fbpx

Weekend Writing Warrior 6/12/16 #8Sunday

coverFor June I’m continuing to pull from my short story collection, The Futility of Loving a Soldier.

It’s eleven stories about veterans and their relationships with family and friends.

Today’s excerpt comes from the second of five related stories, “A Family Tradition.” This one is about Maarten, a man who served during WWII and has spent his life battling his father Joos’s legacy, as conveyed by his single mother, Ophélie.

In this excerpt, continuing from last week’s, he’s just arrived home from a Scouting trip with his sons, to find a strange car in the driveway. Once inside, he comes face-to-face with his father, whom he hasn’t had any contact with in over thirty years – although his father claims to have written to him on a regular basis. Maarten’s mother never told him any of this.

* * * * * * *

“Listen, Maarten.” Joos’s words were clipped. “Your mother left me – I didn’t leave her. She thought I was larger than life, that I would somehow carry her away from a farmer’s life and make all her big dreams come true, but times were tough for us, starting out. She was impatient, and less than honest herself, because the big inheritance she’d always mentioned never materialized. I tried to support us, God knows I tried. I wanted to work it out, to make our family work, but Ophélie wanted excitement. She wanted some hero—”

“Which you’re not.”

* * * * * * *

promo

The Futility of Loving a Soldier is on sale this week for just $.99 – pick up a copy to read more about Joos and Maarten, as well as how the legacy extends through three more generations of sons. Available everywhere – Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords

Then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

5 Comments

  1. Interesting discussion. I hope the two men can really listen to each other, so much unresolved ‘stuff’ to sort. Excellent excerpt.

  2. Clearly Maarten isn’t going to be easily swayed!

  3. I hope there is more listening and less filling in the blanks that are pauses rather than invitations to draw assumptions. Very realistic dialogue. Good snippet.

  4. Well, he doesn’t have to be a hero to be a husband! Give him a break.

  5. Harsh judgement by a son, who may not know it all!

Comments are closed.

The Musings of E.D. Martin © 2011-2020 Privacy Policy Frontier Theme