Reasons AKA Excuses

3:20 PM Elizabeth Seckman 18 Comments

I didn't do this much damage, I promise.

A reader (thanks Barbie!) gave me the genius idea of sharing a story on Wattpad while I wait (and wait) for publishing feedback on my latest WIP. I was intrigued by the idea...share a story chapter by chapter as it's being written?

How dangerous...I'd be showing the world how my freaking brain is often a mess of chaos and confusion. But exciting to be sharing, in real time, a story with readers. I love my beta readers...you guys are awesome...but there is gold in them there reader's words.

The first three chapters was decently received with readers asking when they will get more. I promised Monday. I delivered today. A day late.

How very me of me.

But I have reasons (or excuses, you decide).

You see, all the boys are at school or work so that makes me my husband's assistant. Deer season is coming and he knows how much his boys look forward to it, so he wanted everything ready to go on day one.

First up was fixing a broken four-wheeler. It started out all right, though I was freezing cold because I'd worn the pretty boots with small purple flowers instead of the more manly-looking insulated pair. But I did good work. I even held the flashlight properly. (I have a tendency to get distracted while holding the flashlight, being a daydreamer and all...)

It still wouldn't start. Chad (my husband) decided to tow start it, which basically means he hooked a tow rope from the running 4 wheeler to the broken one in hopes that while it's on the move, it will jump start itself. (I probably just explained that wrong, which only provides proof that I didn't know what the hell I was doing!)  Long story short, I kept getting yelled at verbally corrected for my improper towing technique, so I suggested he be the tow-er and I be the tow-ee.

Big mistake.

He forgot to tell me to use brakes when needed, so here we go through the field, over a little roll and I'm picking up speed...rapidly. I yelled, "Oh shit my goodness!" and slammed into my husband. (Him recently upping his life insurance money had NOTHING to do with this, I swear!)

He was like, "Why didn't you use the brakes?"

I said, "You didn't tell me to use the brake."

He said, "Self-preservation and logic should have told you to use the brakes."

Hmm. Seems he doesn't know me quite as well as he thinks he does. We all know I'm functioning at a much higher level of thinking than either logic or self-preservation can penetrate. As I was careening down the hill, I imagined that hitting the brakes would yank on my husband's 4 wheeler and flip him over backward.

Which would have been very bad, right? In that line of thinking, I tried to go around him. That didn't work because you can't go around someone when you're tethered to them. Once we were out of rope, we crashed side-by-side. (How poetic, right?)

He was like, all right, let's try this again.

I was like, No. Screw this. Let's move on to the other jobs on the list.

By the time we finished the work and stopped for ice cream-- because it's not every day you survive your wife on an ATV, thus making it a cause for a celebration-- it was too late to proof the next chapter for sharing, much less write a blog post to remind people where they can find it.

So, here it is. The link to Second Chances, the ongoing-online WIP.

Read Chapters 1-4 on Wattpad