A Taste Of Dialog

I am pleased to say that things are shaping up great for my upcoming blog interview series, Observing & Writing Dialog! I’ll be posting the first interview next Monday (2/3/14) and will continue to share author interviews each Monday for the next few months. So far, I have eight authors lined up to chat with us about dialog…and I’m looking for more!

Are you an author? Are you interested in participating in a written interview for my blog? Send me an e-mail at marcylpeska@gmail.com and let’s chat about scheduling and other details.

At the end of each author interview, I’m asking authors to share a dialog gem from their own writing. To whet your appetite, here’s one of my favorite bits of dialog from Magic Within, Book 2 of my Magic All Around series.

Penny ushered Grizz further into the room. “Can I offer you a cup of coffee or a slice of sourdough bread?” He chewed his whiskers before shaking his head.

“Nope. Can’t stay, much as I’d like to. The thing is, Penny, we need some help. Wife says we need a pet sitter.” Grizz scratched his neck through the beard, his hand almost disappearing into the bristling black mass.

Roanan stood next to Penny, one arm settling around her waist. “What’s this about? You’ve never had any pets.”

Grizz shook his head. “I’m telling you, Roanan, forty-eight years of marriage and I still don’t understand the woman. Crack of dawn, she woke me up to tell me she had a dream. Said we need two goldfish and a pet-sitter for ’em. I sure don’t understand it, but I damn well know better than to question it.”

“Well, it’s no problem for us at all,” Penny said. “I’m more than happy to stop in every day and feed the goldfish.”

“Mighty kind of you, Penny, but that just won’t do. Missus said we need a live-in pet sitter. Said I should offer the job to the young lady.” Grizz met my eyes, and I felt heat rise in my cheeks as everyone turned my way. “Said you could use our car, too, since yours burned up.”

I was starting to get the lay of the land, here. This was a contrived house-sitting gig arranged to help me out. Part of me wanted to leap at the opportunity, but another part of me was embarrassed to accept the generosity.

“That’s, um, such a nice offer. I don’t know anything about taking care of fish, though.” I shrugged, and my cheeks got hotter.

Grizz eyed me steadily. “You seem sharp enough, you’ll pick it up. Missus said she’d write out instructions for you and to come over any time tomorrow. Penny knows the house, she’ll show you around.” He turned away and headed for the door, then turned back. “Don’t turn the heat too high and run me out of diesel, hear? Your dog ain’t got much hair on her. You might want to buy her a sweater if we get another cold snap.”

Grizz opened the front door then turned back again. “Missus said to tell you to expect a passel of company. Said they could crash at our place, too. All of ’em. As long as you’re there, young lady, to oversee things.” Grizz grabbed a handful of his beard and gave it a tug, nodded once at Penny and Roanan, and walked out the door.

I hope you enjoyed this taste of my writing and I hope you'll be back to read a lot more dialog snippets and find out what other authors have to say about Observing & Writing Dialog!