Excerpts

Last night while I was lying in bed not sleeping, somehow the subject of excerpts came to my mind. I started to wonder what would be a good excerpt for my book. Writing stories has always been one of my passions but since graduating college I don't do it often. I've written one story - the paragraph I posted earlier - and one "book" since graduating. I've also fine tuned two stories that I wrote prior. I know that the excerpt needs to be catchy, something to make you want to read more. That's hard to gage since I only really have one person that reads anything I write. Charlotte, my number one fan for ten or more years. She long since has reassured me that I am not the only person in the world that likes what I write. Of course that could be due to the fact that we've been friends longer than I actually have memory of it (I don't remember my childhood as well as I'd like) I've been going through my book and I haven't finished it but I kind of like this part. So I'll post it alone and see how it looks.


Kadey forced Dixon to keep eye contact with her. He’d already tried to bite Koh once and she’d slapped away his mouth. Now he stared at her with ire in his eyes. He was one mad pony. Koh finished off the last shoe and stepped away. “That should do it.” He gathered his things and left to finish out his day.
“I’m not sure you deserve this but it was part of the deal.” She pulled a sugar cube out and offered it to Dixon.
Dixon looked at the sugar cube then indignantly turned his back on her and walked away.
“You are such a baby.” She would have laughed but it would have made him all the angrier. Grinning she turned to her father. A movement behind him drew her attention and she froze. A myriad of emotions crossed Kadey’s face. Dan was confused at the sudden parade. He’d seen shock, followed quickly by excitement, then so many different ones so quickly he couldn’t decipher them. Now she stood looking almost haunted. She looked unsure and not frightened but anxious. What was going on? He turned around to see what she was looking at. His eyes rested on a sight he hadn’t expected.
A woman stood not far behind him. She was casually dressed, long curly brown hair. She looked to be in her mid thirties. She had a look on her face that struck him as familiar. He’d seen it before. He’d caused it before. As a boy he’d lost track of time and spent three and a half hours too long at the pool hall with his friends. He’d just looked at the clock and headed for the door in a hurry when he spotted her, his mom standing in the doorway looking at him just like that. It was the mom look and it was strong. He looked at Kadey. That’s what his face must have looked like that day. He didn’t know who this woman was but she was one mad mamma. He inadvertently took a step back out of the line of fire.
She began walking towards Kadey, her demeanor suggesting Kadey should meet her. Kadey matched her steps but no more. She was having a hard time keeping eye contact. Dan had never witnessed such a thing before. He thought Kadey would look a bear in the face as it prepared to eat her alive. Apparently even the bravest of them was just a big chicken deep down.
“You’re a hard woman to find, Kadey.” She strolled the rest of the way as though it were a casual meeting but her voice did not echo that sentiment, nor did her eyes. “I called to let you know when I’d be home. Couldn’t get you. I called when I got home. Couldn’t get you. Finally, I had to go to the condo.” She laughed scathingly. “My oh my did I not like what I found there. So I called frantically for the next few days. Nothing. I called everyone I could think of that you might know. Nothing. I went and turned you in as a missing person out of shear desperation.” She paused a moment for effect. “That might have worked if your divorce papers hadn’t showed up. Could anyone tell me where you were, no but you must be okay if you’re out filing papers.” She shook her head disgusted. “I finally had to use my key and sneak into the condo, which was mostly likely against the law because you don’t technically live there anymore, and go through all of the mail and anything I could find that might give me a clue. It came down to this envelope, which I stole,” she pulled out an empty envelope, “that is from a law firm out in the middle of who knows where. Since I knew you’d filed for divorce I took a chance and without knowing where I was going exactly or if you’d even be there when I got there, I took a little trip.
“I just spent the morning doing my best to intimidate a man I found on the street when I didn’t even know if he even knew you for sure. Once I realized he did, it was over. Poor man didn’t have a chance at that point. Wide eyed and half frightened for his life he just pointed and said she’s at her dad’s ranch and promptly gave me directions. Now can you give me any reason, any reason at all, why I shouldn’t come over that fence and…” she faltered. She took several deep breaths to steady herself. She could not recall a moment in her life she’d been this angry, frightened and relieved all at once. Calm down. Just switch focus for a moment. She looked over at the man. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be so impolite. I’m Charlise”
He put his hands up. “Dan, and its all fine by me.”
She could hear the amusement in his voice. She cocked her head sideways at him and took a good look. She decided he wasn’t amused at her. In fact she got a feeling he was rather supportive of her. She’d have to ask him later what he was thinking.
He was attractive.
Whoa, none of that. Focus. Yet she found herself rather intrigued by him. She took notice of his eyes. She knew those eyes. He must be Kadey’s father. It wasn’t a hard match up. They shared a lot of physical features as well as others. They even stood the same, probably had the same gait. She turned her attention back to Kadey. “Anything?”
Dan had watched his daughter shrink lower and lower. Her eyes were completely downcast by the end of her rather deserved lecture. Kadey claimed to like people to fight for her. She must love this. He sighed. He should leave them to it. He wanted to know more about this woman but he’d have to wait for later. He wondered who she had talked to. He was likely to get a good story next time he went into town. He politely bowed out and left them to it.