"Girl Braves"
Chapter 1
In Bookish on March 11, 2009 at 4:42 am
I flung the Marlboro Lights onto the dashboard. They skittered across the faded green vinyl then wedged up against the windshield. My shiny metal key slipped snugly into the ignition. The hulking International Scout shook to life, its engine hoarse and raw. It sounded as if metal were eating metal and the whole thing was about to blow.
“Whoa, Tess! It’s gotten louder,” Lisa said.
“You think?” I bellowed.
Our black Labrador-poodle backed away in the driveway, a ridge of fur pricking up on his curly back. The Scout’s commotion swallowed up his scolding barks.
“It’s okay, Robber. Don’t freak,” I called out to the dog.
It was probably against the law for any vehicle to be as loud as the Scout. And decibel level wasn’t the only thing illegal about the boxy, rusted-out jeep. With its five-years’ expired registration and my learner’s permit, requiring an adult to be present whenever I drove, Lisa and I were outlaws on the dirt roads of Crested Butte. This only added to the goose bumps percolating on my forearms. Being at the wheel of my own car — at least for the summer – was a thrill. If we made it out of town without getting busted, we were home free.
My New Book
In what I am doing now on May 30, 2012 at 6:59 pmHi there. I wanted to check in and let you all know that I am almost done with my second YA novel, entitled Dredged Up. I am so excited about the book and I just love the characters. Like Cinnamon Girls, it is a bit edgy, and concerns a character who is a passionate misfit and his like-minded friends, who happen to be girls. It is partly set in my current home town, Santa Monica — a place that has gorgeous exteriors and more complicated inner workings…
Dredged Up is the story of a Junior at Santa Monica High, Aiden Averill, who has an out of character moment ihat spurs him to deck the school’s celebrity, pop star Jacob Hangar. Aiden is banished to Edgemont Academy, a stuffy boarding school in Virginia. There, through an encounter at the school’s lake, he discovers he is not the only one on campus with full blown skeletons in his closet…
It only took me a year to write this one as I have gotten better at morphing into “writer-warrior” mode and defending my writing time, no matter what else is going on in my life. Thanks to all my friends and loved ones who have supported me — again — and to my husband who has rightfully said, “You are really hung up on high school.”
