Setting the Scene
Novels, like paintings are subjective. One likes one, another one likes another.
What I have noticed is that every writer has their own way of grabbing the reader's attention at the start of their story, and endless instructive texts have been written on the subject. We all know what we are looking for in the opening chapters.
However, if I am writing a succession of stories centred around two or three main characters, I like to set the scene a little more firmly. I like to think that anyone reading the story can imagine themselves in situ, even if it is only as a fly on the wall.
The excerpt I have chosen for this week's Saturday Spankings gives a small glimpse of rural English life as lived by Ami and Daniel. Just take a peek...
...I pull carefully into a space between a dilapidated Toyota pickup, and a family runaround that looks as if the last time it saw a carwash must have been some time during the previous century.
The village shop is situated behind the local garage, which is also the local undertakers. A car has drawn up at the pumps, which look to be straight out of the 1950s, and Sam Farthing, the owner of the garage, is engaged in conversation with the driver as he fills the tank with Four Star.
When Sam sees me get out of my car and walk purposefully into the little mercantile - where if you can't find it, it isn't yet made - he nearly kills himself in order to gallop across the forecourt and into the shop to meet me. He finishes serving the petrol, hooks the nozzle back on the pump in such a hurry that it falls down the first time, spraying petrol dregs in a ten yard radius, and grabs the money out of the hand of the bewildered driver, now with well-spattered trousers, his eyes busy taking in every detail of my appearance, from the faded blue jeans and creased linen shirt, to the dirty smudge across my forehead.
I arrive in the shop, closing the door behind me which causes the bell to jingle madly, and I stand still for a moment in order to allow my eyes to adjust to the relative gloom. An assortment of goods are arranged on shelves of varying heights, whilst two large chiller units keep vegetables and salad stuffs fresh, and a freezer unit hums somewhere in the background.
Beryl Farthing appears out of a side door and I fervently hope it doesn't lead back into the undertaking side of the business, and that if it does, Beryl has paused to wash her hands en route...
Blurb:
Ami and Daniel are Empty Nesters who have moved to live in an old house in the depths of the English countryside. In order to save their flagging relationship and refresh their boring sex lives, Ami has decided she needs to change. She reinvents herself, much to the delight of her husband of over thirty years, proving that passion and variety are no longer the reserve of the young.
More significantly, on the day she types the word 'spanking' into her computer she realizes that a little domestic discipline may be just what they need in their marriage. Although initially somewhat nervous of what it might entail, Daniel takes to spanking Ami like a duck takes to water, surprising her with the ease in which he has settled into his role as head of household.
All goes well until Ami begins to meet some village locals, and lets herself get happily led astray. A simple custom is turned into a marathon spanking session, and Ami will never view the ritual of Beating the Bounds in the same light again.
Blushing Books
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Keep on reading for more great snippets.
http://sarahcoltman.blogspot.com/2015/08/setting-scene-novels-like-paintings-are.html
