Excerpt #2 ☾from Prologue☽

A revival post! 😀

LUNNAH (book blog)

With home not being much of a home and school not being much of a safe haven either, what is Lunnah to do?

She actually does have a special spot to escape all the yelling and bullying: nature. Oftentimes, you’ll find her in the middle of her backyard in a meditative state, taking in the symphony of sparrow song, beaming sunshine, and gentle breeze.

What are some of your go-to “escape-from-the-world” spots? If you feel like you don’t really have anywhere to escape from, where do you like to go to simply relax?

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Excerpt #1 ☾from Chapter 1☽

Just wanted to revive an old excerpt. 🙂 So far, I’ve shared nearly 20 excerpts, and feel like I may be exposing too much of the story-line at this point 😅

LUNNAH (book blog)

Are you an asymmetrical shape just like Lunnah?

What is your stance on lines?

…More excerpts are around the corner!

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LUNNAH ☾Excerpt #19☽ 🦋

The park was always a place to connect with her fellow human, all while communing with nature. In fact, nature is what inspired Lunnah to connect and not dive deeper in recluse mode.

The park wasn’t all glimmering sunrays and dancing trees limbs, though. Lunnah held a sense of loss within her when the people she observed going about their personal “normal” headed to what was next, away from her field of view.

The laughing children building a fort on the beach out of sticks and rotting logs. Children she wanted to help, especially the one trying to lug a branch, two times the height of her across the uneven terrain.

A tattooed shirtless old man sitting on a green outstretched towel finishing up some paperwork or perhaps, like Lunnah, writing poetry or his next best seller. An old man she wanted to ask questions to. What story was behind each and every tattoo—especially the ones that were so sun-faded you couldn’t make out the words without squinting? Why did he come to the park alone? Did he commune with nature to keep his mind off of his beloved wife that he lost?

A mother struggling up the gravel hill with her newborn in a stroller. A mother she wanted to assist, but as soon as she rose from her elevated grassy spot, both mother and babe made it up.

The moth that found Lunnah’s limbs to be the ideal perches. A moth she helped by freeing its dainty legs from the clutches of a red ant, but still apologizing to the ant for stealing away it’s queen’s dinner.

And as each feathered, furred, or fleshed creature departed, she said a silent goodbye infused with positive vibes. The only thing that was left apart from a trail of light? Her brief memory of them.

Though not parted by death, beyond death, memories are what we were to become on Planet Earth.

We became the earth.

Maybe it was possible to run into these creatures again in another life.

Lunnah genuinely hoped the earth wouldn’t become them anytime soon. She may had not even said a word to any of these passerby, but she hoped with every single fiber that created her being, that many more sunny days awaited them.

The moth that had initially landed on her leg was still there, right at home.

And no matter how much Lunnah blew on it and gently nudged it with a blade of grass, it remained a statue.

It was the moth’s time.

If she kept it on her leg long enough, would it become her?

Would she take on part of it?

Lunnah was already fond of flames…

A Very Merry Christmas To All! 🌙✨⛄

Dear Friends,

May this Christmas and every Christmas thereafter be teeming with nothing but awesome, loving energies and limitless joy 🎅 And Happy Holidays to anybody who may not celebrate Christmas 😺! Happy New Year too 🎊!

Lunar Regards,
Eva & Lunnah (Oh, and Leo too,
which is Lunnah’s feline companion.)

 

P.S. Editing round two is going superbly! It’s also making me realize that I can write a whole lot more. Between the inception of this story idea until now, I have experienced a ton of life-altering things, which serve as new inspiration for this semi-autobiographical work of “fiction.” Who knows when exactly I’ll be officially finished with this novel. But no worries… I’ll keep you all posted and keep on posting excerpts here and there. 😀 🌙

LUNNAH ☾Excerpt #18☽ 💮

The next morning, when Lunnah scuffled to the kitchen for a berry-over-buckwheat-waffles breakfast, she smelled the most familiar of scents, but before a smile could curl her lips, the sight of a tall glass vase of flowers broke it. Her inner zen, a popped soapy bubble.

“Violet!” Lunnah called out.

“Lunnah, there’s no need to yell.” Violet rushed to the kitchen. “What is it?”

“What are my flowers doing there?” Lunnah held her head.

“Oh, these?” Violet plucked a daisy from the vase and attempted to put it behind Lunnah’s ear. “Your father picked them for me. Only a few…”

Lunnah smacked her mother’s hand away. “But I told you that I wanted them to all stay in their home. With me.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Violet knelt down beside her. “I love flowers. They make mom happy. And your father rarely gets me them…”

“If you loved them, you wouldn’t pick them.” Lunnah crossed her arms.

“Well,” Violet laughed to herself. “I didn’t pick them. Your father—”

“What are you two going on about? What are you saying about me?” Augustus asked, approaching the two of them.

Lunnah stomped her foot and pointed straight at him. “If you loved flowers, you wouldn’t pick them. You’d leave them be!”

“Watch that tone, young lady!” Augustus raised his arm.

Lunnah hid behind Violet, her knees shaking.

“You like your bouquet, don’t you Violet?” Augustus asked.

“Yes, August.” Violet gulped. “They really are wonderf—”

“Good. Now pour me some coffee.”

Lunnah darted out of the back screen door in just her night gown, straight to her overgrown garden.

She sighed in relief at the sight of multiple daisies and dahlias slow dancing in the breeze. But most of the purple and pink ones were gone. And worst of all, the moonflowers were also ripped from their abode. Her relief soon turned into grief.

Augustus killed part of her garden, but that’s not all he squandered.

During dinnertime, Violet tried reassuring Lunnah with a “they’ll grow back” and an “Augustus didn’t know any better.” She also tried a “flowers don’t feel anything,” which made Lunnah wince more than the other two reassurance attempts combined.

If they didn’t feel anything, why did she?

Before Augustus took his filled dinner plate to the family room, he set a porcelain doll on the kitchen table.

“A belated birthday gift,” Augustus said.

Lunnah looked into the doll’s dual seas she had for eyes, and pretended for a moment that it was in fact a gift.

“Dads do yard work, little girls behave and play with their dolls.” Augustus patted his daughter on the head and left the kitchen.

 

LUNNAH ☾Excerpt #17☽ 🌸

“Happy Birthday, Lunnah,” her uncle Raymond said, holding out his closed fist.

Lunnah stepped back, clutching at the frills on her flowery dress.

“It isn’t her birthday for another month, Ray,” Violet whispered to him, elbowing him.

“I could have sworn she had a June birthday,” her uncle whispered back, then turned back to Lunnah. “Well, consider this your early birthday present.”

“Please nothing scary, please nothing scary,” Lunnah thought to herself.

“Just show her what you got in that hand of yours, man. Can’t you see the girl’s scared of you?” Augustus sliced the tension with an even higher dose of it, followed by a progression of smoker coughs.

“I’m not afraid!” Lunnah declared, holding out her hands and closing her eyes.

Uncle Raymond slowly poured the contents from his fist onto Lunnah’s two tiny cupped palms.

“Pebbles?” Lunnah grinned, opening up her eyes. “Wait, no. They’re seeds!” She happy-hopped.

Augustus rolled his eyes. “That’s it?”

“August!” Violet said. “That’s a lovely gift idea, Ray.”

“Now, pick your favorite spot in the yard and plant them.” Raymond smiled. “Someplace where the sun will get to them.”

Lunnah was already running towards the back of the shed before he made that suggestion.

“Thank you, Raymond!” Lunnah yelled once she was behind it.

“Make sure to water them often!” Raymond responded.

“So, you couldn’t get her a doll or something, you know… normal? She’s a girl for Christ’s sake,” Augustus commented, lighting up a menthol cigarette.

Ray brushed past Augustus’ remark. “She won’t find magick in some doll. She’ll find it in the dirt.”

Some more LUNNAH updates! 🌙

In addition to a brand spanking new, super blue blog layout (complete with a custom banner I made), I’m at the 45,000-word mark after my first round of edits. But being the extra meticulous writer and editor I am by nature, one read-through isn’t enough, which is why editing adventure number two is now in order! I’m also scouring the interwebs for some prospective literary agents. I already have several in mind, but I can’t expect a “yes” right away, so I must have at least a handful of options.

Also, as Lunnah was undergoing that first round of edits, a lot of new ideas popped up in my mind (hence the extra 5,000 words). Something tells me the original 40k-ish words I was planning on is going to turn into 50k+. We’ll see… 😀

In the meantime, I’ll continue to do the occasional Lunnah excerpt post.

The blog also recently received some blog award nominations! Thank you so much for the nominations, fellow followers. 🙂

 

May the lunar forces be with you! 💙🌝

LUNNAH ☾Excerpt #16☽ 🍓

Wrapped into a velvety violet robe, Violet pulled open the first drawer of her nightstand to grab a jar of sugar. She scurried to the kitchen to get a spoon to add exactly three teaspoons of it to her husband’s cream-less coffee. But for the dozenth time (at least), the sweet white sand was splatter-painted in rosy red.

The container hit the counter with a reverberating clank. “Lunnah! To the kitchen. Now.”

Behind her closed bedroom door with blankets stuffed underneath the gap, seven-year-old Lunnah was licking her lips and wiping off her mouth with the back of her hands. To make sure all the strawberry residue was vanquished, she lifted her sweater and wiped all that remained with the bottom of it. Good thing the sweater was red.

LUNNAH ☾Excerpt #15☽

The infant clasped onto her mother’s pinky and the operating room turned into an intergalactic Picasso painting.

Caressing the tan, micro crescent moon mark, Violet said, “Lunnah. That’s what we’ll call her… Lu… nnah.”

Little Lunnah cooed, her grip unwavering.

Violet looked Lunnah in the eyes while whispering to her. “I love you to the moon and back, and back again. Don’t you ever forget that, darling.”

LUNNAH update + 200 follows! :D🌙

At 40,000-ish words, Lunnah is finished! But I use the word finished VERY lightly. Why? Because of that one word that starts with a ‘E’ and ends in a ‘G’… EDITING. I’m hoping to wrap all this editing business by Halloween, and then move forward to seeking out literary agents.

While I’m an author of multiple books, this is the first time I’m going the traditional publishing route. It’s a bit scary because I know quite a bit of rejection will be ahead of me until I get that one sought-after “yes.” But it’s beyond worth it and I’ll keep at it until I meet sweet success on the other side. 🙂

In the meantime, I’ll keep on sporadically posting some Lunnah excerpts. Also, I have a a handful of wonderful beta readers and book reviewers who are interested in both reading and reviewing this book (which puts a HUGE smile on my face)… If you are at all interested, feel free to reach out to me directly.

Thank you, fellow moon children, for your ongoing support. I 💖 each and every one of you! 🌙🌸