If someone would please make me a cover for this story I wo uld be very grateful, and I would dedicate a chapter to you.
Love at First Letter
Chapter Six
It's been a long time since I've had a decent night of sleep, my dreams woke me usually with sweat covering my body and my heart wanting to jump through my chest. It's been weeks since I've heard from either my uncle or Brett. Usually the letter came in a couple of days, but three weeks later and nothing. Not a single letter. And it was scaring me. I didn't know anything, except that they weren't missing in action or dead for I would have heard from the officers that deliver those messages. And trust me I knew exactly how that goes.
Johanna and Cara have told me countless times not to worry that they were soldiers and were problem busy with a mission, and I knew they were right. But I couldn't help it, I worried. It kept me up at night, my dreams revisiting the moment the officers pulled up at my house and strolled to my front door, they knocked - three strong, steady knocks - and when I opened the door the tears came.
I just hoped and I prayed that they were just fine. I didn't want to lose my uncle, or my newest pen pal, my newest friend.
My mood was reflective in my writing and everyone's noticed, I was just a quarter of the way through and I refused to write anymore. My editor had gotten my deadline pushed back a month, hoping that I would come out of whatever funk I was in, were her exact words.
I tried writing, about anything, I just closed my eyes and placed my fingers on the keys and began to write whatever I wanted, the first thing that came to mind. But it wasn't working. No matter what I tried to write it always took a turn for the worst. I would kill off someone important, or something terrible would happen to the main character, or the main character would be born with some kind of life changing obstacle. Currently I was jotting down ideas for a lead character who was blind. She didn't have a story, no love interest, no entertaining friends or family. She wasn't important, only had a difficult life, nothing to write about. And that was how most of my ideas went, there was no substance behind the characters, no exciting plot, or interesting supporting characters. They were just boring.
Instead of slaving behind the computer I spent most of my time running laps around the park, sometimes switching it up and running around town or the neighborhood. Music would blast through my headphones and I would keep my head down not making eye contact. I would run until I couldn't run anymore before collapsing onto a nearby bench and I wouldn't go home until I have caught my breath and forced myself onto my numb legs.
When I would finally get home, it would be hours later and I would head straight for the shower. Joanna and Cara would be home by now and after eating I would head straight for a nap where I would sleep for a few hours and then sit in front of my laptop for hours on end, well through the night, until I was too exhausted to even keep my eyes open any longer. And then I would go to sleep and the cycle would begin all over again.
That was until the day that Joanna and Cara had had enough. They had both called in sick to work, and waited until I was walking out the door to go for my run before they both looped their arms through one of mine and forced me into the backseat of the car.
"What are you two doing?" I asked them as they both clicked the child lock buttons on either side of the car and hopped into their seats at the front of the car.
"Kidnapping you for the day," Cara told me. "We are sick and tired of you trying to kill yourself. You've barely eaten anything in the last few weeks and we're worried about you."
"But I'm fine, I'm just a little stressed."
"We passed a little stressed two weeks ago, you are on a downward spiral to hell if you don't change it up. You haven't made any progress in your book, that's due in a matter of months. You have to get that done Hazel."
"And I will, I promise. I just wish I knew what was going on." I knew that writing this book is imperative to my career, it's been a while since my first book and I had to give my fans something more. And I knew that this book could really launch my career, so no matter what was happening over seas, I would have to put it out of my mind and focus on my book because that is what is really important right now. "Where are we going?" I asked when I looked out of the window and didn't recognize where we were going.
Joanna and Cara looked at each other with a smile, "We got in touch with your editor and manager and set something up."
"What did you two do?"
****
An hour and a half later I was sitting in front of a mirror, as a stylist started curling my hair and a makeup artist started on my makeup. My editor was lounging on the couch behind me and my manager was talking a mile a minute. She was speaking on how this was going to go and how long it would end and what kind of questions she would be asking.
When my make up and hair was done, I was thrown a pair of clothes and ushered off to the bathroom where I got dressed and was immediately whisked off towards the set all the while they were hooking up my microphone.
One of my favorite parts of being an author, would be doing interviews and book signings. I got to interact with the fans and answer their questions and they're the reason I'm doing what I'm doing, so I would do anything for them. And if it means letting go of my personal life for a few hours today then that is what I'm going to do. I'm going to do this interview and then go off to a book signing and enjoy it.
"Please help me welcome, the author Hazel Tate." The interviewer Nicole announced before I took my cue and stepped onto the stage. I waved to the audience and smiled at Nicole as she hugged me and we sat opposite each other. "How have you been?"
"I've been good, how are you?"
"I've been doing good, thanks for asking. Now I know a lot of your fans are wanting to know, are you writing another book?"
"I am," I paused as the crowd went wild, I smiled at them and waited for them to settle down before I spoke again, "Although it's going to be a surprise, so you guys are going to have to wait just a little longer before anything about it is released."
"Fair enough," Nicole said. "Now, I've gotten lots of questions on twitter from your fans, so I figured we would answer a few of them." I nodded and waited for her to continue. "This one is from Julie and she wants to know who your celebrity crush is at the moment."
"My celebrity crush, probably Captain America."
"Good choice." She said to me. "This one is from Parker and she asks how long do you spend writing daily and how much would you recommend aspiring authors to write a day."
"It really just depends, I find that writing in the nighttime suits me better so I'll probably start writing once I've finished dinner and I won't stop until I want to go to bed. So it really just depends on what your schedules like and when you like to write. But it's usually four or five hours unless I'm in crunch time and I have to get it done, then it's more."
"And for aspiring authors?"
"I would say just write every day, it doesn't matter how long you write for. It can be for ten minutes or it could be for a few hours, as long as you're writing you'll get better. That's the only way to get better is to just write and write some more."
"The next question is from a girl named Brittany and she would like to know what's your favorite genre to read?"
"I'm a sucker for a good fantasy story, especially anything Cassandra Clare writes."
"And the last question, is from a Nicholas and he wants to know are you single?"
I chuckle at the question and nod, "I am indeed single."
"Well, that's all the time we have for today. Hazel Tate everyone."
I smiled and waved to the crowd before the cameras cut off and I stood from my chair. It wasn't long before I was ushered into a car and taken to a bookstore close to the set. There was already a line out the door and down the sidewalk when the car pulled up and took me around to the back entrance.
A coffee was placed in my hand by a smiling Joanna and Cara was leading me through the back of the bookstore and towards the large table set up with boxes of my book and plenty of markers.
I spent the next couple of hours signing books and talking with my readers. I answered their questions and took pictures with them, and slowly the line started to get smaller and smaller. My manager had wanted me to stop an hour ago, but I refused to leave anyone standing in the line. They had waited for a long time to get a signed copy of my book and speak to me and I'll be damned if they wouldn't get it.
So only when there wasn't nobody left in line did I finally slump back into my chair and let the permament marker slip through my numb fingers. It was times like these that I wish I could write with both of my hands, that way when one of them gets numb, I could switch hands and everything would be okay. But I suffered through the hand cramps just to see the smile on each of my fans face.
I was thanking the owner of the bookstore when I heard my phone ring. I excused myself before answering my phone without checking the caller id. As soon as I answered the call I knew something was wrong.
"Aunt Jenette what's wrong?" I could hear her crying as she struggled to say anything, and immediately my thoughts when to Uncle Tate, who I haven't heard anything from in three weeks. My mind went to worst case scenario. "What happened?" I asked her.
"Can you come?" She could barely get her words out through her sobs. I just hoped that everything was okay with my uncle.
"Of course I will be there as soon as I can, I'll get the first flight out." I rushed out of the bookstore, my friends hot on my heels as I got back into the car that drove us here. "Now Aunt Jenette, can you please tell me what's wrong?"
But I couldn't get her to say anything. I said goodbye to her once we reached my house and threw random clothes into a suitcase while booking the cheapest and quickest flight out to my Aunt and Uncle's. "Do you want us to come with you?" Johanna asked as I dropped my suitcase down by the front door and grabbed my wallet and phone.
"No, please take care of my dogs while I'm gone. I've kind of neglected them lately as it is." I gave Finn and Noah one last pet on the head before exiting the house and saying goodbye to my friends.
After years away from the military, I was finally going home, I was finally going back to the base.
********
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