Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Sparkly!Fairy!Prostitute!

Time for a teaser!

--

“So,” Josha said, his feet up on the railing of Beckan's balcony, his ass on the porch swing. They were watching the tightropers continue stringing their lines, and watching the fairies on the streets rushing around with their heads covered, like they were expecting rain. A news report blared from inside, where Beckan had left her father in front of the TV.

She knew what Josha was going to say, but she gave him nothing. She almost always knew what Josha was going to say. She loved him very much but had long ago given up hope.

“So,” Josha said. “Scrap?”

“He's teaching me to read.”

“How charitable.”

“Not really. Selfish. He wants someone to read his stupid stories. He's desperate.”

“Cricket won't read them?”

“Who?”

“His cousin,” Josha said. “They live together."

“I didn't know his name.” She had only seen him a few times. He was usually walking from room to room, usually with headphones jammed over his ears.

Josha said, “So you're really not crazy about him.”

“Scrap?”

“Either.”

“I told you.”

“Since you don't know his family or anything. Don't know anything about him.” He gave her a sloppy grin. “After all, you know me. So.”

She watched the trightropers instead of responding. Josha said “Cricket” quietly to himself a few times. “Must be a genius if he avoids the stories,” he mused.

“Cold-hearted genius, maybe.”

“A genius is a genius. I don't need another heart, anyway.”

Then the first bombs went off, and they sprang towards each other as if they had previously been stretched apart. Beckan felt some heat on her cheek, like the city was breathing on her, but she couldn't see where the bomb fell or detect any damage. From the porch of Beckan's house, at the bottom of the hill, it was hard to see much of anything.

9 comments:

Jess said...

Very curious.

Josin L. McQuein said...

Ah, SUSPEND is in full swing :-D

Amparo Ortiz said...

What. Happens. Next???

*cries*

Zoe said...

Hannah Moskowitz, write something that I don't love. I. Dare. You. Because, I don't think you can. I'm pretty positive that everything you write is ~gold~.

And, I am dying to know what is going to happen next. Yay Sparkly Fairy Prostitute book!

Sarah Goldberg said...

Yay yay yay yay yay! *jumps up and down*

As always, each word speaks volumes. And I LOVE this: "Beckan felt some heat on her cheek, like the city was breathing on her"

I'd love to know why you chose to write this one in third person-- is it the writing a girl thing?

hannah moskowitz said...

Sarah--that's definitely a major factor. I've had a lot of trouble getting inside girls' heads, so I thought it might be easier if I distance myself a little.

Also, since this is meant to be some kind of big fantasy book, I think it works to have more of a narrative presence, and it almost makes it more...formal, I guess?

And really I wanted to try something very different from what I've done.

Sarah Goldberg said...

I don't know why -- possibly because of the way Zombie Tag's zombies don't a traditional zombie book make and Teeth and magic fish didn't even make me think magical realism, really -- I was all like, 'sparkly fairy prostitutes, la la la' rather than 'fantasy book!' Or it might just be that my brain hasn't been working properly because school has restarted.

*clears throat*

Anyway.

I am of course super excited to see where this one goes, because 1) obviously I've loved very other of your books I've read; 2) I'm forever excited to read third-person YA to see what distance the authors write from, and how it works in terms of connecting with the characters and their world; and 3) sparkly fairy prostitutes!

f said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
hannah moskowitz said...

Eee, Sarah! I know, this is like a...legit big fantasy thing. I'm pretty terrified.