It’s Sunday again, and time for Weekend Writing Warriors (click on the logo above) and Snippet Sunday (click on the logo below.) Today I’m posting 8 sentences from my first published book, Homecoming available in all formats from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.
I hadn’t planned to do more than two snippets from the scene where Roi’s mind threw Derik and Nik for a loop (literally) but it turns out that section will give several 8-sentence bits. This is the third of the sequence. And we’re still in Derik’s point of view.
Sorry I’ll be late responding and commenting today; I’m at a cousins’ reunion in Oklahoma.
“What happened?” Vara demanded, one hand massaging her temple while she clung to the wall with the other.
“Poltergeist reaction, I think,” Derik replied. “We’re all in esper shock, Vara. Can you get some food out here?” At least the table was still standing, and he needed its aid on a second attempt to rise. “Ander,” he called as he clung to the table and waited for the world to stop its whirling, “why are you two so wet?”
“Figured the water might shock Roi out of whatever state he was in.” Ander called back, “so I jumped into the pool with him. Scared him, though, so I got him back out in a hurry.”
The images for the next few weeks are all of the same star, over time, as it shows various stages of a “light echo.” This first one is of V 838 Monocerotis on April 30, 2002.
The blurb for Homecoming:
Snowy is a slave, a dancer. His first priority is keeping himself and his friends alive, and this means hiding the odd abilities that could get him killed. How can he cope with being totally paralyzed and sent to school with a group of telepathic bullies?
Lai is the last survivor of the R’il’nai, the species that has kept the Jarnian Confederation going for a hundred thousand years. He is in mourning for his Human lover, Cloudy, but now it seems there might be more R’il’nai somewhere beyond the borders of the Confederation. Can he find them? Should he?
Marna was on an isolation satellite when a plague wiped out all the rest of the population of her planet. Now the life-support system of the satellite has failed, and Marna must try to return to a planet where no other intelligent creature is alive. Is the plague still there? Can she survive? Does she want to?
Buy Homecoming from iUniverse
'Homecoming' Blog 
Great snippet. Glad to find out what happened. Love the pics.
Glad you like it.
Complex story you’ve woven, Sueann. Super eight. I have a fondness for Oklahoma where I married my Air Force pilot.
This is just one incident.
Jumping in the water didn’t seem like a good idea.
The bullying Roi was subject to at school included an attempt to drown him.The water did shock him out of the poltergeist reaction.
A great 8! Very nicely done!
Glad you like it.
Esper shock. What a neat term! Great eight this week.
I use it pretty often to refer to low blood sugar brought on by intense esper work.
Something about your snippet reminded me of a poem from the TV series, “Twin Peaks.”
(My wife says I often make some very strange connections! LOL)
“Through the darkness of future past
The magican longs to see
One chance out between two worlds:
Fire walk with me.”
Strange connections are right!
Well Ander is certainly quick thinking! i’m with Nora, love the term esper shock. Another great excerpt, glad we’re going to have some more from this scene.
Ander is the weakest esper there, and the only one in any shape to do anything.
This is a complex story with lots going on. It’s fascinating.
great snippet. I enjoy sci-fi romance
So that’s what happened! Poltergeists . . . is that just a name for the phenomenon, or is it a real being?
It’s interesting that they all know how to react to esper shock—that means it’s not all that rare, right?
In my fiction, a poltergeist reaction is an esper reaction that is not under the conscious control of the esper responsible, and esper shock (= low blood sugar of whhich I have all too much experience) is a common reaction of espers, especially those with little training.
Ah! So Roi may be responsible?
Great snippet. I am really loving the world you have built and the characters that inhabit it. I’m glad we’ll be sticking with this for a bit.
I have two published novels in this world and three others in the final editing stage.
Another great snippet Sue Ann. I’m guessing they don’t know yet why the water scared him so. Thanks for adding that bit in a comment. You’ve built quite the complex world.
History Sleuth’s Milk Carton Murders
It is complex, and this is only a small part of it.