The Yellow Dinghy Cafe – Prologue

Here is the prologue to my novel The Yellow Dinghy Cafe. It will introduce you to the three main characters and show you how to build up suspense.

Cockatoos screeched overhead, a blur of ivory and gold. Jolting in her seat, Michaela gasped as splashes of coffee scalded her skin. Wretched birds, she thought, her eyes welling. That morning, her two best friends had fled Sydney and over the day, loneliness had settled around her like a thick, impenetrable fog. Cybelle, the perfect ballerina had jetted off to London and Jasmine, who’d enrolled at a regional university was probably already unpacking. She’d been incommunicado for the past few weeks and said she’d had the flu, but Michaela suspected something else was up.

As for herself, Michaela had chosen to take the year off and recuperate from the gruelling Higher School Certificate. She was more of a doer than a thinker and preferred acting in a play or designing jewellery to writing essays. Despite this, in the past year, her mother had banned her from treading the boards so she could concentrate on her studies. The problem was, Michaela didn’t see herself working in a high-rise or becoming a do-gooder public servant, so what was the point? She wanted to do something that was financially lucrative but she had no idea what that might be. Selling on ETSY had crossed her mind, but it sounded like a lot of hard work.

Michaela drained her cappuccino, tossed it in the bin and sighed heavily. Fishing out her keys, she wondered what the year would bring. Most likely nothing of consequence, except for a bit more hard-cash from her waitressing job. The cold metal dug into her palm and Michaela’s senses heightened. She swivelled around and scanned the thick hedges that lined the street. Was someone watching her? A dog barked and Michaela jumped. I’m going completely looney, she surmised, jabbing the remote. As the tiny hatchback roared down the street, a person, previously hidden by a clump of azaleas stepped onto the footpath and stared.

Check out the prologue on YouTube if you would like to hear it read.

If you would like to buy my novel, you can access it on Amazon, Kobo and Booktopia as well as many other platforms.