I thought I would share one last excerpt. This is form a YA I recently finished as Geoff Laughton. Its called Under the Stars. Its a Western YA. They pulled into the rest area in the middle of nowhere and everyone piled out of the car. There were very few people around because, well, who in the hell came to Wyoming anyway? He so didn’t want to be here. Pulling out his phone, he texted his best friend George. He didn’t get an answer. Crap—no signal. He was in the middle of nowhere and couldn’t even get a cell signal. He sighed, the weight of the world descending on him, and slumped off toward the bathroom. He pushed open the door and immediately crinkled up his nose. It stank. He made his way in and grabbed some paper towels and used them to open the stall door. He had no intention of touching anything. Gross. When he was done, he looked at the sinks and figured washing in those would just spread more germs that it would get rid of, so he wiped his hands on the towels, used them to open the door, and then threw them away before hurrying back to the car. “Ethan,” his dad called and he shuffled over. “I know this vacation is not what you would choose, but it was your sister’s turn and she asked to go to a dude ranch, so that’s what we’re doing. Last year you chose New York, and I don’t remember anyone making a fuss about being dragged to every Broadway show for nearly a week.” “But dad, a dude ranch? New York is cool. What am I supposed to do at a dude ranch?” “How about have fun? Spend some time outdoors?” The thought made him want to gag, but that in itself was gross, so he simply said nothing. “There will be a lot of activities. The ranch has horses, and you can learn to ride. They arrange camping trips. You and I could go on an overnight and leave the girls behind.” His father looked so earnest that Ethan didn’t have the heart to tell him that he’d rather have his manicured fingernails pulled out than do any of those things. He was not interested in horses, cows, pigs, bugs, mud, poop, or anything else that he figured came along with spending time at a dude ranch. “Now,” his father lowered his voice and sharpened the tone. “No matter what you decide you want to do, the rest of the family is going to have fun. You can sit in the cabin all day if you like, but the rest of us are going to have a good time. So stop sulking and snap out of it.” For a second his dad sounded like Cher in Moonstruck and Ethan smiled. He loved all the divas, and Cher was definitely the queen, at least for this week. “That’s better,” his dad said not realizing exactly why Ethan was smiling. “This is going to be a fun vacation. It may not be what you would have chosen, but make the best of it, because we’re going to be at the ranch for two weeks.” His dad sounded chipper and happy. Ethan really didn’t want to take that away from him and he knew it wouldn’t do a dang bit of good anyhow.
Posted on: Sat, 03 May 2014 20:32:54 +0000
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