Again this week I’m sharing from the book I’m revising as part of NaNoWriMo. Yeah, it may be a little outside the rules, but I’m expanding the novella by 50K words, so I think it works out the same. They have a badge for Rogue NaNos, so I’m going for it!
Anyway, its a time travel novella that was published in a boxed set several years ago, then called Crashing Through Time, now changed to Falling in Time. I’m turning it into a full length novel and currently am about 10 chapters in.
Corinne McGowan is on a sightseeing plane ride when the engine fails and she crashes into the countryside around Cornwall. Answering a call of nature, Corinne finds an old well in the forest (think the one from The Ring). She’s mesmerized by the sound coming out of the well and it pulls her into it. She comes to in the same woods and tries to find her way back to the crash site. When she meets Ian Hunterly she suspects something is wrong and eventually realizes she has traveled back in time to 1868.
In today’s snippet, Corinne is talking to Ian, improvising, trying to justify her presence on Ian’s uncle’s property and trying to get back to the well that brought her there. So in the sentences just above this snippet, she tells him she is a spy. (Very creative punctuation used to adhere to the WWW guidelines today.)
Victorian Actress
“I am not supposed to divulge any of this information, Mr. Hunterly, but if I am to enlist your cooperation, I fear I must.” She turned to him, her face set in determined lines and said, “I was sent as part of a Special Forces team who was supposed to rendezvous here yesterday; we are to take a boat just off the coast of St. Agnes and head for France and once there, we are to gather intelligence about the suspected French invasion.”
“France is planning to invade England?” Ian had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing aloud. “And we are employing American women to spy on France for us?”
“What better ruse, for who would suspect an American of such a thing?” Miss McGowan stared out of the window at the same view he had contemplated a few minutes before, continuing, “As my name infers, I am of Scottish ancestry so my ties to Britain are strong. All I ask is for you to take me back to the copse where you found me and let me continue my mission.” She swung around to gaze at him solemnly, her hands stilling her swinging skirts, and proclaiming, “For Queen Victoria—for England.”
God, she was so magnificent he rose to his feet and began to clap, shouting “Bravo!”
BLURB for Falling in Time:
More than hearts can be broken when you fall through time.
Theatre professor Corinne MacGowan is in a sightseeing plane that crash lands in a field in Cornwall. She wanders away from the crash site, led by a strange buzzing in her head that is coming from a black well (think The Ring). She falls down the well and ends up in Cornwall in 1868 at the home of her Master’s thesis subject, playwright Sir Robert Graysill. She immediately meets Sir Robert’s nephew, Ian Hunterly, and once she comes to terms with the fact that she has fallen through time, realizes from her research that Ian is doomed to die within a matter of weeks. Can she save him and change history? Or let history run its course and lose the man she has come to care for?
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Books in The Handful of Hearts series:
And don’t forget to check out the rest of the Warriors here. There’s some fantastic snippets to be read.
Jenna Jaxon Romance--because passion is timeless. 
Sounds as if he quite enjoyed her impromptu performance, but I doubt he believed a word of it.
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You know, I think he did enjoy it. 🙂
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I don’t think he believes her, but it sure sounded good.
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It did, didn’t it? And she’s very good at telling it. But now, he’s not buying her spy routine. 🙂
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I really enjoyed this, and I love the last sentence especially. It looks like she’s not going to have an easy time convincing him though.
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Not at all, Hywela. Makes the rest of the chapter might fun. 🙂
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And I have a feeling he doesn’t entirely believe her either, although she certainly delivered her tale well! Loved the snippet…
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Oh, no. He believes she’s something else entirely. 🙂 Thank you, Veronica!
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Well, she has the vantage point of history on her side, but he’s clearly not convinced. Love his reaction.
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Yes, she knows the history, but she knows a lot more than she should and Ian does pick up on it. And so the storytelling continues. 🙂
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Great snippet. I just love your heroine. She has an answer for everything.
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LOL! She sure does, Chris. And ready to manufacture one if she doesn’t!
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Great snippet!
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Thanks, Amy!
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Sounds plausible. The art of hiding while standing out, a special skill indeed.
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Well, she certainly thinks its a plausible explanation. Ian, maybe, not so much. LOL
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I get a very strong sense that her story is not convincing him in the slightest 🙂
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Me too. 🙂 I wonder what she’ll try next?
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Bravo, indeed!! A very pretty tale he doesn’t believe in the least.
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No, Nancy, not in the least. LOL But he does believe something else. 🙂
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Oh, I’m not sure he believes her at all. Though, she does tell a good story. I’m curious to know what happens next. Great snippet!
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No, he really doesn’t believe her, Jessica. And what he does believe is also pretty funny. 🙂
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What a fantastic snippet. Her ability to spin a convincing story is outstanding and his response is hysterical. Great job, Jenna!
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Thank you, Jess! And she’s not at all happy with his response! LOL
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She tells a very creative, convincing story! It takes a true storyteller to pull together a tall tale like that so spur of the moment.
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She’s in theatre, so the storytelling comes easier to her. But she truly is winging it! 🙂
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