Every novel I’ve written has started as a NaNoWriMo (National November Writing Month) project, but this November I decided to do something a little different. Instead of writing a novel I’m writing a collection of short stories, one of which will bridge the gap between Small Things and Threads.

Here’s an excerpt from the Small Things novella:

Summer, 1976

In a town the size of Carthage, you notice when someone new moves in — especially when they’re driving a 1937 black Ford Coupe. But it wasn’t the car that worried sixteen-year-old Shawn Spencer, it was the pair of men who owned it: Mr. Kingfisher and Mr. Quarry, who had taken up temporary residence at the Hotel Carthage overlooking the town squarecoupe

Kingfisher was nearly as tall as famed professional wrestler Andre the Giant, while Quarry was maybe 5’2″ on a good day. They wore identical matching black suits, and were supposedly housing developers looking to perhaps build in Carthage.

What made Shawn nervous wasn’t the thought of rising real estate prices or cottages being built around the lake, but that the pair had shown a particular interest in the old Spencer house on Randolph Street, the very same house where he and his girlfriend Jenny McGee had almost been murdered last summer.

 

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From Joe's writing

Katy felt like she was going to cry again. Ben had left to find a first aid kit, and she was terrified to be in the strange hotel room all alone. She carefully washed out her wound with soap and water, but it still looked awful and felt worse. She could barely comprehend the fact that she had almost been killed tonight. She’d always assumed the dreams were a product of some disturbed part of her mind, her imagination running rampant, but all of that had changed. Thank God Ben had been there to wake her.

— Threads, Chapter 20