Hey everyone. It’s here! My book, The Silence in the Sound, is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all of your favorite booksellers. If you have a local bookstore or library, you can ask them to get it (I’d love you for that). I’m out of my mind and have received amazing reviews so far. What counts is you, the readers. I am so appreciative of you all. So… place your order today. Presale is so crucial for authors because when publishing day arrives, the numbers come in all at once and can launch a best seller. Reviews are so critical too. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it. Thank you all, and here is another excerpt from The Silence in the Sound.
CHAPTER 4
January 1, 2003
On the coldest night of the year, somehow I felt warm.
Everything was quiet except the waves lapping against the shore. I lit a cigarette from the pack I’d found the day before in a coat pocket and inhaled, cringing at the stale taste. I’d moved to the island this time last winter, nearly ten years after visiting. Occasionally, it still surprised me that I lived here, and sometimes I felt worlds away from anything else. Mostly, I liked that, but tonight I struggled with being alone. I inhaled again, watching the smoke escape into the cold island air. I shivered, hugging my knees, pulling them up on the chair. My phone rang, startling me. I’d forgotten it was on my lap.
“Hello.” I barely got the word out before Bobbie interrupted me.
“So, are you going out?” She laughed in her familiar sounds-funnier-than-it-is way. I had left her a message earlier asking her advice about going out alone on New Year’s Eve.
“I’m in crisis,” I said, taking another puff off the cigarette, clutching my legs close to my chest.
“Just go, George,” she said. “I went out alone all the time when no one was around there.”
I could tell she had already started celebrating.
“Well, you’re cooler than me, I guess.” I laughed. “And you’ve never lived here in the winter, so spare me.” I stubbed out the cigarette and headed into the cottage. Hobo stared up at me, tail wagging, head tilted.
“Go to Seasons and hug an Edgartown boy.” Bobbie giggled, knowing the bar would have all the island people in it tonight and not just the usual Oak Bluffs crowd.
We didn’t like Edgartown boys, Bobbie and I had decided; they were stuffy and snobby. It was Oak Bluffs guys for us, we said, toasting our beers after venturing to the Wharf, a bar in Edgartown. We’d wanted to try something new, needing a change of scenery, but we didn’t get the attention we felt we deserved. It wasn’t like Oak Bluffs, where everyone knew us.
“I don’t know,” I said, looking around the cottage at my half-unpacked boxes. I had a lot done, but I still had so much more to do before starting full-time with Mr. S. in a few days, and I began to wonder if I’d made a mistake. “Maybe I’ll stay in and finish in here. Happy freaking New Year.” I sighed loudly.
“Who cares about that?” Bobbie went on. “You have all winter.”
“Wish you were here and not in the awful city.” I walked into the bathroom, looking in the mirror to check if I was presentable enough to venture outdoors.
“Me too, but unlike you, I still like the city, although I’d rather be on the island even though it’s a ghost town now. Now go find a little Vineyard summer fun tonight.” She laughed and sang along to a song in the background.
When I moved here, I was sure I’d made a mistake not long afterward. Then I met Bobbie, a traveling nurse who worked at the hospital in the summers. She also worked a few weekends in the winter, coming up from Boston, and we hit it off right away. One night, sitting at the nurse’s station, I told her I was thinking of leaving.
“No, you’re not.” She glared at me.
She begged me to hang tight for the warmer weather, which I did reluctantly. Then summer came, and I got more than I ever bargained for.
