Today Is The Day!

Happy Hump Day Bloggers and THE SAVANNAH SYNDROME (TSS) fans!  Well, today's the day the world, and some 10,000 writing hopefuls, finds out who will survive the first massive cut in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition.  I had originally planned on waiting until the results were posted to compile this post, but I am up early, and, so, feel compelled to get my blogs out of the way before my daughter wakes up.  We had a restless night together, but for the first time in over a week, she seems to be sleeping without a fever.  And from the comments on one of the discussion threads, there's no telling what time Amazon will post the results for the ABNA.  So for those following, depending on how nice or cruel I want to be, I may do a second post on here later today, mostly because I will be taking tomorrow off.  I have to work in the morning... And will be spending the rest of the day with my two favorite loves (and writing isn't one of them).  But, just in case I don't find time to get back on here, Happy Valentine's Day!  Consumer's day of love...  Lonely people's day of depression...  I'm really not that cynical on the holiday, I usually embrace it with open arms, but on a tight budget, VDay just seems like a pain-in-my-ass.  But it is a day to tell your special someone how special they are in whatever gestures, big or small, you can afford to bestow.  Here's to that fact!  Here's hoping those in meaningful relationships are treated like gold and made to feel extra special for at least one day out of the year.  I hope it doesn't take a silly holiday to bring that out in people, but it's better than not having a holiday like this, I suppose.

Anyway, here's page seventeen of TSS.  Y'all have a great day today and tomorrow.  I'll definitely be back on Friday, at the very latest, to tell you the fate of TSS in the ABNA.  Until then, enjoy:

"rest of the night as she kept guard over her fortress or hunted small prey on the island.  She felt safer at night.  And with dried squirrel meat still at the fort, she would spend the evening within the safety of her fortress walls, perhaps reading a book by firelight, which she had acquired from the Tybee Island Public Library.  Or perhaps she would just lay on the grassy parade ground and watch the stars overhead.  With the coolness the setting sun would bring, she knew it would be a clear night, a perfect evening for allowing her to find peace within the world and her universe.

That was her plan as she finished her meal.  Only half of the sun lingered over the island.  The sky was lit brilliantly with purple, orange and red hues.  Both her fires were nearly burnt out.  She sterilized her knife with her cooking fire after scrapping her grill clean.  After wiping the blade off, she sheathed the knife.  She cleaned her area, placed her sneakers back on her feet, grabbed her bucket, and cheerfully leapt from the top of the Hambright, over the safety railing one last time.  Her mind was filled with happy thoughts of what a great day it had been; how the sun and air had been so kind to her, how the changing seasons were finally coming back to her, how the crickets and fish had willingly given themselves for the purpose of her nourishment.  None of them had given her any hint to the terror which was about to ensue.  Only the cicadas and the crows gave her the momentary warning she needed to get the much needed head start back to the fort.  But as she dashed through the heavy under brush, soon to emerge upon the clearing just north of the moat, she wondered if it had been enough.  She also wondered how she could have been so foolish not to see this trap being unfolded around her.

†

It was not until she came upon the cross road of the pebbled walkway that she realized the cicadas were no longer singing.  The crows were eerily silent as well.  Then the realization that the entire island was silent hit her.  She could"

Savannah City Hall on the 4th of July.