I have two works in progress….they’ve been “in progress” for several years now….like about ten years. There’s been no actual progress made in all that time.
The first one involved a young girl I call Miranda/Randi. She was a teenager in the mid nineteen fifties or sixties. Her mother, Maggie, was a very strict, religious, woman who was more concerned about other people’s judgement than her daughters well being. Miranda, innocently, went into the woods with a young soldier, Jed, a friend of her cousin’s older brother. Nothing whatsoever happened, but a notorious gossip saw them coming out and proceeded to call Maggie with the scandalous story that built itself up in her head. Maggie proceeded to force her daughter and Jed to marry so there would be nothing to talk about. Maggie suffered from her own trauma as a result of an affair her mother had when a teenager that resulted in a pregnancy and destroyed her reputation in the small mountain town where she lived.
Miranda settles into her marriage with Jed and becomes pregnant. He’s sent overseas. (At this point, I’m not sure if he’s going to Korea or Vietnam.) In any case, Miranda has the baby in Virginia, then receives word that Jed has been killed.
That’s about as far as I’ve gotten in the actual writing. However, I do know what else I planned.
Miranda gets over Jed’s loss and registers for college. She starts dating and is “date raped” which results in a pregnancy. The baby is a girl. She gives her up for adoption, then takes her son and returns to her home in Kentucky. Maggie again encourages her to marry against her better judgement. Her new husband physically abuses her. She finally escapes and decides to try and find her daughter.
That’s as far as I’ve gotten. I’m not sure exactly how it ends.
The second one is a science fantasy. Based on another world with a race of people who have the mental ability to join their minds with animals. The main character here is also a girl, named Mariska. I’ve played with this scenario in my flash fiction stories, but I haven’t really gotten into it fully.
In any case, I haven’t worked on either one recently. Now I have to decide if I want to try and pick up the thread somewhere or just start new.
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