loop: Melanie, the girl he quietly liked all summer but never had the courage to approach. He is determined to make the most of his chance with Melanie, and it all goes splendidly—until they leave.
Somehow the two get separated, leaving Quinn outside with his disbelieving friends and no sign of Melanie. Confused and embarrassed after realizing that Melanie had given him a phone number that isn’t hers, Quinn leaves his friends and heads home by himself.
Waking up the next morning, Quinn can’t shake the gnawing need to figure out what happened. He bikes back to the house alone, only to discover that it had been demolished days before. He then watches helplessly as the construction crew uncovers a set of young female remains in the rubble.
And so it starts…
I never would have guessed that I could write more than six or seven pages, let alone a novel. Here I am, 52K or so words later, with just a few chapters to go.
How did I do it?
I treated my writing as though I were reading instead. And I LOVE reading. Most importantly, through writing I hope to help a younger generation get through many of the trials of early life with their sanity and optimism in tact. That will mean much more than anything else I might get out of this.
Elle Ashley 