That was her biggest fear. Not facing the council. Not her phobia of water and drowning, terrible as it was. Not even the murderous street gang baying for her blood. No, it was the fear of failure, of going back to that little cell, four steps long, two steps across, back to the unvarying routine, the surly guards, the two scant meals a day, the hours of boredom counting the bricks in the walls and ceilings. She feared going back to a cage she might never escape from. The very thought of failure terrified her.

As I mentioned in my post last week, I'm taking part in the July session of Camp NaNoWriMo. I'm rewriting my novel, Snow, which is a retelling of Snow White involving superheroes and epic plots. A couple of weeks ago, Heather@Sometimes I'm a Story tagged me for the 777 Tag, which requires me to go to the 7th page of my book, look at the 7th line, and share the 7 lines following that. Now, my book has two narrators, so I'm going to bend the rules a bit. I'm going to share the regular 7th page 7th line excerpt, and an excerpt from the 7th page of the other character's point of view. Two excerpts for the price of one!

Now, on to the excerpts:

Bethany, the other female member of their group arrived too. She always looked like she was sneaking around. It had to be something to do with her being an empath, because frankly Nicola had never seen anyone creep around like Bethany did. It was so annoying. Like, did she think they were going to eat her if she made a noise? Then there was just Jonathon to go. And apparently he had forgotten that they needed him to be able to start the meeting, because several minutes ticked by without any sign that he was going to arrive. For a genius, he had the worst memory in the world. Nicola drummed her fingers across the tabletop and picked at the fraying edge of her t-shirt. “Is he actually coming?” she said at last.

This not particularly exciting excerpt comes from the first meeting of  the teenaged mutant crime fighting team where they receive their very first mission. Nicola is the secondary narrator, a sarcastic, reckless mutant with aquatic powers.

Excerpt number 2:

Eric let his power build up inside him. If Sam wanted to go head to head then he was going to give him a fight no one in this playground would ever forget. Cold poured out of his hands, wreathing them in a fog of cold steam. He rolled away from Sam’s attack, climbing to his feet. “Last warning,” he said. Sam laughed. Eric’s control snapped. He took a deep breath and blew it out into Sam’s face. Ice coated his eyelashes, hair, cheeks. His skin froze. Eric grabbed his wrist with a hand that he knew would burn with cold. Sam let out a yell as his hand connected. He stumbled back, terror filling his eyes.

This excerpt is from Eric's point of view. He's the main character in the book and, as you can probably tell, he has ice powers. In this scene he's getting into a fight at school defending another mutant from the school bully.

So there we have it, two excerpts from my book. Now it's your turn. Share an excerpt of your novel in the comments below!

Original Image by Andrea Smith

“Where are we going?” Miriam asked when they didn’t turn onto the road home. “Are we going to get a milkshake?” Her face lit up. “I want a strawberry milkshake. And a donut. Please Uncle Donny?”

“No, we’re not going to get a milkshake,” Don said. “Uncle Donny has to go and talk to a man. You’ll just have to come with me.”

Miriam stuck out her lower lip, which immediately started to wobble. “But I want a milkshake. I firsty Uncle Donny. Please?”

“No.” He was immune to the wobbly lip. Even though that pout was kinda cute on her. But no, he wasn’t going to be bullied into buying sickly pink milkshakes when he was supposed to be on a case. She’d just have to do without.

Huge tears welled up in Miriam’s eyes. “I wanna milkshake,” she bawled. Don watched in the rearview mirror as she proceeded to thrash her arms and legs like a fish on a hook, her face turning redder and redder. Her mouth opened wide and an ear splitting scream poured out. He winced, ducking his head slightly, as if that was going to help. She didn’t seem to need to breathe either.

Don made it forty five seconds before he gave in. “Fine. I’ll buy you one. But after Uncle Donny has done his work. You have to be a good girl though, ok?”

The tears magically stopped. “And a donut?” Miriam asked.

“Fine,” Don sighed. “And a donut. But you have to be very good.”

“I be good Uncle Donny.” Just like that, the sunny smile came back and Don knew she’d played him for a sucker. It was a depressing feeling, knowing that he had been outwitted by a six year old.

“Not any more,” Eric said.




  



One by one, Sara, Bethany and Lee tipped their shells into the hat. Bethany gripped the hat by its string, swinging it like she would swing a bag. Something caught her eye and she darted off across the rocks, in search of her next big find.