The Snip-Whippets of the Season

1940, London. Despite the encroaching shadow of evil from Germany, Jane Wilson's little world consists of the love, memories and happiness of those she loves best... but when she is torn from her beloved father and Grandmamma by a war she does not understand, she finds herself one of many children evacuated to the golden shores of Australia, away from England and all that she held dear there. In a new land, with a new family, Jane discovers, against the grief of loss and difficulty, the truth of her grandmother's words, 'love never fails' in an unlikely way.

You know, Christmas is looming just around the corner and there's been so much to do lately that I had it a bit slow with posting since coming back from my month's absence on the internet. But I decided that I just had to post something today, on the twelfth day of the twelfth month in the year of our Lord, two thousand and twelve, simply because it is such a memorably important date. Those coordinating numbers 12/12/12 will never occur again within our lifetimes! Does that not feel so historical? 

As I shared in my last post, during the middle of November, I chose to put on hold 'The Crown of Life' and start working on 'A Love that Never Fails' until I feel more prepared to take the other story up again. Well, I just want to thank you all for the lovely comments you gave me on my last post and for your sweet encouragement and prayers regarding this decision. I know it was a little disappointing to you to have me put on hold my story, (it was to me too!), but in a way I am glad it was; because I have just realized how interested you have been all along by 'The Crown of Life' and that one day you may enjoy the reading of it when I hopefully pick it up again! Rest assured, with God's help, I hope to pick it up again one day :). I love the story so much--far too much in fact to be giving it up. I simply need a little break from working my heart-and-soul into it (though I will not altogether stop writing in it!) and work on something completely different--a lighter story with a totally new theme and time-period and new characters and new plot lines! It is rather exciting, and nerve-wrecking all at the same time. As 'A Love that Never Fails' is still in its early days, I fear lest I share too much of the story-line or even the characters. I still have to get better acquainted with them and work with them more but I feel so badly like talking about it... 

This collection of snippets (hosted by Katie's Snippets of Story) is from 'A Love that Never Fails' this time around, but I actually did a lot more writing during November in 'The Crown of Life' than in my new story and I would love to show snippets of that writing to you. As it turned out though, the snippets from the two stories need to be in separate posts to be understood and appreciated properly, because they are so very different stories! At any rate, I hope you enjoy snippets of the early seedlings I've been planting in 'A Love that Never Fails'.

The Snip-Whippets of the Season

The bomb shelter stood across the street, a bulwark beckoning her with the faint hope of protection, but to reach it she had to risk the open street and she found she dared not run for it, not while the planes of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, screamed overhead like black devils in the smoke-chocked night sky. 

- A Love that Never Fails

Weariness and more than just weariness hung over Jane like a cloud, and she felt the distinct emotion of fear, that kind of fear one awakens to after a dreadful dream accompanied by troubled sleep, wishing against all hopes that the feeling had been stirred from simply an unpleasant nightmare and that all was well with the world after all.  

- A Love that Never Fails 

A flame-like light danced off the eastern sky as Jane walked alone towards Mrs. Corrall's property, basking in the warm earthy colours of evening and the whispering beauty of creation about her. The narrow dirt-road stretched like a slithering snake before her for a little way but then got swallowed in the foliage of eucalyptus and ash-wood trees standing as grandiose guardians by the bend in the path.   

- A Love that Never Fails

Resting her head against the stone wall by her grandmother’s side, Jane stirred at the sad chiming toll of an electric bell outside, the signal for people to brace themselves and come out of their shelters; the signal that the immediate danger of being blown to bits had passed for the present.

- A Love that Never Fails

A sandy-haired gentleman gave a hoarse laugh. ‘Ain’t what I call a quiet night...’ he muttered, lifting his invalid son up the steps, the first to leave the shelter. He turned at the door to a middle-aged woman in a black velveteen dress with an angular face and tipped his hat. ‘Did they make you lose much sleep, those fiendish Nazi monsters, Mrs. Folks?’

‘No,’ the woman said with a brisk shake her head, ‘but your snoring did. Come on, and don’t block the way at the door for other good folk to pass if you haven’t lost all trace of sensibility in your hatred for our enemies.'

- A Love that Never Fails   

The words twisted and screamed dark and ugly before her, tearing her heart crimson with tears. Unwillingly, the flimsy sheet slipped from her hands to the dark basement floor at her feet. “No, no,” she moaned painfully and crouched to the ground. “No, Pappa!” 

- A Love that Never Fails

The metallic cadence of the typewriter keys drowned out the distant rumble of thunder and rain hammering on the roof outside the living-room window, as Jane typed up a scene from one of her old stories and sipped now and again from her glass of lemonade. The crisp white paper with the firm and rounded scrawls her pen had earlier scratched on its surface lay by her elbow as she worked on the story. The images almost shimmered and danced in colourful, splayed banners before her, short glimpses of different lands, ancient times and heroic peoples, so far removed from the small one-butt kitchen she now sat  in alone. 'If only I could reach you,' she said towards the cobalt-and-white sink tiles. She lifted her chin and smiled and with a little sigh lifted her fingers back to those dear old black keys.

- A Love that Never Fails   

She turned to look into her grandmother’s eyes and saw a shimmer of tears—transparent grey and delicate—reflected within their pools. She stopped in her track; Grandmamma understood. Suddenly she threw her arms around her grandmother’s neck and buried her wet face in the bosom of the older woman, bitters tears galling her cheeks.  

- A Love that Never Fails 

Gently putting down her basket and books down at her feet, Jane took a deep breath, buttoned up her navy cardigan and wrapped her scarf about her head as a tingling bight of cold wind whistled through the rustling leaves overhead and licked at her cheeks. Winter seemed bent on releasing its frosty chill with something akin to impatience this year; for April, as Jane had recently discovered, usually clung to the warmth of summer if not its sunshine with a maternal fondness. But this weather... Jane frowned and thought of Mrs. Corrall and her sickly newborn. Oh, God... please let little Annie live. Please watch over Your little lamb.
- A Love that Never Fails 

She shifted her glasses solemnly into place, and gripped the handle of her leather bag between her gloved hands. ‘Could you please take us home, sir?’ she said quietly, casting her eyes from the face of the warden’s to Jane’s stricken figure every now and again. “We are lost—and my Jane is sad and I am unable to find my way about on my two tired legs, old as I am. But where there is a heart, there is a will, I’ve always said. I do not have much strength or will now—not when I see the heart of England crushed before my eyes—but I do have a heart still and if nothing else I want to see my granddaughter safe.’

- A Love that Never Fails

'Think of me, Jane, sometimes. Do not forget this moment--ever. Steal it away down in your heart and do not let time or distance ever erase it from your soul.'
'I will, Pappa.'
- A Love  that Never Fails

'Cynthia!' she screamed, but there was no reply, save a dull echo of her voice vibrating against the threshold of the shop. She thrust her head through one of the broken window panes into the darkened building. The main plastered wall of the shop, dappled with ebony flares of soot, had crashed sideways and Jane saw in a mockery of the hellish nightmare she was in phantoms from a happier day. She saw those lovely little Christmas confectioneries that had been the pride of Mr. Oldacres’ shop—caramel fudge, chocolate containers in purple, scarlet and green cellophane wrappings and liquorice sticks in brown paper bags—flung all over the carpeted floor amid glistening shards of broken crystal. A bottle of claret had been knocked down and red liquid dripped from the shop counter in dark pools, wetting the grey carpeting, like fresh blood. Jane chocked down a sob, and fled in terror away

- A Love that Never Fails