Secret Selections
Writing Retreat 2024
Every year I take one week of vacation time and go off to the woods somewhere, all by myself, with nothing much else to do but write. I call this week my annual writing retreat and it has become one of the highlights of my year. The 2024 Edition is coming up and as a way of giving my loyal Substack subscribers a little something extra, each day of the retreat I will paste a paragraph here just for you! It will be a paragraph from my current WIP (work in progress) which is a follow up to my novel Transparent and it will be one that 1) I wrote that day and 2) doesn’t contain any major spoilers. I hope you will check in to see these sneak peeks and please leave a comment with your thoughts, speculations, and reactions!
NOTE: This one contains spoilers for Transparent, so if you haven’t read it yet, you might want to skip over it.
“As I was saying, the last time we talked…”
“The last time we talked was the last time.” Carter said calmly. “I’m willing to leave last time in the past if you are.” Carter felt as though he had stepped out of the desert and into an air-conditioned oasis hotel. His unexpected epiphany had suddenly made him aware of how much hostility he had been carrying these last few months, aimed indiscriminately at everyone, including himself. The desert doesn’t kill you instantly. It slowly wrings the life out of you until every last drop of your spirit is gone and you finally succumb to its unrelenting heat. Carter refused to let Disher’s betrayal boil his blood for another second.
NOTE: This is near the end of a very bad night for Carter. What do you think happens next?
As soon as he opened the door, a foot rocketed through the air from the other side, striking Carter square in the chest. The blow sent him sprawling to the floor. He heard the metal door slam shut again as he looked up and saw the rottweiler charging across the room toward him. He had no idea who was on the other side of the metal door, but he was convinced he stood a better chance against them than he did with the enraged dog. He sprung to his feet, noticing once again the weakness in his left leg. Hardly breaking stride, he flung open the metal door and stormed through. He grabbed the knob and pulled the door shut behind him, hopefully sealing the dog inside. He turned to face his attacker, preparing himself to receive another blow as he did so. “WAIT!” he shouted.
NOTE: This one is more than one paragraph strictly speaking. For any of you who have read Don’t Drift Off you might find this interesting. (Linda M. this one is especially for you!)
“Hi. Welcome to Everton Investigations. I’m Jessica.”
“Hello,” the man greeted extending his hand. “I’m Sam Bishop and this is my friend Liz Antonov.”
“Hello,” the woman said in gentle voice.
“Come on in.” Jessica led the guests into the main area of the office. “Can I take your coats?”
“Hi there, I’m Carter Everton,” the P.I. introduced himself as his partner took the jackets into the next room. “Please have a seat,” he said motioning to the two chairs in front of his desk. “Can I get you a coffee or something?”
“Sure, that would be great. Thanks.”
“Yes, please.”
“So,” Carter said as he moved to the coffee machine. “How do you two know the captain?”
“Rather unintentionally, as it turns out,” Sam replied.
That is how most people meet the police. “Oh really? How so?”
“We kind of got mixed up in something a while back,” Liz explained with a hint of an eastern European accent. “Unfortunately, that ended up getting us connected with the police.”
NOTE: Portions of today’s entry have been omitted to avoid significant spoilers. Any guessed on who’s name I omitted?
Carter lowered the binoculars for a moment to get a wide view of the property and then trained his attention back on the man at the front door. ... He lifted a stack of two banker boxes into the back of a black SUV. “What are you up to?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” a sultry voice behind him said.
Before he could move, Carter felt what he assumed was the barrel of a gun pressed into the small of his back. “Kinda, yeah, but certainly not at all costs,” he replied, slowly standing up straight. After cautiously raising his hands, he tentatively began to turn around. He felt the gun ease back giving him unspoken permission to continue. A few seconds later he was facing his captor. The woman pointing a Glock 17 at him stood two paces away, just out of arms reach. She was of average height with an athletic build. Despite her textured short bob blond hair, Carter recognized her immediately.
“You haven’t happened to have seen a double-crested cormorant, have you?” he asked with a friendly smile, “I was sure I saw one land near by.”
“You talk to much P.I.”
Ah, so she does know who I am. That’s likely not good. “I like the new look, [redacted].”
NOTE: It’s getting more difficult to find interesting paragraphs to share that don’t contain big spoilers. Here’s a good one for today - of course I know what happens next. How do you think this all turns out?
“So, let me get this straight,” Carter said. “You want us to come to you, a person we’ve never met and don’t even know the name of, at a time and place of your choosing, with no clue what you look like, and no way to identify you, all in hopes that you will, at some point, make contact with us, with only your word that you have some important information and that you bear no ill will towards us? Does that about sum it up?”
“Yes, please. That would be fantastic,” she replied in a way that somehow made her request seem totally reasonable.
Carter had to admit he was as deeply intrigued about this cryptic woman as he was about the message she supposedly carried. “Well, who could say know to that kind of an offer,” he chuckled, thankful that Jessica wasn’t in the room to offer her opinion on the wisdom of it all.
NOTE: I had a different section picked out for today, but then the power went off and stayed off for 12 hours, so this one felt appropriate.
“None of that is true, expect perhaps the last part.”
“Truth doesn’t matter at the moment. You’re going to lose you voice in thirty-five seconds. By the time you get it back no one will be listening.”
[redacted] typed frantically into her phone. “This is going to sound petty and vindictive.”
“Yes. It really will, but it’s that or silence.”
[redacted] reread her message and clicked to post it. She watched her phone intently. Her face dropped. “Signal lost.”
“Did it get through?”
“I’m not sure.” [redacted] began pacing again. “There’s a swarm of reporters outside that door. I could go out there and …”
“Now that the cell network is down, they won’t be able to put out anything more than you can. Plus, you are not ready to take on live questions from the press on this.”
[redacted] stopped pacing, put her hand on her forehead, covering her eyes, and took several slow breaths. Carter saw the yellow around her gradually dissipate. She took one last deep breath, then straightened herself up, resting her hands on the high back of her desk chair, striking a confident pose. “What do we do now?”
Jessica walked into the room. “Cell service is down.”
NOTE: Last one…
“I’ve got nothing to say to you, Everton.” [redacted] spat on the ground as the black around him swelled.
“The way I see it, it’s a slam dunk to get you on a least one murder and two attempted murder charges from what happened at [redacted location] . We could also easily get you on a number of possession of stolen property charges from today.” As the list grew longer, [redacted]’s glow shifted from black to yellow.
“This is entrapment. The cops can’t set people up like that!”
“You watch too many movies, [redacted],” Carter said. “That’s not how entrapment works. Besides, the cops didn’t set you up, I did. They just got an anonymous tip.”
That’s all folks. I plan to post a short piece about the retreat’s progress later this week. Check it out if you’re interested, and pleace post a comment with your thoughts, speculations, or comments on any one of these sections. Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading!