…In science fiction and fantasy, children leave the everyday world and go to a strange place where they have to learn a new language and new customs. Science fiction and fantasy were about adapting, and that was something I did every day…
Laurence Yep, in an interview with Scholastic students
In the same interview, he also talks about how he’s an anime fan (scroll down to the bottom to see this part). 😀 I wonder how long ago the interview was published…?
Originally written Monday, December 10, 2012
As I walked my bike down the dirt path through the fields, I noticed something behind me, following my every move. When I stopped, it stopped, too. When I started walking, it started again as well.
I bent to tie my shoe, sneaking a look at my shadow. It was a black cat with a white patch on one eye and a white tip on its tail, meeting my eyes unconcernedly with its yellow ones.
When we passed by my neighbor’s sunflower fields, the cat suddenly ran ahead, stopping in front of a tall, yellow flower. Sitting in front of it, the cat met my eyes again, as if daring me to ask what it wanted.
“Do you want to take this home with us?” I asked. My neighbor wouldn’t mind if I picked one or two.
With the flower safely in the basket of my bike, I continued my journey with my new companion. The cat now walked along beside me, no longer hiding in my shadow.
I wasn’t surprised when the cat followed me inside my house once I got home. I put the sunflower in an empty mason jar on my kitchen table and stood back to admire my handiwork.
The cat jumped on the counter and meowed its approval.
I poured a dish of milk and set it on the ground. “I think I’ll call you Sunny.”
(230 words)
Originally written Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Ryo brushed his fingertips along the wall as he walked, more out of habit than anything else, not really expecting to find anything.
He was surprised when his fingers caught on something. He stopped to get a closer look. There was a long vertical crack in the wall that was definitely not natural. He pushed next to it lightly, and a hole opened up in the wall. Without warning, Ryo fell into the hole and it closed up again behind him.
Ryo took his cell phone out of his pocket and shined the light of the screen on the wall, trying to see if he could find the door again, but the door was gone.
He had nowhere to go but down the dark hall. He tried to follow the wall in the direction that he was heading before, but he couldn’t tell for sure if he was going in the right direction.
In the distance, he could hear the sound of rushing water. “I thought we were in the middle of the city,” he muttered under his breath.
A moment later, the sound was gone. Maybe I was just imagining it, he thought.
After a while, he came to a stairwell. Remembering that they had climbed up stairs earlier, he headed down.
At the bottom of the stairs was a door with a crack of light shining through. He opened the door and was blinded by the light flooding into the passageway and deafened by the roar of a waterfall less than ten feet in front of him.
He jumped back in surprise and closed the door. The sound was gone, but he was still seeing spots.
He opened the door again, but this time it led out into the hallway, where the rest of the group was waiting for him.
(302 words)
Nanowrimo day +4 update: Happy December! I finished on the morning of the 29th with 57,768 validated words. 😀 (The scene above is actually an excerpt from my novel, slightly edited to make sense and stand alone.)
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