My family and I were serving Christmas Eve dinner at the
Father William Kroger Community Center in Crouch End, as we did every year. I
was carving my third chicken of the night and thinking that I should have elected
to dish up the puddings rather than trying to show off how grown-up I was by carving the roast chickens. Still, it made me proud that my father trusted me with grown-up work, and I did my level best to make
sure I broke the birds down into perfect portions to make the servers’ jobs
easier.
I was being careful not to cut myself, but carving is a
repetitive task, and my mind wandered. I have been told, sometimes
jokingly and sometimes seriously, that I think too much. It’s funny, but I’ve
also been told that I tend not to think things through before acting.
Story Notes
My protagonist is twelve-year-old Guinevere Ali. Her family and friends call her Gwen or Gwenny. I think I've managed to offer a nice snapshot of Gwenny's personality in the above snippet.
And now, as promised, here is the link for Dragon Soul Press anthology submission calls through January 2024. You can also find the submission guidelines on the Dragon Soul Press website.
https://dragonsoulpress.com/shortstorycalls/
I am not in any way affiliated with Dragon Soul Press. I just like to let my fellow authors know about potential opportunities for publications.
I am sharing this post with several blog hops. I will provide links to each one below its banner.
Let's Go to the Hops
I really enjoyed this. This snippet did indeed hint at Gwennie's character and I would love to read more. Good luck with your submission.
ReplyDeleteInteresting character here
ReplyDeleteA nice introduction to Gwen!
ReplyDeleteHello, Cie - I'm very late visiting the Hooks posts... this sounds like a great start.
ReplyDeleteUh oh. Sounds like she's about to cut herself!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up about the anthology! I'm going to look into it. :-)
The perfect 12-year-old moment - trying to be grown up but prone to daydreaming. Very enjoyable!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the snippet, sort of worrying that some disaster is going to befall her! So you really got me into the scene and the story right away.
ReplyDeleteI think you've done a good job revealing her character--so true of 12-year-olds who want to be considered a grownup while still being mostly a child.
ReplyDelete