General Fiction

ON HOLD. Sometimes my dreams for stories don’t fit a particular genre.

by Cindy Rae

Why was she always such a dork in front of this man?
She went on.
“We were in the office. I was giggling with the other two office girls, typing away on a laptop. I was about to connect the special laptop when suddenly a manager came out of his office (it was a pocket office, not off the main corridor we had checked). We had no idea anyone else was left!”
“I had done a lot of giggling, explaining I had to fix the laptop before Monday.”
“The guy grabbed the special laptop to put it away. I looked at the time, saying I had to go, to come back the next day. My boyfriend (the same one I had chatted up with the girls about my mom not knowing about) was coming.”
“The guy was so suspicious. He found a bug on the edge of the keyboard. I was so wide-eyed and surprised.”
“I thought I wouldn’t make out, but Matt strolled right in and collected me. He was pretending to be the boyfriend.”
The elevator doors dinged.
“And where is he now?” he growled.

First Draft Almost Complete

by Cindy Rae

My first draft is almost complete.  I’m so close I can see the light of day at the end of the tunnel.  And it won’t be a train wreck!  Well, only so much as first drafts are always train wrecks.

Then, it will be time to revise, and revise.  I’m still not happy with Kindra’s profession.  As a dynamic, assertive, no holds-barred, best friend of our protagonist, none of my job choices for her seem to fit: personal assistant to a wealthy woman, a marketing director (too close to Sifa’s profession), international spy, retail sales… maybe a nurse?

Short Clips from the Novel

by Cindy Rae

I had to cherry-pick some of these clips to avoid spoilers.  Enjoy!

She breathed in the crisp air of fall as she craned her head up. The vibrant light shone through the leaves. Overhead in a blue sky a V of ducks headed southwest, honking faintly in the distance. Autumn was one of her favorite seasons.

They sat, mother and daughter, in silence together in the dull beige waiting room. They watched the hospital staff walking back and forth. Sunlight streamed in a small window nearby, dimmed more and more by clouds passing. The wind was picking up and tossing the tops of the trees back and forth.

Friday night came, and the crew were hard at work. Just outside town an accident sprawled across two lanes of interstate. Cars slowly edged by in the farthermost lane, traffic already heavy for tomorrow’s festival made heavier by the accident. The sky darkened, and the wind picked up speed.

Character Notes: Laura Havenaugh

by Cindy Rae

Here are more notes from my novel in work, this time in connection with Sifa’s mother, Laura Havenaugh. Want to know more? Have a suggestion? Feel free to comment below.

A somewhat short, somewhat thin, not-fat woman with long dark hair, slightly curly. Light olive skin. Suffers from inherited genetic problems including excessive blood clotting that caused her miscarriages. The genetic problems were probably due from ancestral inbreeding in a small rural community in the hills.

Sifa and Peter: A Note about Sifa

by Cindy Rae

My upcoming novel has a full cast of characters. The Havenaugh family includes our protagonist, Sifa: her mother, Laura, and her father, Mac.

Sifa is blonde, twenty-three, thin, of medium height. She is a little shallow in terms of her relationships and is too easy to please. She rationalizes these faults in terms of her faith, but it really is due to selfishness and fear.

Circumstances force her to mature.

Back to Sifa and Peter

by Cindy Rae

Now that my short story is submitted, I’m back to development on my novel about Sifa and Peter. I had already written the core scenes, so my next pass through will be adding more of the settings for each scene. I also need to develop some secondary characters in the story. Sifa’s mother may have a story more predominant than I thought.