Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: July – Mid-Year Goals Check-In

Posted on July 18, 2014 by conniejean

I Must Reach My Goal by Farcry77 via www.deviantart.com

Six months worth of goals. Ack! It has been a whirlwind year for me in my writing world, to be sure. I completed all of the goals for January, February and March which to be honest, was a struggle. I just felt behind the whole time. April was tough, though I did get the cover for Hard Choices done and revealed in April. Hard Choices finalized in May right on schedule and was published. It’s always pretty exciting to send another book out into the world. I did also get some planning done in April for the May Story a Day challenge which took a little of the production pressure off of my shoulders. So in May, I managed my goal of 10 new short stories written. I love that! I signed up for the Holly Lisle world building class only to let it languish and I signed up for her How To Write A Series expansion which began in June. I’ve been keeping up with it so far.

Unfortunately April’s Camp NaNo (where I got a novella finished, a short story written and a novel started) and May’s Story a Day did nothing to instill a daily writing habit. Sometimes editing, cover design, and just plain life get in the way of sitting down to write. I know, if I make it a priority it will happen. Count me as counseled.

I submitted a story to Writers of the Future in May, called After Math, a story set in my Gulliver Station universe. I also submitted a story, Room with a Knife, to the Crew Contest in May. The Garden State Contest received, Eavesdroppers in early May; a poem, Rest, went to the Contrary Magazine in April; and after another revision, Someone Else is Living Here, went to the Southwest Authors contest mid-June. A new story will be needed for Writers of the Future before the end of September, but that’s a whole ‘nother part of the year! In June I began the editing process for Revolution. At the time of this blog, it’s just about to be put up on Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and Kobo. I also write non-fiction and I submitted articles for the January, March and June quarterly issues of Vision: an ezine for Writers.

Not on the goal list was a clean-up of my website: www.conniesrandomthoughts.wordpress.com. The Books tab especially was an embarrassment. I had a web-savvy friend of mine help me straighten it out. She also changed the banner at the top of the page. It looks so much better now.

July is Camp NaNo and I’m in the thick of writing a new novella, or perhaps it will stretch into a novel, who knows. And that’s one writer’s half-year. So what about you? Did you set goals at the start of the year? How have you done?

The Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour is sponsored by the website Forward Motion (http://www.fmwriters.com). The tour is you, the reader, travelling the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. There are all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s always something new and different to enjoy. If you want to get to know the nearly twenty other writers check out the rest of the tour at http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com! Up next: Jean Schara!

Mid-Month Update for July

Posted on July 14, 2014 by conniejean

Horn Worm in the Tomatoes by Randy Cockrell

I cannot believe it’s the middle of the month already. July is a busy month and I guess that’s why it’s going so fast.

Fourth of July was pretty much rained out here in Payson. The town held the fireworks but very few people were left to watch them fire off in the rain.

The garden has been going like blockbusters. I’m harvesting blackberries, swiss chard, herbs, and sungold cherry tomatoes. The other tomato plants are producing but they’re all still green. There is no sign of hornworms yet, which makes me thankful. They get as big as my forefinger and can eat a tomato plant to just stem in no time flat. This is the time of year they show up so I’ve been carefully examining the plants every time I water. Unfortunately, they look exactly like a tomato leaf so they’re tough to spot. Other plants in the garden, hot and sweet peppers, cantaloupe, summer squash, butternut squash, peas, and green and yellow beans. The cantaloupe have, so far, produced two small ‘lopes but the pill bugs are eating them before they are even close to ripe. I don’t generally like to use bug killer but if I don’t, there won’t be any cantaloupe for me. The picture at the top of the page is of a hornworm, just in case you’ve never seen one before. It looks like an alien, doesn’t it?

July’s Camp NaNo is proceeding nicely. I have a 7K short story done and yesterday I completed the first of two novelettes for my new Brown Rain series. The novelette, titled The Beginning, finished at 21K words in the first draft which puts it in the novella category. I don’t mind. Longer is nearly always better in my opinion. I’ll start the second one today and continue my march toward the 50K NaNo goal for the month. I’m at 28K, past the word mid-point with time to spare.

I’m 18 chapters into the semi-final revision of Revolution, a little over half way done. I’ll hand it off to one more editor, my hubby, for a final look see then one last edit before formatting for release. Yes, the editing, rewriting process takes longer than the 1st draft writing. Be patient, it’s on its way.

The Goodreads site offers a Question the Author option. What do you think, are there questions you’d like to ask and no place to ask them? Would you be interested if I signed up for that on the Goodreads site?

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Like any author, my books sell based on reviews. Would you be interested in getting a free copy to review for me? Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up. Or sign up here. Use Control, Click to access the link. Let me know you’d like to be a reviewer on the e-tailer or Goodreads site of your choice.

I have an in depth interview on my Smashwords Author page. You can read it here. Don’t see information about me you’d like to know? Leave me your question in my comments and I’ll try to answer it.

Hard Choices: A Gulliver Station Story released May17th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

A New Week

Posted on June 9, 2014 by conniejean

The Last Obstacles in the Mogollon Mudder June 7th, 2014
Photo by Connie Cockrell

So much is going on with me personally and in the world, it almost makes me want to unplug from the TV and Internet. Plane crashes, child kidnappings, school shootings, it is all very sad. I always seem to be asking myself what those people were thinking. My hubby’s response is generally, “They’re crazy.” I guess that’s it. They’re crazy.

My mom hasn’t been well so I worry about that too. She has a series of tests coming up and with any luck a treatment will result that lets her get back her strength and breathing. I hope so. I talk with her just about daily. She spent the weekend with my second brother and his family. A mini-vacation so to speak. She’ll go home tomorrow morning.

I picked an early Sun Gold cherry tomato yesterday and one ripe blueberry. They never made it to the house. I ate them right there in the garden, still warm from the sun. Doesn’t get better than that.

Saturday I went to the Farmer’s Market and attended the Monster Mogollon Mudder. For those who don’t know, it’s a 5K run with obstacles that you have to climb or crawl over or through. Lots of mud pits along the way. A friend of ours was entered of over 400 entrants, twice the size it was last year. A good crowd of spectators was there, as well. The above picture is from that event.

I’m still editing Revolution. It’s going slowly because I’m also taking a writing class that is heavy on the planning work and writing my flash stories for Fridays. I put out a newsletter a couple of days ago. I made an offer to those readers. Want to know what the offer was? Sign up for the newsletter. Those readers get a few perks that others don’t. June is planning month for the July Camp Nano. I still don’t have an idea. I was thinking about my Gulliver Station series and started to wonder what kind of marketing I could do for it. One idea is a little shamrock pin, similar to the one Meg gave Jo to wear to show that she is part of the Underground. Another idea is a ship patch, for the Adirondack. The Adirondack features in both Hard Choices and Revolution. What do you all think? Would either of those be of interest to you?

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Hard Choices: A Gulliver Station Story released May17th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Flash Fiction Friday: Guilty

Posted on June 6, 2014 by conniejean

Laptop by shaddam89 via www.deviantart.com

Guilty

Ray’s stomach was upset. He had purchased a bottle of the pink stuff last night. This morning it was three quarters gone. He had just finished eating a slice of dry toast, hoping that would settle his stomach, when his cell phone went off. Before the snippet of “We Are The Champions” by Queen finished, the phone was in his hand.

“Yeah.”

“Ray, it’s Alex. It’s Saturday, man. Where are you?”

Crap, forgot the weekly Saturday morning basketball game with the guys. “Sorry, Alex. I’m not feeling well. Some kind of stomach bug.”

“That sucks, man. Hope you feel better soon.”

“Yeah, me too.” He hit the End button and dropped the phone on the table. The toast didn’t seem to be helping, his stomach was still rolling.

The cell rang again. He looked at the screen, it was his sister, Carmen. He sighed and picked it up. “Hi, Carmen.”

“Hey, Ray. I’m here at the restaurant for my breakfast with Mom and she hasn’t shown up yet. I tried her cell, no answer. Do you know where she is?”

He knew but he wasn’t saying. “No, not a clue.”

“Didn’t you have dinner with her last night?”

“Yeah, she was there when I left.”

“She say anything about meeting me for breakfast?”

“No, not a word.” Ray’s stomach began to roll in earnest. “Look, I’ve got some stomach thing. I gotta go.”

“OK, hope you feel better.” She clicked off.

Ray dropped the phone on the table again and held his arm over his stomach. Mom had been such a bitch last night. Always on him about dropping out of college.

“For what?” she railed at him last night. “You’re writing. What kind of job is that? Does it pay?”

She knew it wasn’t paying much. He was living in his own place but it wasn’t more than a main room and a bathroom. The bed was in one corner and the table he used for a desk was in another. The sink, stove and fridge took up another corner. The only chairs were kitchen chairs he picked up at a yard sale for five bucks. Friday night dinner at his mother’s was the best meal of the week. The rest of the time he lived on ramen noodles and tuna sandwiches.

She just kept at him until he couldn’t eat the pot roast, and she made the best pot roast on the planet. “Ma!” he threw his fork and knife on the plate, splitting it. “Please! Stop!”

Then she got on him about the plate. She stormed over to his side of the table and began snatching the plate bits up from in front of him. “Look at what you’ve done! You never take care of things.” She just wouldn’t shut up.

“I’ll take care of it, Ma. Leave it.”

But she wouldn’t leave it. When he left the table and went into the kitchen, she shouldered him away from the front of the sink. He snapped.

Now here he was, in his miserable apartment, running the scene through his mind over and over again. His stomach heaved and he ran to the bathroom, just making the toilet before the toast came back up. Ray retched until it felt like his stomach would come up too. He sank to the floor, wedged between the bathtub and toilet, head back against the wall, too exhausted to do anything but grab a square of toilet paper and wipe his mouth. He dropped it in the toilet and flushed. Now what am I going to do. I don’t have any money, and nowhere to go. If she had just shut up, or cut me a little slack. That’s all I wanted, just a little respect. Ray sighed. Not much hope of that happening any more.

He struggled to his feet and went to the kitchen to get some water. It felt good going down. His throat was sore from the vomiting. Pressing the cool glass against his throbbing temple he sank down on the kitchen chair in front of his laptop. The story he was writing was on the screen. It seemed so stupid, he couldn’t stand it and tapped Control A to select all of the text then hit the delete button. The cursor blinked at him from the upper left hand corner of the screen, taunting him. Maybe Ma was right. What makes me think I can write?

Ray finished the water and got up. He put the glass in the sink and went to the small wardrobe that was the only closet in the room and picked out a navy blue polo shirt and khaki pants. His loafers were under the bed, covered with dust. At the sink he wet a paper towel and cleaned his shoes and slid them on his feet. In the bathroom he splashed his face and wet his brown hair to smooth out the tangles, then combed it smooth. I really need a haircut, he thought as he examined his reflection in the mirror. Too late now. I should have shaved. Nah, the day old beard is all the fashion now. Finished, he went back into the main room, got another glass of water, and sat down at the rickety kitchen table.

The knock on the door came two hours later. When he opened it, two police officers stood there. Another two were just down the hallway. All four of them had guns out and pointed at him.

“Ray Colins?” One policeman with stripes on his sleeve asked.

“Yes, Officer?”

“You’re under arrest for the murder of Alice Colins. Turn around.”

Ray turned and put his hands behind him. The second officer put the cuffs on him. “We have to take you to the station, son.”

They led him down the hallway and out to the street. “Why’d you do it?” The first officer asked as they put him in the patrol car.

“She had no respect for my writing.”

The End

997 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here: http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

Flash Friday Fiction: Unspeakable Quiet

Posted on May 30, 2014 by conniejean

Winter Solstice by hakukamizaki via www.DeviantArt.com

Unspeakable Quiet

Gwen pulled aside the deerskin door and went out into the night. The winter solstice neared and she wanted to see the stars. She pulled her shawl close, the night bit through her woolen dress. A few steps from the door her night vision cleared and the stars sprang into view.

She drew in a deep breath, remembering the lessons of Bodecia. “Look to the North Star, Gwen,” the old woman had told her. “Center yourself, feel the earth beneath you and the sky wheel above.”

That was two years ago, when Gwen was twelve. She loved the lessons the old priestess had shared. The clan was small; many of the men and women had been dragged off for Roman slaves when the local War Lord, called King, by the Romans, bartered his people for Roman favor. The priestess did her best to raise the few children left. She was over thirty-five and already gray haired.

Gwen swallowed her anger and worked to center herself. Bodecia had died last winter, just after Solstice, from a racking cough that no amount of willow bark or cherry bark tea could cure. The cold bit at her earlobes and nose as she stood, face up to the North Star, doing her best to feel the Great Wheel above her. The Romans claimed all the land around, forbidding the Summer Solstice great hunt. Not that her clan had a young man capable of being the Huntsman. There were only small boys left after the last Roman slave raid.

A tear formed in the corner of her eye and she dashed it away. Bodecia had told her not to feel sorry for herself when she lamented the loss of her parents and the restrictions the King made as he bent his knee to the invaders. “It’s the way of the world, little one,” she told Gwen. “The Romans believe that men are the leaders and women are cattle, fit only to bear sons. Fight, find a way to hold onto our customs.”

A cold breeze blew and clouds skittered across the night sky blotting out the stars as they passed overhead. How do I fight? My training just began when Bodecia died. I’m here with a handful of children and an old man and woman who are too worn to help. She stood, mind focused on that thought and connected with the Earth and the sky.

A feeling of warmth flowed through her. The sky danced with color rarely seen in her short life. Pictures flowed through her mind. Some were memories from her childhood. She saw the local druid chanting in the oak wood nearby, the entire clan circling him, chanting in return. The War Leader and his Queen, one warm summer afternoon, sharing a stag with the village and everyone dancing until long after the child, Gwen, had fallen asleep at the edge of the bonfire. New pictures formed, the Romans riding through the village on their way from the sea to the Queen. The War Leader and Queen on the battlefield, fighting the Roman cohorts, the Queen speared through the heart as she charged the Roman lines.

Gwen knew these were visions sent from the Gods. She had been only a child of ten when the Queen had died. The Romans had chosen a new wife for the now King, one not druid, unable to lead her people. The country suffered as the King, glutted with sorrow, sank weary to his copper sheathed stool and stayed there.

Another vision came, the countryside green and plowed and quiet. A tall white building as she’d never seen before made of wood. Atop it, a cross, the same cross the Romans used to execute their criminals. People chanted inside and a feeling of peace flowed over her. No one looked hungry or cold. This was the sign. Peace was needed, freedom from Warlords and Romans. Then the fields could be tilled and food grown for everyone.

In her trance, the Earth below her and the sky above were forgotten in the unspeakable quiet that flowed through her whole being. The old ones found her in the morning, unconscious on the ground, her wool clothing covered with frost.

“You shouldn’t have been out in the cold, child,” the old woman said after they took her inside to her pallet. “What were you thinking?”

“A lesson of Bodecia’s,” Gwen whispered, still hoarse from the cold. “I had a vision.”

The woman clicked her tongue. She knew Bodecia, they’d grown up together. The power wasn’t in her so she never studied the druid way. She handed the girl a mug of hot tea. “What did you see?”

Gwen sighed, remembering. “Peace. Plenty. No war.”

The woman snorted, she’d not seen peace in the land since the Romans had come twenty winters ago. “How can there be peace, child? The Romans want our land, our tin, our bodies for slaves. There will be no peace until they’re gone.”

“They will be gone, someday.” Gwen sipped the tea. The old woman had dropped a little mint into the mix of rosehips and raspberry leaves. It helped clear her head. “We need to prepare for the next ones to come. The ones in black. Then there will be peace.”

“Black, eh,” the woman repeated. “Better than the blood red the Romans wear.”

“They’ll carry the cross, the one the Romans use to execute. We must be ready to join them.”

“Why would they use that as a symbol?” Raised in the old ways, the woman understood the importance of symbols.

“I don’t know,” the girl told her, blue eyes wide with the memory of her vision. “I only know it’s so.”

Made Leader, she prepared the tiny clan. Decades later, on Gwen’s deathbed the first rumor arrived of men in black, the symbol of a cross hanging around their necks. She told her son, “Welcome them. They will be our salvation.” She died that night, in the unspeakable quiet.

The End

998 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here: http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: Work/Life Balance

Posted on May 18, 2014 by conniejean

Balance by roguerider via www.deviantart.com

Writing can be all consuming. I get a story in my head and I want to start writing and keep on writing. But, I can’t write all the time. If I did, where would my ideas come from? So it’s important to get up away from the computer and interact with other human beings.

During the day, my hubby and I tend to do our own thing, though we generally go shopping together. He’ll do household maintenance, go hiking with friends, or play around in the garage. I’ll work on my garden or work on my volunteer stuff or do crafty things. I generally write in the afternoon. In the evening, we watch favorite TV shows.

Other interactions, we go hiking on Tuesday with the local hiking club. Exercise is important for people who sit in front of the computer for hours a day. Monthly I have Bunko, serve on the home owner’s association board, volunteer for the fair, volunteer for project management, and daily we walk the dog, meet with friends, and have fun in general. All of these things help me stay grounded and provide fodder for story ideas.

Fortunately I’m retired so I don’t have to try and write around a demanding work schedule. I’m not sure if I could have done any writing with the job I’d held so I’m glad I don’t have to try. Also, my daughter is a grown woman, so I don’t have to try and write while a baby is demanding attention. Though, I remember doing college homework with her as a toddler. Much fun.

My husband and I also like to travel, especially car camping. Travel to new locations, camping in a tent, meeting new people is a joy and recharges those writing batteries. I’ve had many an idea for a story from new locations I’ve explored. The only problem is that writing while travelling can be difficult. I’m more interested in seeing new things or staring into a camp fire than writing.

So that’s my work/life balance. A little of this, a little of that and a dash of writing.

Merry May

Posted on May 12, 2014 by conniejean

Mr. Low’s Corvette

Families at the Park

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day yesterday. My daughter gave me a gift certificate for a massage. I love having a massage but I’m too cheap to buy one for myself. So many thanks to the girl for an excellent gift. I called my Mom. My oldest brother and his wife were there for a visit. She’d already been to breakfast with the second brother and was getting ready to go to dinner with the third brother. My sister, who lives in Florida, had already called her. I was the last one to check in. We had a nice long chat, over an hour.
This month I’m continuing the writing habit with my writing site’s May Story a Day. I’ve committed to writing at least 10 stories this month. In addition, I’ve challenged myself to write at least 1K of words per day in new writing five days per week. I’m doing well with both challenges. I have six short stories written already and have moved forward on a novel I’m writing in my Two Year Novel class. I finished the final edit for my next book to be released, Hard Choices. Now it’s time to get that puppy formatted and released. The last book in the series, Revolution, still needs to be edited. Busy, busy, busy.
The weather is warming up. I put a purchased tomato plant in the garden two days ago and it’s doing just fine. Time to get the rest of the garden in.
Saturday my hubby and I attended a Classic Corvette car show. One of our friends was displaying his car in the show. That’s a pic of his car at the top of the post. A lot of people were there enjoying the day. Then we went to the Wildlife fair in Green Valley park. In addition to various vendors, several organizations brought animals that people could pet as well as raptors, snakes, and other critters. The fair rented kayaks for people to paddle around the pond in and fishing poles for kids to try their hand at fishing. The park was full of families having a good time outdoors.
Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Please sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Want to know how to get a free copy of each new book? Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up. Or sign up here. Use Control, Click to access the link.
I have an in depth interview on my Smashwords Author page. You can read it here. Don’t see information about me you’d like to know? Leave me your question in my comments and I’ll try to answer it.
The Challenge: A Gulliver Station Story, released March 23rd! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Flash Fiction Friday: Sucked In

Posted on May 9, 2014 by conniejean

Texting by delight style via www.deviantart.com

I’m participating in the Forward Motion writer’s site’s May Story A Day challenge. I’m not writing a story every day but I have committed to writing at least 10 stories this month. This is one of them. Enjoy.

Brittany’s thumbs flew over the keyboard on her Nova 238 touch screen phone as she walked to the coffee shop. Have you heard? she texted.

What? Her best friend Candy typed back.

Another 150 people missing.

OMG! What’s happening?

Don’t know. Hang on, text from Danny. Brittany pulled up her friend Danny’s text.

Brent is missing.

Brittany’s hand flew up and covered her mouth. OMG! When?

His mother called the police this morning.

She entered the coffee shop and stood in line at the counter. Everyone in line was on their phones, typing. Know anything?

No. Cops are searching.

Tks. Gotta get back to Candy. CU. The line moved forward as she tapped the screen keys. Brent is missing, she texted Candy. I’m gonna get on Flutter. She got out of the text app and signed into her Flutter account. She scanned the first few posts. It was all about missing people. Brent is missing, she tapped onto the page.

The barrista asked, “How can I help you today?”

Brittany never looked up from her typing. “Frappachino, whip, half caf.” His poor mom and dad, she typed as she moved to the end of the counter to wait for her drink.

OMG! Candy replied to her post. What are the cops doing?

Don’t know but so many people R missing.

Somebody shud do something.

The barrista placed the drink in front of Brittany who nodded absently as she picked it up. She went to sit at a table. Everyone in the place was on a phone, typing. Word, she typed in reply.

In a new post Candy asked, Seen Betty?

Not since yesterday. Brittany took a sip of her frappachino.

Hope she’s not missing too.

Brittany took a quick look around the coffee shop. Betty came here too. She’s not at the coffee shop, she replied.

The only sounds in the shop were the barristas making coffee and the music coming over the sound system. Brittany shook her phone.

Bad reception, screen is going all wonky.

Mine too, Candy replied.

A noise to her left made Brittany look. The table was empty, except for a paper cup and a phone. She could see the screen, on the person’s Flutter page, still on. She looked around the room. Everyone’s heads were down, focused on the screen in front of them. Weird, she thought. Maybe he went to the bathroom. She sipped her drink and returned to the screen.

Everything is weird lately, she typed.

Danny responded. Tell me about it.

The phone screen fluttered again. Damn. What’s wrong with Flutter today? Candy posted.

Don’t know. Brittany replied. It’s been going on for weeks.

They should fix it. Candy answered.

Dan, is your Flutter acting strange? Brittany posted.

Mine is, Candy responded.

Dan? Brittany posted.

Maybe he got off?

The phone screen fluttered again. Brittany shook her phone again and looked around the room. Half the tables were empty, phones lying on them. Something strange is going on at the coffee shop, Brittany posted.

She sipped her frappachino while she waited for Candy’s response. A minute went by, Candy? Another minute went by. Brittany was looking out the window of the coffee shop, when she saw a woman at the window table turn to smoke and get sucked into her phone. It fell, clattering, to the table. She blinked. “That did not happen.” She called over to the barrista’s. “Did you see that?”

One of the girls behind the counter stopped making coffee and looked at her. “See what?”

Brittany pointed. “There was a woman at the window table. Her phone is still there.”

The barrista shook her head. “People have been leaving their phones behind for weeks. We have a box full of them in the back.”

“No, she was sucked into her phone!”

The barrista’s eyebrow’s raised. “Sucked into her phone?”

Brittany looked around the shop. “Anyone else see that?”

Only two people looked up. They stared at her, then shook their heads and went back to their phones.

The barrista shook her head and went back to work.

Brittany picked up her phone, Candy still hadn’t responded. That wasn’t like her friend at all. They talked all day on Flutter. She typed, Candy? Danny? You still on?

The screen fluttered again. She waited until her frappachino was gone. I’m going to her house, Brittany decided.

Outside she flagged a taxi and gave Candy’s address. When she got there, no one answered the door. She tapped her foot. Candy worked from home. Where could she be? Brittany pulled out her phone and tried to text her friend. She could hear the text notification signal from inside the apartment. She pounded on the door. “Candy? It’s Brittany. Are you OK?”

No answer. She dialed 911.

“Hi,” she said when the operator answered.

“I’m at my friend’s door. I can hear her phone but she’s not answering the door. I’m afraid something might be wrong. Can you send someone?”

The operator took some convincing but she agreed to send a patrol car.

Brittany waited. When the cops arrived she told them about her fears. They called the Super to unlock the door. Inside, everything was in order, no signs of struggle. The phone was on Candy’s desk. The officers took her report and locked up.

Brittany signed into Flutter. My friend Candy is missing, she typed into a post. The screen fluttered again. Condolences from other friends poured into her feed.

A week later, the Flutter site crashed permanently. Bugs in the software, the news reported. Brittany stopped using social media. Her friends Candy, Danny, Betty and Brent were never found.

The End

939 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here: http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Posted on May 5, 2014 by conniejean

Antro-Calendar- Cinco de Mayo by Golden Druid via www.deviantart.com

Anthro-Calendar- Cinco de Mayo by Golden Druid via www.deviantart.com

Cinco de Mayo in America seems to mean having a big party with tex-mex food and margaritas or Mexican beer. I’m all for parties, tex-mex and margaritas, don’t get me wrong. But it’s a celebration of Mexican victory over France’s imperialism. I’m all for independence so yeah, a celebration is in order. Hubby and I will be having chicken tacos/burritos for dinner. The lines blur at my house over those two things. Not to worry. It will be tasty no matter what flour or corn conveyance we use.

This month I’m continuing the writing habit with my writing site’s May Story a Day. I’ve committed to writing at least 10 stories this month. Yep, we don’t hold ourselves strictly to a story a day. What I love about this is that at the end of the month, I have a lot of stories drafted. Some I publish right away on my blog, if they’re flash fictions. But I don’t hold myself to flashes. Some stories go longer and those or my favorite flashes, go into my pile of stories that I send out to magazines, ezines and contests. Still trying to make a name for myself and attract an audience/fanbase. In the meantime, I’m still writing. While I am writing, I’m doing the final edit for my next book to be released, Hard Choices. I am still looking to release the end of May so as my daughter says, I need to get crack-a-lackin’.

April’s Camp National Novel Writing Month, https://campnanowrimo.org/sign_in is done and I made some sort of math error so didn’t write 50K words, which was my goal. No matter. I finished my novelette, 2 short stories and made a big dent in my novel. I’m still writing on that and on my 2YN novel about Mrs. Claus. I’m solidifying a habit to sit down and write 1000 to 2000 words per day. Editing though, not my favorite thing.

The local area has entered the summer season. The first craft fairs have been held, the local artist community has held its annual tour around town to various artists homes, and yard sales are proliferating like mushrooms after a rain. Things get busy in my little town in the summer.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

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The Challenge: A Gulliver Station Story released March 23rd! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!

Flash Fiction Friday: Saving A Life

Posted on May 2, 2014 by conniejean

Prison Bars by Choney25 via www.deviantart.com

A little late but still on Friday. Enjoy.

Saving A Life

Emil and Teresa Gerhardt huddled with several hundred other humans in the camp the Aliens had put them in. Their children, fourteen- year-old Mikail and ten-year-old Ruth sat between them.

“Mom, what are they going to do with us?” Mikail whispered.

Teresa didn’t know. Their colony, founded three generations ago, was emptied yesterday by the aliens, the Krtit, who had let them settle here. The aliens, pink shaded, six legged hippopotamus looking creatures with eyes like crabs and circular mouths like sea anenomes with razor sharp looking teeth herded them through the Alien city they called Rylab, and into this fenced area yesterday. “I don’t know, son.” She looked at her husband.

He shrugged. “If we knew why they rounded us up, we might make a guess.” He was worried. The Mayor was at the gate, talking to one of the aliens. Hopefully trying to get them all released.

A bell sounded and they stood up. The Krtit had prepared food and the humans lined up to get it. It wasn’t much, two dried bars each and a bottle of water. One bar was savory and hard to chew. The other was sweet and soft. Both of them made the people thirsty. The line at the tap to get water was always long.

Bice was at home in his pool. The Krtit were ocean creatures in their distant past. They were land creatures now, but still, a pool was an essential part of any Krtit home. He manipulated the controls of the communication device on the wall with the first pair of legs which had twenty fingers on each. He watched the news of the human round up as he floated in the pool. “It’s not right,” he told his spouse when she joined him. “We told them they could live here.”

“You know what happened. The government changed and the groups that didn’t want them here began to control the government. There’s been increasing anti-human sentiment for the last few years.”

“They want to exterminate them. It’s not right. Why don’t we just have them get on their ships and move away?”

She shrugged, a motion that caused her entire body to wave in the salty water. “What can we do, Bice? We’re just one couple.”

“Something has to be done. Look, they have young in the camp too.” He pointed at the screen.

She nodded. “I agree, but what?”

The next day he called the government office that was responsible for the round up. “I’d like to pay for some of the humans to leave Ytic. Can you arrange that?”

The official was stunned to silence. When he recovered he said, “I don’t know. It’s not been offered as an option. I’ll contact you when I know more.”

A few hours later Bice was called back.

“It seems that if a toll is paid, you can choose your humans and send them away.”

Bice worked out the details and closed the connection.

He began calling friends. This was going to take a lot of credit.

A week later, Emil, Teresa and their children were called to the gate along with four other families. Emil was nervous. Other families had been called to the gate in the last three days. The Krtit didn’t say what was going on and the other families had not returned. Rumors flew around the camp; humans were being killed, the families were being released, no one really knew.

Outside the gate they were loaded into a transport and Emil could see they were heading to the spaceport. “Maybe they’re releasing us,” he said.

Teresa’s face was grim. Two of the other wives were weeping. “I hope so.”

At the spaceport they were lined up beside the transport and handed plastic cards. An officious looking Krtit told them, “These are your identicards. They contain your personal history and one thousand credits each.” The Krtit, pointed at a space liner on the tarmac. “You have each received permission to leave Ytic. You are never to return.”

“But I had more than a thousand credits in the bank! I have a business, property” cried out one man.

The Krtit stared at him. “You may now board the ship.”

“But what about…,” another man began to say.

The Krtit cut him off. “Enough. You can leave. You’re passage has been paid.”

Emil put his hand on his wife’s back and urged her toward the ship. “Let’s go before they change their minds.” They grabbed their children’s hands and headed for the ship, the other families followed.

Three weeks later the Krtit government declared war on the Human race. The remaining families were slaughtered.

Bice stared at the communication screen from his pool, his wife beside him, the video of the slaughter on the screen. “You tried,” she told him.

“We saved some at least.” He turned the screen off. “What a waste.”

The End

817 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here: http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

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Tag Archives: writing

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