I’m currently working on the Stone Woman novel that I adapted from my Stone Woman screenplay.

This is the first rewrite, and the novel needs a few more rewrites before it’s ready. This excerpt is from Chapter 19.

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“Well this is interesting,” she muttered. Then she raised her voice a bit and said, “Michael, I can’t see anything. Where—?”

Without warning the memory of that plane dropping out of the sky, in flames, with Michael still on it, hit her like the proverbial freight train. There was no more Michael. He was gone. He was—

“No!” Nicole wailed as she dove into an ocean of despair and nearly drowned in grief. She sobbed uncontrollably for a full five seconds before another growl, this one somehow closer, shocked her quiet.

She sucked in her sobs—not an easy thing to do while guilt and anguish were warring for top place in her heart—and tightened her jaw. As quietly as she could she swallowed her tears and took a slow calm breath, then kicked her feet toward the ground. She needed to know how high in the hair she was hanging.

Unfortunately, the kicks told her nothing. All she met was air, air—and more air.

“Hey, cat! Make a little noise, why don’t you? I need to know where you are.”

But the big cat was a magnificent predator and remained silent.

“Now what do I do?” Nicole moaned.

As if in answer the moon came out from behind the clouds and shot a ray of light through the branches, past her parachute, to shine a spotlight on a bright yellow snake on the branch directly above her, slithering its merry way in her direction.

“Snake!” Nicole yelled, panicked. “It’s a snake!”

She wiggled and twisted frantically trying to get out of the harness. When that proved useless, she ran her hands along the harness. There must be a release mechanism, she knew there must. There would be safety regulations that—

The snake hissed menacingly and showed its forked tongue, as if warning her to be still. Nicole did what any person terrified of snakes would do, she froze in fear.

But she quickly thawed as soon as the serpent once again slithered in her direction. She swore she saw it lick its lips, which made her search for the mechanism with even more fervor.

Finding the button, she took a deep breath and pressed it.

Nothing happened.

“No, no, no. Come on, release!” she yelled as she stabbed at the release with her thumb.

She looked up at the dreaded snake, which was now close enough she could probably see herself in its beady little eyes. If she were stupid enough to look it in the eyes. Which she certainly was not. She had read about snakes hypnotizing their prey. Uh-uh. Not her!

“Release!” she demanded as she switched from stabbing with her thumb to slamming it with her fist. “Release! Come on!”

Without warning the latch released and Nicole plummeted what turned out to be thirty feet to the ground.

Only Nicole was in luck. Instead of the hard ground beneath her, there was a river. As she spluttered and splashed to the surface a low, guttural growl to her left caught her attention.

“Oh, no you don’t!” she roared into the darkness. “I didn’t escape that snake to be your midnight snack!”

The response she got sounded to her suspiciously like a frustrated snarl.

“Go do your shopping elsewhere. This grocery store is closed.”

She turned to the right and swam to the shore opposite of where she’d heard the big cat. As she dragged her exhausted body out of the water shivers racked her.

“I don’t think I like the jungle very much,” she said through chattering teeth.

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Happy reading!