Wednesday, October 27, 2010

without winning and losing

Sunday afternoon I received an email that I was the lucky winner
of JK Beck's WHEN WICKED CRAVES!

So, today when I received another email with the subject line
WINNERS ... I made that horrible assumption before I opened it
that I was one of 85 that won something from a writer's contest.

Well, I didn't and I intend to write the coordinators
to find out if they will share some feedback
as to what it was lacking that the other 85 winners had.
I don't like not knowing.

So for those of you who were curious about my entry read on ...

LOST AND FOUND

Sam awoke shaken in the dark. Frantic to record the vision’s details before they faded from her mind. Sheer exhaustion had allowed Jacob to draw her into his surrounds, his reality, without him even trying. His psychic abilities grew stronger as his birthday was rapidly approaching. As it had been for generations in Samantha’s family, at conception a telepathic bond began between mother and child. However, the bridging ceremony must be performed soon otherwise; the link would end between them at the age of four. Could Sam find him before it was too late?

Jacob had shown Samantha something tangible to help locate him. Slowing her breathing as she closed her eyes, Sam concentrated. She was enraptured as a whirlwind of red and orange leaves danced about the dust bowl of a yard near a rusty Ford pickup. The very one Jacob disappeared in. The funnel of leaves zigzagged toward the spot where bucket-of-bolts lay resting. Mesmerized by the license plate swinging back and forth in the brisk breeze, Jacob giggled as it flew off. Sam held her breath as the dilapidated yellow-orange-colored plate whisked by the cabin’s window. It read simply RETYRED.

Sam fought back the tears that threatened to blur her sight. Groping for her cell phone, she knocked over the end table’s lamp. Though her fingers knew Chief Johnson number by heart, she wanted to be sure she called him and only him. Anyone else in North Cedar wouldn’t believe her. Wouldn’t understand.

Sam’s world came crashing down around her the day Maggie MacEntyre’s men had found them. As her mind played out the memory of Jacob’s kidnapping, sobs burst forth. Without warning the backfire made Jacob jerk away from Sam at the park. Curious as ever, he ran towards the decrepit truck. Falling over a tree root, Samantha screamed as Jacob was hoisted up into the cab. Grandma MacEntyre warning hit her full force; there was no place they could go she wouldn’t find them.

“Chief Johnson here,” Waiting for a reply all he heard was a woman weeping.

“Sam is that you? What’s happened?”

Samantha managed to choke out, “I know where Jacob is. He’s at MacEntyre’s hunting cabin in Battle Creek.”

*********** End of short story - copyrighted by Amy L. Heffernan/Amanda Campbell

Yes, that's it... that's all I could pour out in a day, on a Saturday full of kids' activities and such.

So, any thoughts... or feedback?

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