Entry 60, The Writer’s Voice

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Owen Archer’s adventure began when he took his first breath and his mother took her last.

Twelve years later, death makes Owen very uncomfortable. The mere thought of it while sitting at his grandfather’s funeral makes him sweat. When he returns to his grandfather’s house, he avoids thinking about it.

But old houses have the bad habit of being haunted.

Owen is awakened by a voice coming from a dark closet he has always feared, and he is intrigued by how familiar the voice sounds. It pleads with him. It begs him to trust it, to come to the closet, and to find a key.

The key transports him to a place filled with regret. A dead girl named Annabel reveals to him an entire world just beyond that of the living. It is a limbo where spirits are tortured by the mistakes they made in life and tormented by a vengeful Queen who knows Owen all too well.

He is told that he will be a hero whether he likes it or not.

But how does a boy, plucked out of the land of the living go about becoming a hero? Especially when what seemed like a brief adventure turns deadly serious. Who is this ghostly girl who joins him and why hasn’t she moved on? Why does the Queen of Regrets have such an interest in him and, better yet, how can he get home?

The Traveler’s Key is my first novel. It is a modern-day dark fantasy for an upper middle grade audience. It is the first in a series, complete at 56,858 words, and available at your request. The first 250 words are included below.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this project.

—–

It was too late. Owen had already looked.

“Don’t look, do not look. You do not want to see Grandpa Sam dead,” his thoughts screamed when they entered the church.

The interior was a sprawling example of classic New England Congregational, row upon row of oak pews, shining in the light that poured in through the tall windows. A dour gathering of folk from around Chatham, dressed in their simplest dark clothing, nodded politely as Owen and his father walked down the central aisle and took their seats in the front.

Owen shimmied himself down the pew until he brushed up against Mitch, his great uncle on his father’s side, who was busily dabbing his head with a handkerchief that he wrenched in his hands. The interior of the church was unseasonably hot and a sheen glistened off from Mitch’s forehead.

“Such a shame,” Mitch leaned in and whispered. He smelled of sweat and a heavy armor of Old Spice. The combination of his great uncle’s pungent aroma and the scent of Murphy’s Oil Soap produced a cloying smell that threatened to turn over Owen’s anxious stomach.

A burp rolled up out of his belly.

He raised his fist up to his lips, excused himself, and glanced sheepishly up at his father. Luckily, it had gone unnoticed.

He stared at his feet. He tried not to speak. He shuffled about awkwardly, brushing up first against Uncle Mitch’s rotund thighs, straining against his navy blue slacks, and then against his father.

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37 responses on “Entry 60, The Writer’s Voice”

  2. This concept sounds awesome! I can’t put my finger on it, but it reminds me of this great indie movie called Ink.

    Good luck in the contest!

    • Thanks Mia…I’m currently working through the entries. Look forward to reading yours.

    • The cake is metaphorical. You already “have the cake”. You just don’t know it yet. :)

  6. Hi Paul, I was definitely feeling hot and uncomfortable in that church – as Jamie said, the detail was stifling – I mean that in a good way!
    Good Luck,
    Jacky
    xxx

    • I worried for a while about having my opening pages feel “uncomfortable” but decided that it played into the tone of my story quite well.

      • Absolutely. I meant in a “the writer has totally immersed me in his story so I’m feeling hot-under-the-collar” kind of (good) way.
        I love it when I get a physical reaction to writing, it’s the sign of total awesomeness.
        Please never worry about anything I say – that’s never the intention.
        Have I back-pedalled/apologised enough yet?
        J
        xx

    • Haha, no need for apologies. I totally got where you were coming from. I was just explaining some of the internal “am I making a mistake here” moments I went through. It’s soooo easy to run around with the old 20/20 hindsight spectacles on.

    • Good luck to you as well…haven’t made my way down the list to 195 yet. I’ll get there soon.

  9. I love middle grade, and the Queen of Regrets is a cool name!

    Good luck from #23! :)

    • Thanks Stef! Love your entry too…I think the mist is lurking in my backyard *shivers*

    • It’s only appropriate. Would be very, very rude to eat cake on the corpse of poor old Grandpa Sam!

    • Thanks for the kind words, CG. I tend to agree. Creepy is good. Hope you get to read more someday, hehe.

      -Paul

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