Friday, December 16, 2011

Name That Author Contest--Day Six!

This is it, the last chance to win a $50 gift certificate toward a George Popa sculpture. It's proving a bit more challenging to tell our writing apart than we thought, but we're thrilled that each of us has been mistaken for the other. Such a compliment!

You'll find an unpublished excerpt from one of our six Novel Matters authors below. Consider this sneak peak a Christmas present for your faithful following. We worry all the time that you are giving us so much more than we can hope to offer. We treasure your friendship and pray that the presence of Christ is staggering in your celebration of Christmas. And after you've read the excerpt, guess which one of us wrote it in the comments section.

Here are the rules, again:

1. One guess per post day. (You may play all six days. That's six chances to win a sculpture!)
2. Guesses will be accepted until 9:00 PM Pacific Time the day of the post.
3. Each correct guess wins you one chance in the drawing.
4. The winner will be announced on December 17, 2011.

There are second and third prizes, too, hard copies of our cookbook, Novel Matters on Rice: What to Cook When You'd Rather Be Writing. They're beautiful and full of easy recipes for writers and others, plus quotes about writing and faith from each of us.

And here's our--ta-dah!--final reading:

Christina tried to warn me about my boss.

"He's not the antichrist - I'm not saying that. Because everybody's going to love the antichrist, and nobody likes Chuck. It's his one saving grace. But you watch him."

I don’t pretend to understand much of what she said, but I knew Chuck, and I did watch him.

Just not near close enough.

The day it began was pleasant, at first - just that. The birds were singing their usual amount. The sky was blue, with a haze on the edges from a recent forest fire someplace to the south.

My friends had dropped by for coffee before I left for work. I called them “the Eena's,” Christina Alvarez and Serena Ortega, sisters who raised their families in adjoining halves of a duplex across the street.

I stood at the kitchen counter, browsing through the stuff my daughter had brought home from school.

The paper I held in my hand informed me that Claire Danes was my great-grandmother. Well - not Claire, but Yvaine, the fallen star she played in Stardust.

Her mother - my great-great-grandmother - was Pocahontas, and her mother was Cleopatra. On the other side of the family tree, a bit further back, was Mary Poppins.

"She got a 'D.' Minus." Christina pointed. "So stop smirking. It's not funny."

"Her teacher's got no sense of heritage."

"No, you know who doesn't have a sense of heritage? You! You have no sense of heritage. No sense of family. Lily, you have no family."

"Ouch."

"Did you even offer to help with her homework?" She punched a finger to the inkjet paper Sierra had been given as a history assignment.

I held my hands up. "What could I do? She never even told me about this."

"And why didn't she tell you? She didn't know she could."

"Not listening." I covered my ears. "You can't make me feel guilty for working and supporting my - "

"I work. And my kids know their family."

Of course they did. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, Easter and Memorial Day the street was lined with the cars of the Ortegas and Alvarezes.

"That's because you have a family,” I said. “You said yourself - "

"Sierra has a family. And so do you."

Wonderful, isn't it? Give it your best shot. Leave your guess in the comments section. Return on Monday for our Christmas Roundtable. The conversation continues!

7 comments:

Henrietta Frankensee said...

I have one name left to play and I have some satisfaction that it could even be....Debbie!
Thanks for the fun, ladies. I woke this morning with the thrill of 'this is the last post!" Tomorrow I will wake and rush to this site to see how mistaken I was. It will be like opening presents long displayed under the tree.

Anonymous said...

Henrietta, what a sweet comment. We're so glad you've enjoyed the contest as much as we have. Thank you for participating, but more than that, thank you for your contributions all year long. Have a blessed Christmas!

Cynthia Ruchti said...

Kathleen Popa? This was so much fun. But honestly, ladies, the contest sold books that aren't even published yet! Every single snippet made me want to rush out and purchase the book! Amazing stories. The amazing writing is there to support what promise to be incredible stories. Can't wait to read them all.

Patti Hill said...

Mwah to you, Cynthia! That's music to our ears. Blessings on you, precious one.

Marian said...

Latayne C. Scott.

Megan Sayer said...

Oh this has been so much fun! I'd love to read longer exerpts and play again : )
My guess - based mostly on syntax and sentence rhythm (which, I guess, is what makes the fingerprints of voice anyway) - is Kathleen.
Eeeeeeh...this is hard again.
And thank you all for sharing such beautiful pieces. Like Cynthia said, I'd like to rush out and buy them all. Come on, it's nearly Christmas. Can we?

Sara said...

ooh, am I too late to play? Debbie