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First Look Friday: I’m going to share a small excerpt from my current work-in-progress Unto Dust (A Mindfire Prequel). This story starts off in 1992, twenty-one years before the events in Mindfire. This excerpt features Sue Sanchez, who is 19, a model, and a superhero known as The Cat.

*Excerpt begins*

As she drove off, Sue cranked up the air conditioner in her brand-new sports car, a white Mazda Miata MX-5 coupe. The CD-player began playing in the middle of “Vision of Love” by Mariah Carey. Sue cranked the volume and sped up a little, signaling before she changed lanes.

She sang the lyrics and slowly bopped her shoulders from side to side as she proceeded into her neighborhood. She eased alongside the curb in front of the house she lived in. She rented half of the duplex, and her side was a small two-bedroom. Sue had grown tired of apartment life, preferring this cozy area of town that had clearly been constructed in the 1970s. The houses were all made with red brick and quaint siding, accented by big windows. She loved it. It reminded her of the house she grew up in with her sisters. And Papá.

Sue smiled as she got out of her car, remembering how she used to run outside to meet her father when he got home from work. He would pick her up and put her on his shoulders, ducking to keep her safe as he entered the house. She knew it made her sisters Sandra and Leticia very jealous, but it was her special time with Papá.

She unlocked her door and turned on the lamp to her left as she entered. A familiar beeping noise let her know to check her answering machine atop the kitchen counter. The sleek black box with black-and-red digital display showed she had four messages waiting. She quickly pressed the review button.

BEEEEP!

“Hey Sue, this is Margaret. I have an update about the magazine shoot next Tuesday. I’m sorry but they canceled. They’re looking for fifteen- to eighteen-year-old girls, it’s not personal.”

“They canceled because I just turned nineteen,” Sue said derisively, looking with contempt at the answering machine as if it were the fashion liaison for Visual Sports magazine. “How can that not be personal?”

*Excerpt ends*

This is still in draft form and could change between now and publication. Still, it gives you a glimpse and I hope you enjoyed it.
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About the author

Allen Steadham is a nondenominational Christian. Happily interracially married since 1995 and the proud father of two sons and a daughter. He and his wife have been in the same Christian band since 1997. He plays electric bass, she plays strings, they both sing. It's all good.

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