Soon they were out of the airport and in the car park, or “parking lot” as Phil called it. They stopped at a very large car, or at least large compared to the ones Fred was used to.
“I’ll help you put the luggage into the boot.” Fred said.
Brit looked at Fred, her nose wrinkling in a quizzical manner, “The what?”
Phil laughed, “Fred means the ‘trunk’, it’s called the boot in England. Your Dad e-mailed me about some sort of school project you have to work on while you’re here Fred, about the differences in the languages, right?”
“Yeah,” Fred said with a grimace. “I don’t want to do it, but a new X-Box is the bait for me to do a good report.”
Brit rolled her eyes again, something Fred found quite attractive about Brit. That, and the way she wrinkled her nose.
“A school project?”
“That’s what my teacher said, anyway,” Fred gasped as he struggled with his suitcase. “Gotta make a list of all the words I find that are different in this country.” He kicked an imaginary stone. “Of course my parents thought it a great idea… Some holiday!”
Fred got into the car and sat next to Brit, feeling a little self-conscious about being so close to her, hoping he didn’t smell too bad after his travels. He felt very tired as the jet lag of the journey started to wash over him. Yawning, he struggled to remove a notebook from his pocket.
“Here, sleepy head, let me,” said Brit taking the book from Fred, who was too tired to complain. “No time like the present to start your list. What have we got so far?”
Carefully she drew a line down the center of the page and wrote.
Thanks for hosting Barry, Jen! Don't include me in the giveaway but I was just reading a guest post by another one of my clients which inspired me to really think about this thing we call outlining. Barry, I never got to ask you this but do you outline or just write as you go?
With me small romance stuff I churn.. I mean I get an idea and then churn it around in my head when driving to from work etc.. Work out a twist as I always love having those then when ready just dash it down. With the novel I started with a plot and a rough outline. Once I had the first three chapters down, which took many attempts I did then more or less write. I had some idea of items I wanted to bring in, but did not have any ending until I basically wrote the words. For the next book I do have an outline or rather a plot. I am working through that getting some feed back before I start to write. I don't want it like so many film sequals or to lose the voice I am with the first book.
Excellent excerpt! It's always difficult to choose one that yields a good hook. Yours does!
Doug Hewitt
author of the mystery The Dead Guy