Tag Archive for: #amreading

The Writer’s Creative Mind

My husband, Bob, and I were enjoying our morning coffee recently
when he looked out the window at the fence of live bamboo. I’d planted it to
avoid looking into our neighbor’s living room. And of course, I’d placed
containers in the ground to prevent the plant from spreading outward and
conquering the world, as bamboo likes to do. What caught Bob’s attention was
the height it had achieved. He suggested pruning.

My fiction writer’s imagination immediately went to work and
I recommended getting a couple of panda bears to keep the bamboo trimmed.

“Well, that’d be different, but that’s not what I had in
mind,” he said, looking at me like I’d lost my mind. “Tree trimmers can do the
job.”

It’s moments like this one, where Bob’s practical solution
and my imaginary one remind me fiction writers have vivid imaginations!

In a stream of consciousness, I thought of Lewis Carroll, the
British author, who wrote Alice in Wonderland. Carroll’s creative
mind shines through from cover to cover in the characters, plot, and story. And
it’s a children’s book! Though adults are captivated by its originality
too.

In the story, Alice falls through a rabbit hole into a
wonder-world of anthropomorphic creatures, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the
White Rabbit, and the Queen of Hearts. Alice’s stable and innocent world is
challenged by the adventures she encounters in Wonderland.

Over the years, the story’s meaning has been studied and
debated. Critics suggest Alice showed signs of mental illness, as did other
characters, like the Mad Hatter. Reviewers have even questioned if Carroll was
on drugs when he wrote
Alice in Wonderland. While others state the
story is a child’s progression into adulthood.

What we do know is that Carroll’s characters and surreal imagery
have influenced film and literature, especially the fantasy genre.

So where does this lead me? Back to the imagination of fiction
writers. Whether we write steamy romance, espionage, science fiction, cozies, or
mystery thrillers, we often start with a kernel of truth. After that, our creative
mind takes charge. We don’t have to invent anthropomorphic creatures like Lewis
Carroll did. As authors, though, we must create compelling characters!

I take a quick look out the window. My bamboo fence has shot
skyward another six inches. Just since I started writing this blog!

Can you imagine that?

Kathryn’s books –
The Nikki Garcia Thriller series and her short story collection – Backyard
Volcano.
Available on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082H96R11

Kathryn Lane started out as a starving
artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked
on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. After
two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and
suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels
in over ninety countries.

https://www.facebook.com/kathrynlanewriter/

Photo credit:

Mysteries in a Series – In Order or No?

by Mary Lee Ashford aka 1/2 of Sparkle Abbey

Do you like to read books that are part of a series? And, if you enjoy reading series fiction, do you always read them sequentially? 

When asked most authors will say that each book stands alone and that they don’t neccessarly need to be read in order. And, of course, that’s the goal, right?

Whether it’s the tenth book in the series or the first, the goal of the writer is always to create a story that can stand on it’s own. A self-contained adventure that doesn’t rely on the reader knowing something that’s not on the page in the installment they’re reading.

Many well-known authors with long-running series, such as the late Sue Grafton with twenty-five books from “A is for Alibi” to “Y is for Yesterday” or Janet Evanovich, who is headed for her twenty-sixth Stepanie Plum novel, have purposely created story arcs (and character arcs) of limited changes.

Others such as G.A. McKevett aka Sonja Massie, author of over seventy books, defty uses life changes and character growth to add richness to her plots. Her latest “And the Killer Is…” is on my bedside table right now.

And then there’s yet another approach. The inimitable Laura Levine, simply tells you, the reader, in an aside what you need to know. “You’ll have to read about when that happened in…” And though I was always taught that author intrusion is something to be avoided at all costs. I’ll be darned if it doesn’t work just fine when she does it.

You know, I have to say that I enjoy each of these different approaches to storytelling.

But I also have to admit that my preference is always to read a series in order. I like getting to know the people and the places as the series unfolds. Occasionally, I have started with a book that was in the middle of a series. Usually because a friend has shared it or it was part of a conference giveaway. But if I really enjoyed the story, I’m going to track down book one and start at the beginning. Otherwise, to me anyway, it would seem like starting with season three of Downton Abbey or any other great continuing television series. I want to be a part of the story from the beginning.

Is it just me?

How about you? Are you a reader that always wants to read a series in order or do you not care about reading the books strictly in order?

Mary Lee Ashford writes the Sugar & Spice mystery series for Kensington Books and also writes as half of the writing team of Sparkle Abbey, authors of the Pampered Pets series from Bell Bridge Books. 

GAME OF SCONES is the first book in the Sugar & Spice series.

DESPERATE HOUSEDOGS is the first book in the Pampered Pets series.

Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for both of these “first in the series” titles. Or if you already have them both, any book you’re missing in either series!

Breaking the Code of Silence—by T.K. Thorne

Writer, humanist,
          dog-mom, horse servant and cat-slave,
       Lover of solitude
          and the company of good friends,
        New places, new ideas
           and old wisdom.

We are living History, a moment of angst and hope, of isolation and involvement, a time to look deep.

In the beginning of my novel, House of Rose,
my police officer heroine shoots a man in the back. I deliberately
placed Rose in that situation, because it put her in trauma, and that is
how character is built. I wanted readers to experience that from her
perspective, to be uncomfortable. Having to pull the trigger is not a
comfortable place. I am a former police officer, and, like my fellows, I
always dreaded having to make such a decision and having to live with
it—right or wrong.

My fictional shooting is a circumstance very far from the blatant
lynching of George Floyd, which—along with a dark cloud of other racial
encounters and shootings—have stained the badge that so many wear
proudly and with honor. For the first time in my memory, law enforcement
officers have broken their “code of silence” and stepped forward to
voice their outrage, some to walk and pray with protesters.

I am proud of those voices, but I understand they do not make black people feel safe.

I am not black and not trying to imply I understand what it feels
like to be, but I am listening and trying to imagine that and to relate
it to my own experiences. I am Jewish.

Recently, I watched a documentary on the growth of anti-Semitism in
the world, including the U.S., and it awoke in me something that I try to ignore in my daily life, an underlying fear of being different
and what might happen to me or those I love because of who I am and
what I believe. The outpouring of sympathy and expressions of horror at
the Tree of Life massacre did not make me feel safe either.

How are we not beyond this? I yearn for there to be no need
for police to have to make awful decisions or even to be armed, only to
perform their highest calling—solving problems, protecting and helping
people. I yearn for soldiers to put down their weapons and say, “Ain’t
gonna study war no more.”

I also research and write about history and know we have moved the
needle significantly from the past, but we have not left the darkness
behind. It is a chasm looming before us. I fear we are on a precipice as
a country and world.

What can I do?

I am a writer, so I am doing what I do—writing about my pain,
confusion, my passion for justice. Sometimes I do that through my
characters, but sometimes I just have to struggle for the words in my
own voice.

T.K. is a retired police captain who writes books,
which, like this blog, roam wherever her interest and imagination take
her.  Want a heads up on news about her writing and adventures (and
receive two free short stories)? Click on image below.  Thanks for
stopping by!

https://tkthorne.com/signup/

The Mother of Invention

By Kathryn Lane
Writers are always combing
through ideas for stories. We take in a lot of information and through our
individual creative processes, we select the characters, plots, themes, and
settings that we bring to life. Great authors, like Arthur Conan Doyle and Margaret
Mitchell, invent characters, such as Sherlock Holmes and Scarlett O’Hara, that endure
over time. Then there are authors who have penned novels that have changed
society. A few examples are Homer’s
Odyssey, Cervantes’ Don Quixote,
Toni Morrison’s
Beloved, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Margaret
Atwood’s
The Handmaid’s Tale, and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series.

For most writers of mystery and romance,
we don’t look to change the world. We intend to entertain.
But COVID-19 has changed our
world. When I read or hear the news, I realize we have a plethora of ideas that
can and will influence our work. For example, in mystery novels, a detective might
attend a funeral service to glean information through observation of the
attendees. Now that funerals have gone virtual, will that detective be able to
gather information by watching the service on-line? Instead of seeing the
interaction among the mourners, the video feed will limit the view of the
gathering and the detective’s ability to catch suspicious nuances.

COVID-19
has ushered in hi-tech innovations, such as a bar “The Crazy Gypsy” in Seville,
Spain, whose latest hire is a robotic bartender. One android bartender can
serve hundreds of beers in an hour. If this innovation is widely adapted over
the next decade, gone will be the days of human bartenders conversing or
scaring customers in a movie or T.V. series. Think Moe in the Simpsons,
Sam Malone from Cheers, or Lloyd from The Shining.  


Besides hi-tech applied to daily
life, this pandemic has also brought a return to low-tech yet wonderful traditions,
like the milkman who leaves containers of fresh milk, cheese, and
organic fruit and vegetables near the front door. Now the milkman can be blamed
for love affairs, fathering children, witnessing crimes, or even killing
someone.
Innovation is great. Without it,
we’d still be in the stone age. What I worry about is the loss of human
interaction. Kids’ birthday parties and graduation ceremonies becoming drive-by
events. My husband and I watched a video stream as our grandson “drove-by” to
pick up his high school diploma. To me, it was sad that we could not be there
in person and celebrate after the ceremony. But as we watched the students
drive by, every single one of them was smiling and looked happy.
Crises are the mother of
invention, as the saying goes. The world will adapt. And so will we. Since I’m a
person who enjoys the “personal touch”, I was elated when a friend, Shana
Fabio, stayed in touch not by using Zoom, but rather by sending cards through
regular mail, such as the watercolor she sent us. We were touched to receive this
beautiful hand-painted card, showing family members. A card I can touch, place on
my desk, and admire. I love it!

Who is your favorite fictional character?
Kathryn’s books –
The Nikki Garcia Thriller series and her short story collection – Backyard
Volcano.
All available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082H96R11
About Kathryn Lane:
Kathryn started out as a starving artist in oil painting. To
earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a
career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. After
two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and
suspense thrillers. And she says she loves what she’s doing these days!


Sherlock Holmes: Photo credit: dynamosquito on Visualhunt.com / CC
BY-SA

Bartender
Robot: Public Domain

Watercolor:
Used with permission from the Fabio Family

Clicking Our Heels – Writing or Reading Long or Short?

Writing or
reading long or short? The Stiletto Gang members confess their personal
preferences when writing and when reading. They also share what each are
reading behind closed doors.

Linda
Rodriguez

I prefer to write long and to read long. I’m a
novel reader as well as writer. I admire the artistry of good short story
writers, but whenever I come up with short story characters and situation, so
much more starts to unfold for me. I’m just a natural teller of longer stories.
And when I read, I want to be immersed in the entire world. This is something
novels give me. I’m currently reading to Fear a Painted Devil by Ruth
Rendell, Playing in the Dark by Toni Morrison, and The Collected
Poems of Muriel Rukeyser
.

Judy Penz
Sheluk

– Long, definitely long. I can write short, and love to read it, but it’s hard
for me. Maybe because I’m such a pantser? Currently reading Laura Benedict’s The
Stranger Inside
.

Shari Randall – I like writing and reading both! My current
read is One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski, who does fine short
stories and now novels.

T.K. Thorne
– For me, short stories are harder than a novel. Not sure why. Perhaps I feel
more that I need to have the story laid out prior to beginning it,  and
with a novel, I am more interested in who the character is and having the space
to explore that. As a reader, I like having a thick, juicy book and the
anticipation of more to come with a series.

Julie Mulhern – I am a short writer and prefer reading
shorter books. Right now I’m reading Caimh McDonnell’s Dublin Trilogy (there
are four of them). McDonnell also works as a stand-up comedian.

No surprise,
his books are funny and raunchy and filled with memorable characters.

Kay Kendall
– I’m like the baby bear in the children’s book who tried two beds–one too
hard, one too soft–before she hit the third one that was just right. The story
I’m reading or writing should take up just as many pages as it needs. It should
not be so wordy that it goes way too long, whereas conversely sometimes a story
can be too laconic and I want to read (or write) more detail.

What I’m reading now is the multi-award
winning historical mystery,
THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL
by Sujata Massey. At 400 pages (hardback version) it is just right.

Bethany Maines – I have been working on writing short. 
I feel like so much of my early writing was packed with details that were
important for me to know, but not necessarily important to either the story of
the reader.  So I’ve been steadily trimming my word count on my first
drafts which is making editing easier!  But in general I prefer novel
length over short stories in both my reading and writing.

Dru Ann LoveRight now I’m reading an ARC of Forgiveness
Dies
by J.J. Hensley.

Debra H. Goldstein – “I love the one I’m with” because I write
both long and short and my reading reflects that. Presently, I’m reading Fishy
Business
, an anthology of short stories by members of the Guppy Chapter of
Sisters in Crime and Murder On Cape Cod by Maddie Day.

Lynn McPherson – I like both. Right now, I’m reading a
really fun book called Survival of the Fritters by Ginger
Bolton. 

Mary Lee
Ashford
I
write short because I write a lot of dialogue my first draft. I think that’s
because I’m mainly interested in the people in the story. I tend to have to go
back and make sure I’ve included the right amount of setting and description.
In reading, I also am mostly interested in the story people and so I prefer
books that are very character driven. As far as reading, I read both short and
long. I’m currently reading a non-fiction book called Atomic Habits by
James Clear. 

 J.M. Phillippe – I do enjoy a single-sitting book (when I
get those rare “spend the day reading” days). I think I tend to write
something that I hope can be experienced in the same way — something you get
so into you don’t want to put it down. 

Cathy Perkins – I prefer writing novels because subplots that enhance the main plot are fun to develop and reveal so much about the characters. Those subplots plus the usual twists and turns of a mystery generate word count. I recently finished A Man Called Ove and really enjoyed it.

Ode to a Library

Ode to a Library

By Cathy Perkins

When was the last time you visited your local library? 


Libraries have been around for a long, long time. The earliest
libraries date back to 2600 BC. Yes, that’s Before
we started counting time forward a couple of thousand years ago in the Western World. While we’ve ditched
hundreds of ideas and customs as passé,
in the digital age libraries are still in style. More than in style, they’ve
adapted to the rise of ebooks and audiobooks. In fact, there are several great
ways you can access my books from your local public library without leaving the
comfort of your favorite reading chair. How great is that?!
My books are available to libraries via Overdrive, a
leading digital distribution platform. Overdrive supplies the industry’s
largest catalog of eBooks, audiobooks, streaming video and periodicals to
38,000 libraries, schools and retailers worldwide. 
(Here’s the OverDrive link for So About the Mone https://www.overdrive.com/media/2496957/so-about-the-money)

Other upcoming services
include Bibliotheca, an
up-and-coming library-oriented option for acquiring digital content. Your
library can request an author’s book through this program as an alternative—or in
addition to—OverDrive. 
These digital access programs mean anyone with a library card can remotely
check out an ebook or audiobook if your library owns a copy of the book. After
a reader borrows a particular title (say, my Holly Price novel So About the Money), it automatically
goes to their reading device through OverDrive. Since “my” libraries are forty-five
minutes and two hours away by Interstate, browsing through my phone is a lot
easier than driving to the physical building! Instead, the requested book shows
up on my e-reader in moments.
If you’re new to OverDrive you can sign up HERE. Signing up is a quick process and allows you to customize your
experience by choosing your preferred genres. You can even opt-in to receive
book recommendations. You need a library card to access books using OverDrive.
I have two library cards (yes, more is better
😉 ) and both libraries appear in my OverDrive account.

Now that I’ve piqued your interest, here are several ways that you
can take advantage of this terrific library resource.

OverDrive recommends the Libby app for public library users. I admit, I eyed the
app skeptically at first. Why mess with what’s working beautifully for me? Libby
is a free app that streamlines the virtual borrowing process and lets you get
those books from the library straight to your device. Best of all, Libby is
compatible with Android, iOS, or Windows 10, and is one of the easiest ways to
access library books on your devices.  

The original OverDrive
app
 may be a better option for you if your library isn’t public,
if you are using an older device, or you want to read on your computer (Windows
or Mac). This app also has some great features to personalize your reading
experience, such as adjustable font size (which I love for reading in bed at
night without reading glasses), highlighting favorite passages, and a bookmark
function.

 

Sounds pretty neat, doesn’t it? Now before you start borrowing my
entire 
Holly Price Mystery Series, here are a few things about how
requesting ebooks from the library system works:
1.    The
authors’ and publishers’ responsibility is to make books available to the
libraries. We have no control over whether your library will stock my books,
unfortunately. Wish we did!
2.   
If your local library doesn’t stock my books, sometimes simply
asking your librarian to get them for you will be enough. Librarians are
resourceful people! Once requested, the library can request a book for purchase
or loan through Overdrive or Bibliotheca.
3.   
You need a library card to use your library, whether you are reading
ebooks or listening to audiobooks on your devices, or physically checking out “tree
books” from the library. Ask your local library about their card policies. (For example, one of my library cards is free. I pay an annual fee to use a larger regional library since I live outside their city limits.)
4.   
While OverDrive is available at most public libraries, there are
still some libraries that are not connected to the program. You can check to
see if OverDrive is available at your library 
HERE.

Wrapping up


Libraries are a great way to keep on top of your TBR pile without
breaking the bank. At my libraries, I hunt for new to me authors or download favorite
authors when the publisher prices the ebook at $14.99 (yikes!) 
Digital loans are eco-friendly. No trees harmed in their production. 😉
And an additional benefit? No late fees! (Yay!) Not through
reading/listening to the book at the end of the loan period? Simply request it again.
So grab your library card and find out how easy it is to enjoy a slew of library books (including all of mine!) from the comfort of your sofa. 

An award-winning author of financial mysteries, Cathy Perkins writes twisting dark suspense and light amateur sleuth stories.  When not writing, she battles with the beavers over the pond height or heads out on another travel adventure. She lives in Washington with her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd.  Visit her at http://cperkinswrites.com or on Facebook 

Sign up for her new release announcement newsletter in either place.

She’s hard at work on sequel to The Body in the Beaver Pond, which was recently presented with the Killer Nashville Claymore Award. 


Book Fog

by Sparkle Abbey

We’ve all experienced it, right? That feeling when you’ve been so immersed in a story that you come up for air and the real world seems a little foggy.

As a reader, those are the best books aren’t they? The author has succeeded at taking us on a journey. We’ve lived in the world they’ve created and spent time with characters who seem like real people.

What readers might not realize is that writers experience book fog, too, but in our creative role, in a slightly different way.

Writers have many different approaches to writing a book – some plot extensively, others just jump in and write, and some revise as they writer. But regardless of the process, when we complete a book, we have lived with these characters, in this world we’ve created, living their hopes and dreams and conflicts, for a very long time.

We’re often asked: How does it feel when a book is done? Are you excited? We have to say, we’re almost always in a book fog. We’re tired, we feel that writing “the end” euphoria, but mostly we feel that a part of us is still in that book world.

Writers, we’re sure you’ll recognize what that’s like. Readers, the best way for us to explain it is that it’s like the feeling you get when the story captures you so completely that, for a little while after you finish the book, you’re still in – 1920s Australia, 1740 Scotland, or modern day Laguna Beach.

So readers, we have to ask, what was the last book that gave you book fog?

Leave a comment and we’ll draw for a prize in the next week!

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sparkle Abbey is the pseudonym of mystery authors Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter. They write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series which combines murder, zany characters and the wacky world of pampered pets. Their latest book, Barking with the Stars, will be released November 17th and can be pre-ordered right now on Amazon, Kobo, and iBooks.

Planting the Seeds of Reading and Writing

By Kimberly Jayne

When I was eight, I was a third-grade student at Desert View Elementary. My teacher was a tiny elderly woman in her eighties. Mrs. Hawkins was sweet and welcoming and, because of her, I looked forward to going to school. I adored her.

It was 1963, a year that changed America, and a year that Mrs. Hawkins changed me.

I remember to this day her announcement that she was going to teach us fractions, and we were going to absolutely love it because fractions are so much fun. Whether by the power of suggestion or her teaching methods, she was right. Fractions were fun. Multiplication tables were fun too. I digress and give her a C on division. Because of division I received the only “2” (B) in an entire year of report cards decorated in “1s”
(A’s).


Mrs. Hawkins holds a very special place in my heart for not only getting me to appreciate math and school in general, she taught me to love reading. She read to the class first from E.B. White’s Stuart Little and then from The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink, and then another book whose name I don’t recall. Every day we’d hear a chapter, and I couldn’t wait for reading time. When I was home, I would think about Mrs. Hawkins and what wonderful things might happen next in the story.

More than anything she read, it was The Pink Motel that transformed me from a kid who liked books into a kid
with an avid love of storytelling. Mrs. Hawkins kept me spellbound with a book that pulled me in and made me feel like I was right there with Kirby and Bitsy in that Pink Motel with a menagerie of quirky characters.

And from those stories, I became a storyteller in my own right.

At the end of the school year, I was happy for summer, but I missed Mrs. Hawkins. I went to say hello when I entered the fourth grade, but she wasn’t there. She didn’t return to teach because during the summer, she had passed away. Even now, I get a lump in my throat when I think of her and what a tremendous affect she had on me.

Do you have someone from your early life who instilled in you a love of reading and writing?

__________________________________________
Kimberly Jayne writes humor, romantic comedy, suspense, erotica, and dark fantasy. You can check her out on Amazon. Find out more about her at ReadKimberly.





Seeing is not believing by Juliana Aragon Fatula

Juliana

This photo was taken a few years back in my front yard in my aspen grove by a great friend and photographer, Tracy Harmon. It was later photo shopped by another great friend, Crissy Red. They are both artists and made me look better than I do on an average day.


On an average day, I wear my pajamas all day and rarely comb my hair. I don’t wear fake eyelashes and I didn’t dye my hair red. It’s an illusion. Some of my students and friends believed this photo was real. It’s very easy on the Internet to fabricate photos and stories.



The same day this photo was taken in my aspen grove and later changed from color to black and white for effect. It’s a photo taken by Tracy Harmon and one of my favorites. She captured me at peace in my garden with my favorite drink, chai.


This photo was taken at Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming. I’m wearing my favorite fleece jacket that I purchased in Westcliffe, Colorado several years ago.

My point is this photo could have been taken anywhere. Another illusion. My husband captured this photo and a friend of mine took the photo created a beautiful tile and made a necklace for me. The tile is small and looks like turquoise because of the lake. Another illusion.

In this photo, I’m wearing my glasses and trying to look smart. Another illusion. I’m average intelligence but the glasses make me look more intelligent, like I know what I’m talking about. I don’t know much about anything.


In Pennsylvania on vacation visiting the university, I’m wearing vata shades and red lipstick and my favorite jacket because of the turquoise color. I look happy. I’m smiling, but inside I’m a torrent of worry, sadness, and anger. I’m a basket case, but the illusion of this photo is happiness.

You can’t believe what you see or hear or read anymore. It could be fabricated or altered, or hacked by Russians.

Final photo taken by me, in my kitchen, on my cellphone. I’m not a photographer; I’m a writer; a performer. I’m performing. I look stoic. I look like my Navajo grandmother.

If I wear something else I can look Arab, Muslim, Hawaiian, I’ve been a Wooden Indian, a cowboy,  a Shakespearean Courtesan, a bag lady, a drug addict, a Mexican legend: la Llorona. I am all of these things and none of these things. It’s an illusion of stage and film that makes me look like something I’m not.

Next time you see a photo or story online and you have questions about it’s authenticity, remember this blog and these photos and that in today’s world, nothing is as it seems. And remember as my great friend, Manuel always says, “Every where you go, there you is.”

This is why I write fiction. I love mysteries. I love scheming up plots and clues and secrets and murder. But it’s not real. It’s fiction. Some people will believe anything. Others are never fooled.

I’m reading a great book by a great author, Linda Rodriguez, Plotting the Character Driven Novel. I’m studying all of the books on writing by master writers in order to learn how to be a master writer.

A great mentor, Sandra Cisneros, told me, “Don’t be a good writer. Be a great writer.” And that is what I strive for, greatness, because otherwise why am I wasting my time?

So my mystery is a work in progress and I’ve given myself a deadline, but I know I have the rest of my life to complete this masterpiece. If I keep learning and writing and reading other great writers, I’m confident that one day I’ll be published and go on to write more novels.

I’m a poet, a storyteller, a performance artist, a hard working writer with a mission. To tell the best story I can because I have something important to say and I’m going to tell my story. A story about the Colorado Sisters and the Atlanta Butcher.

I can use all of the encouragement and support I can get. So if you read my post and want to send me advise, tips, techniques, I’m always eager to learn and become the best writer I can.

I’m starting the new year with a new attitude. I’m not going to give up on my novel, even when I get discouraged and feel like a failure. I’m going to look at the progress I’ve made in my 60 years and look forward to creating stories, because stories are important. They tell us about history, culture, language, politics, society, even if it is fiction. There is truth in everything I write, you just have to look for the truth not the facts.

óóóó

Hiss. Hiss. Hiss!

by Marjorie Brody

It started about two weeks ago. A sound. At night, when the house was quiet. A hiss. Just a single hiss. Enough to make me look up from the book I was reading, yet not loud enough for me to be sure I even heard anything. But the next night, I heard it again.

The hiss was definitely not my imagination.

I got up from my chair and checked the area in the room where I’d heard the sound. I found . . . nothing.

The hiss repeated the next night, slightly louder.  Now I was thinking a wounded cat hovered on the other side of the wall. I looked out the window, but of course, the darkness of night prevented me from seeing more than my reflection.

I gathered my flashlight and crept out the door. The sweeping yellow beam highlighted my plants, the waterfall
and fish pond, the barbeque grill, and the lawn that desparately needed cutting. But no cat in distress.

The hissing went on for several nights. Each time louder and seemingly more angry. By the beginning of the week, the angry hissing occurred during daylight as well as nighttime, at unpredictable times, and was no longer a single hiss, but a pairing—as if two cats, with arched backs, hackles raised and teeth barred, were in a stare-down with each other.

I concluded there must be an animal in the wall, although I didn’t know how anything could live in such a narrow space. Our two Yorkiepoos and one Silkie Terrier were now cocking their heads and listening to the hisses. Other people in the house now heard the sounds—but we could never predict when they would occur.

Friends told me that possums made hissing sounds and so did raccoons. I feared a rabid animal would hurt our beloved puppies.

I called animal control. They said call an exterminator. I found one that would catch-and-release–if the animals were not rabid. The inspector went into our attic, found no animal droppings, but did see a worn area in the insulation near the soffits. He also reported animal tracks (“I’m no tracker. I couldn’t say what kind of animal.”) in the dried dirt around the back of the house. The offered solution: plug up all the unwanted entry points to the house. Anything larger than a quarter. Then set traps in the attic. With the animals unable to leave the house to get food, they’d get hungry and go for the bait. Cost: Originally quoted at $1200. But because we had so few spots to plug, the price was reduced to $979.12.

I hesitated. That was still a lot of money. I needed to sleep on the decision.

Hissing pierced the night, more frequently, more strong, and more angry than ever. What if the animal, or animals, ate the insides of the walls? Or chewed the electrical wires? (We had an escaped hamster do that once when the children were young.) What if the critters had babies in the attic or inside the walls?

The inspector returned the next day. The hissing, now gnarling–something obviously was not happy living here–sounded as he walked up to the front door, but as if knowing his purpose, remained silent while he was inside our home. I gave permission for his company to rid the house of our unhappy inhabitant.

No sooner had the inspector stepped off the porch, contract in hand, did the angry, hungry, pregnant opossum my writer’s mind envisioned make another clawing, fighting hiss. Only this time, our home health aide heard it and knew how to exorcise the hissing. Without setting a single catch-and-release trap.

I’m tempted to leave you with the question: How do you think the aide got rid of the critter and its hiss? Then I could wait until next month to give you the answer, and by then, maybe you’d have forgotten I brought up this whole topic.

But I won’t. I’ll expose my sense of feeling oh so stupid. I’ll reveal my total sense of humiliation.

The hissing came from an automatic room deodorizer. The lower the contents inside the decorative container, the louder and more often and more distorted the puff being pushed from the decanter became. I could even make the sound at will, once I knew I could override the automatic timer and press a manual button.

This tale has no moral. No lesson to learn. It may demonstrate how a writer’s mind playing the “what if” game in real life can lead to a story to share with friends and colleagues. Feel free to have a laugh at my expense. My family laughed for hours.

P.S. My novel TWISTED is a finalist for the Red City Review Book Awards. It’s the third honor for this psychological suspense. And, it’s on sale now on Kindle and the Nook for $1.99. http://tinyurl.com/o6smtws and http://tinyurl.com/p8f9uw2. If you haven’t read TWISTED,  please check it out.

Marjorie Brody is an award-winning author and Pushcart Prize Nominee. Her short stories appear in literary magazines and the Short Stories by Texas Authors Anthology and four volumes of the Short Story America Anthology. Her debut psychological suspense novel, TWISTED, was awarded an Honorable Mention at the Great Midwest Book Festival and won the Texas Association of Authors Best Young Adult Fiction Book Award. TWISTED is available in digital and print at http://tinyurl.com/cv15why or http://tinyurl.com/bqcgywl. Marjorie invites you to visit her at: www.marjoriespages.com.