Hello All,
I really
enjoy short stories because when a story pops into my head, short stories allow
me to create and complete something with a limited amount of time. I do
sometimes need a little instant gratification. However, like reading a good
book, or working on an enjoyable project, sometimes getting there is 75% of the
fun. So, I also like to write novel length stories.
These stories are sometimes months
of work in progress. It becomes something I pull up as a way to entertain
myself should I find an hour or more of free time in the morning or evening.
This doesn’t happen much, but when it does, I’m usually ready with something to
add because even though I have limited time to work on the manuscript, I have
plenty of moments to think about what might happen within the story. How many
hours a week do I find myself sitting in traffic, waiting on appointments,
waiting on a meeting to start—how many hours a week do we all spend waiting.
I think these forced breaks help
with the creation of a story. Though I enjoy typing away as the story unfolds
itself, I think having to step back and think about the events of the story,
the characterizations, the many roads the story could go down, and the time
line and placement of the stories information is really helpful at crafting
what I want. What I want is a story that entertains, perhaps moves or uplifts,
and one that closely resembles actual human interactions—I want it to feel
real.
Of course following the creation
process comes the work of editing the story. For me, this process can go on
forever, and at some point I have say “Enough!” Revision can be both wonderful
and grueling. Sometimes I have to kill lines that I carefully molded and really
liked, but they didn’t really work in the story. Then there is that paragraph
that didn’t flow or move with the story in a way you’d have liked, but with the
revision of the paragraph before it, it now becomes easy to tweak and helps the
story move on beautifully and naturally. And sometimes in the revision nuances
of the story change because they just have to, and it’s both strange that I
didn’t notice it while writing the story and a wonderful surprise.
I have recently completed this
process with a story called “The Power of a Love Song.” I’m posting the “book
blurb” and the link to find the book on amazon. I will be offering the eBook
for free for a short period. When I pick the dates, I’ll let y’all know.
Blurb—
Alison Evans, an organized,
focused, and in control woman, living in Charlotte North Carolina, is loosing
it. Since her husband of almost twenty-eight-years left her for a younger woman,
Alison has spent the last two weeks cooped-up in her house, seldom getting out
of bed, or answering her phone, or even walking her beloved dog, Monkey. She’s
been going over the events of her life, trying to figure out where she went
wrong. There’s the failed marriage, the separation agreement her husband is
trying to force on her, and her longstanding anger towards her mother. Woven
into her life’s history are the memories of the young man she once loved, Brian.
They keep elbowing their way into her mind, but the memories of Brian are
tangled in the secret she’s kept for her mother, one that has shown up to burn
in her chest again. And when her mother calls from Miami to invite everyone to
her wedding, only a year after the death of Alison’s father, the anger in
Alison begins to boil over.
Alison’s business partner, Roman, and
her oldest friend, Maggie, rally around her to go to Miami and confront her past
with her mother, but when Brian, still as handsome and kind as ever, shows up
in town on his way to her mother’s wedding, Alison can’t seem to control all of
the emotions swimming inside of her. She can’t seem to regain the level-headed
behavior she’d come to rely on and has recently been having an occasional
meltdown, and even though Brian has shown up at the absolute worst time possible,
she can’t stop thinking about his raspy voice, his easy-going demeanor, and
wanting to kiss him.
Can her friends get her to Miami in
one piece? Can she finally sort out the past with her mother? Can she construct
a new life from simple things like understanding, forgiveness, trust, laughter,
and the power of a love song?
Sometimes, when your past comes
after you, “loosing it” might be the best thing that can happen.
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