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.

U is for Underwear

Because, why not? This scene takes place early in the morning after Henry and the other survivors washed up on their small island. They’d been exhausted, drenched, and shivering from shock when they’d first crawled up the beach the night before, and they’d dumped their sodden clothes in a pile. They haven’t even exchanged names, yet. It is told from Henry’s 1st-person POV:

In my peripheral vision I glimpsed my rescuers about fifteen feet away on either side of me taking care of their own morning bladder needs. I turned and stumbled back up the sand toward the pile of clothes near the threshold between the beach and the foliage of the small island’s interior. They were still in the pile where we’d left them when we’d collapsed last night.

Hopefully this nightmare would be over within a few hours and the four of us would never have to resort to eating the seaweed. With any luck our biggest worry would be not having dry clothes to put on before the Coast Guard swooped in to rescue us.

The “businessman” appeared beside me and sighed as he looked at the wet mound, then began to shake out the clothes and hang them on low-hanging branches. All that was left was three pairs of underpants—my black Levi’s linen briefs, the “businessman’s” plaid Calvin Klein boxers, and the “college kid’s” gray Under Armour boxer briefs—the baby’s green and yellow shorts and shirt, the now button-less pale blue dress shirt and darker socks the “businessman” had been wearing, the “college kid’s” red tee shirt, and my own torn up blue checked button-down.

“There’s bound to be puddles of fresh water in there after that rain,” I said, inclining my head toward the island’s interior. “We should drink what we can before it evaporates.”

The “businessman” nodded in agreement. “Yeah.” Apparently he was a man of few words.

The “college kid” came up behind us. “We don’t want to miss flagging down a rescue boat or plane, though. We have to stay visible.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “but we have to stay alive long enough to be rescued. We won’t last more than three days without water.”

“Three days!” he yelped. “You think we’ll be here three days?”

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