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I hope your year is off to a good start! Happy Work in Progress Wednesday!
As many of you know, WIP Wednesday is when, on the first Wednesday of the month, we share excerpts of stories (or whatever) we’re working on. I was not regular about these in 2025, but I may do them every month this year!
Make sure you’re subscribed to the blog so you’ll get notified about future WIP Wednesdays. You can sign up in the upper right hand corner of the home page. And read through the rules before posting!
These are the rules:
•Limit your excerpt to 350 words or fewer. 500 words was long, and 250 was feeling too short, so I’m settling on 350. If you post a longer piece, I may trim it.
•No graphic sex or violence. Salty language is fine!
•Don’t link to work for sale. However, you can link to your website or social media account!
•Avoid making criticisms or suggestions on other people’s work, because we’re sharing rough excerpts that aren’t ready for critique. Leaving some encouraging words, though, is good writer luck!
After going back and forth on a few different project ideas for months, I have landed on a novel idea that I am really, really excited about (which you may already know if you follow me on TikTok or Instagram.) It’s drawing on my experiences of working at the Hallmark Channel.
In this scene, my heroine has pulled together an impromptu brainstorm to rename a movie, because Netflix just announced a holiday movie by the same name.
The social media girl frowns. “Maybe Netflix would’ve had to change their title if we’d announced ours sooner. Why did it go so late?”
“They had to iron out something with the actor’s contract,” I say, trying to be circumspect.
The guy I grabbed from programming, an executive assistant, gives an amused snort. “That’s one way to put it.” When everyone turns to him, he adds, “Luke Dalton. He’s trying to get out of doing it.”
A few people look to me for confirmation, and I press my lips together and give a nod.
The website guy laughs. “It’d be easier to get out of a deal with the devil.”
He’s right, but still, I’ve been dreading the eleven o’clock Zoom with the actor’s agent, my boss, and Rob from legal. I hate conflict. At least I’ll only there so I can take notes and distribute them later, because both Samantha and legal want the meeting documented—and not by an AI or a Zoom record button. We’re really not old-fashioned. We just like a record that’s biased in our favor.
“I’m not surprised he wants out, though,” Vanessa admits. “I mean, he was the vampire prince!”
The social media girl, who is in her mid-twenties, pulls a skeptical face. “Wasn’t that show like fifteen years ago? What was it called?”
“Ten years ago,” Vanessa says, affronted. “Royal Blood.”
“Tudor England, but make it vampire,” quips one of the marketing guys, which sounds about right, though I never actually watched it. “It wasn’t even a huge show then.”
“It was big!” Vanessa insists. “And the fans were very passionate.”
The marketing guy gives her a teasing grin. “That’s a cute way to say unhinged.”
I don’t tell anyone the real reason Luke Dalton wants to get out of our sentimental Christmas movie. The casting for a certain thriller, based on a buzzy bestseller, hasn’t been announced yet. Dalton landed an important role on an otherwise A-list cast.
Vanessa shakes her head. “Every year, there’s always one Christmas movie that’s kind of a shitshow.”
If you’re so inclined, share something of your own below…
OR, tell us about your resolutions or your January so far, if you feel like it! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great rest of your week!
I like this, Bryn. It caught my interest. I’ve just started another Amanda Travels book. Guess where it takes place?
“What’s that?” Amanda asked, pointing to a small building that looked like a dollhouse.
“Oh, that’s a ghost house,” said Leah’s uncle. “Folks in Thailand put them outside their houses and places of business to give the ghosts, or spirits, a place to live and keep them out.”
Amanda pushed up her glasses with her middle finger. “That’s so cool. She just arrived in Thailand, and was spellbound by all the colours and different sights.
“Be prepared to answer lots of questions, Uncle Chris.” Leah pulled back her blonde ponytail. “Amanda loves history and is very nosy.” She giggled.
Amanda punched her friend’s arm. “I’m just curious, that’s all.” She turned to Chris with a grin. “Thanks for inviting me. I love Thailand already.”
“No problem. I figured Leah would get bored on her own with her old uncle. We have some fun things planned, though. Do you like elephants?”
“Do I? I was really hoping to get to see some while I was here.”
“My wife’s daughter volunteers at an elephant sanctuary, so I’m sure we can arrange a visit.”
Amanda’s eyes lit up. “That would be so awesome. I don’t want to ride on one though. I read that it’s not good for them.”
“No one is allowed to ride them any more. But you can feed them.” He pulled into a parking lot. “Let’s stop and get a bite to eat before I take you to my home. This restaurant is very good and has a nice variety on the menu. I’m sure you’ll find something you like. They grow their own herbs and produce right here.” He pointed to rows of green plants growing beside the restaurant.
“And look, there’s another one of those ghost houses!” Amanda pointed to a miniature pagoda perched on golden columns. Tiny Buddha figures sat in front as well as trays of fruit and vegetables. A figure ran out from behind and disappeared down the street.
“Did you see that?” she asked Leah.
“What?”
“Someone had been hiding behind the spirit house.”
Leah shrugged. “Probably a kid – or a ghost.” She winked.
Hi Bryn! I just bought 4 of your books. 2 for me, and two for my daughter Tawn Krakowski. They are very helpful! TX – trish brown
I LOVE the exchange between Vanessa and one of the marketing guys.
Vanessa: The fans were very passionate.
Marketing guy: That’s a cute way to say unhinged.
Ha! Good work!
The repairman sets his toolbox on the table, then stands with his hands on his hips. He vigorously smacks his gum as he stares down at the errant appliance, “She’s a beauty all right, a Premiere Model 1139. We’ll get her all fired up and working again in no time.”
“I like your confidence.” Evelyn said, slipping into her southern drawl, “Personally, Aah’ve neva understood how a gas refrigerator works. How does such a hot little flame produce so much cold?”
“You’ve never met my wife,” quips the repairman.
Evelyn laughs, “No, I can’t say that I have.”
The young repairman, fresh from his apprenticeship, is eager to explain. He launches into his description of the inner workings of a gas refrigerator with enthusiasm, “Well, it’s an interesting process. Simply put, a refrigerant gas with a low boiling point is heated by the flame and allowed to evaporate out. Then, the hot gas passes through a heat exchanger, which transfers the heat into the outside air, causing the cooling effect.”
“My, that is interesting,” coos Evelyn as her eyes roll heavenward.
The repairman continues to explain as he kneels on the floor and inspects the under workings of the refrigerator, “The process is based upon the principle of absorption.”
Evelyn waits patiently as he pulls a kitchen spoon from under the fridge, followed by an empty pint bottle of Old Crow, which he hands up to her. She inspects the empty bottle with one raised eyebrow, “Absorption, huh? Now that’s a process I know something about.”
She sets the bottle on the counter along with an array of other retrieved items, including hair rollers and half-burnt kitchen matches. Lastly, the repairman pulls out a blackened mass and inspects it closely before holding it up for Evelyn to see, “I think I’ve found the problem,” he said, “This was jammed up against the burner.”
Evelyn recognizes the red rubber ball, now half melted and covered with blackened mop threads. “I knew it,” she said. “That’s the dog’s ball. It’s always something with that kid and her damn dog.”
INT. JORDAN RANCH – BARN – NIGHT
There is a knock at the door. Lelu barks until Taylor opens
the door. Lelu is excited when she sees Shane standing there.
He hands her flowers with his head down and foot-dragging
around out in front of him. Taylor smiles at his gesture.
TAYLOR
For me?
SHANE
I didn’t think you were a flower
kind of girl, but… I didn’t want
to assume.
TAYLOR
Thank you, they’re great.
Taylor smells them, takes his hand, and pulls him upstairs to
her loft. He inhales the aroma of the cooking.
SHANE
Wow, it smells great in here. Where
are you hiding the chef?
TAYLOR
Do you think insulting me right out
of the gate is the way to go here?
Passing a glass-door freezer, Shane notices a lot of ice
cream. He almost comments, but Taylor sees him notice.
TAYLOR (CONT’D)
Think I have an ice cream problem?
SHANE
You wouldn’t be in such amazing
shape eating that much ice cream.
TAYLOR
Nice save. Are you saying I have a
great body?
SHANE
No, I just mean…
TAYLOR
So I don’t have a great body?
SHANE
No, I mean yes. Okay, TJ, I’m kind
of nervous about being here.
Shane surrenders, realizing she’s giving him a hard time.
SHANE (CONT’D)
I’ve known you forever, but I’ve
never been at your place at night,
and I’ve never been in your loft.
TAYLOR
Well, you’re here now.
Shane looks befuddled, like the dog always chasing the cat,
and when the cat stops, the dog doesn’t know what to do.
Shane walks around, looking at her photos and trophies.
SHANE
Can I ask you something… all
these years, I’ve had the feeling
that maybe your parents didn’t like
me because I’m black.
Taylor abruptly spins around, looking shocked.
TAYLOR
What? You’re black! Why didn’t you
tell me? This changes everything.
SHANE
Knock it off, I’m just sayin’
.
TAYLOR
Wow! So you think my parents are
racists? And you think that’s why
they don’t like you?
SHANE
Not an unreasonable assumption.
TAYLOR
You are way off base, Shane. My
parents are a lot of things, but
they’re not racists. Being black is
not why they don’t like you.
She leaves him hanging and doesn’t say anything else.
SHANE
TJ?
TAYLOR
The reason they don’t like you
is(pause). They don’t like you…
They don’t like you because you
drive a Chevy. Can you blame them?
He bursts out laughing, and his demeanor relaxes. After
eating, they’re on Taylor’s deck joking and talking.
SHANE
Why don’t you let the EMTs go home?
I think I’m safe. I have to say
your cooking wasn’t terrible.
Taylor leans in and whispers in his ear.
TAYLOR
Wow, you know how to flatter a
girl. I hope you don’t say that
about our lovemaking.
Shane is stunned and silenced by her statement. Taylor sits
back, looking like she’s enjoying his discomfort.
TAYLOR (CONT’D)
I guess you can only dish it out?
I may have picked up a few items
from Bruno’s Market, but I did warm
up the food in the microwave.
SHANE
I saw the Bruno boxes in the trash.
Taylor laughs and slides back in closer to Shane.
SHANE (CONT’D)
TJ, tell me what’s going on here.
Taylor rubs the scar on her chin, thinking before speaking.
TAYLOR
My dad always told me to keep you
at a distance. I think he’s always
known I felt a special connection
with you. I don’t know what it is.
SHANE
I’ve felt that way for a long time.
And it would have been nice to know
you did, too, a few years back.
TAYLOR
Well, you know now, and in time,
I’ll probably grow to accept your
choice of cars.
Shane is still looking uneasy with the situation.
SHANE
So this is a revenge date?
TAYLOR
Maybe a little, is that a problem
for you?
SHANE
No, no, I’m good.
They spent hours talking. Their relationship has changed.
I love your writing! Great work!
Prometheus’s Daughter.
Alchemy Turner, a cloned Neanderthal young woman, dreams before a TEDx talk.
Jon Madison guides me out of a haze and up the stairs to the lectern, announcing, “Here is the oldest woman in the world.”
Hoots and wild screams echo in the theatre. Monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas, and smaller species fill every seat. They wear dresses and suits, and have cellphones and laptops.
The giant grayback gorilla in the front row stands and growls, waving his arms. Everyone else is seated.
The gorilla taps his tablet, hands it up to me, then taps the screen twice.
I accept the tablet and read, “To be or not to be, that is the question.”
I grow bolder with each line of Hamlet’s soliloquy and belt out Shakespeare’s melancholy line, “We are all traveling on that broad level of time to that undiscovered country from whom’s bourn no traveler returns.”
I hand the tablet back and bow to the gorilla.
He sits and gives me the sign for love.
Yikes! I’m a knuckle-dragger.
I toss and turn over.
~
Running through white flurries across the snow-laden steppes, my rabbit-skin coat, torn by the first attack, no longer shields me from the blizzard. Claw marks on my forearms sting, and I taste blood, but I feel nothing on my frozen face.
I’ve lost everything, my boys, my girls. Everything is now food for the wolves.
They growl, right behind me. One wolf shrieks, and the growling stops. I keep running to live, to make my revenge on Crooked Tail.
I run into another beast that throws me to the ground. I wait for the killing bite to my neck. Instead, a hand rolls me over to a vision of smelly hair while sharp words drown me out.
Humans!
An incessant gong blares louder and faster in the distance, hurting my ears.
I wake up, gasping, sweat-soaked, and somehow manage to turn off the alarm with sheets mummifying me.
OOO! This is intriguing. Great visuals!
LIGHTS OUT
“There’s something going on.” Augusto chewed on his already short nails. “I think the two are going to hit, or at the very least come very, very close.” He made a conscious effort to lower his hands to his sides. He knew the nail biting drove his boss crazy. He only did it when he was nervous, and she always made him nervous. “I’ve been,” he started, “I’ve been studying this for months. The two Centauri’s are getting closer, and I don’t see anything of Proxima.”
Claudia sighed, “Don’t you think that maybe they are just aligning themselves and it appears that they are getting close?” This kid looked like a scared little puppy.
Looking down at the floor, “I don’t think so.” He mumbled. “There alignment shouldn’t be for another hundred years or more.”
“Look at me and don’t mumble so much when you speak. I can’t understand a word you’re saying.”
“Their alignment sh..”
“I heard you. But you need to learn to speak clearly and with conviction. If you are confident in what you are observing than don’t pussy foot about it, spit it out and make your case.” Was she ever this young, and was she afraid of her bosses like these kids coming out of school these days? He acts like I bite his head off every time he speaks to me. Am I that scary?
“Well,” he started. “The alignment theory doesn’t work. The movement has been way too quick for that. According to known movements of the Alpha Centauri system and the night sky in general those two stars should take at least another fifty years or so to be aligned with us. They are still moving away from alignment, and not this fast.
And then there’s the altitude of Centauri B. That’s the position above the horizon.”
She cut him off, “I know what ‘Altitude’ is when it comes to space. What about it?”
“They are virtually the same.”
Claudia stared at him. This didn’t make sense. Stars don’t randomly change direction.
THE EMPTY DESK:
The moment I entered Tracy’s station, I felt like I’d walked into something solid I couldn’t see.
At first, everything looked normal. The laminated price list still hung crooked at the edge of the counter. The little bell sat where it always did, waiting to be beaten senseless by impatient library visitors. But the longer I stood there, the more the differences pressed in — not loud differences (seeing as they were inaudible to my blocked ears), not glaringly obvious ones. Completely silent, quiet ones. The kind that were mute and made your chest feel tight without any exact explanation as to the reason behind the tightness.
Her coffee mug was still there. It sat near the till, the embroidered writing darkened by old spills, the lid of her flask half-on, twisted at a careless angle. Tracy had made the same oat-milk cappuccino at home and brought it to work every morning in a flask reserved for that very purpose. I could picture her buying an oat-milk latte at our university canteen during break hours (she hadn’t owned a coffee maker yet) and a walnut flapjack to accompany it, biting into the flapjack, then getting distracted by someone asking for a recommendation before she had a chance to fully savour it.
Next to the mug lay her to-do list, written on the back of a receipt in her neat, slanted handwriting:
Re-stock mystery shelf
Email Peter re: invoices
Return Mum’s call
The list stopped there. No dramatic ending. No explanation. Just ordinary tasks waiting for someone who wasn’t coming back. I swallowed hard and looked away, but the words stayed blurred in my vision.
Behind me, the bookstore kept swimming along, as I turned and watched them through teary eyes.
Hi Bryn! I’m excited about your romcom-movie-makers book 🙂 Your snippet definitely left me wondering if Luke Dalton is the love interest. 😀 The narrator seems to know more than everybody else in the room. There’s a lot of energy in that scene, even if some of it is bantery/bitter playfulness? Is that what I’m thinking?
My WIP is currently with my alpha readers (and it’s nerve-wracking), so I’m feeling like I’m in limbo at the moment. Two days ago, I told myself I’d stay in that world and brainstorm the sequel–except my brain wants nothing to do with that right now lol. I might visit a whole different genre and pick up work on another old manuscript about a girl who is half dragon. Earlier this year, I realized that story is meant to be a villain origin story, so I think I’m ready to pick up the pen in that one again. Anyhoo–
This month’s sub is from the WIP in alpha, so some of it will probably change before the next stage(s). This is the opening to what’s going to be the first chapter (it used to be chapter 1, but then I changed the prologue into chapter 1, and now I think it’s retaking its place where it belongs at the beginning of the book):
There’s an old bookstore on the corner of Green and Beau. Not that old, really. But if you don’t know it’s here, if you aren’t looking for it or with someone who knows where to find it, you might miss it.
I almost did.
Once upon a time, when I was running from heartbreak, Whimsy & Words took me in. It was the one place in town that wasn’t a constant reminder of the gaping chasm in my soul. The one place that was mine, and mine alone, because he had never been.
“Marvin, your order’s ready,” comes a soft voice over the speakers, and I look for him. I’ve gotten to know quite a few of the other regulars over the years. Her Whimsies, Bette calls us. She treats us all like family, which might be why we keep coming back.
Anyway, that all healed over years ago.
Now I come to Whimsy just because I love the atmosphere, and where else are you going to find a little repurposed greenhouse kitchen serving the best coffee and pastries in town?
“Elliott, your order is ready.” Oop, that’s me. I don’t usually use my full first name in public, except on social media where it keeps the unsolicited messages at bay.
I step up to the counter as Bette sticks her head out from the glass-paneled kitchen. When her denim-colored eyes land on me, the fine lines at the corners crinkle with recognition as she breaks into a smile. “I knew that was you, Ellie!” She strips the disposable gloves from her hands as she walks over. She nods toward the register. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Kellan knows for next time.”
“Oh, it’s not a bother.”
“Off to the parade this morning?” She wipes down the counter with a wet rag. “It’s been a few years for you, hasn’t it?”
My ex hated the Apple Blossom Festival and everything that went with it. I didn’t get to go once in the four years we were together. “Yep. The grand marshal’s Willa’s favorite actor.”
She smirks, wiping her hands on her apron.
Love what you wrote, Bryn!
Hey, Bryn!
I love the discussion about Royal Blood! It makes me think of a combination of Twilight and Dark Shadows, especially with the passionate fans. 😆
I know I’m a day late for this, but I wanted to share this small snippet from the current chapter in my Ambrose and Elsie WIP.
Some helpful context: Missy is a young woman who was stolen as a child to be used for experiments at The Institute. They were trying to turn her into an XQ—-someone who could turn into a fiery wolf elemental on command. Their intent was to make her a perfect weapon that could be loaned out to whoever needed a traceless weapon of destruction.
With the help of a couple of my other characters, she escaped them. Later, she returned and burned down the whole place with her XQ fire ability.
Even though The Institute was completely burned down, she still feels the pull to return to it.
In this scene, she returned to the burnt out Institute and is having a flashback to burning it down.
//////////////////
Fire was everywhere — scorching the walls, devouring furniture, shriveling and warping doors and ceilings.
Overhead lights popped and melted. Sparks rained down into the flames.
All of The Institute’s employees and scientists tripped and stumbled and trampled each other as they fled.
Screaming.
Fear.
Wild, heedless panic.
All was chaos.
Missy should have felt triumphant and glorious, like a savage goddess of revenge. And, for several moments, she did.
But then, Antioch had raised his head and smiled at her with pride.
The fire inside of her chilled.
There was no triumph to be had here. She had played her part in his game and helped him win. She had given everyone in The Institute a free demonstration of what Antioch’s experiments could do. Whether he lived or he died, he would do so with the knowledge that he had succeeded in creating a marvelous weapon.
///////////////
Missy’s flames flared and rippled in the silence of the ruins. She stood, all four feet planted solid on the broken, burned-out scraps. There was no joy, nor any relief that The Institute was dead and gone.
Because the pull was still there.