Just for fun: A first page

Last week or so Christy posted some covers she had played around with for her book 27 Daisies and some potential sequels to it (link). She also, oh so cleverly put one in on the end for a WIP that I've been working on (well, off-and-on) for awhile now but haven't told anyone but her about. Right now, it's titled On the Water and it's a contemporary romance. That's right, romance minus the YA that I've always written before.

To make things even more strange for me, I plotted this one out. *gasp* I'm like a whole new Erica. :) It's at just under 8,000 words so obviously I have some work to do, but it's fun work, of course!

Let me know what you think and if you've ever experimented in a new genre - and how it worked out for you. Have fun reading it, I know I'm having fun writing it! (disclaimer: this is a first draft and unedited)

Chapter One, Page 1 1/2: On the Water:

      The old guy who owned the bed-and-breakfast Kendall checked into twenty minutes ago did not seem pressed to leave. He kept rattling on about the good fishing in the area, the coffee house he owned across the street, and his wife's biscuits and gravy recipe handed down to her from generations of women in her family.

      I know about the fishing, I already spotted three coffee places, and keep the heart-attack-on-a-plate to yourself, Kendall thought, checking her phone for the tenth time in hope he would finally notice and leave her alone. She needed a nap and a shower. Although her next destination was the local fish-and-float, so maybe she'd skip the shower until later.

      "So will your husband be joining you yet this afternoon?"                                                   

      She must have missed something. Her husband? "Excuse me? No, no husband, I'm here for work."

      "Oh," he said, rubbing his chin and looking uncomfortable. "My wife, she said to put you in the big room so it would give you and your husband some space. Excuse me for a moment, I'll give her a call and see if I need to move you over one."

      Kendall looked around her. This was considered the big room? There was a loveseat-sized couch, one chair, and a bookshelf on one side of the room with a small kitchenette along the opposite wall. She peeked into the second room that Mr. Lowenstein had gone into and saw what appeared to be a queen-sized bed with a dresser and TV across from it. He was talking on an old rotary-phone plugged into the wall behind the bed. There was no bathroom anywhere within sight. Seriously, this was the big room?

      He set down the phone receiver and looked toward where she stood next to the loveseat. Kendall felt a little ridiculous, like she had gotten caught peeping into someone else's bedroom.

      "Never mind then, miss. My mistake. It seems the gentleman who reserved your room was your boss, not your husband. The only other guest we have this week is a single gentleman, so this arrangement will work just fine. What kind of work are you here for?"

      "Oh, good, I'm glad it all worked out. I'm doing an article on the fishing float for Wisconsin Today magazine."

      His eyes openly viewed Kendall from top to bottom and back up. She knew what he was thinking and he was right - she was a city girl and she didn't belong with a bunch of old guys on a huge boat, er, float, in the middle of the Mississippi River. What he didn't know is that she was on thin ice at work and didn't dare to turn down an assignment during the foreseeable future.

      "Well, then, you're at the right place. The man staying in the other room that I referred to a moment ago is filling in for the Captain these days. With all the chaos on the float this week, maybe you could get an interview with him tomorrow. Perhaps over those biscuits I've been talking about."

 

      Um, what? A fill-in captain? Chaos? That was definitely not her assignment.