Red Crisis
Red Crisis
The discovery was only the beginning
by
Emily McConnell
… Diatchenko was at her throat, his hands squeezing every breath she had left. Lisa gasped and tried to jerk herself away, but she was firmly tied to the chair. Dear God, ple- please help me!
“You’re playing a dangerous game with me, girl! You don’t know who you’re up against,” he snarled. She began to choke and cough, but he wasn’t quite through yet. “So you think you’re smart because you know Russian? Fine. But if you value your life then you’ll answer my questions or I will kill you with my bare hands. Am I clear?”
Everything was beginning to get dizzy for her. Diatchenko became two, then three separate figures. The light faded in and out. She could hardly concentrate.
“I said am I clear?”
With her last ounce of energy she nodded, and he released his hold. Lisa gasped for breath, her cries for air becoming sobs of fear.
Diatchenko snorted and moved back behind the glaring light once more.
“Well miss Lisa, if you’re so smart, translate this. Tell me, how much do you know about Operation Volga?”
-Excerpt from Red Crisis
Summary:
Cecelia Crane is thrilled when her longtime pen-pal, Lisa Irving, comes for a visit to Florida. Their well-planned vacation becomes problematic, though, when a uptight teacher is bent on making Lisa a bad example at school because she's home educated. Things get even scarier when a mysterious letter lands in their possession, and the quest to find the truth turns out to be full of lies, plots and a secret spy ring.Age range: 9-14
Time period: Cold War, 1967
Look at pictures of the characters and of the time period they live in on my Pinterest board here:
Red Crisis: The discovery was only the beginning
Oh!! I can't wait! It sounds SO interesting!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad! There will be wayyy more posts on it this month... soon as I organize and decide how much I'll delve into the story. :) I'm glad you're excited. :)
DeleteOooooo boy! Super excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :P
ReplyDeleteGlad you're excited! You always seem to be excited. ;)
DeleteI think it's part of my personality... :P
DeleteHmmm... me, too... ;)
DeleteSounds very interesting! I look forward to hearing more about it.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kelpie! I think I'm going to be posting some more about it this month while I catch up on "Fourteen Cossacks" for next month. :)
DeleteOh wow! Let us know the SECOND it comes out!
ReplyDeleteWill do, Bethany. You readers are going to get the first chance to read it. It's in editing right now, but I think I can have it done in a couple of months. :)
DeleteIt's sounds awesome, Emily!! Looking forward to it!!! :D
ReplyDeleteI'm glad, Faith! This is one of two Cold War books I have going right now. This one is finished and is in editing, the other is halfway done... and will take some editing after that. :)
DeleteYay! Do you know about how many words this one is off the top of your head?
DeleteAbout fifteen thousand. So a short story is really what it is. It works great for younger kids as an introduction to the Cold War. :)
DeleteCool! I've been working on a Circle C fan story since before Christmas and it's about 19,800!!
DeleteOh wow, Faith. That's impressive! Most of my novels run between 40,000 and 95,000 words, but I wanted 'Red Crisis' to be shorter so that younger kids could read it. It's geared more for an eight-year-old than any other age group, but some of the kids I let read it really enjoyed it, and they were more near the age of fourteen and fifteen. So that's why I made the age range what I did. :)
DeleteWhat's your fan story about? Perhaps you can get permission from Susan to post it on your blog, so we can read it! :D
Thanks! ;) I can wait to read Red Crisis!!
Delete"Being Little Sister" (my fan story) is about....a lot of things! I would describe it as a whirlwind adventure. How it starts out is nothing like how it ends! First, Andi convinces her mother to let her go on a cattle-buying trip, then on the way home they receive a telegram...and things start happening from there!
My friend Kayla has read parts of it and enjoyed it. But good friends will read anything you write and always encourage you!:-)
It isn't finished yet but when it is I'll 'talk' to Mrs. M about it! :D
Wow, Faith, I really want to read that now! :D That sounds like a great story! :D Any bad guys? :D I know what you mean by friends being really nice. I have to really pump my friends' arms to get them to tell me the truth of what they think. ;) You know who I found to work really well in telling me what they really think about a story? I give it to my friends' siblings. One of my friends read "Free" for me and really enjoyed it, then she passed it on to her little brother to read. I took her brother's word for it when he told me it was good, because he didn't know me very well. Siblings of friends are great test subjects! >:-) ;)
DeleteThanks for commenting and I very much hope to read your story on your blog!
Sorry I didn't get back until now! :/
DeleteYES!!! There's LOTS of bad guys! There are 4 named bad guys (is that 'lots'?) and a few more who don't have names;-)
Friend's siblings would be great!! My friends older sister would be good. I used to take sewing lessons from her, and I bet she'd 'read and review'!
Thanks Emily!
I appreciate a story with bad guys. B-) I am always telling my little students whom I give writing tips and teach writing to that, "Your good guy is only going to be as good as your bad guy. If your bad guy is lame, than your good guy doesn't have to work very hard to defeat him. If your bad guy is awesome, then your good guy is going to have a very hard time winning, and he's going to have to work harder and be even better to win."
DeleteNow I really want to read this story... :)
That's a great writing tip, Emily! I need to remember that one! :)
DeleteHopefully I can start posting parts of it on my blog, soon. I just don't want the posting to get ahead of the writing, if you know what I mean.
Yes, I do know what you mean. That's what happens with "Fourteen Cossacks". I get too far ahead of myself sometimes with that, and fall behind on writing it. Especially since that one's designated as a "blog story", I often neglect it over the stories I'm trying to get published traditionally, self-published or by magazine. :)
DeleteWell, I can't wait to read your story! I'm excited!
Okay, how come you didn't tell me you were working on a new story? :-)
ReplyDeleteSusan, if I told you every story I finished, wrote, and worked on, you wouldn't have time for much else. ;) This is one I wrote a year ago, and I'm only now finishing it up. I'm planning on self publishing it sometime... soon. Whenever I feel it's ready. :) I'm brushing up on my Russian right now, so that needed to be edited. ;)
DeleteYou remember that clip I sent you that I wrote in first person with the story about the guy named Ivan? Well, that's the other book I'm planning on self publishing in a year. It's almost done! I think I'm two weeks away from finishing it!
Thanks for stopping by, "Andi". ;)
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog and I have to tell you that I'm very impressed with your writing. I look forward to reading Red Crisis!
- K. Kidd, Author of A Rose for Sergei
Wow, thank you, Mrs. Kidd! That means a lot coming from you. :) I'm not sure when I'm going to put out "Red Crisis", I'm still editing it at the moment and I need to double check my Russian to make sure I got it right, but I'm hoping within the next eight months to self publish it to begin my writing career. It's written for a fairly young audience.
DeleteThank you very much for visiting my blog and for commenting! I'm thrilled! I should be getting your book very soon and I'm ecstatic to read it. :)
Wow!! Emily, your writing is absolutely incredible - especially for someone so young! With your obvious passion for the craft, and your already fantastic skills and attention to detail, I can EASILY see you having a professional career in writing. Easily.
ReplyDeleteI love Russian culture, and the Cold War is one of my favorite periods in history. I can't wait to see what you do with Red Crisis!
All the best to you,
Eve
Thank you, Eve! I appreciate your kind words and thanks for stoppin' by my blog. :)
DeleteHmmm... how young are you thinking I am? I hope I don't appear too young... ;) I have to credit my writing skills to my wonderful mentor. I had the imagination, but she gave me the tools to write what was in my head. She has taught me so much. She's the one who encouraged me last year to begin the steps to pursuing a career in writing. All the credit belongs to her, Jesus Christ, who gave me my imagination, and my wonderful parents, who encouraged it!
YAY! I love talking to people about the Cold War and Russian culture! You make me very excited. ;) Not very many people younger than thirty are interested in the Cold War. I can't get enough information on it. Plus, I live in an area where Russian is the second language, so I am fascinated with all my Russian neighbors and friends. They're a lot of fun. :)
Thanks for stoppin' by, Eve, and for the wonderful comment! :)
Sure! So glad I did, and you more than deserve the kind words!
DeleteI'm terrible with age, but I was thinking maybe mid-teens? 15-17, somewhere around there. That's so wonderful that you've had such great encouragement! Your mentor has obviously done a lovely job helping you learn, and your imagination has given us all a fun glimpse into your world, your interests. I find your skills to be quite inspiring, and I'm sure your parents are incredibly proud. :)
Yes! That's true, and unfortunate. I wish more people were interested in learning about it. History in general, really. I've been wanting to try to learn Russian for a while! Never gotten very far when attempting a new language, though lol!
Oh, well, you weren't too far off. Over seventeen, but not quite twenty yet. ;)
DeleteYES! History is sooo amazing! I used to read history text books for my pleasure reading during the summer when I was younger. I finished several history books ahead of my grade, I loved it so much. It's a fascinating subject, and you can sure learn a lot from it.
The Russian language is HARD. At least I think so. I'm learning a bit of it, and I'm doing my best to learn more, but I think I mess up a lot. ;) It's pretty fun though. I hope to someday be fluent in it. :) You should try to learn it! You can get some great programs from the library that are wonderful help. I use Pimsler's Russian guide. It's pretty easy and fun.
It is! I've only just gotten into it fairly recently, but my dad was always a biiig history buff - it was bound to happen eventually lol. Yes, it's amazing how much you can learn from it - not just about the past, but about people as a whole.
DeleteWith an entirely new alphabet to learn along with grammar and words and structure, I'm sure it is! Thank you for the suggestions! :) Have you ever tried the mobile app called Duolingo? I lovvve using that to pass the time, and they're continually working on new languages. Unfortunately Russian is still in development, but I hope to see it sometime soon.
Hey, also, I have to ask: I'm working on my first novel - would you be interested in reading the few chapters that I have written so far and telling me what you think?
Yes! Precisely! What you learn in history is accurate for today- it pertains to what goes on in the world today. History really does repeat itself. There is so much to learn from it, and those who learn it are those who can use it to their advantage. Or, they just use it in their stories to make their books awesome. B-)
DeleteI have never heard of that app. I don't have a smartphone (I am wayyy too addicted to my laptop, I should never get a smartphone, haha) but I will see if I can get the app for my chromebook. Thanks for mentioning it.
I would be interested in reading the first chapters of your novel! Zip me an email via the blogger contact form and I'll definitely read what you send. :) I do read/write from a Christian standpoint, though, just as a heads up. I find it best to tell people from the beginning so they know that I have convictions on certain things. :) But yes, go ahead and email me whatever you want me to read. I will get to it as soon as possible- I do a lot of editing/reading for people so I have a couple more manuscripts to hack away on. I should have some time this weekend though. :)
I'm curious to read what you send!
Exactly! lol. I'm not bad at researching things, but I get tired of it pretty quickly. People, such as yourself, who incorporate real historical events or knowledge into their stories (and who do it well) are amazing. Simply because of the amount of time and effort they put into making sure they have their facts straight.
DeleteHaha! Understandable. I haven't used it this way, so I can't tell you how different it is, but Duolingo actually has a website that you can use to learn. Here's the link for you. You do need to create an account, but it's completely free to use!
Alrighty! Thank you! I will go ahead and send you an email. I was thinking that you probably did (referring to the way you read/write from a Christian perspective), and I absolutely respect that. I tend to write darker pieces, so there are a few things you may or may not be interested in reading. I'll go into greater detail about that in my email, but if that turns out to be the case, I completely understand! Thanks again.
Boy howdy, that website is NEAT! I ran through a quick course on German, and I swear I have never been able to understand or learn something that quick. Seriously. I've taken courses in German before and that was the easiest and quickest and funnest way I've ever seen. So I had to run through a quick lesson in Swedish to check to make sure that wasn't my old German coming back to me. It wasn't, it really is that simple to learn using that program. Thank you sooo much for showing me this site! I can't wait until the Russian section is finished. I know some basic Russian, so it will be fun to get through that course and get through the levels. I'm excited! :D
DeleteOh, and thank you so much for respecting my beliefs. I really appreciate that. A lot. :) And thanks for sending me your story!