I’ll get a dirty word out of the way here: millennial. My protagonist writer, Calvin, his friend Karen and his rival Matt Reade are all millennials trying to make it in the journalism game competing for jobs at the LA Weekly. In today’s excerpt, Calvin has just found out that Matt has a deal with a Devil (Gast) and, no hard feelings, but it means Calvin’s going to get screwed over no matter how hard he works for the position at the Weekly he is working his ass off for.
Each day the story takes place, Calvin and Karen each have conversations with their parents which is something I think every young adult can identify with (hell, I’m almost 30 and still have these conversations). This is Calvin’s after learning the nature of Matt’s supernatural advantage:
CALL YOUR PARENTS 1 – CALVIN
As he walked down Olympic boulevard, Calvin gave his mother a call. On central time, she would likely be having her lunch break. He checked his speed dial list for her name and called her mobile phone. She answered within two rings:
Mom: Hi Cal, how’s the day going?
Calvin: Good so far I guess.
Mom: Are you ok? You sound stressed.
Calvin: I’m good, just, listen, my article got bumped.
Mom: Oh no honey, so they’re delaying it?
Calvin: I guess. Yeah. I’ll have an article in the next issue.
Mom: Okay, well just work hard and you’ll be everyone’s favorite writer in no time.
Calvin: Thanks mom, how are you doing?
Mom: I’m good, busy at work. Linda next door asked about you, I told her to check online for some of your writing you already got on the website.
Calvin: Yeah, still trying to crack into the print copy, but yeah-
Mom: Linda said your food review was very good, she wants you to take her to that taco-ria if she visits sometime. Is that the one we went to?
Calvin: No mom, that was a different place.
Mom: Different?
Calvin: Yeah, there’s more than one restaurant that sells tacos and margaritas in LA.
Mom: Maybe you should do a book on them, an encyclopedia of tacos.
Calvin: I think people have Yelp already for that.
Mom: Well sure, if they like their smartphones, but sometimes people want books.
Calvin: Sure mom, I’ll look into it.
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