Greetings, Friends ~

Finishing two books at once is difficult and time-consuming, but by year’s end this work will be counted as two of my biggest accomplishments. Here is an excerpt from my novel, which is based in Oregon. This work has not yet been formally edited.

Thank you most sincerely for reading my work and sharing these excerpts. Your support means a great deal to me.

Be well,

Jana
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The Rose Wall (Excerpt)

After the accident, her carefully-planned dreams were shattered. Megan thought that if there was a god, he was a cruel being and intended a severe consequence for loving Trenton Murray. Six weeks shy of high school graduation, her future was consumed by a fiery inferno where the souls of her boyfriend and father would remain forever.

Determined to avoid attention that the rising tummy of a small town teen would attract, Megan had stayed out of sight those nine months. Trenton’s mother would hate her all the more if she’d known of the pregnancy.

The bitter and cruel Joy Murray. Megan had often wondered how her boyfriend turned out so well, given the bitter ways of his mom. Judgmental and harsh, Joy’s interpretation of religion left no room for tolerance of those around her who did not believe as she did. Premarital sex would have been the worst imaginable sin, had she known. Aiden’s existence would have sent her holiness right over the edge.

Megan would not have it. The secret of she and Trenton’s son would be kept, and the story that Aiden had come to them as the result of a deceased family member would be told a thousand more times. There was truth to their tale, in some ways.

Before his death, Trenton had joked with Megan, mimicking his mother’s unkind words, “That girl does not come from a grounded family, Trenton. Why don’t you get to know the Johnson girl? She likes you, and she is in church every Sunday.”

Smiling, Megan recalled Trenton making her laugh as he keyed his voice up and down, trying to sound as condescending and bitter as his mother. There was irony in Joy Murray’s name. She was anything but joyful.

The smile left her face as aging pain turned everything cold. Joy had made it clear to anyone who would listen that small-town Megan Banks would never be good enough for her son. Sighing heavily, Megan’s memory recounted the bitter scowl of that hateful woman after the memorial service. She would always blame Megan for Trenton’s death.

Megan’s eyes wandered back to the sleeping child that Joy Murray would never know. Sweet, young Aiden. His dark hair mimicked that of his father and maternal grandmother. In certain light, evidence of Megan’s red hair danced atop Aiden’s head. But the resemblance to Trenton was strong and uncanny, even at this tender age.

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Copyright 2013, Jana Brock. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.