Story Picture Monday - Until the Lilacs Bloom

Ever since my son was a few years old we'd go to the Outer Banks for a week with some friends from high school and college. At first we used to go around Mother's Day, until the year it storm almost the entire week, then we switched to the fall and now go Labor Day week. We've arrived twice right after a hurricane, but we've been lucky to have sunny days while we are there.

We love the Outer Banks. It's quiet and laid back. I really get a chance to relax there. Some nights we go out, other nights we go to the farmer's market and the whole gang eats around the table. We look forward to this trip the entire year. Twelve weeks and counting till the next one!

I took these pictures the last night we were on vacation the last time we were in the Outer Banks. We've been all up and down the coast but I believe this time we were around Nags Head.

The Outer Banks is the setting in two stories actually. The final third of Ghosts in the Wind took place here as Andrei hunted down a killer. But in my new story, Until the Lilacs Bloom, it's a much more peaceful setting. In fact, it's on a summer night just like this where AJ and Trey share their first kiss. They'd taken the Jeep out after dinner to have a little privacy to talk and figure out their attraction to each other. Then stretched out on the blanket and watched the waves come in.

I wish you could see the colors in the water the way I'd seen them that night and the way Trey sees them. These pictures don't do it justice at all.

 



Six Sentence Sunday - Until the Lilacs Bloom

Until the Lilacs Bloom is a story that I’ve been poking at for years. It was originally a coming of age story, but it’s involved to follow the two friends, AJ and Trey, through a couple of decades after Trey’s battle with childhood cancer. In the first third, which is the part I’m working on now, they’re spending the summer in the Outer Banks, after Trey goes into remission. AJ is getting ready for college and trying to come to terms with his sexuality. And Trey is trying to picture a life ahead of him and learning to exert his independence again.

* * * * *

“If I get sick again you won’t stop being my friend will you?”

The question speared through him with a profound shock and all thoughts of kissing the afternoon away disappeared. AJ frowned and started to say that Trey wasn’t going to get sick again then stopped himself. It’s not what Trey asked and the bullshit response would probably just irk him. Whether or not he got sick again was out of their hands entirely, they couldn’t control that, but he could give him other assurances. “Yeah, I’ll still be your friend.”