#WIPpet Wednesday - To Be Sure (Two plus One is Three) #amwriting #lgbtqia

WIPpet numbers for 12th July, 2017:

7 + 12  = 19 short paragraphs
from To Be Sure

Between illness and an overwhelming editing load, I didn't get around to visiting my fellow wippeteers last week - sorry, my loss. :( (There’s a link at the end of the post for where you can find more WIPpet snippets.)

WIPpet Context:
Another snippet from To Be Sure—my story for ‘SAGA’ (title TBC): an anthology of stories featuring older LGBT+ characters (out later this year, from Beaten Track Publishing).

This is my last WIPpet from this story, as I finished writing it a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to end with Saorla and Aileen arriving in England for Dylan’s (Saorla’s grandson) baptism.

The main character of To Be Sure is Saorla (seer-la) Tierney, a seventy-one-year-old woman from Derry in the North of Ireland. For readers of the Hiding Behind The Couch series, she’s Sean’s mum. Finn is Sean’s older brother, and Sophie is Sean’s partner/Dylan’s mum.

In this snippet, Sean has picked up Saorla and Aileen (Saorla’s long-term friend) from the airport and is driving them to their hotel.

* * * * *

“Have you eaten?” Sean asked once they were on the motorway.

“Not since home.”

“Right. We were thinking, we’ll get you checked in, and have tea at the pub. They do a great two meals for one on steak.”

Aileen gave a needy groan. “I haven’t had a steak in ages.”

Saorla bit her tongue. She’d almost said ‘me neither’, which was the truth. The household budget didn’t run to more than the essentials, and that was with all the extra bits and bobs Sean kept sneaking into her account. On the one hand, she wished he wouldn’t; he was her son, after all, and it was topsy-turvy. On the other, she was grateful; she’d have lost the house by now. Her pension and Finn’s meagre contribution—if he could make one at all—was barely enough to cover the bills.

“Who’s ‘we’?” she asked.

Sean pulled out and around a slow lorry, and listed aloud, “Soph, Dylan, Hay—”

“That’s the godmother?” Aileen asked.

“Aye. She and Soph went to school together.”

“Do you know her, Saorla?”

“I haven’t had the pleasure, I don’t think.”

“No, you haven’t,” Sean confirmed. “One of a kind, she is. She’s staying in the hotel as well, but nowhere near you, you’ll be pleased to know.”

“Don’t you start that again,” Saorla warned.

Sean made a quick manoeuvre back into the inside lane; a sports car zoomed by at an unnecessary speed. “Start what, Mummy?” he asked, innocent as anything.

“You know what.”

For his part, Sean looked puzzled, but then something clicked. “Oh! No, that’s not what I meant at all. I was talking about Hay’s nine-year-old triplets.”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph…”

“Ash, Kai and Sage, actually,” Sean said with a grin.

“Funny,” Saorla muttered dryly, though she was amused, as was Aileen, who fairly had the giggles.

* * * * *

What is WIPpet Wednesday?

WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop where authors share from their current works in progress - expertly organised/hosted by Emily Wrayburn - and the excerpt has to relate to the date in some way. For links to other fabulous authors' WIPpets, visit: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=355404


Thanks for reading
Deb x