Doctor in Petticoats Give Away TODAY!!!

If you're keeping score at home, I'm to stage FIVE of a five part series on how to revise a finished books

Here's what I've done so far:

1) Grinding action to a halt--Read about that HERE
2) Consistency—Feel free to review that HERE
3) Telling--Read about that HERE
4) Dialogue tags--Read about that HERE
5) Comedy

Today is COMEDY.

HOWEVER

Today is also the Monday holiday after the Fourth of July.

I know no one is out there. I can hear my words echoing in this empty, empty blog cavern while you're all out grilling hot dogs and eating homemade ice cream beneath a fluttering flag while wearing a swimming suit and waving a sparkler in your hand.

So, I'm taking the day off too. Both literarily and bloggularily.

I'm posting a scene (IT'S A COMEDY SCENE!) from Doctor in Petticoats and giving one lucky commentor a signed copy.

(Lucky is my spin, if yours is different I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't say so out loud)

I'll do the comedy thing later.

Doctor in Petticoats released July first.

Here's a comedy scene
“Pa, Alex is a doctor.” She smiled as if she’d done him a favor with her announcement.
“He is?” The look the rancher gave him was as close to shocked as someone so contained could muster.
“No, I’m not!”
“You’re not?” McClellen asked as he and The Spitfire turned off the trail and struck out to the south while the well-traveled trail headed on west. Alex had to hustle to keep up. It was all he could do to ignore the lingering ache left behind by Beth’s—annoyance.
“Yes he is.”
McClellen looked between them. “Well, which is it?”
“I’m not.”
“He’s a doctor but he’s not doctoring these days.”
“Mosqueros could use a doctor.”
“Pa,” she gave him a disgruntled look, “Alex can’t be the Mosqueros doctor. I’m going to—”
“You can’t be a doctor!” Alex cut her off.
“—do it.” She glared at him.
“No, you’re not.” McClellen talked over her this time. “Doctoring’s not a proper job for a female.”
Alex looked at The Spitfire’s father and found a kindred spirit.
The Spitfire, however, wasn’t having it. “I spent the last four year training to be a doctor.”
“A nurse, you mean,” her pa said.
“No, a doctor. It’s true I went to nursing school.”
“Then you’re a nurse.” Alex flinched a bit when she turned her fiery eyes on him.
“But I apprenticed with a doctor. He knew I’d be the only person in the area with doctoring skills. He taught me everything. He let me do surgery.”
“With a knife?” Alex gasped.
“No, I cut my patients open with a carrot, idiot,” Beth snapped. “Of course with a knife.”
“That’s awful. That guy oughta be reported.” Clay’s jaw stiffened with anger.
He ought be arrested and shot and maybe hanged, too, Alex thought. “What all’d he let you do? A woman can’t be examining a man.”
“None of your business, Alex.”
“You’re not gonna be a doctor and that’s that.” Her pa rode right up close so he could tower over her whilst he laid down the law. “You can do some midwifin’ if your ma says it’s okay and she goes along, and maybe a few other little things with women and young children. But you’ll be living at the ranch, and you aren’t going off alone in the night to care for sick people. That’s just asking for trouble.”
“Amen!” Alex slapped his pommel and McClellen looked at him. They jerked their chins in agreement.
“He can be the doctor.” McClellen jabbed his thumb at Alex.
Beth gasped. “He not a doctor.”
“I’m not a doctor.” Alex and The Spitfire spoke at the same time.
“You just said he was a doctor.” McClellen looked between the two of them.
“I’m not.” Alex knew that even if the Spitfire didn’t.
“He’s not.” Now she was just being stubborn because she wanted the job herself.
McClellen shook his head in disgust and kicked his horse into a faster gait, which took him out from between them.
They glared at each other for too long, then Alex got his own horse moving faster. He liked it better when he couldn’t see her pretty blue eyes anyway.

To get your name in the drawing, leave a comment telling me what you're doing (or what you did) for Independence Day.

Mary Connealy