Part 1 in the bag and ready to travel

47,000 words (plus notes that don’t count) completed and Part 1 of my new book is written. I set myself a goal of August to finish and publish and it’s a long-shot but at least I’ve accomplished this much. I started this bad boy during April’s Camp NaNo way back in 2018 and decided to pick it back up this spring and get it done.

For reference, this is the sequel to the only book I wrote that ever sold well, Like Two Opposite Things. It takes place in a family campground in the 90s, features a bi-sexual lead character named Helia whose parents are emotionally absent so she relies heavily on her friends for comfort, support, and food.

Excerpt from Chapter 34 of Like Two of the Same by Eda J. Vor:

Heather wipes her eyes really quick and takes a great big breath to calm herself. “I’m going out on the boat with my parents today,” she says, grabbing the slider handle. “So… I mean, maybe we can talk later or something but I think I just need a break from you.”

I don’t answer. I don’t know what to say. 

She opens the slider and I think this is the saddest I’ve ever been in my entire life. Breaking up with Desiree, all that stuff with Lexi, and my sexual assault last summer, it made me angry more than anything else. Even when my grandfather died a few years ago, I don’t remember it feeling like this. 

“I know, I know,” she says outside. “I’m shutting the door!”

“Not today, Heather,” my dad says brushing past her. He doesn’t close the door behind him, just rushes into his bedroom. My mom follows right behind and she doesn’t even bother to acknowledge Heather at all. 

“What’s going on?” I ask. They’re moving way too fast for a Sunday morning.

“I don’t want to hear it, Helia. Go pack your stuff. We’re going home.”

Heather gives me a look through the doorway and I shrug. “Mom? What is happening right now?”

“Go pack. NOW. We don’t have time for this.”

Heather sticks her head back into the trailer. “Hey Desidoos, what’s going on? Anything I can help with?”

“You can get out of the way,” my dad says, carrying his and my mom’s bags outside. 

“Helia, pack. Heather, good bye,” my mom says as she empties the fridge into the cooler that was packed tight with booze like, twelve hours ago.

“You don’t have to be so rude to her,” I protest. “She’s just trying to help.” So not only did I screw things up with my best friend but now my parents are just kicking her right out? This is it, I think, she’s never going to be friends with me again. I have just lost one of the most important people in my life and my parents have obviously gone crazy and for real, WHAT is going on?

 

Like Two Opposite Things is available on Amazon.

 

Coming this summer… if I can handle that kind of pressure to finish it in time

Jumping on the B&N Wagon

I’m trying something new, ya’ll: B&N Press. As my KDP Select enrollment ends, I’ll be adding more books to B&N. Maybe I’ll even advertise that, I don’t know.

But it was time to get off my reliance on Amazon.

Check it out HERE.

Available now from Barnes and Noble

What starts as a meaningless fling between Bunny, an emotionally-conflicted older woman who just left her battle-scarred husband and Daniel, a hopelessly infatuated younger man recently graduated from college, is curtailed by a series of explosions that destroys schools and hospitals sending the couple 200 miles from home with three children in tow. When the found family seeks safety in a strict religious community, they are forced to concoct a web of lies to appear legitimate and avoid being exiled, or worse. Can they maintain their ruse to avoid suspicion and keep their family together or will the secrets they keep from each other drive them apart? And how much of the trauma they discovered her husband and his father shared upon returning from war was ultimately responsible for the tragic events that lead to their new lives?