This year’s October fiction project is a short middle-grade horror novel. The working title is “Turning Leaves,” but that will probably change.
Here are the rules (which I am making up as I go along!):
- Write every day.
- Write about a thousand words every day.
- Write words the same day the characters would be writing them, for the most part (that is, Oct 1 words in the story = Oct 1 words in real life).
- Don’t plan ahead.
- Don’t quit.
I don’t have an outline or even a plan.
It’s been a while since I wrote middle-grade fiction. This should be fun.
…
October Fiction Projects to Date:
2017 – October Nights – General flash fiction short horror-ish stories.
Website – Ebook
2018 – Tales of the Normal – Twilight Zone-style surreal stories.
2019 – Crime du Jour – Short crime stories.
2023 – Turning Leaves – Middle-grade horror.
Website – And sign up for the newsletter to get updates about the final ebook!
Turning Leaves (Working Title): October 11 - Parent Teacher Conferences
October So Far – Jayla
Too many things are happening.
10-1. I started writing in my journal for English class. Sunday.
10-2. Mom and Stepdad Dave were fighting a lot. Monday.
10-3. Mom had a good day. Tuesday.
10-4. Mom was worse and Stepdad Dave was yelling at someone on the phone. Wednesday.
10-5. Mr. Henderon and Lola got in a fight over books and whether kids should pick their own books. Lola asked me if I felt icky all the time? Stepdad Dave said he was going to be gone all weekend. Thursday.
10-6. Stepdad Dave was gone all day, and Mr. Henderson called Lola a liar in class, and I was mad for her. Mom was bad again. Friday.
10-7. Stepdad Dave was still gone. In the morning Mom seemed a lot better and made breakfast. Lola and I went to the public library together. We saw Miss Emma, the school librarian, at the public library. She talked to Lola but she kept staring at me. It was creepy. Then when I went home, Lola went with me. Mom was bad again but Lola didn’t see. She went home. Saturday.
10-8. Stepdad Dave gone until late in the night, Monday morning. Nightmares, the melting dream again. Not much happened during the day before that. I didn’t go to the library. Lola said she had to do family things but we could hang out again at the library on Monday. Mom was bad again. Sunday.
10-9. No school all week. Indigenous People’s Day. Stepdad Dave home again. Hung out with Lola at the library but she was very late. Isaiah and Cooper were there. Miss Emma was there. I asked her if I could use a computer to email Lola, but Lola came in just as I was about to start writing. We hung out and it seemed like she didn’t want to be there, like she was either mad at me or she was sick. It reminded me of Mom when she’s having a bad day lately. Scary. Monday.
10-10. Mom was okay, but she also seemed weird. And it seemed like she almost made Stepdad Dave cry. I used our house phone to call Lola’s cell phone. I left a message, but she didn’t call me back. I went downstairs and checked my emails on Stepdad Dave’s computer, but she didn’t send me any emails, either. Mom made supper and hung out with me for a while. Stepdad Dave came into the room to get some supper. Then he left again. A while later, he brought his supper dishes back. Then he left in his truck.
I asked Mom if he was okay.
She said, “We are not getting along with each other right now, and I don’t want to talk about it.”
I didn’t know what to say.
I went down in the basement watched some TV.
There isn’t really a ghost cat. Ghost cats aren’t real.
But I wished there were. I wished so hard that I almost felt like there was a ghost cat, and he climbed on top of me and started purring, even though I hadn’t brought any tuna, like I was writing that I needed to.
That was yesterday, Tuesday.
October 11 – Jayla
Today is Wednesday, parent-teacher conference day.
Mom and I walked to school together.
It was mostly sunny today. Mom started singing that it was a great day for a light sweater, a great day for a cardigan, and made me laugh.
When we got to school I checked the bike rack for the glittery pink bike with the fake roses in front.
I saw a pink bike that looked like Lola’s bike, but the roses in the front were gone.
So it couldn’t have been hers.
Right?
Mom and I went from class to class, talking to teachers and waiting in line. There were cups of apple cider and coffee. Mom had one coffee and one apple cider. She brought gift bags for all my teachers, which is nerdy, but that’s Mom. The gift bags had homemade vegan tahini chocolate chip cookies, gift cards, and dry erase markers.
Mr. Henderson was the last teacher we talked to.
He asked me if I was still writing in my journal.
I said yes.
He and my mom shook hands.
He talked to mom about me being an “asset in the class,” with lots of intelligent questions and observations.
Then they started talking about what books were acceptable for sixth-grade children to read.
The Mom I used to know would have said that she would support my reading choices, regardless of what they were, and we would talk about the books before and afterwards, if she was worried about me reading books that seemed particularly challenging.
This Mom said that she didn’t think children should be exposed to adult books at such a young age, but “maybe when they are Juniors and Seniors in high school.”
I excused myself to the bathroom so I could look for Lola.
I didn’t see her.
I checked the library, and Miss Emma was there. I asked her if she had seen Lola and she said she had not. I said to tell Lola I was looking for her if she saw her.
“Okay,” said Miss Emma.
But I think she was lying.
I feel small and scared and I don’t know what is going on.
When I got home, the gray bookmark thing and the sticky stuff on the wall that I tore off it, was gone. And the bat picture that Lola made for me was under the bed and covered with dust.
October 11 – Lola
no
it’s not the right thing in my hand?
please cat?
tell dad
tell jayla
i don’t want to get in trouble
help