I am making great progress with the novel. I have only one more chapter to write and one to complete before starting my first personal edit before sending to a professional. Once the chapters are complete, I will set it aside for the week and move over to the Children's Book to work on.
NaNoWriMo has what is called a Camp just for the month of April. I signed up and will start recording my word count each day until the end of the month on each project. In these times of staying in, this will help to keep me focused on writing for a few hours a day. Accountability is a great thing, so I am grateful for this now.
Below is a short story for your reading that was created on a twenty minute prompt writing with my writers group. We set a time and day then at the end e-mailed our writings to the group. Hope you enjoy it.
Prompt
Story-March 25-2020
by Diane
Chartrand
Jill
was pulling a book out when she spotted a latch behind it. Wondering what it could be, pulled out a few
more books to look. She grabbed it with
one hand and pulled on it. The first
time nothing happened so she pulled it again and the bookcase next to her opened
up.
Jill
carefully peeked behind it to see what was there. I narrow stairway of three steps going down
somewhere. She proceeded to go behind
the open door and went down the steps.
When she reached the bottom and turned right there was a long tunnel in
front of her.
Carefully,
Jill made her way along the wall to an entrance to a series of tunnels before
her. Which way to go? Wondering where
all of them lead to she decided to follow each one to the end then return and
take the next one.
She
decided to try the one directly in front of her first. As she walked it became darker and
darker. Jill reached in her pocket and
pulled out her cell phone turning on the small flashlight it provided.
Shining
it along the right wall, she saw some kind of markings and stopped to look at
them. They looked like something written
a long time ago and were a series of symbols.
There
was one of two people, one holding a baby.
A cart and horse and several others she had no idea what they could
be. She took a few pictures and
continued on her way.
The
tunnel ended with a brick wall closing it off.
She turned back and made her way to where the others had been. When she reached the series of tunnels, Jill
went to the right and started to walk.
This
one was consumed with spider webs and smelled terrible. She turned the flashlight back on and the
webs became even thicker causing her to cough.
Jill decided to turn back and explore that one later when she had
something to clear out the spiders webs.
Going
to her left, Jill could see more light in this tunnel and put her cell phone
back in her pocket. She walked towards
the light as it got brighter and brighter.
At times it seamed to blind her where she had to put her hand over the
top of her eyes to see.
When
she got to where she assumed was the end, there was what looked like an altar
and several religious statues in a circle around the area. Whatever could this have been she
thought. Where was the bright light
now? When she entered the chamber it
disappeared and became a very low blue lighting.
She
knew her parents had purchased this house from a church group who have long
moved on. What could they have been
doing here deep in the ground below the house.
Could that group have been a cult or something worse? She didn’t know, but needed to ask her father
about it later.
When
she was four her mother had died of a strange illness. Did this place have anything to do with that?
Now frightened, Jill made her way back to the stairs, went back into her
father’s office. She closed the door and
put all the books back on the shelve.
She would check the tunnels again another day after she had spoken to
her father to find out what he knew about them.
SEE YOU IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS.
