Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Would You Read On? hosted by Diana Flegal

Would You Read On? Please let us know in the comment section below.




THE VIEWING        
The first time I laid eyes on the stranger he was stretched out flat on his back in the sunshine on the edge of my great Uncle Enoch’s sweet tater patch.
Dressed in a fancy Sunday-go-to-meeting suit with his hands pulled up and across his chest, he looked an awful lot like a dead man fixing to be tossed down into a burying hole, but I reckoned right away he wasn’t. I came close, close enough to see his chest was rising and falling so I knew he was breathing, slow and steady like a turtle taking a stroll down the road, but he was breathing.
Seeing him sort of sudden like I did came close to scaring the life plum out of me, so I whirled around and tore off down the hill to the barn to get my Papa.
With my overalls’ strap loose and flapping in the breeze, and my bare feet making a slapping noise against the dirt path as I ran, I commenced to hollering long before I ever reached the old barn.
“Papa! Papa! There’s a man stretched out in the tater field behind the hog pen. You’ve gotta come.”
Papa didn’t answer, didn’t even so much as peek his head out of the barn, so I called out to him again.
“Papa! Papa, are you in there?”
I rounded the front of the barn. With both my hands, and leaning all my weight against it, I cracked open one of the old, weathered doors. The barn smell I was in love with smacked me in the face as the door squeaked open. The odor of leather saddles, horse manure, and fresh cut hay was a welcoming aroma to me and no matter how many hours a day I spent inside, I never tired of being in the old barn.
“Papa, you need to come quick,” I said, huffing and puffing and out of breath from the run. “There’s a stranger laid out behind the hog pen.”
He didn’t respond. He didn’t even turn or look my way. Matter of fact, I wasn’t sure at that moment he even believed what I was saying, which would have hurt my feelings a bit if I hadn’t been prone to lying.



We want to thank author Pauline Creeden for offering us her first page last week. I thought it was fun having a Steampunk page on our blog.

Stop by Pauline's website to learn more about her and this genre.

4 comments:

Sandra Ardoin said...

I would definitely read on, but I'd like to know a little more about the man and MC. Young? Old? The description is good, puts me in the setting, except for the people--not even the father. Not knowing if this is a middle reader, YA or adult novel, I'd like to have a hint about the MC. I don't know if this is a boy or a girl, or approximately what age. I think that's important so the reader can form a certain image in the mind while reading.

The last line about being prone to lying was a good hook.

Becky Doughty said...

Absolutely. Sounds like a fun read - can't tell if this is going to be a mystery or some family drama or what... but I think the opening pages are intriguing and very well-written.

Nice work,
Becky

Davalyn Spencer said...

Yes, I would read on.

Anonymous said...

I'd read on, for sure. I liked the tom-sawyer-like voice and wanted to find out why some dude is laying asleep in the family's field.