My Alpha Male post is here.
This week for Six Sentence Sunday, I’m taking a Halloween-inspired detour and sharing something from a hiatused WIP called Green Sunrise, set primarily in Hudson Falls, NY, between 1974-77. It’s the book between Little Ragdoll and Justine Grown Up, and is sort of intended as a transitional point in my contemporary historical family saga.
It’s Halloween 1974, and 22-year-old Ernestine and her best friend Deirdre have insisted on dressing up and going trick-or-treating when they accompany their sisters, nieces, and nephews around the neighborhood. Now they’ve arrived back at home for some grownup Halloween fun.
Ernestine is dressed as a sexy saloon girl. The first paragraph demonstrates how sometimes it’s possible and grammatically correct to use past tense in an otherwise present tense story.
***
A few people looked askance at Ernestine’s costume, a purple corset attached to a very short skirt with black fringes, fishnets, her one pair of heels, black lace glovelets, a dark pink leg garter, and a big purple feather on her head, but no one held back candy from someone obviously adult enough to be parading around in such a sexual costume. At least Deirdre resisted the urge to make her female pirate costume into something sexy or revealing.
“Next year I think I’m gonna be a sexy French maid,” Ernestine announces as she kicks off her heels the minute they get inside. “I think it’s a blessing in disguise that we were cheated outta proper Halloweens growing up, ‘cause when you’re a kid, you can’t get away with wearing fun costumes like this. Plus they hadn’t had women’s lib and the sexual revolution yet when we were kids. I probably woulda gotten stoned for wearing something like this out in public.”
I like the way Ernestine thinks
Fun six!
Halloween can be fun no matter what age.
Nice six!
Oooh she sounds so sassy! Very nice six.
The ‘seventies’ were an interesting time . . . And this is a fun look into the characters!
Sounds like they had a great time
I love the 1970s! I like how Ernestine is already thinking about next year’s Halloween! She sounds like a hoot.
I believe getting stoned meant something else in the 60s. Ernestine sounds like a fun kind of girl.
Very descriptive – I could definitely “see” those costumes! Excellent excerpt!
Hehehehe Ernestine sounds like an interesting character.
I love Ernestine’s voice! I can so picture her in this costume.
Fun 6!
Vivid six – so easy to “see” this one!