Plotting and K-Love Excerpt

No, not that kind of plotting. Although as writers, we do have to get kind of devious. But in general, we’re doing THIS kind of plotting! –>

Look at that awesomeness! That’s how we’re plotting K-Pop, which is about a Korean Pop idol and an American girl who ends up tangled in his life. Fun, right? It really is! I love planning these sorts of stories. 

Because there are two of us writing one book, we have to be as meticulous as possible when planning a book. The more we have planned out, the less confusion there is later on. The very first book we wrote together, right before writing K-Love, hasn’t been edited and is nowhere near publication. It turned out to be an interesting experiment in combining the heads of two writers to make one coherent book. This is the short version: PLAN PLAN PLAN. 

So anyway, that’s where we are at with our writing journey. To recap:

-K-Love is in the hands of Harper Collins and one agent. No replies as of yet. 

-We are considering self-publication, but we need to professionally edit the book first, so we’re saving up for that. 

-In the meantime, we are going to blog and write book #2!

Thanks for dropping in, and just for fun, I’ve included an excerpt from our upcoming book, K-Love! 

-Devon-

“Can I help you?” a sweet, plump elderly lady asked from behind the glass partition. Steam from one of the containers of food kept fogging up her thick glasses.

Chase perused the options. “Can I have grilled cheese and a bowl of tomato soup?”

The lunch lady ladled the soup into a bowl and placed the Styrofoam plate with grilled cheese next to the bowl on her tray. “Anything else?”

“That’s it, thanks.” Chase smiled.

The Asian kid behind her asked for a salad. She caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye as he got his plate of food. He was wearing white skinny jeans, navy sneakers, and a sort of silky gray t-shirt that definitely looked designer. They shuffled along in line until finally it was her turn to pay. Chase handed the thin student cashier her card. He looked at the debit card briefly before handing it back to her. “You need your student card.”

Chase took the card, suddenly nervous. “My what?”

The student had dark blond hair and kind features, but his look of exasperation told her he was thoroughly fed up with answering this question. “Your student ID card. You pay for lunch with it. You can’t get lunch any other way.”

“What, seriously?” Chase looked down at her tray. Her stomach gurgled. “So I have to get my card and then come back?”

“Sorry.”

She swallowed. “My mom didn’t say anything about a student ID card.” The cashier gave her a blank look of disbelief, so she added. “She works in admissions.”

“Okay. Well sorry, but you need a student ID.”

Someone sighed behind her. She was holding up the line.

“Excuse me,” a low voice said from behind her. Chase looked over her shoulder, and found the guy with the designer shirt leaning toward her. He held out a student ID card, and reaching over her, handed it to the cashier. “Just pay for both.”

Chase turned to face him, her eyes widening. “Oh, wait…”

The cashier hesitated.

“No, don’t do that,” Chase insisted. No, no, no! Don’t do that! This could not be any more awkward.

The guy gave the cashier a nod so full of assured confidence, Chase was pretty sure  anyone would have obeyed an order from him. The cashier swiped the card.

Chase felt herself staring. For one thing, this guy was otherworldly beautiful. He had high cheekbones, and warm brown eyes that tilted up at a perfect angle. His chin sloped down to a square point from his razor defined jawline. She almost couldn’t find words to respond to him. And besides that, he held himself like he owned the school.

His eyes flitted to her. “You can go now.”

“Oh.” Direct. And people thought she was made of stone. “Thanks. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” He had a faint accent, but it was barely detectable.

She scurried forward with her tray, her face hot and composure unsettled.

“Miss,” he said suddenly from behind her.

She whirled around to face him, but miscalculated the motion by a mile. She collided with the generous stranger, her tray flying off to the side. Tomato soup splattered all over the floor, washing over both their shoes in a torrent of scalding liquid.

The guy jumped back, and then looked up from his shoes to her face, his scowl a mixture of incredulity and shock.

The racket of the cafeteria quieted almost instantly. All eyes turned to them. Chase stood there like an idiot with tomato soup seeping between her toes and trickling down her leg. She couldn’t seem to find her voice with the entire cafeteria staring at her.

Finally he spoke. “Are you okay?”

Was she? She looked down. “My feet burn. I think it’s okay, though.” Holy crap I’m so sorry! I’m such a klutz! As usual, her inner voice couldn’t get past her “this is awkward” exterior.

He sighed and put his tray on a nearby table before bending down to pick up her dropped things. Chase quickly knelt down next to him, and helped put everything back on the tray. Around them the chatter slowly returned, until the echoes of the other students filled the space once more. The cashier brought her a white towel. While she mopped up the soup, the gorgeous stranger rested a forearm on one bent knee, and rubbed the corner of his mouth with his thumb.

She glanced up from the orange rag to his face. He was just watching her, his expression unreadable.

“I’m really sorry,” she mumbled.

“I wanted to tell you that you forgot your card.”

He held the blue debit card out to her. She took it sheepishly, pocketed it, and stood with the tray piled with ruined food and the stained towel. She wasn’t sure what to say. “Are your shoes ruined?”

He looked down at them. The laces had gone orange. “Yes.”

That’s all I can share for now 😉 If you like that, please let us know, and we will pass along your comments to publishers and agents who might get the ball moving on this book’s publication!

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