WIPpet Wednesday: An Introduction

It’s hard to believe it’s the end of April.  It’s the season of concerts and recitals, which means May and June are going to be incredibly busy.  I’m already done with my concerts, but both the kids have upcoming gigs.  I’m looking forward to it; both of them are so proud of all the hard work they put in—as they should be!

Last night, I was on Twitter for a weekly chat I participate in with a bunch of other lovely writers.  I realized that although I’ve shared the WIPpet linky with them, I’ve never told you all about the Twitter chat!  If you want to join in, it’s Tuesdays at  9pm eastern, using the hashtag #writestuff.

Now for this week’s WIPpet.  This scene is immediately—as in, the very next sentence—after last week’s.  It’s not terribly important or interesting, other than the fact that I promised you all would know what fairy tale inspired the story.  If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, you can refresh your memory with the other WIPpets from this story.  As you may recall, it’s the story of a youngest brother who inherits something worse than nothing when his dad dies.  And now along comes…this guy, who, judging by last week’s responses, may or may not be hot, depending on who you ask.  (Don’t ask Micah; he’s not ready to answer yet.)

My WIP math was just adding all the numbers together, so here are 14 sentences.

Micah made only a half-hearted attempt to return the smile. He reminded himself he didn’t want to get to know the neighbors—he was just there to fix up the property and sell it. People would only complicate that process.

“Uh, hi,” Micah said. He tried to think of something to tell the young man to get him to go away.

“I’m Cat Rowland. I live next door.” He extended his hand.

Reluctantly, Micah accepted it. “Micah Forbes.” He frowned in confusion. Before he could stop himself, he said, “Your name is really Cat?”

Cat laughed. “Sort of. My baby sister couldn’t say my name, so she called me Cat—no idea why. My mother always joked that I had nine lives, so it stuck.”

There you have it.  First one to figure it out gets…um…the satisfaction of posting the answer first?

Actually, aside from the fairy-tale inspiration, I also pulled a little from one of my favorite children’s authors (despite this not being at all a kids’ story)—Dianna Wynn Jones.  I recently read Charmed Life to my kids, and the main character’s nickname is Cat.  I promise, my character is not a grown-up version of Eric Chant, but I’ve always liked that he was called that, so I borrowed the name.  My Cat’s role in this story starts out as a rough parallel to his fairytale counterpart.

As usual, thanks and heart-shaped chocolates to K. L. Schwengel for hosting us.  Post some of your own work-in-progress, related to the date however you can make that happen, and link up with us here.  Don’t forget to read the other entries.  Happy writing!