The SFR Brigade Presents - example

Welcome to the SFR Brigade Presents! I'm going to give you two quick examples of what you could do for your snippets, but this is by no means set in stone - more a guide for those who aren't familiar with Six Sentence Sunday and similar. It should be a paragraph, but you're allowed up to a maximum of 200 words. Please include SFR Brigade Presents either in the title or in your post, with a (short) introduction to your snippet if needed eg. this is the opening scene of my science fiction romance novel Keir.

In the darkness and the silence, Keir sat with teeth gritted against the pain racking his body. With each ragged breath he sought to shift his focus from the agony of ribs that were surely broken. He tried not to feel the ache in his head where his hair lay matted with blood against his scalp. The cell’s damp seeped through his rags and into his skin until he throbbed with the cold. He clenched his fists against the shakes that possessed him and wished he could force them still.

Wordlessly he raged against the injustice of it all, as though the anger could keep his life burning when all it really did was waste his energy, hastening the end. Sudden tears stung the cuts on his face. He would have screamed his fury and terror if he had the strength, if it would not have been such a futile protest.

If you want to use a section that's more dialogue (and would technically break the one paragraph suggestion) take the 200 word limit as your guide. (BTW, this is from my YA scifi which I wouldn't normally post as it's not sfr, but it was the best bit of dialogue I had to hand for the example). This is the conversation between my young hero Gethyon and his grandfather.

He took a deep breath, uncertain where to begin. “Who was it this time?” Gethyon’s expression hardened and Embar was inspired to take a guess. “Dephon?”

The name earned an ephemeral nod, the glower on Gethyon’s face deepening. Only the faint buzzing of the suspension field above their heads filled the silence.

“What did he do?”

“He doesn’t like me. He’s always teasing me.”

Embar raised his eyebrows in surprise, not from the words themselves, but the fact that Gethyon had taken the trouble to say them. It was his first real insight into the workings of the boy’s mind. “You shouldn’t rise to it. He wouldn’t keep teasing if you didn’t overreact.”

“He’d still hate me.”

“‘Hate’ is a strong word to use. I’m sure it isn’t that bad.”

Again, that look in Gethyon’s eyes of a child wronged. Solar had never been so much trouble.

“What was he like?”

Embar started. “Who?”

“My father.”

The old man stared at the child. It was as if Gethyon had read his mind. “I’ve shown you the recordings.”

“I know I look like him. But I’m not like him. You think that’s my mother’s fault.” 

Please don't overload your snippets with links elsewhere or lots of buy links and additional information, as these can put people off, particularly if they have to plow through them to get to the actual snippet. Include an image or not as you like. Please do try to link back to the main site (www.sfrcontests.blogspot.com) for the inlinkz list to the other participants, and specifically to the post with the list if possible. Hastag will be #sfrbp, and please help promote this as far as possible! Snippets need to go up Friday night/Saturday morning, and will not be checked. I hope this helps!