Writer's Voice Contest Post

Welcome Writer's Voice hosts to my blog. I'm excited to be selected to participate.  My Twitter is @Laycrew 

Thanks for reading!
Kimberly Lay

GYPSY GIRL Query:

Sera’s high school experience complete with mean girls, cyber bullying, and her first love triangle amid fair rides, fried foods, and horses, nearly costs Sera and her family everything.

Sixteen-year-old, home schooled, Seraphina wants to hang out with someone that's not her little sister when she’s not performing in her family’s gypsy-storytelling show at the fair. Her wish is granted when she bumps into Noah, and he can’t take his eyes off her. But he’s there to show horses and Sera’s terrified of them. 

Sera's horse terror isn't her only problem. Her presence instantly creates friction with the five small town, horse-loving teens. Noah’s flirty best friend, Josh says he’s the short, pasty, and average sidekick, but he’s fun, protective, and just as endearing as adorably kind and patient, Noah. The Dark One, Kelly is the trouble-making ring leader of the three girls, preying on Sera’s horse fears, and posting it all over Instagram and Facebook. While the boys help Sera conquer her fear of horses, and help fix the messes their friends have made, Sera can’t help falling for both boys. Kissing Noah and Josh creates a rift in their friendship. Kelly takes tormenting Sera too far when jealousy over Noah costs her family Peppy the capuchin monkey, threatens to close the show, and may end their gypsy way of life. To polish off a week full of drama, Sera also must make a difficult choice before the fair comes to an end, and hearts will be broken.

GYPSY GIRL is a 68,000 word YA contemporary novel. 

First 250:

THURSDAY

The view from the castle and pirate ship themed roof was the best part of Sera’s traveling home. Once they parked and settled in, she could sit up top to enjoy some quiet time away from her family, and the zoo stink from their pets. Sera loved watching the carnival rides in motion on the other side of the fairgrounds as they finished their final light check.

The only people on the grounds were vendors, the kids with animals, and carnies. No pungent scents floating in the air of fried foods mixing with beer and the sour smells of overflowing garbage. No screaming from the rides or bumbling drunks, just the peaceful light show.

Before the fair opened was when Sera enjoyed it most. However, if she could make a few friends while they were there, the fair would be so much more fun.

Sera slightly closed her eyes. The Ferris wheel lights blurred, blending together.

“Seraphina?” She heard her mom’s muffled call coming from inside.

Sera squinted more. The blended lights turned into swirling rainbows. Oh, how she loved rainbows.

“Seraphina, did you feed Millie?” her mother yelled from the grass below.

“Yes, and she almost bit my finger off.” Sera rubbed where it still hurt from the macaw. There were some days she wished they had normal pets and a normal life.

“She’s always testy after a long day spent on the road. Why don’t you let her out?” Her mom was also testy after a long day on the road.
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The Story Behind the Story

The contest is wrapping up and there have been a few things I've wanted to share just for fun since I plan on leaving this post up. I hoped to get in the contest but there is stiff competition for a lighthearted story like mine.  But I wanted to share some things that inspired Gypsy Girl. 
I went to the fair last summer and saw this fancy camper thing. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen and I walked away thinking about how cool it would be to write a story about a modern day gypsy girl that lived in something like that. 

 A view of the roof. Sera's traveling home is a bit longer in the middle than this.

This is the stage view but in Sera's home it is more colorful inside, old gypsy style. Sera and her sister's room is one turret. Her mom's is the other.

Another thing from my past I used in this story was when I was 15, I was in 4-H learning all about horses, and that summer I camped at the fair to show my friend's horse. That was the most fun. The independence, roaming the fair when we weren't showing horses, and a few little crisis moments my friend and I had to deal with when we were on our own. Noah and Josh are more like my friend and I. Noah loves horses more than anything, until he met Sera. Josh is Noah's best friend and he's learned about horses hanging out with his friend, kind of like me all those years ago. 

Truthfully, the story was a blast to write. Fair fun, flirting, some typical mean kid stuff, horses, and in the end this bunch of kids are learning how to navigate the world they are in, making mistakes, and figuring out how to make things right.

For some reason I was really drawn to Hunter Hayes while writing. I'm not a country fan but his music totally fits this story. Besides, he is adorable. Kacey Musgraves 'Follow your Arrow' was perfect for Sera and Josh as they figure out how to identify themselves apart from their unconventional mothers. Sera's mom looks gypsy all the time with dreads and the whole gypsy outfit 24/7 and it comes out later that Josh's mom is a lesbian.  Sera is quirky in her own right though. She has chalked rainbow colors in her hair, loves cartoon t-shirts when she's not in gypsy costume, and she adores shoes. Combat books, cartoon and glittery converse, anything fun and she doesn't care how it looks with what she's wearing. 

One thing I've written into 3 of my novels are some really fantastic young men. I don't know if it is because I have no boys but the 4 boys in all these novels just tug at my heart. Probably because I tend to break their hearts with the girls that they fall for. Where were these guys when I was a teen? I did know some and I broke one boy's heart much like what happens in Gypsy Girl. He was the nicest boy and I realized when I finished this novel and thought back to some love triangles I was in(there was more than one, they do happen in real life), Noah and Josh have some of his great traits. Sadly, I never gave that boy a chance. 

I really enjoy creating characters and they do tend to stick with me long after I finish writing these stories. That has been the most fun for me when it comes to writing. 

Spring has Sprung

This is the time of year that nearly drowns me completely. December has nothing on April. Kid chasing galore.

Hannah was allowed to do track this year while Kylee and Autumn played high school varsity tennis. It was going well until they bumped Autumn to JV for the last few games. They will do that for the low varsity kids. But Autumn is not driving and they don't bus to away games. The last 3 matches were home for varsity. Where's the aggravated smiley? We found out she was bumped to the JV game the night before and it was on a day I was already obligated to car-pool Hannah and another boy to honor band. Grrr. So just this one day after a month of kid chasing- Went and picked up boy, drove to Elementary school to pick up Hannah from track, drove to jr high on north end of town. Drove to girls' high school. Kylee started warming up. Varsity tennis takes forever BTW. Drove to high school away game on west side of town. Thankfully friend carpooled the honor band kids back home. Watched Autumn play. Picked up Autumn and her friend, brought them back to their high school again. Kylee was still playing. An hour and half and four schools later, I did my supermom thing and still watched both girls play. All I can say is I'm so glad there are no boys playing baseball. That is entirely a commitment I would not embrace.

Our Alaska humanitarian project goes on. I sent Easter and clothes to six Yupik children. I'm still gathering things. It is costly to send stuff up there though.

Lee Joe is headed back up to Scammon Bay anytime now. Another small Yupik village right next to the Bering Sea. We are making plans to visit him this summer. What would be the coolest is to also meet with some of the Iditarod mushers, visit with family, drive down the Kenai peninsula with the kids, and maybe meet with my 6th grade best friend who I haven't seen in person in ohhhhh almost 30 years. Okay, that sounds gross. How did I get that old?  

Life, giving to Alaska, and all that...

This blog has been in a lull again. Much has happened. And if you ever wonder why I don't post more pictures-sometimes blogger and my computer don't get along. I'll post more pictures later when they decide to cooperate.

Daughter #2 is married. That should have been a complete blog post of its own. It was a beautiful wedding. Everything was amazing. I loved the place where we had the wedding and reception. Even though all this went so well, I'm still not a happy party planner. But Kelsea loved it. Her husband is the best. We love him so much. Our 2 son-in-laws are just adored. I just wonder how I will manage the other 3 when the first 2 have been so hard for me.

The most popular blog post on my blog at the moment is the one I posted about when my guinea pigs that had mites. There is some sad news. Twix, the middle brown colored one, died this winter. He fell ill with pneumonia and we didn't catch it in time. The other two are well but not having the 3 little piggies is kind of sad.

As far as writing, well I'm writing lots, querying agents, and getting some close calls but nothing as of yet. It is a difficult and discouraging process and kind of deflates my creative energy. But I'm still weighing a few things, pulling myself up by the bootstraps as I keep plugging along.

The main thing I wanted to blog about was the hubby's experience in Alaska. He worked clear until mid-November and grew the love the Yupik people. There were a few Aleuts and Athabascans he got to know as well. He tried new foods-seal, walrus, and whale. He disliked the whale the most. We have a freezer full of moose we are still trying to figure how to cook with since some of it is so gamey flavored and us city people aren't use to that.

My husband has an enormous heart and is so giving and saw many of the needs in the remote Alaskan village. There are no thrift stores or dollar stores there. The whole reason he was there was to stimulate the economy teaching all he could job skills they could use to better their lives. What's hard is once summer is over and the snow flies, there is very little people can do there. They hunker down for winter and visit those they can. So there is great need especially in winter.

We have had a garage full of stuff I'm ashamed to admit. But now, I know why much of that stuff might have been sitting there for so long. My husband wanted to help. Of course I here the stories of need and I was right with him. I guess in the end it was me that did the work. He mailed the boxes.

I'm an excellent clearance shopper. Even though my husband was facing unemployment once he came home, I still went out and shopped trying to find socks and underwear for kids. My timing was a little off though. I found several packages of large girls socks and a big bunch of jrs socks. I bought some small stocking stuffer things for boys and girls, some dollar packages of perfumes and colognes for teens. I had some stockings in our garage sale stuff and I gathered all the pants, long sleeved shirts, and coats I could find and stuffed the boxes full. I also had a box full of stuffed animals. I packed 5 good sized boxes and it cost us $180 to send them and we sent them all on the same day. They were supposed to show up on Dec 23rd. I knew they wouldn't make it on time for Christmas but I sure hoped they would.

One box showed up a day or two after Christmas. That one was full of girls coats. I have all girls and I had planned on donating them to the coat drives here in town for several winters. I kind of missed getting them out the door. Finally these coats made it out of my house.

We shipped the boxes to one family in Pilot Station so they could give to things out to those who needed it. This family already has 6 kids of their own and took in 4 more whose parents weren't able to care for them. Likely due to alcoholism which runs rampant there. I'm not stereotyping. I know you here that, but it is the truth. But the children are shared with family members usually so they are cared for. So anyway, the first story we heard was how a widow with 3 daughters got 3 of the coats from the box.

Three of the boxes showed up on New Years Eve. My Christmas gifts I sent didn't get there in time but it didn't matter. The woman that recieved the boxes filled the stockings and took them to some of the children that didn't have any Christmas at all. That is when my heart breaks and yet is filled since they did in fact get something. All the stuffed animals found a home. The socks I sent, the ones where I couldn't find much in any other size, went to 2 girls. A 12 year old and 16 year old that had no socks at all. No socks in Alaska. Can you imagine? Then that is where I know why I found the socks I did. Those girls also didn't have a Christmas at all and got a stocking.

We got stories tricking in on where the clothes were going and time and time again they went to people in great need. The last box didn't get there until the middle of January. We had to call a couple of the post offices from Bethel to Pilot Station to find out what happened to that box. That is how the mail works there. The weather is bad, mail doesn't fly. Sometimes things sit a long time. But we had request for kid gloves. There was a kiddo that needed a pair. The man my husband was talking to was going to buy him a pair. But they were $50. When he decided to buy them anyway later, they were gone.  I asked people if they could help, if they had any. I didn't get any response so I found some new ones. Some people from church had given me money to mail stuff. So I filled a package with gloves and mailed it off as soon as I could. I probably spent $50 buying about 6 or 7 pairs of gloves along with the cost of shipping them. That small package made it there before our lost 5th box.

I didn't have many boy clothes. We did get some after an event where our church had a community giving event for Christmas. We did give to that too by the way. Once everyone had finished shopping, we were able to get what boy clothes were left to shop to ship to Alaska. SInce money has been tight, I haven't been able to mail the big boxes as soon as I would have liked to. But a friend came through and gave us more money for shipping. So I sent a couple more boxes with the boy stuff and infant stuff. They are finding homes for everything we have sent.
My husband asks what they need, we had a request for boys shoes, I spent about $17.00 for a couple of pairs at Target and mailed them off with a few other pairs of used shoes I was able to collect.

Now I am on a hunt for boys pants and household kitchen items for a young mom with 3 kids who is starting over. She has nothing. There are no resources there and we are doing what we can. But it means so much to us to help them since their resources are so limited. Our resources are limited but I feel we have so much compared.

The hubby will be working in Scammon Bay this summer. I'm sure it will be another village he will want to adopt. There is a possibility we may go and visit for a couple weeks to have the experience ourselves. I'm brainstorming how I want to make it into something bigger so we can share our experiences with others. With my love of writing and my curiosity of life in the Alaskan bush, I think there might something we can do. It would all be to help all of them in the end.