Jacqueline C. Thomas - Romance Novelist

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And Now for Something a Little Different.. McKinley Park

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I went back and forth on whether or not to post a creative work on the blog. I even made a Twitter poll, that resulted in almost an even divide whether to post a creative work on the blog. After mulling it over I have decided that I am going to take one of my unfinished works and post a chapter a week, this will serve two purposes. The first purpose, it will allow those who may be interested in my creative writing ability to see my work and secondly, it will force me to finish this work. If you are an agent reading this, I have several completed works that I do not have any intention of sharing online, those are for publishing. I welcome constructive criticism, but if you choose to offer advice, please keep in mind that you are only seeing one chapter at a time.

Enjoy!

 

McKinley Park

By: Jacqueline Thomas

 

Chapter 1

 

“Jean did you have more potato salad? If not, I can run and grab some out of my fridge,” Laura said.
It was the annual block party for Lilac Lane. Normally Ben Carter tried to avoid these sort of gatherings. He wasn’t antisocial; this was just more of a family scene. He had never made time for the traditional set of a wife and kids; he was married to his job, a detective for the Chicago Police Department. Sure there had been women in the past, but none that had pulled him away from his true love, his work.
“Really, Laura this is more than enough.”
Ben stared down at the flimsy paper plate loaded with a small mountain of potato salad. Laura had given him more than two large servings. He knew she meant well. To Laura, being in his late thirties and single, was more of a malady than a choice. Occasionally, she’d she show up at his door with the excuse that she had made too much for one dinner or another excuse. Ben had tried his best to dissuade her, but she was sweet on him, and he knew it.
“Well if you are hungry, come get more okay?”
Ben smiled as he walked away looking for a spot to sit at one of the long tables down the middle of the street. He had made an appearance hoping to run into Rachel Lawson from across the street. She and her husband Rhett had divorced a few years ago. Ben thought that Rachel was beautiful and he felt like a teenager every time he talked to her, fumbling over his own words.
Ben found a seat next to her middle son Luke; he was six. Luke eagerly shoved a giant mouthful of jello salad into his mouth. At noticing Ben sit down next to him, Luke turned and smiled with whipped cream on his face. Ben handed Luke his napkin as the boy wiped the whipped cream off of his face.
“Mr. Carter, did you bring your gun today?” Luke asked, still chewing the jello salad.
“Not today, sport.”
“I like your gun; it’s really cool.”
“I like it too, but it isn’t a toy. It’s for grown-ups only, okay?”
“To shoot the bad guys, right?”
Ben looked up for Rachel; luckily she had joined the conversation.
“Why don’t you let Mr. Carter finish his mountain of potato salad? Besides, your brothers are waiting for you at the water gun station. You can practice wrangling bad guys there.”
Luke shot up from his seat, as Rachel gently grabbed his arm and wiped the last of the whipped cream from his face.
“Go get’em bud!” Rachel laughed.
Ben loved the sound of her laugh. She took Luke’s seat as she said it.
“Sorry about that, he is really into good guys and bad guys, as he calls it right now.”
“I was him at that age. Always on the move.”
“He’s happy, that’s all that matters to me. Hey, at the risk of getting jumped by Laura, would you like something else to eat? I mean something to go with your potato salad? I put a few burgers aside for the boys later. They probably won’t eat them.” Rachel said with a slight laugh. “No judgment though if you are really into that potato salad, though.”
“That would be great. I usually don’t come to these, I didn’t realize how hungry everyone is on this street, or I would’ve come earlier.”
Rachel laughed as her youngest son, Evan came and climbed up on her lap. He was four and looked just like Rachel. He was a quiet kid but smart.
“Sure, I’d love one.”

Rachel and Ben sat through most of the evening and talked as the block party wrapped up. Laura tried to join the conversation twice but was pulled away both times by other neighbors who wanted to chat. The rest of the time she pouted as she looked at Rachel and Ben. She wanted Ben for herself.
“Well Mr. Carter, it is getting late. I should get the boys home. It was nice to talk to you.”
“Please call me Ben, we’re neighbors. Can I help?”
“Um, sure, can you grab this chair? I will get the other one; these are mine. I also need to get my salad bowl off the buffet table. I will be right back.”
Rachel set her folding chair against the table as she walked over to the buffet. Ben was mesmerized by the way her body moved, it wasn’t overly sexy, but there was something very feminine to it that made his heart beat a little stronger when he watched her. He picked up both chairs as she came back to where he was standing. He smiled and followed her. She shouted to her boys that it was time to go in. They protested, but she held firm. She stopped just short of the steps to the front porch and turned to call again as all three boys came running up the front steps and into the house.
“They’ll leave a ring around the tub for sure tonight.” Rachel laughed.
“Ah, they’re only young once.”
“True, but I don’t feel like washing muddy footprints out of their bedsheets. It was nice to visit with you Mr. Carter; I mean Ben.”
He desperately wanted to ask her out on a date but choked at the last minute. Instead, he asked where she would like him to put her chairs.
“Just lean them against the house. I will put them away tomorrow. Good night, Ben.”
“Good night Rachel, please tell the boys I said goodbye too.”
“I will.”

Rachel walked into the house and shut the front door behind her. Ben leaned the chairs against the house. He felt like the entire street had watched their interaction. He turned to walk off the porch as he saw Laura walking his way. His phone rang at just in time to avoid having to decline a drink with her. He put the phone up to his ear and answered the phone loudly hoping it would deter Laura.
“Hello, this is Ben.”
“Hi Ben, it’s Jack. We found another one, the son of a bitch did it again.”
“Okay, I am on my way. Give me the address.”

 

 

 

To Read the next chapter click the link: https://jacquelinecthomas.com/chapter-2-mckinley-park/

I Do it For Her!

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(Ten Year Old Me)

I was a late reader. My family moved around a lot during my early education. I repeated the second grade and still could not read. Eventually, at my mother’s insistence, and I do mean insistence, testing was done. It turned out all of that time, no one knew I was dyslexic. Once it was discovered, the school knew how to teach me to read. I did not read my first full book until I was almost ten years old. It was beyond difficult to catch up to my peers. I would spend hours at the kitchen table doing reading homework and essay writing. I remember thinking it was some sort of cruel punishment that the adults in my life had devised.

Eventually, I did catch up and then surpassed my peers when it came to reading and writing. Yet, I did not love reading. It was something that I did for school, not enjoyment. Then one day it all changed. My parents rented the film Misery with Kathy Bates. I was about sixteen at the time and the film rocked my world, I had never seen anything like it. My dad who was a constant reader said, “You should read the book, it is way better than the movie.”

The next day I went to the library and checked out the book. To me, it felt like a mountain to climb, it was a big book. It just so happened that I had to complete a Saturday school the following weekend. It was basically a classroom where we all sat without any lessons being taught. We had to entertain ourselves quietly. I had decided to bring the library book with me, I had nothing better to do. The bell rang for the start of the day and I pulled out the book. I was transported to Paul Sheldon’s world, with his captor Annie Wilks, the words immersed me into their world. I had never had a reading experience like this before. I literally read the book through the entire day. Even though I already knew the story, from seeing the film, I could not put the book down. I was hooked.

When it was time to go home, once I got in the door, I went to my room and read late into the night. The next morning I woke bleary-eyed from staying up reading. I had never stayed up all night reading a book! I had finished the entire book. It might not seem like a big deal that I read a book but to me it was. I had never read an adult book all the way through. Over the next year, I made my way through the works of Stephen King. I owe a lot to him, his works taught me to love reading. I think I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I even read his book On Writing. I did not have any interest in being a writer at that time, I read it because he wrote it. I branched out from his works and read anything I could get my hands on.

Fast forward almost twenty years, very rarely am I not reading a book or several at a time. My nightstand is covered in stacks of books. I have read all sorts of books, fiction, and non-fiction. The only time in my adult life where I was not actively reading was when my children were born, I just did not have the bandwidth to read and stay awake. I longed for the days when I could sit still long enough to read and not fall asleep.

When I hit the save button book on the first book I ever wrote, a profound thought struck me, I, the dyslexic girl who couldn’t read or write just wrote a book. I had hated writing so much as a small child that I would have never thought I would have written something by choice let alone an entire book. As I sat at my computer looking at that word count and the work on the screen I began to cry. I had done something that ten-year-old Jackie would have thought impossible. It was a life-changing moment.

Now when I am crippled with self-doubt in the writing process, I think of myself at ten. I keep going for her because she is smart and she is capable. So to all of the kids out there who think they can’t or hate to read, you are smart, you can do it. You just have to find the right thing to read, keep searching, I promise it is worth it.

My First Book, Learning to Be Patient, and Half Moon Bay, CA.

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My first book came flying out of me, and I know that sounds a bit dramatic to say but it is the truth. I felt like I could not type it fast enough. I woke one morning after having the most intense and vivid dream of my life, thinking that would make a good book. I shrugged it off and went on about my day, I wasn’t a writer. Yet, the more I thought about it, I thought it would make a good book. Maybe I could write it, just sit and write down the story, it sounded simple enough. I laugh at that now.  I had no idea where to start, but as my husband says “put your arse in the chair.” I sat down opened my Word program (I now prefer Scrivener) and did not get up for almost a week. That week, I wrote through a cold, multiple technical issues, and two small kids at home. The teacups multiplied as I worked on, plates with food that had been easy to microwave were stacked around the desk. By day three, I realized I needed to shower, but I just couldn’t stop. I could not get the words out fast enough.

Finally, at the end of the week, the first novel I ever wrote was done. It was one of the best moments of my whole life. I had written a love story set with two unlikely people set in Silicon Valley. I thought it was brilliant. I am very lucky to have a few trusted people in my life who told me it wasn’t. “It had promise, keep working on it,” they both said. Normally I would have just walked away, thinking, I am not a writer. There was something different, something in me had changed. I felt like walking away would have been giving up on my characters, people who I had created. I went back to work, fixing plot holes, and adding depth to my characters.

I wrote and rewrote and edited again and again. The biggest compliment I ever got about the book was from Jon who said, “I just can’t stop thinking about your story it is so good, the writing is.. well..it is written by someone who has never written anything before.” I went back through the book again working at it, trying to get it right.  Finally, I got it to a point where I was ready for a few beta readers. I sent it out and the feedback was mostly positive, but Jon’s sentiment was echoed, the story is good, the writing needs work. I wanted to do more but I knew I had exhausted my efforts at this point. I needed to let it rest.

I put the book aside, knowing that I needed to let it rest and move on creatively. I moved on to other projects with the understanding that I would go back to that first book eventually. It has sat untouched for almost three years. I have often thought about picking it back up but I knew that the time was not right. I needed to wait.

That first book was important to me and still is. I set a large part of the book in Half Moon Bay, California. I told myself that the next edit/rewrite I would do in Half Moon Bay. I needed to be there, to smell the air, walk along the Pacific, hear the ocean. As a working mother, a student and co-owner in a business it was easier said than done. I just kept telling myself, “someday you will go.” I told myself that when I could find the time to get out to the coast I could rewrite the book there. I was firm with myself, I am not to touch the book until then.

Then by happy circumstance, two weeks ago I was informed that I would be going to San Francisco for work. It is scheduled so I can stay for a long weekend. I could not believe my luck when I got the news. I was in my car, waiting in line at Starbucks when I got the tickets in my inbox, it was real, I am really going to Half Moon Bay! I started to scream with excitement. I am normally a very composed person. I scared the poor barista who must have thought the worst. As tears streamed down my face, all I could say was, “I’m okay, I am going.” She must have thought I was nuts but I didn’t care.

I got to choose where I wanted to stay and of course I chose Half Moon Bay. I booked a hotel on the coast. Now I get to smell, see and hear the ocean, like the characters in my first book. I am going to rewrite it in the place that it is set. It is an amazing treat and I am so grateful for it! I am sure I will write about the experience. I leave two weeks from today and I cannot wait to dig in! I know a long weekend will not be enough time to rewrite an entire book, but it is a good place to start.

David and Naomi, here I come..

(They are the characters from the book.)