Welcome to Features Friday, today let’s learn more about our visiting author:
Letrise Carter
Lucy Mason: Lucy’s Worth, Part 1
Lucy’s Worth is part one of a young woman’s desperate journey to find herself while trying to make it on her own. Faced with her first true relationship, Lucy’s long battle with low self-esteem will cause her to fall down a path with a dangerous man. Will Lucy be able to escape the trap that’s been set for her? She’s going to have to make the most important decision of her life — because her life depends on it!
Excerpt First Chapter
My name is Lucy Mason, and I’m twenty-two years old. I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with my parents, Darlene and James Mason. I’m the youngest of three children, living on the north side of town. My two sisters, Carol and Mary Lou, are the prizes of the neighborhood and high school. My sisters are a year apart, with Carol being the oldest. My family is what you might call blue-collar workers, and they do okay to sustain a roof over our heads and put food on the table. Daddy works the assembly line at Brooks & Thomas while Momma works in housekeeping at Houston Hotel in downtown Milwaukee.
I’ve never looked at myself as pretty, beautiful, or special because my sisters were the ones getting the attention of all the boys in the neighborhood and high school. I was never book smart and could care less about grades. Carol and Mary Lou loved going to school and they were book smart. They both tutored many of the basketball and football players. If you ask me, I think they did a little bit more than tutor the star players on the teams. But they were known in school to be the girls who fit in with the “in crowd”. I often called them the “Mean Girls” of North Division High School because no one thought to mess with them or prank them. All the kids knew I was their little sister, so no one really bothered me unless they wanted to feel the wrath of my two big sisters. It was pretty cool at times because it felt like I had two big brothers instead of two sisters.
I never had a real boyfriend because I always felt like I was the ugly duckling in the family. I feel as if God played a nasty joke on me when it came to good looks. Here I am—short, dark brown, with oval-shape brown eyes and short black hair. My teeth are not straight, and I have acne for days. Whereas my sisters have all the right curves, shape, straight teeth, shoulder-length hair, and are a shade lighter than me. They look more like our mom, and I favor my father.
The boys in school never gave me any attention, unless they wanted me to pass a message to one of my sisters or one of them had to talk to me as a condition for my sister to go on a date with their best friend. It was the same way in the neighborhood; the boys only talked with me to get close to Carol or Mary Lou. My parents would make them take me along just so I could get out of the house. I hated being the third wheel. They always had a date to homecoming, prom, football games, and basketball games. I never understood why boys never saw me as cute or even attractive.
About Letrise
Letrise Carter holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and a Master’s degree in Financials Management & Accounting. Letrise works in Corporate America by day as a Fund Manager while building her small business as CEO of Sistah’s Place & Sistah’s Creative Media. Letrise is a writer, podcaster, and magazine editor, and media manager. She published her first novella in 2017 titled Deceitful Secrets. After a 2-year break to focus on her health, Letrise published her first short story series Lucy Mason series with the first release Lucy’s Worth. Letrise resides in the suburbs outside of Chicago with her daughter.
