The Living Room Read Online Free PDF

liked longer novels and believed if readers enjoyed the world of the story and the characters who lived there, they would appreciate a few extra chapters. Multiple e-mails from women who raved about A Great and Precious Promise and begged for a sequel confirmed Amy’s opinion. But she knew she couldn’t average a thousand words each and every day. There were plenty of weekends when family activities kept her from turning on her computer at all. Other days she might write for several hours and then review what she’d written and realize it had no chance of ending up in the final version of the story. Cecilia had suggested she cut several long scenes from her first two novels because the passages didn’t advance the main plot and would be skimmed by most readers. The possibility that readers might not bother to slow down and consider the words Amy had slaved over for hours, if not days, made her sick to her stomach.
    Jeff grunted and rolled onto his back. In the best-case scenario, it would take at least five months for Amy to complete the first draft ofa new book. That would be two months faster than it took her to finish The Everlasting Arms . However, turning in the first draft was just the initial step. The editorial process would take another three or four months. Only after the final version was approved would a check be issued. And that could happen only if Dave Coley decided the book was worth publishing at all.
    Amy shut her eyes and commanded her mind to slow down. Being a writer wasn’t supposed to be a grinding job. When she’d worked for the law firm she never lay in bed at night worrying about job security or fretting over whether she’d be paid on Friday. Becoming a novelist was supposed to be the path to freedom. She loved the solitude of the attic, but if her writing career was chained to the financial demands of life, it would be a deathblow to creativity.
    All Amy’s calculations about how long it would take to write another novel were meaningless if she didn’t have an idea for a story in the first place. Cecilia had nixed the possibility for a sequel to A Great and Precious Promise , and The Everlasting Arms didn’t lend itself to another book with the same characters. Rick and Kelli had suffered enough. They deserved to live out their fictional lives in peace and quiet and raise healthy, happy babies.
    Amy slipped out of bed, knelt down, and prayed that God would give her the idea for a new book. And do it soon.

four
    A my sipped a cappuccino. She loved the complex smells of different coffees brewing and the relaxed atmosphere of the local coffee shop, but she allowed herself only one or two visits a week. It was hard to justify paying as much for a single cup of coffee as a pound cost at the grocery store.
    While waiting for Natalie, she glanced down at a copy of the local newspaper an earlier customer had abandoned. A headline at the bottom of the first page caught her eye: “Local World War II Hero Dies.”
    Before she read the first line of the article, Amy guessed whom it was about. Sure enough, Sanford “Sonny” Dominick had passed away at the age of eighty-four from complications associated with pneumonia. The reporter summarized the basic facts about the son of a textile worker who worked as a crop duster before volunteering for the US Air Force during World War II. Dominick survived in the jungles of Burma for two weeks after the airplane he piloted developed mechanical problems and had to make an emergency crash landing in a dry riverbed. He and one other crew member, who’d suffered a broken arm, were alone deep in enemy territory. Dominick set the man’s bone, and they followed the riverbed for four days before going cross-country for eleven more days. In the process they avoided numerous Japanese patrols and survived by eating insects, tree roots, and raw fish Dominick caught in a trap made from twigs and baitedwith grubworms. Megan saw a model of the fish trap when she was in