Weekend Writing Warriors – Donuts in an Empty Field 2#WeWriWa

Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts!

Donuts in an Empty Field is a contemporary, realistic fiction, and Young Adult novel about two best friends, the local food challenge, and letting go of anger.

This excerpt is from chapter one. After last week when Vanessa first opens the room to her late father’s office, she is tasked with cleaning everything out and boxing everything up with her mom. What does Vanessa have left to remember her father?

Bluster noses his way into the room, waddling around to sniff at each pile of books and papers stacked on the floor. I bend down to pet him. Not only is it the anniversary of my father’s death, but it’s also the anniversary of the day we got Bluster. It’s almost as if he came to replace Dad, arriving mere hours ahead of the incident at the restaurant. Bluster’s stubby reddish brown tail beats at my thigh as I try to hold him down and hug him. Bluster’s softness rubs against my bare legs. I can hear his heartbeat pattering and his breath wheezing as he struggles to get out of my grip. He smells like a dog should, musty wet from his recent bath. I breathe deep, the smell overpowering the staleness of the office around us.

Vanessa and her Mom are cleaning out Dad’s office and in the four years since he died, Vanessa’s best reminder and memory of her Dad is the Corgi Bluster, but that’s not all he left behind. Tune in next week when we find out the surprise Vanessa will discover in her Dad’s office.

Purchase the book HERE.

Local young adult writer, Rachel Barnard, will release the first novel in her young adult For the Love of Donuts series titled Donuts in an Empty Field with Life’s a Book Publishing, June 3rd, 2016 (AKA National Donut Day). Pre-order your copy HERE.

Letting go of anger is life’s greatest challenge.

Vanessa hasn’t been the same since her father’s death. A hero until the end, he died saving a restaurant owner’s son from a burning building. Nessa blames the boy, but her best friend Nichole thinks it’s time to let go of the past. In a last ditch effort to break Nessa’s obsession, Nichole hopes signing up for the local food challenge will bust her out of her shell. A single choice defines the road ahead for Nessa. Doing the right thing isn’t easy, but living with the consequences of doing nothing might be worse.