So for National Novel Writing Month (way back in November) I started writing a novel called Treadmill. I didn't 'win' NaNoWriMo by writing 50,000 words in a month, but it's gone over 31,000 now and I'm way excited about the direction it's heading in. I'm also pretty sure that with the number of different plot ideas I've had for this book, it is never going to end. So catch me with a Les Mis-sized book in like five years when I finally finish it.
Anyways, for now, here's the first page or so of the book, along with the summary. It will also be up on Wattpad regularly, chapter by chapter, starting on Monday! Click here to see the Introduction for the book up on Wattpad already, and be sure to add it to your reading lists/libraries on the app/website to be kept up-to-date.
Summary:
Kennedy Abrams is everything anyone would ever want to be at Clemson University: smart, funny, gorgeous, and friends with everyone. Rebecca Eaves is quieter, less social, and just trying to scrape by with her 16 credit hours and working 38 hours a week at the local grocery store. Together, the two make Drew Parley: a social media influencer using Kennedy as her face and Rebecca as her manager. As far as Drew's followers are concerned, Kennedy Abrams and Rebecca Eaves don't exist.
But fame and the need to keep their true identities secret start to take their toll, and what started as a fun experiment turns into something dangerous--something that both girls are willing to risk their lives and freedom for. After a fateful night hundreds of miles from their home, both girls realize they have a lot more riding on this secret account than they realized...and there are people who are ready to use the account to expose the terrible things they've done.
I fell on a treadmill today.
Completely.
Catapulted right off of the thing.
And somehow, I think that flying off of that treadmill at whatever the level 7.4 equates to in miles per hour might have made my life a lot better. Or possibly a great deal worse.
I’ll start earlier than that, though.
><><
In. Out. In. Out.
Focusing on her breathing was the only thing that kept Rebecca Eaves from letting her mind wander to other places when she ran. If she let her mind wander, her mind would start to focus on the fact that her legs hurt, and that her chest hurt, and that everything about running hurt. If she let her mind wander, she would be reminded of the fact that she had two pints of Ben & Jerry’s Brownie Batter Core ice cream sitting in her freezer that were begging to be eaten, and that eating both of those in one sitting would feel great. Relaxing. Eating. Not worrying about her weight.
In. Out. In. Out.
If she let her mind wander, she would start to tell herself that she didn’t need to finish running the five miles to get the reward of a quarter of one of those pints. She would stop her run, powerwalk back to where her car was parked just a mile and a half behind her current position, and drive home, to the apartment she was still in the process of moving into. She would watch Kaylie’s disapproving stare as she ate her ice cream instead of unpacking her boxes. She would feel guilty afterwards for eating her ice cream without finishing her run first. So, Rebecca kept running.
In. Out. In. Out.
It was a beautiful day. Early September, two days before the first classes of Fall semester began, and the sun was shining through a soft cloud cover. At 10:12 AM, it wasn’t too terribly hot, but the humidity was at 79% already according to Rebecca’s weather app, which meant that she was already sweating after a mile and a half of running at a relatively moderate speed. Not a jog, but not quite a run yet. Somewhere in between.
In. Out. In. Out.
Rebecca kept moving halfway between jogging and running. She kept going, one foot in front of the other, focusing on her breathing, until the time on her Fitbit read 10:38, and she had made a five-mile circle back to the parking lot outside of the furniture store half a mile outside of the park she ran in when she didn’t feel like going to the gym. She unlocked her car door and climbed into the driver’s seat, taking a sip of water before pulling out her phone to check her text messages and disconnect her wireless headphones. She had a text from Kaylie waiting for her. When was she planning on unpacking the boxes? It had been over a week since she had moved in. It was getting hard to walk. Rebecca shook her head and ignored the message, backing out of the parking space and pulling onto the main road to head back home.
In. Out. In. Out.
So...yeah! That's page one of like seventy or so currently (the big 8 x 11 inch pages, I have no idea how long it would be in actual book-length) and I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!
The summary sounds amazing and so does the first page! I love all your writing so this book won’t be any different. Heading over to Wattpad now! ❤️