Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘Echo Falls Series’

Beginnings

On Sundays, we do beginnings, taking a look at the start of a Peter Abrahams novel, including those written under the Spencer Quinn moniker™. How about we try Behind The Curtain, second in the middle-grade Echo Falls series? Unlike the Chet and Bernie series, Echo Falls should probably be read in sequence – Down The Rabbit Hole, Behind The Curtain, Into The Dark. Football plays a role in Behind The Curtain – I love writing football scenes! In fact, make that sports scenes of any kind.

Ingrid Levin-Hill sat in math class, her mind wandering pleasantly.

Beginnings (Not)

On Sundays, we do beginnings, taking a look at the start of a Peter Abrahams novel, including those written under the Spencer Quinn moniker™. But today I’m going with the post I meant for Veterans Day. This is from Into The Dark, third in the middle-grade Echo Falls series. Unlike the Chet and Bernie series, Echo Falls should probably be read in sequence – Down The Rabbit Hole, Behind The Curtain, Into The Dark. So let’s get to Mr. Sidney, the old school bus driver who endured some of the worst that WW2 had to offer, talking to Ingrid and her friend Ty about Bataan, which of course is all new to them.

“Very next morning they had us on the road to the prison camp. Not going to talk about the Death March – you can look it up. Not going to talk about the starvation, or the disease, the heat, or what happened to anybody who lagged behind, even to drink from a mud puddle.”

“What happened to them?” said Ty.

“What did I just say?” said Mr. Sidney.

Beginnings

On Sundays, we look at the beginnings of a Peter Abrahams novel, including those written under the Spencer Quinn moniker. (Moniker! What a word!) Here’s the start of Down the Rabbit Hole, my first children’s book and the first in the Echo Falls trilogy. It came out the same year as my adult book Oblivion, and won the Agatha award for best children’s mystery.

Ingrid Levin-Hill, three weeks past her thirteenth birthday, sat thinking in her orthodontist’s waiting room. You’re born cute. Babies are cute. Not hard to guess why – it’s so everyone will forgive them for being such a pain. You grow a little older, and people say, “What beautiful hair,” or “Get a load of those baby blues,” or something nice that keeps you thinking you’re still on the cuteness track. Then you hit twelve or thirteen and boom, they tell you everything needs fixing.

 

Echo Falls (More)

Yesterday there were questions about the order of the Echo Falls series – middle-grade but available to adults with fake ID. Unlike Chet and Bernie, Echo Falls should be read in order: Down the Rabbit Hole, Behind the Curtain, Into the Dark. My first crack at writing for younger readers.