Six Sentence Sunday

    I'm trying something new. It's called Six Sentence Sunday. Basically, the Six Sentence project is a bunch of writers who, on Sunday, post six sentences from something they've written. Six sentences aren't much so it's a bit challenging finding six sentences that are sufficient enough to convey something significant.

What I've picked out for my first venture is six sentences from my story of Maddie and Zac,  A Knight in Cowboy Boots (now contracted to Pink Petal Publishing) and it occurs shortly after they meet in a hotel bar in Galveston where Maddie is considering applying for work as a bartender. From the first moment, they flirt heavily.

      His lips brushed hers lightly. 

      “My daddy says sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.”

      “Does he?” Maddie forced out.

      “Oh, yeah.” His tone was heartfelt. “And I think I may need a passel of forgivin’,” he said just before he kissed her again.

 


Did I mention this is a romance? (Like you couldn't figure that out.) 

It was interesting, looking for six sentences to post. I kept thinking, "Oh, this is a fun scene. I'll pull something from this," only to realize as I read it that any sample that would interest readers would be considerably longer than six sentences. 

This might be a result of my voice. I like understatement. Once the story progresses enough that the reader knows my characters, I like to have them make subtle gestures that signify emotion. Having read from the start, the reader will know how to interpret the gesture (if I've done my job right). Of necessity, a six sentence sampler doesn't have the advantage of that history. It's like walking in on the middle of a conversation.

I'll try this for a few weeks . . . or until I can't find six sentences that have a hope of giving you a picture of what my writing promises. Or until you tell me it's too painful and ask me to stop.

Other six sentence excerpts of mine can be found here.  

If you want to see more Six Sentence samples, go here for the list of this week's participants.

 If you want to participate in the future, here's a FAQ.