Sunday, August 10, 2014

Cow Dogs and M&M’s #WeWriWa 8/10/14



Writers know that the weekends are always great. Not only do they finally have a little extra time to work on projects, but it’s also a great chance to connect with other writers through the Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop. Anyone is welcome to participate, no matter what genre they write. During the course of the blog hop, you’ll get to read all sorts of published and unpublished 8 sentence snippets, many of which are really, really good.

My contribution comes from my YA historical novel, Rendezvous with Destiny, which is set during 1941. This snippet picks up where my previous post left off. Thanks for taking the time to visit!

Rosika quirked a brow.
            “Becca, the best cow dog in the world.”
            Rosika twisted and looked through the rear window at the dog who wagged her stump tail. “It’s true, you do have a great dog. What else?”
He dug into his pocket and removed a cardboard tube. He twisted his wrist and the tube’s contents rattled. “M&M’s.”

One of the more entertaining things I learned during the course of my research was that, while the candies had been around for a while, Mars didn’t make them available to the general public until 1941. Public sales of the chocolate treat didn’t last long. When the United States entered WWII, the company made the decision to send all of the candy they produced to the troops.

19 comments:

  1. A great dog and M & Ms to boot.
    Who could as for anything more?
    Nice 8!

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  2. Fun snippet. I'm already interested in the dynamic between these three characters.

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  3. My first reaction was that the M&M's were an anachronism. How fascinating to see your research! When did they start selling them again? Not right after the war. And is the cattle dog similar to the Australian Cattle Dog of today?

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  4. This dog is a cross between corgi and Aussie, which would be high strung but good with cattle. As for the sale of M&M's, as far as I can tell, they went back on sale sometime in 1946. During the war, the company produced 600,000 lbs weekly for the troops.

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  5. Jess, what a charming brief eight. You summed it up so well.

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    1. Thank you! The brevity surprised me. I think it might be the shortest 8 sentences I've ever written.

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  6. Love the 1941 as a setting. And what a fun little historical fact! :)

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  7. I love the scene this paints. What could go wrong with chocolate and a dog?

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    1. It's a combination that's always worked for me :)

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  8. Cute dog and chocolate - he gets the points for sure! A fun excerpt, love the time period (and your research). Great 8!

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  9. Awesome snippet. Cute dogs, chocolate, and a connection between two interesting characters. Love it. And the fun historical fact at the end of your post was really cool, too. Great 8!

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  10. M&Ms?? I am so there :D

    Lovely excerpt, Jess. Your characters are always engaging and so true-to-life. How do you find time to read for fun and do research and write and do all that amazing stuff on the farm?? I'm jealous of your time-management skills!

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    1. LOL, Don't be jealous, you make my time management skills sound much better than they actually are!

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  11. M&Ms to a potluck? Genius! I bet they were a big hit. :-) You're really writing David into a likeable character! Nicely done :-)

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    1. David has been fun, but Rosika is giving me fits. Any scene that's from her point of view takes forever to write.

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  12. Such a cute scene you set...and M & M's, David's my hero : )

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  13. Great snippet and fascinating detail with the M&M's.

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  14. Love the fact that you researched this so thoroughly to paint such a realistic scene. ...and I do love M&Ms

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