All posts filed under: Writing

Flash Fiction: The Flash

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The flash in the sky was blinding. I was outside when the world just blinked. That’s what is was or at least the best way to explain what happened; it all just blinked. One moment I was watching my daughter, Miko, do flips off her swing, ringlets of hair wildly flying around and then was a blinding light followed by darkness.  It was as if the world flickered off and then right back on. I waited with my eyes turned towards the sky waiting for something to happen, but nothing came. Nothing happened. Shutting my eyes I listened to the world that had fallen silent in a second. The birds had gone quiet. There was no sound of children coming from the school down the street. No wind gently rustling her hair. Even the smell of the world was wrong. A strong chemical smell came from the trees the yard reminding her of the tree shaped air freshener dangling from her cars rear view mirror. “Mama, I’m hungry.” Miko whimpered as she dragged her feet …

Top 5 Favorite Books of 2014

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Let’s set a few things straight. First I love lists and second I’m a book fiend which means Goodreads is like crack to me. Yes, I do the user challenge. I’ve done it for the last few years which is wonderful way to track the books I have read in the past year mostly because when people ask me what I have read lately I stare at them. It’s my goldfish memory people, but now I can pull up Goodreads and rattle off a few books to sound smart. Looking back over my list feels a bit nostalgic. Each book reminds me a bit of a place or the time I was in my life. What I was doing or what my interest was at the time and I can’t help remembering recalling each story. That’s why I wanted to share my favorite books of 2014. There were so many others I could add, but I wanted to keep it short. The Coat Route: Craft, Luxury, & Obsession on the Trail of a $50,000 Coat by Meg …

The Night Hunters

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The last few months I’ve had a story (who am I kidding several stories) floating in my head. I’ve committed myself to actually write one because I can’t listen to my husband tell me to stop talking about it and start doing it. He know my bad habits. I’ve gotten to a point where I can’t think about that story any more. I can’t look at it. I’m just done for the moment. My rough draft is almost where it needs to be before I start my first draft. Yeah, but what to do in those in between moments? Why not travel and write so more. I’ve been a huge fan of the YA Highway scary prompt series that I thought the I might share this months. The prompt:  Her mother went outside to feed the horses and never came back. Julia was able to make it a reasonably long time without freaking out. Maybe her mother was taking extra time to cut open some new hay, or refilling the water trough, or putting blankets on …

Week 5: You Are Real

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My stomach turns. Nausea has set in. Every five minutes I run to the bathroom. Why? You are the peppercorn, how could you possibly put that much pressure on my bladder? A peppercorn not a bowling ball. I’m still not sure how something so impossibly small has taken over my house. You have me twisted. Starving one moment and ready to puke the next. You have your father running in circles trying to understand what I want to eat and very sad that he doesn’t get any input when I fantasize about the food I want. Your big sister is going nuts trying to take a picture of you through my belly and wondering when we get to take you out. She isn’t able to wait five minutes let alone eight more months. But none of that matters, because this week your heart began to beat. That’s all that matters is that today your heart beats.

The Writer and The Monkey Brain

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My husband tend to think I have multiple personalities. The monks at the monastery I attend call it monkey brain. I call the gift and curse of being a creative person. Right now I’m in the process of writing a manuscript. I know that characters, they are a live in my mind and they have all came forward to tell me their story (well most of them have). The main character is set on getting it out of my head and onto paper. The issue is that another character has popped up. (Hence my husband’s instance the I have more then one personality running around my brain.) She doesn’t belong in this story and has one of her own. Most of the time she is patient with me and is waiting me to get the other story out of my system first and get onto hers. However every so often I can’t help but write a scene from story two, write a character profile, or jot down some dialog from story two. The bigger problem …

10 Things My Friends Have Taught Me

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Last week was my birthday. It really got me thinking about life and the things that I have been taught along the way. Outer beauty doesn’t make you beautiful. It is amazing how so many times people who are beautiful by society’s standards look ugly to me while those who aren’t conventionally pretty are beautiful in my eyes. Beauty comes from much further within. It comes from confidence, kindness, and compassion. It comes from being comfortable with who you are.  Things aren’t always black or white. What is right for one person isn’t always right for another. We all need to make the best choices for us and not based on what others think is best for us and that doesn’t make it wrong, just different. What we want isn’t usually what we need. Often we try to fill a void of what we really need by going after what we want. Once we get it we are on to the next thing. So what do you really want?  You can get through it. Sometimes the bad things aren’t …