The Girl Who Would Be King

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The Girl Who Would Be King – Chapters 9 & 10

July 3, 2012 in blogging, bonnie braverman, books, lola lefever, The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel, writing | 2 comments

It’s Tuesday…you know what that means…NEW chapters for THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING.

You can download the new Chapters here: TGWWBK Chapters 9 & 10

Or just read below.

If you want the entire story thus far, head over to THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING page and download or read directly from the site.

Sharon is becoming a legitimate problem for me.

Until recently she’s been a thorn in just about everyone’s side, but she’s provided an interesting opportunity for me to do good.  Returning thrown necklaces and other bits of stolen property, stopping fights before they begin, stupid little stuff.  Little stuff that makes people happy and lets me see my mother in my dreams.  The dreams, even if they are filled with confusion and violence and strange warnings that I don’t understand, are still time with my mother.  Until Sharon I’ve been used to people somehow intrinsically understanding to leave me alone, like animals in the wild that know to only hunt the weak or injured.  I think I give off something that keeps most people away from me.  Like potential adoptive parents.  It never mattered much to me because I was always waiting for Jasper to come and get me.  Of course when I was twelve, he was eighteen and he didn’t come for me, so I gave up quickly on the fantasy.  I really had tricked myself at first into believing he would come, but when he didn’t, I unpacked my bag again and went back to my regular life.  It was foolish to think he would come, considering I blamed myself for the car accident; it was likely he blamed me for it too.  But I guess I had hoped that he would come anyway.

When Rachael shows up at dinner with a broken wrist I know that Sharon has drawn an invisible line in the sand, and it’s up to me to step up to it.  I begin tailing Rachael everywhere she goes, becoming her self-appointed guardian.  I see her injury and chide myself for sitting idly by for too long; it’s time to stand up, if not for myself, then for someone else.

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30 Days of Superheroines – Day 04!

June 28, 2012 in 30 days of superheroines, superheroes, The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel, x-men | 3 comments

In honor of Bonnie and Lola and THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING we continue our 30 Days of Superheroines!

So today is my birthday…which made me think I should do Rogue (a favorite)…but I have SO MANY images of Rogue that that post is going to take FOREVER.

So instead you get Psylocke, who I don’t have a ton of great ones of, but the few I have are really fantastic. Plus, Psylocke always gets screwed, the art of her is always SUPER over-sexualized…so this is a nice change of pace here.

UPDATE: I had WAY more of these than I thought I did!

By Trozos

Via Trozos

By Ross Campbell

Via Mooncalfe on Deviant Art

Fun story, Ross never used to draw Psylocke, and then he and I got talking about a project we wanted to do together that we loving refer to as “Mad Max X-Men” and I told him we definitely needed Psylocke for my plan…so he drew this up. I think he likes her more now. :)

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The Girl Who Would Be King – Chapters 5 & 6

June 26, 2012 in bonnie braverman, books, lola lefever, superheroes, The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel | 2 comments

Hey, kids! It’s Tuesday, that means another installment of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING.

You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 5&6 here.

You can download The Girl Who Would Be King Chapters 1 – 6.

Or if you want to read on the blog you can read 5 & 6 below, or hit THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING tab at the top of the page to read the entire piece on the blog.

And you’ve all checked out the Kickstarter – RIGHT?!  :)

While visions of powerful superheroes dance around behind my eyes, and my imagination flies out of the room and around the whole world, yelling in the backyard interrupts my thoughts.

At first it sounds only like teenagers chatting but it ramps up suddenly and something about the tone sends a chill down my spine.  I roll off my bunk and lean against the open window nearby.  The only staff is far away, out of hearing distance, and a small cluster of girls are near the house, shouting.  At first their cluster is so tight I can’t tell who is who, or what’s happening, but then a dark haired girl named Jenny comes flying backwards out of the circle and lands on her back roughly.  The group gets eerily quiet and two girls go to her aid, but she brushes them off and stands up on her own.  Her defiance ignites a spark of admiration and respect in me.  She walks back to the group, and two of her other friends are still standing there, mouths open, stunned.

I think briefly of going down, but am intrigued and even impressed by Jenny’s backbone.  Sharon looks to be the one that pushed her.  She’s new and has been making trouble since day one, but I’m glad to see someone’s over it and not afraid to stand up to her.  Unfortunately Jenny is rewarded for her bravery with a slap.

The slap shocks even me.

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The Girl Who Would Be King – Chapters 3 & 4

June 21, 2012 in bonnie braverman, books, lola lefever, superheroes, The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel, writing | 8 comments

Welcome back to THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING!

If it’s your first time here – the short of is that I’m giving away “Part 1” of my novel THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING for free on my blog for the duration of my Kickstarter (which begins on Monday June 25th). New chapters go up every Tuesday and Thursday for the next five weeks. You can read a bit more about the project here and here if you’re so inclined.

For those of you returning – thanks for all the support – you’ve been wonderful and I’m so glad that so many of you are enjoying the book so far.  Today you’re getting Chapters 3 & 4.

You can download TGWWBK Chapters 3 & 4.

And if you’d like to download the entire story thus far – TGWWBK Chapters 1-4

You can also read below.

Enjoy!

I run.

I run anytime the world will let me.  If I had my choice I’d just run through everything I suppose.

I run as close to the fence at the home as I can.  Over the years I’ve worn a pretty impressive path into the yard.  Until two months ago I’d actually taken pride in it, my running path.  I never realized there was anything weird about running by a fence, the same path, the same way, day in and day out.

But then we took a trip to the zoo.

The tigers had this beautiful enclosure, there was even a little lake, and I was thinking it looked pretty nice, considering, until I noticed one tiger in the enclosure, just walking very fast back and forth through the space.  After watching him for a minute I realized he wasn’t just walking, but pacing the exact same route over and over again.

He’d worn a similar path into his cage that I’ve worn into mine, and suddenly I was a bit sad for both of us, but I also knew I wasn’t going to do anything about it.  There’s something about following rules that’s very important to me.  I can’t really understand it yet, but I hope I will someday.

Even though I know in some way my running is like that tiger and his pacing, it’s still good.  It makes me feel calm.  And it keeps the loneliness away.  Maybe it’s the same for that tiger.  I mean, it’s lonely to run. It’s a singular activity, but it’s supposed to be that way I think.  And I don’t know, the way I see it, there’s nothing wrong with feeling lonely when you’re supposed to be alone.  It’s when you’re standing in a crowded room and feel lonely that it’s really sad I think.  Sometimes feeling like that makes me want to tear off all my skin.

So yeah.  I run as much as I can.  And running neurotically by a fence all the time hasn’t made me so popular with the other girls, but it was kind of a lost cause with them anyway.  They’re never mean to me, rather they just don’t seem to understand me, and they just seem to kind of wish I’d stay away from them, so I do.  It doesn’t help that I don’t speak.  The not speaking thing really seems to bother them.  I can’t blame them.  It would probably bother me too.  I’ve tried to find things to say sometimes, but nothing comes.  It’s just empty inside.  Hollow where the words should be.  It’s felt like that every day since the accident.

That’s really how it all started.  I just didn’t want to say anything for a while after the crash, and then I couldn’t think of anything to say, and then I just forgot that I was supposed to be thinking of something to say.  And so I was quiet all the time.  But that’s yet another reason for running I guess.  Nobody ever expects you to speak when you’re running.

A big splashy drop of rain hits me on my wrist and I look up at the sky.  It’s crazy cloudy out of nowhere.  The sky looks ready to let loose on me.  More cold drops hit my skull and seep into my hair.  Running in the rain is even better than regular running, but I know I’ll be called in immediately.  Sure enough, before I can even finish the thought I look up and see Alice motioning me in from the front door.  It’s good that it’s Alice though, because she likes me more than most, and she almost always lets me get another lap in.  I hold up my pointer finger as if to indicate ‘just one more lap’.  Even from this distance I can see her roll her eyes, but she smiles too.  She yells out across the quad. “Okay, but hurry up!” before going back inside.  I smile up at the sky and stretch out my legs, really laying into my long strides.  I go faster, but never too fast.  Never faster than I’ve ever seen anybody else run. Some of those runners in the Olympics I’ve seen on TV run really fast.

I can run much faster than any of them.

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The Girl Who Would Be King – Chapters 1 & 2

June 19, 2012 in kickstarter, superheroes, The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel, writing | 22 comments

Bonnie & Lola.  Illustration by Stephanie Hans

Here we go!

Next Monday, June 25th I will be launching a Kickstarter for my book THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING (which I talk about a little bit more here). Part of the Kickstarter will be giving away “Part I: break away” in full online by releasing pages here on 1979 Semi-Finalist every Tuesday and Thursday for the duration of the Kickstarter.

As today is Tuesday, we’re starting with the first two chapters of the book. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for a new piece, and click on the THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING tab above to go to a dedicated page with the all the updates compiled in one location. The text is both below in blog format for easy reading, or available in a downloadable PDF at the link so you can take it with you on your devices.

Of course if you like what you read, please feel free to sound off in the comments. If you don’t…um…go away? Just kidding, you can let me know if you don’t like it either, but productive comments are preferred and the “comments policy” will be in full effect as usual.

Download the PDF here:  The Girl Who Would Be King – Chapters 1 & 2

Berks County, Pennsylvania

The car hits the tree going at least forty miles an hour and I go through the windshield like I’ve been tossed gently by a hurricane.  I land thirty yards away from the car on some bright green grass, barely missing the tree directly in my path.

Everything is black for a while.

When I open my eyes again all I see are these vivid green leaves floating casually above me, and I wonder for just a moment about their casual ways, trying to understand why certain parts of life just don’t care about the other parts.

And then the smell hits me.

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