March 25, 2016

H - Hurricane Sabrina




I am on Unicorn Bell today with Dear Mad Writer.
Do certain things about writing/publishing make you mad?



Support my first Thunderclap Campaign! Click HERE



Hurricane Sabrina is the star of Hurricane Crimes (published 2013). The narrator (that’s me!) and my characters (Beth and Donovan) are on a first name basis with the super storm. We call her Sabrina. On occasion Beth refers to the storm as...Bitch.  Yup.

This category 5 hurricane is not only big but she’s a pain in the butt. She destroys Beth’s house, as well as many other houses, floods a lot of Florida, crashes Donovan’s car into a tree, and throws the state into utter chaos.


Excerpt:

A deep groan touched their ears and pulled their eyes to the ceiling above them. Time stalled as they listened to the creaking of the house and the monstrous moan of ninety mile-per-hour wind.

Suddenly, a transparent claw ripped away a strip of ceiling, creating a gap that wind and rain invaded. Beth’s cards flew right out of her hands and the mountain of jelly beans scattered to the ground. Donovan shot to his feet. With one hand, he grabbed the battery-operated lantern. With the other, he grasped Beth’s hand and pulled her out of her chair. The wind ate away at the ceiling and followed them as they ran down the hallway.

Donovan kicked open the bathroom door and yanked Beth inside. She hurried to the tub, stepped over the ledge, and sank into the deep porcelain ditch. The first ridiculous thought that rushed through her terrified mind was “I should’ve grabbed some jelly beans.”

He slammed the door in Sabrina’s face and locked it. After he set the lantern on the counter, he hunkered in the tub next to Beth. His arm automatically came around her, and fear had her nestling into the side of a relative stranger.

The door trembled in its frame.

On the other side, the sounds of banging and shattering was deafening as pictures crashed to the floor and items tumbled off furniture. Sabrina was ransacking Beth’s house.

“We’re going to die, aren’t we?” Beth said aloud.


To read more from Hurricane Crimes go to Amazon.




QUESTIONS: What do you think of the excerpt from Hurricane Crimes? Have you ever experienced a hurricane?


36 comments:

  1. Wow, Chrys... that is some awesome descriptive writing. I felt like I was right there with Beth! Never been in a hurricane and hope I never am! Enjoyed this! Have a great weekend and Happy Easter! ~Lori~

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Lori! I've experienced hurricanes and when I wrote these scenes, I imagined I was in one. That I was Beth. :)

      Happy Easter!!!

      Delete
  2. Great excerpt. I've never experienced a hurricane but they are scary. I did the thunderclap thing. Good luck.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They sure are scary! Thanks for helping with my Thunderclap, Bevrely! :)

      Delete
  3. Signed up for the Thuderclap!
    Yes, I've been through quite a few hurricanes. Not fun.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the excerpt and signed up for Thunderclap.
    sherry @ fundinmental

    ReplyDelete
  5. Been through a few hurricanes, not fun at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree. The best hurricanes are the ones that don't hit land.

      Delete
  6. I've never experienced so much as a tornado. But the wind the other night was pretty intense. It knocked over a lawn chair.
    As for this excerpt, I loved it. It was a peak into how some have had to deal with such a destructive force of nature.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There has been some pretty strong storms going around lately. I've never experienced a tornado and hope I never do. Tornadoes scare me more than hurricanes.

      Glad you liked the excerpt!

      Delete
  7. Riveting stuff, Chrys. Can't wait to read it. I love disaster movies, even though I rarely read them. This one is gonna get read!! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hurricane Crimes is available now, Nicola. :)

      Delete
  8. Chrys, I enjoyed this passage! And as one who sat out hurricane Rita, I'd say, in this excerpt at least, you were true to the storm. I recorded our experiences at http://storm-stories---in-the-path-of-r.blogspot.com/
    Revisit the Tender Years with me during the #AtoZChallenge at Life & Faith in Caneyhead!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Barbara. I've been in many hurricanes and used what I experienced in Hurricane Crimes. :)

      Delete
  9. I've been through a few hurricanes. They're scary and it's not fun to be cooped at home through the ordeal. I'll check out Unicorn Bell.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope. Being cooped up is the worst. Once I was stuck at home for a week!

      Delete
  10. I have never been in a hurricane. Not sure I want to either!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Exhilarating excerpt, Chrys! Fast paced with artful attention to detail – woot!
    We may get remnants, but never full on hurricanes here. We don’t actually get tornados either; they call them micro-bursts, I call a storm that can set your swamp cooler on the neighbor’s lawn a mini-nado;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Diedre!

      I've heard of the term micro-bursts before. A mini-nado. lol Cute.

      Delete
  12. No hurricane, several tornadoes, minor earthquakes, and blizzards, but not a hurricane. Thanks Goodness. Your writing takes us there.
    Happy Thunderclap, I am there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I could do without the tornadoes, earthquakes and blizzards. ;)

      Thank you, Yolanda!

      Delete
  13. Got my interest for wanting to read more! Never a hurricane, thankfully!

    betty

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awesome! Hurricane Crimes is available as an eBook. :)

      Delete
  14. Nope never been in a hurricane. I'm grateful for that.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sounds great! Lots of suspense.

    I've never been caught in a hurricane, and hope to avoid the experience. I'm guessing you've probably seen a few?

    ReplyDelete
  16. I've better knock on wood because I've never been in a hurricane and I grew up on the coast. One struck a two years before we moved there and the next one (just a couple of years after I left). However, we did have storms that struck just north or south of us and since leaving the Wilmington NC area, they have had numerous storms... Good writing, but the ceiling had me confused (the roof would be the problem as a ceiling won't hold back water). Have you read Conroy's "South of Broad" in which he writes about Hurricane Hugo?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Grew up on the coast and never been through a hurricane? Yes, you better knock on wood now! haha

      Delete
  17. I've never been in a hurricane, can't imagine they are any fun at all.

    ReplyDelete