Writing with N. D. Hansen-Hill...

On writing SFF & horror novels, publishers & publishing...and the writing life... Watch for book excerpts!

Book news: The Hollowing has been contracted! I'll let you know where it's gone as soon as I receive official word that they've received the contract back in the mail. Then...

I finished Of Dragons two weeks ago, and am halfway through Glass Works. In Flames, the sequel to In Trysts, is under consideration, plus I've had word that BloodWorks and Relic are under consideration by one of the Giants. Wouldn't that be great?!

My goals: to finish these 3 books I'm working on, to get my uncontracted books (BloodWorks, Relic, BoneSong, Gray Beginnings, In Flames, Of Dragons) contracted! Next, I want to work on a book for TLC (The Lotus Circle) and one for a continuity series at EC/CP. Plus, get The Trees Series resubmitted as they become available, and write the last 2 to 4 books in that series, and the last in The Grave Images Series, to finish them up.

Phew!

I'll leave you with an excerpt.

From The Hollowing, soon to be published by ...

Prologue

            It was a Christmas present—quite the best present he’d ever had. He’d opened it with shaking hands, and for the first time in two years, was able to tune out his stepdad’s berating voice.

            Merv Wilkins thought the camera was a stupid idea. Cameras used film which cost money. Stupid to give a kid gifts which needed “refuelling”. Stupider still to give a kid a gift which needed developing before it was any use.

            And now, Merv and his mom were yelling again. When the boy came reluctantly downstairs, his first sight was something he would carry with him always: a look of abhorrence, almost of horror, in his mother’s eyes. He’d never thought she could look at him that way, and for a moment, the unshakeable structure of his kid’s world crumbled.

            It was surprising that the thing which gave it back was the harshness of his stepfather’s voice. “No more than I expected,” he was saying grimly.

            Meeting Wilkins’ dire expectations was something Shawn seemed to do regularly. Whatever he’d done this time couldn’t be any worse than usual.

            He was wrong.

            Merv tossed a photograph onto the table, then another, and another.

            In front of Shawn’s face. Where he couldn’t avoid looking.

            Where he couldn’t avoid seeing...

            Gooseflesh tightened on his arms and legs, then danced down his back. “They’re not mine,” he said.

            But they were. This room. This house.

            These were pictures of The Hollowing—the same thing he felt at nights, when he awakened anchorless from screaming dreams.

            And in a moment of near-adult wisdom, Shawn suddenly understood his stepfather’s revulsion. No wonder he hates me...

            The Hollowing was a bleak and empty hole; a crater which threatened to suck him in. It was that moment of wakefulness when his nightmares were still real, and his world was filled with despair.

            His eyes focussed on the nearest photo, and he swallowed convulsively. This Hollowing wasn’t empty. He’d filled it somehow.

            The woman was dead. She was lying there, in the centre of their lounge, a shadow with far too much substance. What was even more horrifying was the way the angle of her body had changed as the photographer had shifted around the room. She was a 3D image imposed on a 2D medium.

            Merv picked up the photos and threw them and the negatives into the fire. Shawn tore up the stairs and grabbed his camera. Then, before he could think about it, he tossed the camera into the flames, too.

            It was the first time he and Merv had agreed on anything.

*

Cheers,

ND/Melody

http://www.NDHansen-Hill.com

http://MelodyKnight.com

 

posted by: NDwriting at 18:54 | link | comments |
books, melody knight, in trysts, n d hansen-hill, in flames, the hollowing

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