Title: Improbable Girl
Word Count: 82,000
Special Question: If your main character could be any Star Wars character, who would they choose and why? I have two main characters/narrators. Jane would say Obi-Wan Kenobi because his control of the force can manifest what's in his mind. Daniel has always loved R2-D2 with an affection that he's never felt for animals and most people. So, R2-D2.
35 Word Pitch:
Jane likes control and Daniel likes numbers. When they can’t get pregnant, Jane’s obsession and Daniel’s silence lead to cheating, separation. A tumor found on Jane’s ovary makes them see there’s something left to save.
First 250 Words:
I counted the stairs on the day we moved in. There are 60 steps to our apartment on the fifth floor, so every six steps is equal to 10% of the trip to the top. That is, if you ignore the 6 steps on the stoop. If I count those, then every 6.6 steps is 10%. I’d have to break the steps into fractions, and therefore divide the rise of my foot as it travels between one step and the next. After teaching three sections of sixth grade math, two of seventh, hall duty, and a faculty meeting, I can’t achieve that level of precision. So we’ll disregard those first 6 steps.
Tonight as I walk up, I count by ten percent as I always do. It’s a nice rhythm as my foot strikes each step and my shoe scratches across the surface. One, two, three, four, five, ten, one, two, three, four, five, twenty.
I like to know exactly where I’m going and how long it will take to get there. Beyond these stairs and their six-beat rhythm, I don’t know where Jane and I are going or how far away it is. That distance is undefined.
One, two, three, four, five, fifty. Fifty percent is nice, but my legs are burning a bit. By seventy-five, I’m getting close, and I normally start taking the steps two at a time. Not tonight. I just want to keep counting tonight.
First 250 Words:
I counted the stairs on the day we moved in. There are 60 steps to our apartment on the fifth floor, so every six steps is equal to 10% of the trip to the top. That is, if you ignore the 6 steps on the stoop. If I count those, then every 6.6 steps is 10%. I’d have to break the steps into fractions, and therefore divide the rise of my foot as it travels between one step and the next. After teaching three sections of sixth grade math, two of seventh, hall duty, and a faculty meeting, I can’t achieve that level of precision. So we’ll disregard those first 6 steps.
Tonight as I walk up, I count by ten percent as I always do. It’s a nice rhythm as my foot strikes each step and my shoe scratches across the surface. One, two, three, four, five, ten, one, two, three, four, five, twenty.
I like to know exactly where I’m going and how long it will take to get there. Beyond these stairs and their six-beat rhythm, I don’t know where Jane and I are going or how far away it is. That distance is undefined.
One, two, three, four, five, fifty. Fifty percent is nice, but my legs are burning a bit. By seventy-five, I’m getting close, and I normally start taking the steps two at a time. Not tonight. I just want to keep counting tonight.
The Force is strong with this one. I cannot wait to read this!
ReplyDeleteThese are the pages I'm looking for. Please also send synopsis and chapter summaries to nicole[at]goldenwheatliterary[dot]com
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