Success only flourishes in perseverance -- ceaseless, restless perseverance.
--Baron Manfred Von Richtofen

Monday, May 17, 2010

Let's Talk Blog Fest!

Thanks to Roni at Fiction Groupie for hosting the Let's Talk Blog Fest! Be sure to go and check out the other blogs participating.

Here's a dialogue scene from my WIP, The Ransomed Returning. Enjoy!

Paul's heart was still pounding like a jack hammer when the shuttle departed for Earth. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the seat and tried to slow his breathing.
"Are you okay?" Tim said. "What happened back there?"
"Nothing." He didn't open his eyes.
"Did you kiss her?"
"No."
"You're kidding. Why not?"
Because I wouldn't have stopped. He wasn't about to say that. He kept silent.
"You really ought to marry her," Tim said.
"Believe me; I'd do it in a heartbeat if she'd wanted to."
"She wants to. Why else would she send for you when she could have contacted her bishop or your refuge bishop or her home teachers or a hundred other people?"
"We're old friends."
"Yeah? Well, I saw her watching you while you were asleep. It wasn't a 'we're old friends' kind of look."
"Hmph. I already asked her once, you know. She turned me down flat. I'm not ready to repeat that humiliation." Although remembering how it felt to hold her, he thought he might risk it anyway—beg for her like a complete fool.
"What are you going to tell Lily?"
Lily? Paul groaned. He hadn't thought about her. He didn't know where he stood with her anyway.
"Do I have to tell Lily anything? Maybe I should just keep my options open."
"Oh, that's nice," Tim said. He sounded angry. Paul sat up and looked at him. He looked angry, too. How odd. "So, you're saying, 'I'm in love with someone else, but I'll keep you around in case that doesn't work out'?"
"That's not what I meant."
Tim scowled and turned away.
"What's wrong? Why do you even care?" Then all at once he understood. "Good heavens, Tim. Why did you even introduce me to Lily if you felt that way about her?"
"I don't know." He turned around again. "I didn't think she'd be interested in me. I'm too tall and, well, goofy."
Paul sighed. If his love life got any more complicated, his head might explode. "You know what, Tim? She's all yours. As of this minute, I'm taking a vow of celibacy."
Tim snorted. "Good luck keeping that one."

26 comments:

Aubrie said...

Great guy conversation! I have so much trouble writing with a guy's voice, but you do it wonderfully here. :)

Unknown said...

Great dialog scene! I liked the crisp way it read, with just enough action and description to lead me from character to character. The sparse use of dialog tags kept the pace moving at the perfect speed.

Stephanie McGee said...

LOL

Fun scene. Thanks for sharing!

Jo Schaffer said...

Very cool. (= Great exchange.
Makes me want to see more!
http://jostorm.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Love it! Is this from the bootcamp WIP? I thought you did a great job of capturing a guy conversation. :)

Angie said...

Yep. It's the same WIP, Shallee. Thank you all!

Carolyn V. said...

Hee hee. Great dialogue Angie! I wonder how it turns out.

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Angie, I loved these two guys and their conversation. Just enough is revealed to make the story clear, while keeping the dialogue crisp. I want to read more, please.

Abby Annis said...

Loved the back and forth between these two. Great scene! :)

LisaAnn said...

I love this! I want to know more. The term "refuge bishop" really hooked me. I want to know what's going on!

Please, ma'am. May I have some more.

Roni Loren said...

Lol, loved this. I adore guy-guy banter. And the last line was greatness.

Thanks for participating!

Andrew Rosenberg said...

Hmm, they're in space?
I need to know why Lily is so special. It's kind of like they want her, but they don't, and they both kinda make me want to slap them.
Nice dialog, nice job not using tags, but it was easy to follow.

Tara said...

Ohhh, just the kind of dialog I love. No tags, sparse setting/movement. Perfect.

And, I loved the characters and story line to boot :)

Jade said...

I was SO not expecting the first line! This is a really fun scene and I liked the fact that you didn't use many tags. It flows really well.

Susan Fields said...

Great dialogue here, I really like these two guys already. And you did such a fantastic job writing from a male POV. Very nice!

Elizabeth Mueller said...

Awww, I love this! I wish I knew what the blogfest was about, the "lets talk" intimidated me so I didn't go check it out. Shame on me, shame, shame!!!

Great dialogue, Angie! :)

RaShelle Workman said...

I love it. At first I thought it seemed like a lot of "talk" for guys - until then end. He was hounding the guy because he liked the girl. Nice.

C R Ward said...

This was great! Guy talk at its best. :-)

Jewel Allen said...

Love it, Angie! I didn't have any context as to who, what, where they were at the outset, but I still "got" it. Great dialogue!

Angie said...

Thanks so much for the comments everyone! They make me happy. Jewel, I tried to pick a scene that would still make sense and be fun to read even out of context. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks again, all!

Charity Bradford said...

Ditto to everyone. This was a great scene. clean, clear and flowed nicely.

I enjoyed it.

Amalia Dillin said...

This was really fun banter-- it moved quickly and cleanly! Well done!

Ruth Donnelly said...

Really good--all dialogue, yet it conveys so much about the characters. Nice pacing.

Valerie said...

Nice exchange. Just enough description and inner thoughts to keep the pacing strong but not too fast. I'm left wondering how it all turns out, which means you did your job well.

T. M. Hunter said...

Good dialogue that kept me interested, though if it were my own work, I'd have broken up some of the dialogue to keep it from moving too fast, and would give some background setting more than just being on a shuttle departing for Earth. Are they the only two on the shuttle, for example?

Anonymous said...

Men of God fighting over Women of Flesh? Interesting concept (if I got the bishop reference right).