Tomato and Carrot (a novel)

Update 05112010 After reading Chuck Wendig’s article “The End of The Excerpt”[1] where he admonishes young authors to “stop posting your crappy crayon drawings on the refrigerator,” I have pulled the chapters that were here in favour of posting the entire novel only when it is completed and the text is properly revised. Hopefully, this will lead to a better novel and a more valuable experience for the reader once I launch my official website.

We are told, that in the old days, writers would serialise their novels in journals and other periodicals. In fact, there was no shortage of places for an author to publish his new work prior to it being released in full. Today, the internet performs that same role. I will take advantage of this fact by posting one chapter of my draft novel every two weeks.

The title of the novel is Tomato and Carrot. It is a story about a young man named Luca, the last child in a family of three, and how he deals with the unexpected death of his mother. He returns home to find that his Father had mistreated his mother and had numerous affairs. Luca’s two siblings disown him because he failed to take care of his mother. They, in fact, blame him for her ill health and eventual death. To compound his problems, he has to deal with his numerous personal and professional failures as well as his complete lack of prospects. He finds hope, however, in a childhood friend, Betty with whom he attempts to build a relationship and anchor himself as he struggles to reconcile this new reality with the memories and lessons of his childhood.

(This and subsequent chapters are drafts and are therefore subject to a large number of revisions in future.)

TOC

Chapter 1.

Part 1. The Missed Funeral

Part 2. Returning Home

Part 3. Facing The Family (then)

Footnotes

[1] Chuck Wendig, “The End of the Excerpt”.