When I started writing A Life Unplanned, I had already begun writing The White Enchantress. My main character, Sadie, works for a publisher where she gets to read all day. I thought it’d be so cool to have her read a rough draft of my next book. So in chapter 3, I included a little piece of The White Enchantress. Read the new version of the excerpt below.
I close my eyes and count to ten, calming my irrational mind and the anxiety within. When I open them, my mind is quiet again, and I begin the labor of unbuttoning my wedding gown.
But after a few minutes and only a couple buttons undone, the whispers start up again. I can’t make out their words, but the voices sound strangely familiar. It’s as if they are trying to speak to me, calling out. Somehow, I know I am meant to follow them. I grab my bag and carefully make my way farther into the marshy woods, listening for the whispers.
As I walk, I think of Merida, following those mysterious will-o’-the-wisps to find her destiny. Is it crazy to think that something like that could be real? That these voices will lead me to where I am supposed to be? After all, the world is a big mysterious place, and England is full of legends and lore that must have come from a genuine source.
But after a while, I feel like giving up. I don’t know how long I have been walking. And then it hits me; I haven’t been keeping track of where I had been walking from. Did I walk straight? Had I made any turns? If I use the GPS on my phone, I’d be back at the car in no time. This isn’t so bad. I can’t be too far in.
I quickly regret this thought as mist surrounds me, coming out of nowhere. The whispers start up again, much louder than before. Panic slowly pulses its way through my body, up from the pit of my stomach. I feel sick and dizzy, unable to see straight in front of me.
Then silence. All around me, a terrifying quietness takes hold of the woods. I am even unable to hear my own panicked breaths. Spinning around, I try to find an opening in the thick mists, but there is nothing, only a blank whiteness.
Then I hear a voice, loud and clear, saying my name. Josh, he is looking for me. It sounds like he is just behind a group of trees standing to the left of me. I can’t detect any movement beyond them though.
Taking a deep breath, I prepare to shout back at him, but no noise escapes my mouth. My scream turns to bubbles right in front of my eyes. For a split second, I’m confused. How did my voice turn to bubbles?
Water. Somehow the mist turned into water. Looking all around me, I see nothing but water. No surface, no incline in the ground to lead me to shore. My mind is racing, trying to think of a way out of this crazy nightmare. I attempt to move, but my dress is stuck under a large rock. Now, how the fuck did that happen? Pulling at my dress does absolutely nothing.
Then a glint of metal appears to my right. I bend to pick it up, hoping it’ll be sharp enough to cut myself free. Before I can even see what I picked up, I’m surrounded by a warm white light. The light shoots me out of the water, hovering above a large lake. I stay conscious long enough to see a dense forest surrounding me.
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