Welcome to Fiction Friday!
Thank you Karlene for letting me host this week!
Anyone can play - all you need is someplace on the web (like a blog) to post something you've written - a short story, an excerpt from a WIP, or poetry. Then come back here and add a link on the Linky Tool at the bottom. Be sure to follow the other inks to a sampling of fiction by some excellent authors.
I didn't enter this piece for the current FaithWriters challenge. I was playing with a new format, and I know I need to give my characters more character. Please consider this a first-draft of an experiment, and I thank you for being my guinea pigs.
Peace and Love,
Cat
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THIS STUFF'S NOT EASY
“You can’t write this.”
“Uh, duh, Mama, it’s already written. You’re obviously holding it.”
“You know what I mean – publish it, print it, whatever. I can’t believe you wrote this.”
“Why not? People like to read about stuff like this. Scandal sells.”
“But this is our stuff. We’re not famous. We’re not anybody. Who’s going to care?.”
“It’s scandalous. Lots of people will care.”
“Quit saying that word. And the only people who will care are the people whose stuff is in this book.”
“They’re just characters in a book, Mama. Those people aren’t real. It’s fiction.”
“Yeah, right, “characters,” and I’m Kermit the Frog. Obviously, you’re not the master writer as you think you are. I saw right through those flimsy disguises.”
“You know, I’m really sorry I asked you to read it, now. Just give it back, then. Besides, you’re bending it all up”
“Hey! You asked for my honest opinion.”
“Yeah, your opinion on whether it was good or not. I didn’t ask for your judgment. You think writing about this stuff was easy for me? It wasn’t. It was painful. But I had to do it. The truth had been burning up inside me for too long, and something was going to erupt. It was either write it out or go to the loony bin.”
“Oh, spare me the melodrama. Here, take your nasty “book.” You should be thankful I didn’t toss it in the fireplace.”
“Mama?”
“What is it now?”
“I wasn’t ever going to publish it. I just wrote it for you.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“You have the only copy, Mama. I wrote the book for you to read. I can’t get you to listen to me, and I wanted you know what this life is like through my eyes. Keep the book. In case you want to read it again.”
© 2010
Catrina Bradley
"God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes."
Psalm 18:24 (Msg)
