I’m participating in the A to Z blogger challenge this year. Since April also is the anniversary month for the release of my novel, ’Til Death Do Us Part, I thought I’d use that for the theme of my posts. For each letter I will come up with a word that is pertinent to the story, and post a short excerpt featuring it.

In general these excerpts will bounce around the timeline (after all, the story isn’t told in alphabetical order). No worries, I’ll give a little context leading into each scene so it won’t be necessary to read the others to enjoy the snippet-of-the-day.

M is for Missing

“Missing” is how the downed plane if first described in news reports. This scene takes place in chapter two, when Sam first discovers that Henry’s plane has disappeared. It is told from Sam’s 3rd-person POV:

The summer semester was beginning, and being relatively low on the food chain at the university meant Sam Miller-Greene was teaching an Introduction to Biology class. His alarm woke him bright and early, and the first thing he did after using the bathroom was look up the status of Henry’s flight on the airline’s website. Apparently it was delayed, otherwise Henry would have called already.

He expected to see a landing time, or possibly delay information. Instead he saw something he’d never seen before: instructions to call a given number for more information. Sam tried not to panic and assume the worst as he turned on the TV and switched to CNN, then reached for his iPhone and dialed the number from the website.

The line rang, then went into a holding pattern while a recorded voice assured him that his call would be handled in the order in which it had been received. He switched to his Bluetooth to free up his hands while he waited.

He was pacing when CNN came out of the commercial, and he felt his life spin out of control when the first thing he saw, before the anchor even began speaking, was an image of a TransOceanic airplane being shown in the background. The anchor began talking about flight 3012, saying it was missing. Missing. What the fuck did that even mean? Had it crashed? Apparently, the deadpan anchor intoned, that was assumed. The last signal received from the airplane’s transponder had been somewhere north of the Cook Islands, and south of the equator, and there’d been no sign or transmission from it since.

Blurb

Henry and Sam Miller-Greene are living the dream. They love their careers — which afford each of them opportunities to travel to exotic locations — they love their home, Sam’s caring family, and each other. They disagree on the subject of adoption, but are fully committed to each other in marriage … ’Til Death Do Us Part.

The dream is shattered when Henry’s plane crashes, and he’s presumed dead. But four people — Henry, two other men, and a child — survive undetected on a remote, small, and insignificant island. Will Sam and Henry’s love be able to survive as well?

Henry fights to endure in harsh conditions, never knowing when disaster will strike. Sam struggles with his loss, but with help moves on with his life. Will Sam be able to put aside his new love when he reunites with Henry?

Info & Links: ’Til Death Do Us Part