Tuesday Intro/Teaser

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea every Tuesday. To participate share the opening paragraph or two of a book you've decided to read based on that paragraph. Please feel free to join in, First Chapter~First Paragraph~Tuesday Intros.

Today I am featuring a hometown author.

I am hanging by my fingers out of an open window in the bedroom I once shared with my little brother. There is a horrifying distance between my dangling feet and the dark street below. I want to cry for help, but I don’t want to wake up my dad; he hates being woken up; he’ll be furious. Instead, I call pleadingly to my brother. “Li-am! Li-am!” The name becomes its own soft scream. I strain my neck to see what is happening inside my room. I see a thin shadow appear on the water-stained wall, followed closely by a long black rod. Oh God. A gigantic insect has come into my room; it is moving across the floor to the window. I hear the clicking of its claws on the linoleum floor and another sound—a kind of whirring, menacing sound, although its wings are still. One of the beetle’s legs is longer than the other five; this is the leg that probes its way to the windowsill as I watch helplessly.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of  Should Be Reading.

Another nightmare, Charlie?  "It's the meds," I groan. "Sorry I woke you up again."



Beetle Boy by Margaret Willey
When Charlie Porter is seven years old, his mother abandons him, his father, and his younger brother, Liam. To comfort his father, Charlie recites his mother’s bedtime stories about a beetle. Sensing an opportunity, Charlie’s short-tempered, womanizing father shoves him into the role of the “world’s youngest published author,” pressuring him to write and promote the books they cobble together, wear a bug costume, visit schools, and attend conferences. It’s at these author gatherings that Charlie gets to know acerbic veteran author Mrs. M., with whom he forges an unlikely but crucial friendship. Now 18, Charlie is estranged from his family and living with his girlfriend Clara, who is growing increasingly frustrated with Charlie’s unwillingness to discuss his past.

Happy Thanksgiving!