This is day 20 and thee are basically 14,000 words to go. The middle was the hardest part and this is one of those days that I’m in a phase of doubt — but, got to press through to the end of this book, somehow.
Mostly, because I did this? I really did, and finishing matters.
So, this is the part where the whole thing comes to a conclusion.
Today Teenie and Devlin will be going to the beach and she meets Brownie! the puppy — I hope.
This is the image I saw in the web that was the inspiration for this book:
!
xxoo!
back later.
excerpt from today’s whew — ran with like 3,040 words now at 39,277 —
chapter today is “puppy love” — Brownie and Teenie and Devlin at the beach —
“Teenie Alexander, I think my little girl is growing up.”
“I am, mom.”
“Tell me about Devlin some more.”
“Only if you tell me about Delos and Charles.”
“You go first!”
“Okay,” Teenie said but she wasn’t exactly sure where to start.
“He left this really beautiful abalone shell in that driftwood castle he built and I thought he might have left it there for me so I left him a note. I hid it up in the beams, mom.”
“And then he left me a note back.”
“What did he say?”
“That his mom died, and so he had come here to live with his grandparents. I don’t think he really knows anybody here yet.”
“Teenie, that’s so sad.”
“I know mom. I don’t know what I would do if I ever lost you.”
“Honey,” she said. “I love you Teenie.”
“I love you too mom.”
“Mom, was Delos your friend?”
“He was honey, that summer.”
“Now that I think of it Teenie, he asked me to kiss him but I didn’t.”
“He did?”
“He said that Susie had kissed Paul.”
“Well, I just thought about it, but, I didn’t want to so I didn’t.”
“Did you kiss Charles?”
“Yes, honey I did.”
“Was it when he gave you that ring?”
“It might have been. He designed that ring himself because we were both taking a jewelry class together.”
“Did he like you?”
“I think he did, honey.”
“We were reading a book called The Hobbit when we took that class and he made a ring that looked like it came out of that book.”
“Did you wear it?”
“Well, it seemed like if I wore it it would mean something and I wasn’t sure about that, so I kept it in my jewelry box instead.”
“What did it look like?”
“It was silver with a dragon swirling all around it.”
“Wow.”
“Mom, what was kissing like?”
“Well, when I was fourteen I didn’t kiss boys often Teenie. So Charles and I might have only kissed on the cheek when he gave me that ring.”
Teenie didn’t really want to tell her mother about that invisible kiss that she’d already put on Devlin’s note. It just meant that she really liked him.
“Mom, can a boy and a girl be friends without kissing?”
dialogue about first kiss with T’s mom…..
exhaustion… but somehow 40,000 is a magic number I want to cross either tonight or first thing in the morning…..
I am on page 182 — this means I have 40 pages left.
That means 20 pages in a trade paperback? double sided pages….
whew.
can’t believe it.
can’t.
I like it too, a lot! Will need to edit though — but, I think it might be good… I do.
VALENTINE BONNAIRE - WRITER 
