The Year of the Snake

Today marks the beginning of the Chinese new year. According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2013 is the Year of the Snake. Some of the things that the snake represents are deception, delusion, and opportunism. Dun, dun, dun!

Wendy Russo came up with the brilliant idea to help celebrate the new year and those cunning snakes by posting a scene from our writings that has to do with deception, delusion, and/or opportunism.

Here’s my scene from The Grave Winner:

The [news] woman turned towards me. Her eyes grew brighter as she click-clacked her ruby red high heels faster than I’d ever seen anyone go. Before I could run or react, she took my elbow and dug her sharp red fingernails into my arm.

“What do you think is causing the dead to return to life?” She shoved her furry microphone at me.

I glared at her over-excited, makeup-plastered face. “I… try not to think about it. But people like you make that impossible.”

Something flickered across her eyes, and she gasped. Was she shocked that I wasn’t eager to participate in this news circus? She stared at me a beat past uncomfortable, smoothed an eyebrow, then smiled into the camera. “Perhaps it’s the result of too much processed food. We’ll have more at ten on this developing story.”

“And we got it.” The cameraman lifted the bulk off his shoulder and pressed several buttons.

“What do you think you’re doing?” a female voice hollered. Mrs. Rios, the Spanish teacher, dodged reporters and trotted up to the woman. “There’s no way you had enough time to contact this student’s parents for permission to put her face on TV. You just got here.”

The news lady removed her grip from my arm. “Relax.” She turned and glared at me. I was getting a lot of that today. “We’ll cut her attitude and just use a shot of her lunch tray.” She gave Mrs. Rios a chilly smile. “No harm done.”

Yep, it’s short and non-spoilery, and it’s deceptive and opportunistic in more ways than one. My evil laugh goes here.

If you’d like to read more slithery Year of the Snake inspired scenes from other authors’ works, here is a list of participants. You should definitely check these out!

• Katie O’Sullivan
• Raven Bower
• Cindy Young-Turner
• Rebecca Trogner
• Lindsey Loucks
• Sue Anne Bowling
• SM Boyce
• Constance Phillips
• Stephan E. Train
• Stevie Carroll
• Kelly Seguin
• Wynn Channing
• Rebecca Hamilton
• Sherry Soule
• Renee Reardon
• Wendy S. Russo