Just a laugh :)

Another excerpt from what I typed up today. Let me know what ya think!

The next morning I awake to Trent tapping me, quite hard by the way, on the shoulder. I open my eyes and give him an evil look that says, “Get out or I’ll hurt you.”
He continues tapping and I start tapping him on the face, his nose, cheeks, arms, chest.
“What are you doing, Shaelyn?”
“Looking for your snooze button.” I joke. Although right now, I wish he really did have one.
“Um, sorry, don’t have one of those. Get up. Now.” He grabs the covers and pulls them off of me.
Oh, no he didn’t! Nobody pulls the covers off of Shaelyn Renay Hartford without big trouble aftward. I get up and chase after the brother who so rudely tore the covers off of my body.
When I get ahold of him, he’s so gonna regret it. So!
I follow him down the long hallway, running full force, then down the winding staircase. Then to the kitchen where Mom is cooking an amazingly yummy smelling breakfast.
I stop abruptly.
Bacon.
I smell bacon.
I slid across the floor in my socked feet. “Can I have a pice?”
She hands me one and I quickly run after my brother who has gone outside to the patio. I sneak outside and look around for him, but he’s nowhere to be found.
Before I can think, hands grip my legs and I am thrown over Trent’s back. I kick and slap at him, knowing full-well what’s coming.
He throws me lke I’m nothing, into the freezing cold pool. Maybe this pool wasn’t as awesome as I once thought.
Now it’s my least favorite thing.
“Trent! Now my pajamas are wet!” I pull my soaking wet body out of the pool. Yuck.
I’m all soggy.
“Sorry, but it got you awake.”
I growl.
“And mad.” He adds.
I walk toward him. “No, I’m not mad at you. I love you. Let me give you a big hug.” I throw my arms around him and give him a big, huge hug. ‘Cause I love my big brother.
Oh, so much.
He tries to pull away but I pull him only closer.
Finally, when I think he is pretty wet, I pull back “Mess. With. Me!” I snap my fingers.

Another Excerpt

I was typing up this part up this morning and it made me smile because it's definitely shows the friendship that Cody & Shae have. :)

Yes, and speaking of which…I turn back to him. “Uh, speaking of bathrooms…”
“Aw, Shae. Seriously?” His eyes drill into me. “You just woke up and you have to go already? You women are so annoying.”
“I’ve been asleep for hours, so I should think its normal for me to have to pee.” I point to an exit sign in hopes that he will pull off. “Please? With cherries on top?”
“Fine.” He turns on the turn signal and exits the highway.
“SO where are we now?” I ask as he pulls into a McDonald’s parking lot.
“Further south than Philly. Further north than Texas.”
“Wow, profound stuff right there.” I roll my eyes. Stepping down from the Tahoe is a task in and of itself. Not only am I short, the SUV is high, so I sort-of have to jump. Which today proves to be harder than usual. I throw myself out of the door and land on the side of my right ankle.
Pain. Searing pain! Whoever I see next, I’m gonna hurt. “Cody, get over here.” I yell. ‘Cause I’m gonna hurt him, opposed to some stranger, because it seems safter.
“What?” he appears, a smirk on his face. “Oh, are you okay?”
“Would I be on the ground clutching my ankle if I were okay?” Sarcasm win – again!
“What happened?” He leans down beside me and starts touching my ankle.
I suck in a breath as he touches the part of my foot that really hurts. “I fell out of your truck.”
“Obviously we need to invest in a step-ladder for you.” He lets go of my foot. “It doesn’t seem like anything is broken. You should be fine.”
“And you became a doctor when?” I try to stand but my foot protests and I fall back onto the dirty and cold pavement.
“Today.” He rolls his eyes. “Do you want me to help you?”
“Duh.” I let him put his arm around me and help me up, then walk into the McDonald’s. When we get to the bathroom, I force a smile. “I doubt you wanna go in there, so I’ll jump.”
“Jump?” He lifts an eyebrow. “Can’t wait to see this one.”
I glare at him.
“Um, I mean, see you in a few minutes.” He grins.

~Ashley

Excerpt

My mind goes back in time. Of course I remember it. I’m pretty sure it might have been one of the scariest nights of my life. No, that’s not true. The scariest day of the my life was when I first saw Justin Bieber’s face on the front of a magazine. Creepy, I tell you!
Oh, right. We decided it was a brilliant idea to sleep outside of Ky’s house in a tent. We were fourteen and had just become friends. It was my first time sleeping over at her house, the first time we got together outside of school.
We were sitting in the tent, and I was working on teaching her American Sign Language. (Which, by the way, she is now fluent in, thanks to me.) At this point, we both had a crush on the neighbor boy, who we went to school with, Curt Haydn. Little did we know he was a trouble maker.
But he did know we liked him. How, you ask? Well, we may’ve sort-of flirted with him a whole lot. But we were only fourteen, so you gotta understand give us a break about that. . Actually, Ky has had many boyfriends since then, so give ME a break.
Well, he saw our flashlights in the back yard, because he was a stalker. Er, teenage boy. So there we were, sitting nice and quietly in our tent when we hear this growling sound. Our teenage minds tell us it is a bear. We were too scared to think rationally.
Another growl.
Then screams. Our own, of course.
Soon, the tent stars shaking and we grab onto each other, stand up, then run out of the tent only to find Curt standing there, laughing his head off. Okay, how weird of an expression is that? Can someone actually laugh so hard that their head falls out? ‘Cause if so, I better stop laughing right now.
“Of course I remember it.” I say, in a fit of giggles. “Looking back, it wasn’t that scary, but at the time, I was petrified. I never wanted to sleep out in your yard again.”
But truth be told, that became a summer ritual for us.

Meet Kensi

If you all have gone to my Meet My Characters page - you've already met Trey. But in case you haven't, be sure to go there before you read this post. It'll help you understand things a little better.

There's not much in life that Trey finds enjoyable, or anyone that he REALLY loves. But there is one person.

When we first meet Trey, he mentions how he rarely spends any time with his sister, but in the first chapter that is about him, he decides to spend some time with his little sister. (Since I have a younger brother, writing about a five year old is easy enough for me.)

His half-sister Kensington - or rather, Kensi.

Kensi is five.

She is easy-going.

She ALWAYS picks up on things that are going on - the bad stuff, especially.

She loves her older brother, Trey - and enjoys spending time with him.

Is almost ALWAYS happy, and makes those around her happy, as well.

Is giggly. :)

Favorite Books & Good Inspiration

There are a lot of books that I look to when I'm wanting inspiration. On both writing style and how to write a good novel.

Some of my favorite books include The Hollywood Nobody Series by Lisa Samson and anything by Mary Connealy, Jenny B Jones, and Rachel Hauck.

I really like the Hollywood Nobody Series because they're set in the first-person, present-tense and they're really easy to follow. They're fun and quirky and that's something that I really enjoy putting into my stories.

The books by Mary Connealy, Jenny B Jones, and Rachel Hauck are usually in third-person, past-tense. Again, easy to follow and something that I hope to be able to write in my books someday. I usually have trouble with third person because I used to always write in the first person tense. So I like to read well-written third-person books as inspiration for stories.

Another thing that really inspires me to write is music. Usually any kind of music helps me, but usually I have country music or pop music playing the background. I'm not sure what it does, but it sets the mood for me writing and usually gets my creative juices flowing.

Anyone else have anything that brings them inspiration while writing? I'm curious to know.

Leave a comment and let me know what you're favorite books, and best inspiration for writing is!

~Ashley

Typing and Thinking!

As I'm typing up my story this evening, I am becoming painfully aware of the fact that as the story progresses, my writing gets better.

The beginning of my story is kind-of weak. I'm trying to add things to it to make it "better", but it's kind-of hard.

Thinking about the fact that the writing toward the middle and the end of the story is SO much better, I know that when I rewrite my story it shouldn't be too hard to make the rest of my story better-written, as well.

So I'll continue typing this up and see where it all goes!

Typed up so far: 19,000