What if today never ends?
What if everything about life—everything anyone hoped to be, to do, to experience—never happens?
Whether sitting in a chair, driving down the road, in surgery, jumping off a cliff or flying … that’s where you’d be … forever.
Unless …
In One More Day, Erika Beebe, Marissa Halvorson, Kimberly Kay, J. Keller Ford, Danielle E. Shipley and Anna Simpson join L.S. Murphy to give us their twists, surprising us with answers to two big questions, all from the perspective of characters under the age of eighteen.
How do we restart time??How do we make everything go back to normal??The answers, in whatever the world—human, alien, medieval, fantasy orfairytale—could, maybe, happen today.?Right now.?What would you do if this happened … to you?
Excerpt:
A boom shook the classroom. Scarlett shrieked, and clapped a hand over her mouth. Heart slamming in her chest, she lifted her eyes and scanned the room. In one corner, Matthew stared straight ahead of him. Behind him, Bailey leaned so far over her desk, Scarlett thought she would fall headfirst off the table.
A few desks in front of Scarlett, Jed pushed his exam away from him, his glasses sliding halfway off his nose. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat. Leah tapped her pen against the desk without rhythm, fluttering her eyes at Toby.
The rumble didn’t seem to affect anyone.
How did they miss that? There had been a noise. Hadn’t there? The stress of the test must have been getting to Scarlett.
She shook her head, as if to rid herself of the confusion, and forced her gaze back to the paper in front of her. The instruc- tions at the top read: In no less than 500 words, persuade a fellow student to part with his or her most valuable possession or deepest desire for the greater good.
With pencil to page, she began to write, only to glance at her watch—twenty minutes left in the exam, and half her essay remained undone. No wonder she was nervous.
A second boom rocked the schoolroom, and she gripped the shaking desk.
Nobody else did the same.
This can’t be real. I’m going crazy, or something. Maybe I’m dreaming. She squeezed her eyes shut, inhaled, exhaled, and returned to her paper. She pressed her pencil against the page and stifled a curse when the lead broke. Reaching for her sharp- ener, she clutched the writing utensil as the classroom shook for the third time. The essay vibrated off her desk, the nearly blank composition fluttering in a breeze to the ground.
What the hell? Her imagination had not pushed her test off the table. It was capable of a lot of things but not that.
Scarlett waited for the rumble to happen again. The clock ticked behind her. Fifteen minutes. Twelve. Ten. She’d never finish the assessment. How could she focus when the room kept shaking? Scarlett retrieved and set her paper on the desk, and leaned back in her chair, staring at the mostly blank page.
The boom came right then.
Marissa’s top ten favorite TV shows and why…
Starting from least favorite on the list and going to most favorite:
- The Big Bang Theory. Love it, love it, love it. Seen a spoof of it at Jubilations dinner theatre and it was hilarious. I’m seeing the second one at Jubilations this coming April. I love the comedy. I’m not even a huge fan of science or science-y type things. I just love the hilarity that is Sheldon Cooper.
- Community. Also love the comedy. I like a good laugh from time to time, although I tend not to watch very many comedy shows (I know, I know, that’s not what it looks like…)
- Pretty Little Liars. Liked this show for a while for the mystery and the drama. It was pretty good to start with when my sister and I first found it on Netflix. We watched it for a while but got bored. As of late, my sister has started watching it again and has decided that it gets a whole ton better a few episodes after where we left off.
- Originals. Okay, new show. Just started this season and I’ve only watched two episodes. It’s based off one of my favorite shows, the Vampire Diaries, and so far, it’s pretty good, if a little different than what I was expecting. As you’ll soon begin to discover, I like fantasy-type TV shows.
- Terra Nova. Aired in 2011, I think, for the first time. There were only two seasons, and I found it on Netflix recently. It was a brilliant show, mixing technology with the prehistoric times and I really enjoyed it. I wish it was still airing.
- Bates Motel. Only one season in, so I haven’t watched a whole ton of it, but from what I have watched, I’ve really enjoyed the suspense and the elements of mystery in it. Not to mention that the characters are just amazingly written and performed.
- Under the Dome. First season was this year. Interesting concept, which I’m pretty sure is based off of a novel by Stephen King. Pretty great tension, and I love it for … you guessed it. The supernatural elements to it. There is drama and conflicts (who wouldn’t have conflicts after being trapped in a dome for however many weeks?), along with the whole concept of something otherworldly.
- The Walking Dead. I like this one mostly for the tension and suspense. The concept of zombies is overdone in a lot of ways, but I enjoyed how this show not only features the zombies themselves, but also gets into the darker side of human nature in such a crisis. I think that’s something a lot of zombie movies miss out on.
- Vampire Diaries. Starting to see a pattern yet? Fantasy is my genre, people. I read it, I write it, I watch it. I started watching Vampire Diaries because I’d read the books. This has got to be the only case where I’ve liked the screen version better than the book. The characters are developed better, the storyline has more concept to it than just “Damon or Stefan?” and overall, there is more suspense and action than the books had.
- Teen Wolf. My top favorite TV show as of right now has to be Teen Wolf. Obviously it has to do with the paranormal element in it, and perhaps the amount of action and suspense as well, but the main reason I love Teen Wolf is because I write werewolves. And I love watching/reading anything about what I write. It makes me feel even closer to my own work.
About the Author
Marissa’s dream of writing came about when she was ten, after reading a particularly inspiring story of dragons and elves. She instantly fell in love with the fantasy genre, and characters soon began to manifest to satisfy her adoration. It started with a forty page handwritten novel, which she dubbed “Dragon Girl” and continued on to more challenging (and better written) works.
Now, Marissa can often be found to be studying literature in English class, curled up at home with one book or another, or with her eyes glued to the computer screen asher newest set of characters manifest.
