A peek at the new project

Scylla and Charybdis in my belly here aren't my only work in progress. I'm trying to finish up Project Incubator and Project Midnight in Austenland at the same time. Here's the prologue for the latter:

No one who knew Charlotte Constance Kinder since her youth would suppose her born to be a heroine. She was a practical girl even from infancy, only fussing as much as was necessary and exhibiting no alarming opinions. Common wisdom asserts that heroes are born from great calamity, and yet our Charlotte’s early life was pretty standard. Not only did her parents avoid fatal accidents, they never once locked her up in a hidden attic room.
    At the very least, she might have been a tragic beauty. Though she eventually grew into her largest inheritance (her nose), she was never the sort of girl who provoked men to do dangerous things. She was...nice. Even her closest friends, many of whom liked her a great deal, couldn’t come up with a more spectacular adjective. Charlotte was nice.
    Eventually Charlotte met a nice man named James, whom she was convinced she loved passionately. They had a very nice wedding and two children who seemed perfect to their mother and adequate to everyone else. After raising them to the point that they no longer needed her constant vigilance to stay alive, Charlotte wondered, what now? That’s when Charlotte Constance Kinder, who was nice, discovered that she was also clever.
    She started a web-based business, grew it to seven employees, then sold it for an embarrassing profit. With Lu and Beckett in elementary school, she had time, so why not start another? Her retirement fund was flush. She gave to charities. She bought James a Jaguar (the car, not the cat--he was allergic to cats) and took the kids on cruises. Charlotte was content--toes-in-the-sand, cheek-kiss, hot-cocoa-breath content. Her childhood dreams had come true: husband, family, success. She wonderfully, blissfully, ignorantly reflected that life just couldn’t get any better.
    Until it didn’t.
    We may never know what turned once-nice James away. Was it the fact that his wife was making more money than he was? (A lot more.) Or that his wife had turned out to be clever? (That can be inconvenient.) Had Charlotte changed? Had James? Was marriage just too hard to maintain in this crazy, shifting world?
    Charlotte hadn’t thought so. But then, Charlotte had been wrong before.
    She was wrong when she assumed her husband’s late nights were work-related. She was wrong when she blamed his increasingly sullen behavior on an iron deficiency.    She was wrong when she believed the coldness in their bed could be fixed with flannel sheets.
    Poor Charlotte. So nice, so clever, so wrong.
    Charlotte came to believe that no single action kills a marriage. From the second it begins to fail, there are a thousand shots at changing course. She invested her whole soul in each of those second chances that failed anyway. It was like being caught in her own personal Groundhog’s Day, only without the delightful Bill Murray to make her laugh. She woke up, marveled anew at the bone-crushing weight in her chest, dressed in her best clothes as if for war, and set out with a blazing hope that today would be different, today James would remember he loved her and come home to the family. Today she would win her marriage, and her life, back again.
    Eventually the day came when Charlotte sat in the messy ruins of her marriage and felt as weak as a cooked noodle. She would never be nice or clever enough. Hope had been beaten to death. She dried her eyes, shut down her heart, and plunged herself into an emotion coma. So much easier not to feel.
    Once numbness takes over a damaged heart, a miracle is required to restart it. Things would prove rough for our heroine. The only hope to pull her out again was Jane Austen.

Comments

[Debbie (Celes)]

*applause*

That had me grinning! (which maybe I shouldn't say, what with the whole marriage-falling-apart thing)

Can't wait to read more! Your writing is wonderful, as always. :)

[Amy]

Love it!! Can't wait for more!

[Laree]

Ooo. I'm hooked already! Can't wait to read it - but if it doesn't get finished before D-Day, I'm willing to wait a while. I've done 3 single newborn days. I can NOT even fathom how hard those first months would be with two little ones!

Good Luck!

[Heather S.]

I'm looking forward to another delightful book and hearing the good news of a safe delivery for you!

[Laurie]

You have a way with words...
Happy Incubating!

[Shannon Morris]

Shannon, Shannon, Shannon! I'm clawing at my computer screen for more!!! Thanks for the teaser!

[Sara]

Yay! I'm way excited! I can't wait until it actually comes out!! :)

[Laura Z M]

Oh, my, oh, my. I love it already. Northanger Abbey may well be my favorite Austen. It's certainly the funniest. I do believe I'll go read it again now to hold me over until Midnight in Austenland's in print.

Best of luck with Project Incubator!

[Connie Onnie]

Just what I needed to help get me through this Friday afternoon at work.
PS I like her middle name.

[Elinor]

Woa! Compelling.

[Jena]

So exciting! This means I get to throw another awesome Austenland bookclub dinner party!

[Sondy]

Sigh. No fair taking my story and making it Charlotte's. (Except for the getting rich part. That would really really help.) It sounds like your new book might be great therapy!

[Meg]

Oh wow! I'm so excited to read it! I love the humor. My favorite line is "weak as a cooked noodle". I love how you can have these perfectly beautiful descriptions and perfectly silly ones and they work together to make the story heartfelt but also not taking itself too seriously.

[Elenatintil]

Got me laughing! Can't wait for the book! :)

[Sophia]

*flail* I love this so much. I can't wait to read the whole thing!

[Atapestryofwords.blogspot.com]

Fabulous prologue - love the nod to Northanger Abbey!

[Rachel]

I really like it. In such a short time, I already appreciate Charlotte's personality and emotions, already feel the weight of her sorrow, and already have hope that Austenland will wake her up to life again. Amazing!

I'm so glad you write.

[Heather]

As I sit here scrolling through the comments my 3-yr old points to the images of book covers in the margins and points out, "Hey that's Emma's (big sister's) book, and that's your book, and that's your book too, and that one!" Thanks for letting your books become mine, I'm thrilled to be adding one more title to my 'Favorites and Re-reads' shelf soon.

[Juli]

Please do keep going. . .

[MelissaPete]

Good grief woman, you have a gift! How long will we be kept in suspense??? :D I love that your brain is working while also feeding twins from your own body's resources. ;)

[Heather Muir]

Loved it! Thanks for everything you do. You cook those babies!

[Christen]

Poor Charlotte! I got so distracted while reading the prologue, when it was done, I actually attempted to turn the page, despite the fact that I didn't have a book in my hand. xD

And the Logsdon girls of Hagerstown send their prayers for little ol' Scylla and Charybdis.

[Annette M]

Ooooh so good! Have a milkshake and keep those projects cookin'!

[Rinna-girl]

that's beautiful and sad at the same time. I can feel the emotion pulling at me. LD

[Dr. Sallie N. Cheinsteen]

OH MY GOSH!! I LOVE IT!! LOVE IT! LOVE IT SO MUCH THAT I AM ONLY GOING TO WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS FROM NOW ON.

SERIOUSLY. I AM NOT OVER REACTING.

[Amy]

Can't wait to read it!

[Amy]

More, more! You've pulled me right in.

[resugo]

Awesome. I can hardly wait for Charlotte's adventure in Austenland. Eeek!

[Cassie]

Miss Shannon, why are you so absolutely perfect? Every time I read anything you've written I feel like you're my best friend. I wish this was real and not just my imagination. :) You are amazing. :)

[Amy]

In the last nine months I have certainly used Jane Austen to deal with my own version of a James disappearing. Cannot wait to read how it works out for Charlotte!

[Ruby Diamond]

Compelling! I can hardly wait...but guess I have to.

One question: do you think of her last name as being pronounced Kin-der (garten) or Kind-er (than thou)?

[Emnia E.]

Lovely!!!! It sounds like it's going to be ah-amazing! (as always!)

Since I haven't able to read this week (it's call math homework), I do have some comments to put in on rape.
I'm thirteen years of age, and no, have not actually been raped. BUT, I didn't know anything about it until I read a book by Sarah Dessen (she had no details in it), and was shocked--utterly shocked at the fact that people would actually do this! And only the next day I found that one of my closer relitaves was one who was raped by her boyfriend, and refused to speak out because she 'loved him'.

And it was sad, and upsetting. And the only way I could even remotly connect was through that book, to know the actual emotions of what was sorta going on. I think we NEED these books--to provide a peak for those of us that are more fortunate, and for those that need to know that they're not the only ones.

Not to even mention that there are worse books out there, that are even more graphic. Meg Cabot? Stephanie Meyer? They both go in and deep into some details, and to get rid of priceless books that could save a life is of utter stupidity! This world is so confused! And for a thirteen year old to see that, is a VERY sad thing!

[Lizardbreath McGee]

Oh, my. I do want to read this.

[Erin]

Loved Austenland. Charlotte's story sounds a bit familiar to me. I've felt that numb feeling of shock when you wake up one day are realize your marriage is over. Hope her story ends better than mine so far. Sigh. Perhaps you'd like to write a Mr. Darcy into the book of my life?

[Libbi]

!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! Wow that was totally rockin.... can't wait to read more!!

[Jen]

Awesome! I love Northanger Abbey!

[JoLee]

I'm so excited to return to Pembrook Park. Austenland was such fun. By the way, my boy is named Beckett. He's 15-months-old. Good choice.

[Katie]

Oh wow. Fabulous.

I'm going to be going crazy now until it comes out!

[Liz]

Dear Twins,

Please stay put until your mother can finish her book. I really don't think I can wait for 2012.

Sincerely,
Liz

[Deb Lamborn]

Brava! Can't wait!

[Sue S]

That was marvelously done. So easy to picture. Unfortunately I guess. As all the rest eagerly looking forward to more.

[Angela]

I'm excited!!!! It sounds wonderful!

[Josie]

It doesn't really matter how awesome that prologue was, because I'm going to read all of your books anyway, but it certainly was good :)

[Anna]

Scylla like the horse in The Book of Lost Things???? [which is awesome btw}

[Je Reve]

Ooohhh. Yum. More, please!

Have fun with the Greek monster-girls

[Miss Erin]

Dahhhhh I want to keep reading...!

[yakx]

Are you going to name them Scylla and Charybdis?

[aax]

Are you going to teach them how to be water-speakers?

[Kara Hunt]

Heyy, just a random question, but how do you make a bad character not seem lame, I'm writing a story and I cant seem to get his character right.

[Katie-wa]

GIMME MORE!!! PLEASE!!!

Or just finish it all and get that baby published! I am ever so eager to read it!

Ah, Jane Austen. The thought makes me smile and sigh. It makes me as happy as the thought of Shannon Hale. :)