Falling Bodies

So, I'm trying to get psyched up for NaNoWriMo. As the ML you kind of have to be pumped up to write a novel of 50K and lead a group of like minded folks on to victory. I'm still in my PJ's this gloomy, wet Tuesday. I've updated the checkbook, which lead to a bit more gloom and decided to check email, FB, and NaNo for anything new. 

I landed on my Nano Novel Page and clicked on the link for last year's entry. I read over it and was mildly surprised that the excerpt, while needing editing, is pretty good. In fact, it made me laugh. That's a good thing. Now I'm ready to do another one. Honestly, there is very little that I recall in last year's attempt of merit but that opening tells me there's potential. It encourages me that I can do this again. 

"Just finish one!" Says everyone I know. The good news is that I'm trying to get the endings of three previous NaNos written. I've been dabbling on all three for a while. I get bored with them, wanting to start something new. Thus the reason I am writing on more than one. Only in the last month did the endings of two of those three reveal themselves to me. But now November is upon me and I have to shove that back for a couple of months.

I decided to share the excerpt here. The link is above but I'm not sure non-NaNoers can access it. This will save you the trouble. 

Falling Bodies, By Cynthia Maddox
Synopsis

Savannah keeps stumbling over dead bodies in strange places but she didn't do it. Unfortunately, her proximity to the victims puts her on the radar of the new detective in town. When Savannah begins to look for a connection to the victims she suddenly finds she may have stumbled onto a secret that places her on someone else's radar.

Excerpt

As she passed Willow Lake she glanced around. There were a series of benches scattered around the lake. Today there was a couple seated together. She couldn’t make out who they were but she’d seen them for several days now. The woman was seated on the bench and the man sat astride of the bench, close to her, one hand holding hers and the other around her waist. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. 

Savannah looked away and walked on. Glancing at her watch, she picked up her pace.It usually took her thirty minutes to walk her route. She had to be done before dark. It wasn't that she was afraid of being in the cemetery but after dark was when most vandalism occurred and she didn't want to risk running into people willing to take sledge hammers to a dead person's grave. 

She rounded the curve in the road that ran along the base of the hill. She used to have to slow down here because she would get winded but these days it was a piece of cake. She looked up the hill at the towering obelisk pointing against the sky. Something dark was rolling along the ground between the headstones. She frowned. What was that? As it rolled it picked up speed until it seemed to be flying. It hit a low stone and bounced and then bounced again and flew off the hillside, landing with a splat in the middle of the road, right at Savannah’s feet. She stopped. Another foot and it would have landed on her. 

She stared in disbelief at the object spread before her. For what seemed ages it simply didn't register in her brain. She knew what she was seeing but she didn't understand why she was seeing it. She looked up the hill, searching for something that would explain it. Then she looked again at the sprawling form of Darin Tate and as the blood began to spread out around his head, Savannah felt the world tip and she stumbled away to lean against the side of the hill where they had placed concrete barriers to prevent slump. 

“Oh good Lord. Oh good Lord.” She fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone. Thank goodness she always carried it when she walked. It took several tries before she could actually dial 911. When she did she recognized the voice.

“Winona! Oh my God! Winona, get someone out here to the cemetery! Darin Tate just rolled off the hill and is dead as a mackerel.” She listened to Winona’s response but interrupted her. “I don’t know why he was rolling down the hill. The last time I saw him he was fast walking away from me. All I know is he just did a snowball down Sweet Gum Hill and he’s bleeding all over the pavement.” 

Winona issued another litany of questions and Savannah sighed. “He’s definitely dead, Winona.”