Answering the 777 Challenge

I was challenged by the fabulous Dark Caravan Cycle, but that would include some serious spoilers. Joplin is about a recovering addict named Joplin Canyon Winters who is just beginning her freshman year of college when the stock market crashes. It’s a modern novel, riffing off The Grapes of Wrath. There’s also a boy named Shane (he’s cute, of course), a Zenned-out banjo player named Finn, and a run-in with the Hell’s Angels, among other things.





So, without further ado, here are my lines:





What did it mean that the stock market had crashed? Pictures I’d seen in history books of stock brokers shining shoes, unemployment lines, and Hooverville slums flitted through my head. Fact: shit was bad in the 1930’s. The next few minutes were a flurry of activity, with books being shoved into backpacks, half empty coffee cups…