Please Meet Teddy Walford, Jr.

I've been writing tonight. The commitment to put together 1000 words a day has a particularly edifying effect. Not only does it push me to produce, but I truly believe it has opened up the lines of communication between myself and the muses. I have completed the next 1000 words, so now I'm up to 8065. However, with that being said, I would like to introduce you to the latest character in the Zeke Proper saga. Please meet Teddy Walford, Jr. -

Teddy Walford, Jr. sat in the back row of his 5th period Algebra 1 class. The math teacher stood at the front of the room moving lithely between her desk and the white board. She spoke enthusiastically about slopes, x’s and y’s, and intersecting lines, but seemed to be failing in her attempt to engage the thirty or so students who stared up at her, some of their minds blank, while others thought about anything other than arithmetic. Teddy, however, just stared, his eyes narrowed into tiny slits of malice, his mouth curved in a snarl, like an angry junk-yard dog anticipating an attack upon it’s trespassing victim.

Teddy hated math. Teddy hated his teachers, his school, the students who surrounded him asking stupid questions. He hated the ones who talked incessantly about boyfriends and girlfriends, about this TV show and that TV show. He hated the girls who constantly looked at themselves in the mirror, and the boys who flexed their muscles in an attempt to attract the opposite sex. He hated the ones who listened to their Ipods, or talked on their cell phones constantly when they were sitting in the same room with someone else. He hated the town, the lousy weather, and he hated the smell of fish. He even hated his own reflection in the mirror. In short, Teddy Walford, Jr. hated everything and everybody.

Teddy was only fifteen years old, but compared to the others boys his age, he was a giant. Sitting in the desks that were designed for the “normal sized student” was a challenge. Teddy had to literally squeeze himself into place. His knees pushed up against the bars that held the desk together, and the table’s frame howled in protest every time he shifted his weight. His arms were thick and muscular. His belly, though large, was firm, a solid mass of strength. His feet were size sixteen, a common argument with his mother who dreaded the continual search for new sneakers. Instead, she found that her best option was to order online, since no local shoe stores carried footwear that large. Teddy also had a broad, muscular chest, shoulders that exceeded any normal girth that a clothing store would carry, and a head that simply denied every hat that tried to fit its dimensions.

This is the latest excerpt from the newest book Zeke Proper and the Serpent's Ship

This is going to be good stuff people. Stay with me. It's going to get even better.

All the best - Brad