キャミー・タング著「戌年」連載小説 プロのドッグトレーナーであるマリ・ムトウは、厄年を迎えている。 犬小屋と訓練所の改築をしながら、いつも不服そうにしている家族と同居することになった。母と姉に言わせれば、犬の毛とよだれかけにまみれる仕事は、家族にとって恥ずべきものだという。彼女は元カレを説得し、数ヶ月間犬を預かってもらうことにした。しかし、彼の兄は、数週間前に彼女が誤って車に追突した、怒り狂ったセキュリティ専門家であることが判明する。 アシュウィン・ケイトウは十分な問題を抱えている。叔母が玄関先に現れ、同居を希望している。彼は彼女にすべてを借りているので、断ることができません。母親が家を出て行った後、ネルおばさんはアシュウィンと弟を引き取り、愛のあるキリスト教の家庭で育てた。しかも、弟のダスティもアパートを追い出され、居場所を求めている。しかし、彼は犬を飼っている。そして、その犬の飼い主は誰だと思いますか? しかし、旧友でオアフ島のノースショアでデイスパを経営する私立探偵のエディサ・ゲレロから依頼を受ける。マリの施設で奇妙な破壊行為があり、3年前に失踪したエディサの妹の財布を発見する。エディサはマリが危険な目に遭っているのではと心配する。警備の専門家であるアシュウィンがすでにマリを知っていることを知ったエディサは、忙しい若い女性を密かに監視することを彼に依頼する。 アシュウィンは、活発でのんびりとしたドッグトレーナーに不本意ながら惹かれていく。彼女は、幸せそうな母親を思い出させる。その母親の裏切りによって、彼は人と距離を置くようになったのだ。マリは、アシュウィンの冷たい外見を見抜き、彼が家族に忠実な男であることを認める。彼は、彼女のキャリア選択を批判するだけの母親や姉とは違う。 マリのバラバラな家庭とアシュウィンのバラバラな家庭の中で、過去を隠そうとする人たちから、彼らの周りに危険が迫ってくるようになる。彼らは、影で動く秘密に光を当てることができるのか? 過去に発表されたパートへのリンクはこちら。 *** 第8章 - 恐ろしくも真っ白な不動産書類 『みんな仲良くできないのかな?』 マリは無用に力を込めて箱に本を投げ入れた。最近、なぜ彼女は人生の中で全員と言い争いをしているのだろう?もしかすると、これは本当に悪いアイデア
Captain's Log, Supplemental
Blog book giveaway:
My Thursday book giveaway is A FAMILY FOREVER by Brenda Coulter.
My Monday book giveaway is JADE by Marilynn Griffith.
You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for A FAMILY FOREVER and post the title for another book I'm giving away.
From MaggieB:
Do you know a hidden hero? Someone who is living out Christ in ways they consider to be their reasonable service of worship? Maybe someone who leaves you feeling challenged, moved, by their simple acts of faith or their service to those around them? Maybe it’s a one-time event, or maybe an on-going service, action, or act of giving? Maybe this person is even you.
Margaret and Dave Adams are writing a book about what it means to worship with your life. What happens when we live out our worship beyond Sunday singing and daily devotions? What happens when ordinary people begin to creatively live out the gospel in dynamic ways? We’re not talking about big here, although some of the stories may be big--we are talking about real.
We have half the book written; now we need your stories. Help us honor someone, and shine light on a good deed. Challenge us with your stories about everyday people doing extraordinary things, people who are living examples of life worshipers.
Submit 600 to 2000 word stories about a real life worshiper that you know. Don’t worry about perfect writing; we’ll smooth it out and make sure you are happy with the results. We just want your story.
If your story gets chosen for the book, you and the person you wrote about will receive 10 free autographed copies, a writing credit (only if you want to be acknowledged), and a gift package of Margaret’s product.
As always, these things have deadlines and ours, for your submissions, is October 1, 2006.
Email your stories to: Brenda.mbp@comcast.net
TMI:
Writing: I GOT MY FIRST EDITORIAL LETTER TODAY! I thought I'd be more nervous about it, but I'm not. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
It is ten pages long. (I feel like this is show and tell at school.) I only read a couple pages so far. I was going to read more, but some of my author friends say not to read it the first day, to let it sit for a day or so. So it's sitting.
But I will share something I read (tee-hee). Apparently I have too much showing! Can you believe that? Well, actually, I can.
It's been ingrained in every writer to have more showing and less telling, but apparently I confused Rachelle (Gardner, my editor) because it was all showing of unfamiliar Asian American traditions and culture.
I can see how that would be confusing. I think if they weren't such foreign situations, I could have gotten away with less narrative.
And YES, Rachelle is probably reading this right now. I will say I think she's fabulous, and since I'm not paying her--Z is--I can say that with complete sincerity. So far I've agreed with a lot of what she's said, and I'm looking forward to making this a stronger novel.
I posted another "Health and the Writer" post at WriterQuotes, and a query letter post at myStory Sensei blog.
Diet: Holy cow I had a BAD diet weekend. I was doing okay on Friday until my in-laws brought some really great Chinese food. Who can pass up good Chinese food ordered by a sister-in-law who speaks Chinese???
So I had a second dinner. AND we went out for dessert where I had a "Black Orchid" martini (yummy) and a lemon soufflé (tarty) at the Yardhouse restaurant.
To make up for my horrific evening, I exercised twice on Saturday at the hotel gym, doing the elliptical machine for 30 minutes each time.
The machine said I only burned 250 calories each time, but I was heaving and huffing like I'd run a marathon. It makes me wonder if the 300 calories I’m supposedly burning with Denise Austin is an accurate count.
I tried to be good on Saturday, and I ate a lot of veggies and had halibut at the wedding lunch--with some fattening macadamia nut lemon butter sauce, but we won't go into that. I had only a few bites of the peach Bavarian yellow cake.
But dinner was a different story. The side of my husband's family who hadn't been at the wedding took us out to dinner with a small buffet. I was very self-controlled the first time through--I had a lot of salad. But dinner was running long (you know how those family dinners are), and I ended up going back a second time for more, which I shouldn't have.
I exercised this morning at the hotel gym, but only 20 minutes because my legs were dying. I did okay with breakfast, but for lunch, we went to The Hat, a famous pastrami sandwich place.
WOW. Great food! The best onion rings I've had in a long time, and pastrami that tastes more like deli pastrami than Togo's (a deli similar to Subway, and the only place you can get a good hot pastrami sandwich up here in south San Jose).
Calorie count? I don't want to know. It was hard enough being surrounded all weekend by those fabulously skinny Asian LA girls. Sigh.
Blog book giveaway:
My Thursday book giveaway is A FAMILY FOREVER by Brenda Coulter.
My Monday book giveaway is JADE by Marilynn Griffith.
You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for A FAMILY FOREVER and post the title for another book I'm giving away.
From MaggieB:
Do you know a hidden hero? Someone who is living out Christ in ways they consider to be their reasonable service of worship? Maybe someone who leaves you feeling challenged, moved, by their simple acts of faith or their service to those around them? Maybe it’s a one-time event, or maybe an on-going service, action, or act of giving? Maybe this person is even you.
Margaret and Dave Adams are writing a book about what it means to worship with your life. What happens when we live out our worship beyond Sunday singing and daily devotions? What happens when ordinary people begin to creatively live out the gospel in dynamic ways? We’re not talking about big here, although some of the stories may be big--we are talking about real.
We have half the book written; now we need your stories. Help us honor someone, and shine light on a good deed. Challenge us with your stories about everyday people doing extraordinary things, people who are living examples of life worshipers.
Submit 600 to 2000 word stories about a real life worshiper that you know. Don’t worry about perfect writing; we’ll smooth it out and make sure you are happy with the results. We just want your story.
If your story gets chosen for the book, you and the person you wrote about will receive 10 free autographed copies, a writing credit (only if you want to be acknowledged), and a gift package of Margaret’s product.
As always, these things have deadlines and ours, for your submissions, is October 1, 2006.
Email your stories to: Brenda.mbp@comcast.net
TMI:
Writing: I GOT MY FIRST EDITORIAL LETTER TODAY! I thought I'd be more nervous about it, but I'm not. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
It is ten pages long. (I feel like this is show and tell at school.) I only read a couple pages so far. I was going to read more, but some of my author friends say not to read it the first day, to let it sit for a day or so. So it's sitting.
But I will share something I read (tee-hee). Apparently I have too much showing! Can you believe that? Well, actually, I can.
It's been ingrained in every writer to have more showing and less telling, but apparently I confused Rachelle (Gardner, my editor) because it was all showing of unfamiliar Asian American traditions and culture.
I can see how that would be confusing. I think if they weren't such foreign situations, I could have gotten away with less narrative.
And YES, Rachelle is probably reading this right now. I will say I think she's fabulous, and since I'm not paying her--Z is--I can say that with complete sincerity. So far I've agreed with a lot of what she's said, and I'm looking forward to making this a stronger novel.
I posted another "Health and the Writer" post at WriterQuotes, and a query letter post at myStory Sensei blog.
Diet: Holy cow I had a BAD diet weekend. I was doing okay on Friday until my in-laws brought some really great Chinese food. Who can pass up good Chinese food ordered by a sister-in-law who speaks Chinese???
So I had a second dinner. AND we went out for dessert where I had a "Black Orchid" martini (yummy) and a lemon soufflé (tarty) at the Yardhouse restaurant.
To make up for my horrific evening, I exercised twice on Saturday at the hotel gym, doing the elliptical machine for 30 minutes each time.
The machine said I only burned 250 calories each time, but I was heaving and huffing like I'd run a marathon. It makes me wonder if the 300 calories I’m supposedly burning with Denise Austin is an accurate count.
I tried to be good on Saturday, and I ate a lot of veggies and had halibut at the wedding lunch--with some fattening macadamia nut lemon butter sauce, but we won't go into that. I had only a few bites of the peach Bavarian yellow cake.
But dinner was a different story. The side of my husband's family who hadn't been at the wedding took us out to dinner with a small buffet. I was very self-controlled the first time through--I had a lot of salad. But dinner was running long (you know how those family dinners are), and I ended up going back a second time for more, which I shouldn't have.
I exercised this morning at the hotel gym, but only 20 minutes because my legs were dying. I did okay with breakfast, but for lunch, we went to The Hat, a famous pastrami sandwich place.
WOW. Great food! The best onion rings I've had in a long time, and pastrami that tastes more like deli pastrami than Togo's (a deli similar to Subway, and the only place you can get a good hot pastrami sandwich up here in south San Jose).
Calorie count? I don't want to know. It was hard enough being surrounded all weekend by those fabulously skinny Asian LA girls. Sigh.
Comments
so who are you going to write about for MaggieB's book? LOL You know you want to write about me because I'm so great... oh wait sorry... got lost in lala land for a minute there. :o)
Blessings!