Last month, we challenged writers to revise and submit a 400-word excerpt from their NaNoWriMo novel. From over 650 stupendous entries, we chose two Grand Prize Winners and three Honorable Mentions. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did! (For more stories, check out this forum thread.)

England, March 1939. 

Rowan Everleigh was the sort of girl who drew one's attention, seated alone on a train headed north, wearing her oldest clothes and surrounded by a trunk, two suitcases, a small bird cage and an animal cage. The other passengers stared as they passed her. Fully aware of the stares and whispers around her, Rowan valiantly swallowed her fear and set her chin, reading from the book on her lap as if quite unconcerned.

"Have you seen the girl?"

"Of course, how could I miss her?"

"Poor little mite. It's no wonder she turned out that way with those parents of hers."

"Oh dear, just look at her clothes, you'd think she was living on the streets."

"Is that a darn in her stocking?" 

One particularly snooty woman actually lifted a lorgnette to her delicate face to inspect Rowan, and a strangled yowl came from inside the animal cage. Rowan smirked as the woman jumped back violently. Very deliberately, just so she could watch the woman's horrified expression, Rowan leaned across the seat, unlatched the cage, and lifted out one of her two very well groomed red pandas. Gently, Rowan draped the little animal around her neck where it settled down to sleep. The woman gave a slightly anguished cry, and lowered the lorgnette, sniffed, then stalked away down the rattling carriage, muttering under her breath.

"She's going to live with that Aunt and Uncle of hers, but of course you know what they're like."

"The child would've been better off in an orphanage."

"I almost feel sorry for her, they say the Uncle is mad."

"Violent?"

"That's what I heard."

Several hours into the journey, just when Rowan thought that she couldn't be much hotter, or much hungrier, or much more uncomfortable, the train's wheels screeched to a halt. There was chaos as all of the passengers pushed and jostled one another to get out of the stuffy carriage. Rowan, suddenly terrified of the loud voices and trampling feet, was swept away from her luggage, and down the aisle of the carriage. She was shoved and elbowed and angry voices cursed her. Within moments, she was on the platform, disorientated by the steam which enveloped the train, and clinging for dear life to the little fluffy creature, still snoozing on her shoulders like an expensive fur stole.

Anna is a sixteen-year-old writer from England, with a love of all things vintage. She divides her time between studying in sixth form for her a-levels, watching black and white films, struggling to come up with plot-twists for my endless writing projects, and her obsession with horses! She enjoys reading everything from old classics to modern mysteries, and she tries to make the 20^th century history that she loves come alive in her writing. Though she is not yet published, it is her dream to become a full-time author.