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.
This is a continuation from last week, when Derik joined the boys at the table where they are all eating (or rather cramming in food) to counter esper shock. A little creative punctuation has been used to adhere to the 8 sentence limit.
V838 Monocertis September 2006. (Photo Credit)
Roi’s head was down and he looked miserable.
“Do you understand what happened?” Derik finally asked.
“Something in my head lashed out at Nik and you. It wasn’t deliberate; I thought I’d fixed it so that wouldn’t happen again, but somehow it did anyway. I’m sorry, really I am, but I don’t understand why it happened.”
“Again?” Derik said sharply.
Roi seemed to pull in on himself even more. “I think I killed a man once, an overseer,” he said tonelessly.
So it wasn’t intentional, but what can they – or Roi – do about it?
Buy Homecoming from iUniverse
'Homecoming' Blog 
Poor Roi, he’s faced with quite a challenge, not only in relation to the past deed but to keep that power harnessed. At least he has friends…wow, you’ve gotten me SO invested in your characters! Excellent excerpt as always!
Love this snippet…it has me thinking about Roi’s dilemma…great job!
The morality of using his abilities is going to trouble him for a long time, even if he learns to contril them.
Characters are very real in my head.
Oh that I had such power to harness. Good eight! Well written making your characters so real.
But how do you harness it?
Poor Roi…he just can’t control it and it’s caused such issues…things like this are always such a delicate situation..I hope he is able to learn and grow so he can handle his own power!
Learn and grow are the keys, all right.
aww! You gotta feel for everybody here! Roi’s “problem” affects all of them. Looking forward to seeing more.
It sure does.
Poor Roi. Living with the angst of the unknown must be weighing on him!! 🙂 Great eight, Sue Ann!
You can visit me here: http://sarathreesuns.blogspot.com/
Just one of many things weighing on him right now.
Maybe he didn’t kill the overseer but it’s clear he carries the guilt. Well written snippet.
Don’t know if I’ll blog it, but he does relive the experience in the book.
It must be so heart wrenching for that uncertainty to have stayed with him; not knowing whether or not you actually took a life, possibly even because of a mistake. Really great eight here. You’ve drawn me so deeply into this story!
And he was no more than 9 or 10 at the time.
Oof. That’s just crushing. 😦
Poor Roi, that’s a powerful guilt to have hanging on your shoulders.
Yes, he’s had a very troubled childhood.
I don’t like the sound of “overseer.” Is Roi feeling very guilty for hurting this person, or is it mixed with fear that he’ll accidentally hurt a friend? Or are overseers the good guys in this society?
Overseers are not the good guys, especially when you’re a slave (as Roi has been for most of his life.) Maybe I ought to blog a little of the memory Derik makes him relive.
Very well done snippet. Your words show so much about the character as well as his frustration and doubts about his ability to control his “inner monster”, that thing that lashes out and makes him capable of harming those around him. His feelings of guilt also humanize him beautifully, even more so when you realize that the overseer may have deserved some kind of retribution.
He’s a long way from mature yet at 15, but his poorly controlled ability to share the emotions of others is causing him as many problems as his lack of control at defense.
Great snippet!
Glad you like it.
Powerful snippet — the confession just blew me away — I certainly wasn’t expecting that!
Roi’s had quite a history.
I guess with practice he can learn to control it. Thank you for the helpful comminet on my snippet 😀
It’s going to take more than practice.
Oh my. That’s not good. He could kill any one of them. Combine his lack of control of his powers and being a teenager in general, he has quite a lot to over come. Good snippet Sue Ann!
History Sleuth’s Milk Carton Murders
He did manage to abort the strike just in time.
Roi doesn’t have it easy, does he? He must keep the power harnessed. Good snippet!!
No, he doesn’t.
Wow! Dropping a bomb like that at the end. I’m intrigued! Great snippet. 😀
I didn’t think of it as dropping a bomb, just letting Derik in on more of what a slave’s life was really like. He’s owned slaves, but he has no idea of what’s in their minds because he feels it’s immoral to try to read their thoughts.
Ooh, I was wondering about that–if he’d ever ‘blown up’ before. That kind of power has consequences when it’s not controlled. Poor Roi!
At this point, he doesn’t even know why it happened.