Flash Friday Fiction: Poetic Justice

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Demolition. CC2.0 photo by Maureen Didde.
Demolition. CC2.0 photo by Maureen Didde.

Poetic Justice – 150 words

“There once was a man from Nantucket…”

No, no, no. That will never do.

“Once Upon A Midnight Dreary…”

Right. Like THAT’s never been done before. Nevermore.

“Oh, Sally Sue, I love you true,
My love is never ending.
That you and I and Phil and Stu…”

Phil and Stu? WTF?

“‘Twas once a time ago I thought I felt
A glimmering of love so true for you.
Beneath your tender gaze, I thought I’d melt,
Right down into a big green pile of goo…”

Ugh. I’m certainly no Shakespeare.

“So that night that you and I, like, got totally drunk and smashed face and stuff? That was the Best. Night. Ever. Could we, uh, totally do it again?”

Not exactly poetry. But truth.

*ping*

She texted me!

“Roses are red, violets are blue,
Never again do I want to see you.”

Crap. Figures. She’s a better poet than I.

We had 150 (+/- 10) words to draft a story inspired in some way by this week’s book:  Douglas Adams’ wacky scifi classic, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in which the rather ordinary but not overly eager to be annihilated human Arthur Dent is swept away on galactic adventures.

Not claiming this is my Best. Work. Ever, but after missing last week, I just couldn’t stomach the idea of not writing this week – even though I’m eyebrows deep in edits for A Matter of Time. Of the story element choices below, I picked “the worst poet in the universe,” and “foolishness/miscommunication.” Though in hindsight, I’m wishing I’d worked the number 42 in there somewhere…

Story elements (base your story on any TWO of these elements; be sure to tell us which two you chose. Reminder: please remember the Flash! Friday guidelines with regard to content; and remember please do not use copyrighted characters).

* Conflict: man v man (not gender or species specific)
* Character (choose at least one): an ordinary person swept away on an epic adventure; a depressed robot; the worst poet in the universe; a charismatic hedonistic narcissist; a professional hitchhiker
* Theme (choose one): satire, foolishness, science, adventure, miscommunication
* Setting (choose one): a house about to be bulldozed; a spaceship; an odd restaurant

Take an epic adventure yourself on over to Flash Friday Fiction, and read (and perhaps comment) on some of the other amazing flash stories – or, you know, like, totally craft one of your own!!!

 

Writer Wednesday: Guest Post from Kathryn Barrett

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Kathryn BarrettWriter Wednesday is back! Par-tay!

This time, we’re shaking it up a little bit. Instead of a standard interview, Kathryn Barrett is taking over the whole shebang (with my blessing, of course, especially since she was already subject to my quizzing in March) and giving us a little insight into her novels, including her latest, True Gold.

It’s kind of fun sitting back with the rest of y’all and seeing (okay, reading) what she has to say.

(Also, if you haven’t checked out her first book, Temptation, you should! I adored it – and have both Redemption and True Gold in my stack of books to read next!)

You gotta have friends…and so do your characters

Redemption Cover Kathryn BarrettLike any author, I love my characters, but sometimes, I love their friends more. My third release, True Gold, features a character who first appeared in my last book, Redemption. He’s the head of the company the main character works for, and he makes a brief appearance at the end, a supportive boss and friend. But as I was writing Redemption, I wanted to know more about this guy, who first appeared to me as a shadowy figure, a quiet man who didn’t have many friends, but who’d formed a friendship with Claire because they were very much alike in temperament.

My first book, Temptation, also features a friend of the main character Laura, who was also the hero of Redemption—Matt Grayson, a Hollywood A-list actor and director who, I knew, had been recently reunited with his true love.

When best friends pop in for brief appearances in my books—or even in the many book ideas that for now exist only in my head—I want to know their story too. When I first started writing I’d often be led astray by these friends. At its midpoint, the book I was writing became dull and difficult, so I let myself be distracted by the shiny new friend who’d appeared. Who is he? What’s her story? What’s he hiding? The tantalizing secrets they held intrigued me, tempted me away from the current work in progress. Finally I had to get tough with myself and just finish the book, promising myself I’d go back and write the other stories—discover what that character was all about—later.

temptationI think friends are easier to include than family members. There’s a reason why so many romance heroes and heroines are orphans: parents are often an inconvenient complication in a plot—unless they’re estranged, they need to show up once in a while if the story is to be realistic. But a friend can pop in long enough to offer valuable advice a character needs to get beyond the Black Moment she’s found herself in.

Other authors I like write the same sort of loosely connected stories: Nora Roberts, Susan E. Phillips, and Judith McNaught, whose books first convinced me I needed to write romance. And the best thing is, there’s never a shortage of story ideas. As long as a character isn’t totally friendless, there’ll be someone in my head, waiting in the wings for his story to be told. And then, I get to check in on my previous characters, too, as they inevitably make an appearance in their friends’ books.

What about you? Do you like to read or write about friends of previous main characters?

TRUE GOLD:

TrueGold_FINALConnor Forrest is a self-made billionaire only one generation removed from the emerald turf of his mother’s Ireland. Jaded by the high risk, high tech investment world he inhabits, he has little time for introspection, poetry, or true love. A piece of perfectly thought out logic, on the other hand, makes him weak in the knees.

Rebecca Evans is a brilliant computer programmer disguised as a ditzy blonde. She’s looking for love, but people are not as predictable as mathematical equations.

A fall in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park sends her straight into Connor’s arms, but getting into his heart is a much harder task.

Can Connor learn that true love, like gold futures, is worth a little risk?

Find True Gold here:

Simon and Schuster: http://books.simonandschuster.com/True-Gold/Kathryn-Barrett/9781623422158

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/True-Gold-Kathryn-Barrett-ebook/dp/B00ZPNZJIU

Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/True-Gold-Kathryn-Barrett-ebook/dp/B00ZPMWPK6/

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/true-gold-kathryn-barrett/1122135938

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/true-gold/id1006823331?mt=11

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/true-gold-1

BooksAMillion: http://www.booksamillion.com/search?query=9781623422158

Bio:

Kathryn Barrett reluctantly put aside childhood dreams of becoming an author and took a more practical approach, majoring in Business Administration in college. But after marrying an Air Force officer, she realized a career in high finance didn’t suit an itinerant lifestyle. She happily returned to her first love, writing stories that feature larger-than-life characters, family relationships, and of course, a happy ending.

Her award-winning novel Temptation was published in 2013, followed by Redemption in 2014.

Having lived all over the world, Kathryn and her family have recently relocated to northern Virginia. She enjoys long walks with her squirrel-obsessed dog, traveling to tiny European countries, cooking vegan feasts, and, only occasionally, she still reads the Financial Times.

Website: http://kathrynbarrett.com

Twitter: @KathrynSBarrett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKathrynBarrett

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Kathryn-Barrett/e/B00BHSWH00/

Thanks so much, Kathryn!
I, for one, LOVE series interconnected by siblings or friends (as all my stories will be).
I’m so glad you could share your insights today. 

#Whole30: The Aftermath (It Was Pretty. Until It Wasn’t.)

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peasMonday marked the end of my Whole 30. Hooray! I was thrilled to have made it through (there were several dark days where I thought I couldn’t go on). And while I can honestly say I hated it 80% of the time, I DID drop 20 pounds and was generally feeling pretty good by the very end.

Then came the challenge of reintroduction. I was SUPPOSED to do a 10 day plan – introduce legumes, go back to 2 days of Whole 30 eating, introduce dairy, go back to Whole 30, etc. The first part of the week went fine. I was overjoyed to have peanut butter, ecstatic to eat peas.

And then Thursday, I decided to let myself have that chocolate bar I’d been saving for weeks- my Whole 30 Victory Bar. It was about the size of a Hershey’s bar. I ate half at lunch, the second half after dinner. Both times, the chocolate itself was delicious (and I’ve never eaten chocolate that slowly). Both times, I got a headache and a slightly upset stomach several hours afterward. A clue, one might say, that chocolate was a stupid idea.

And that chocolate was a trigger. Friday I fought cravings all day. Saturday I fought cravings all day. Until I didn’t. I’d dropped my daughter off with her grandma for an overnight, and headed back home. It was around 1:30, and I’d had no lunch and minimal breakfast. I stopped at Wendy’s and ate a large fries with ketchup – no sandwich, just the fries. And I wanted more. Stupid fast food. Stupid me for stopping.

fruitLater that afternoon, I headed up to an awesome writer’s retreat with writing buddies Annika Keswick, Foy Iver, Tamara Shoemaker, Taryn Bk, and Rebekah Postupak – and bought a Hershey’s bar and devoured it. I’d love to say it was without thinking. Of COURSE I’m the one who bought the stupid bar and put it in my mouth. My brain is sneaky, people.

I’d prepped for the event, bringing strawberries and grapes and ham and peas. I knew there were going to be goodies there, but the first night I resisted the brownies and the flour tortillas – but did dive into the spanish rice. And nearly ate it all.

This morning (Sunday), I woke up after maybe – maybe – 3 hours sleep. I was exhausted. I was cravy. Brownies were staring me in the face. I ate them. I ate a LOT of them. I ate pumpkin cookies. I ate and ate and ate and ate.

Is it a matter of no willpower? No. I just did a Whole 30. I have willpower in droves. But it’s a matter of an addiction so strong, it smashes that willpower 95% of the time.

I drove home, disgusted and frustrated with myself yet again. All that hard work, thrown out the window. And once I start a binge day, it’s very hard for me to stop one. Instead, I go to the “Well, I’ve already eaten this, might as well eat THAT” fallacy.

My amazing writer friends.
My amazing writer friends – Taryn Bk, Annika Keswick, Tamara Shoemaker, me, and Foy Iver.

So here I am, at the end of Week 1 post-Whole 30. What’s the plan for Week 2? Back to Whole 30, with legumes. Yes, I need to go back. I don’t like this feeling of being out of control. And sugar and white flour make me out of control. So they’re going back into Pandora’s Box, and I’m going back to Whole 30 eating for at least seven days – but am willing to eat some peas and/or peanut butter, as I don’t think they are triggers.

Again, I am definitely NOT the poster child for Whole 30 success. I struggled every day on the program. I’ve struggled every day after – but by the end of the 30 days, I definitely felt better. And that’s what I want to feel.

Dog gone it. If only I could be addicted to lettuce.

#ThrowItForward Thursday: Meet Joy of Lankshear Design!

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Joy Lankshear#ThrowItForward Thursday. I love it. I love being able to shine the light back on those who help authors, to give credit where credit is most certainly due, and it absolutely delights me to honor Joy of Lankshear Design today.

Sometimes I meet the coolest people in the most unusual ways. I met my husband via my (late 90s) Elvis website. I met Joy because of our mutual love for the BBC show Merlin. We stumbled across each other on Twitter, started talking about the show, then about other things. She learned I was a writer hoping to someday publish a book; I learned she was a graphic designer.

Kismet? I think so. One look at her work, with its beautifully clean, classic designs, and I decided she was the designer for me. Given the reception to the covers for A Man of Character and A Matter of Time, it was clear I made the right choice (though I knew that the minute I saw the designs!).

If you’re looking for high quality, custom designs, whether for a book, a magazine, brochures, you name it, I highly recommend you contact Joy. She’s so fun to work with, her work impeccable, and the final products brilliant. I literally could not be happier with my books, for Joy did both the covers and the interior formatting, giving me a final product leaps and bounds ahead of anything I could have produced in terms of quality. Thank you, Joy!

A Man of Character Cover Margaret LockeHow long have you been doing graphic design?

I’ve been working full time as a Graphic Designer for 24 years – wow, that is a long time.

How did you decide to become a graphic designer? Had it been a long-term dream?

I’ve always loved art and creating things with my hands, so my interest in design grew out of that. I received a Bachelor of Graphic Design from La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia in 1991.

You work from home. Do you love it? Is it hard to balance family needs when your work place is in the same space as your home place? (I know many authors face this challenge – I do!)

I love the flexibility of working from home. I’ve worked in large design studios in Sydney for many years, but since having a family, I have worked from home. It is the ideal job to do while working from home. I’m the kind of person who can’t sit still, I love multitasking, and this is a great environment for that.

ld2What’s your favorite kind of work to do? Book covers? Brochures? Posters? Logos?

My favourite work is book design and magazine design. It’s great to finally see the printed thing in my hand and to have helped an author or publisher to create it.

I also design virtually anything that will be printed, bill boards, banners, product packaging, annual reports, brochures, logo signage and stationery. I also design websites and web gifs.

You live in Australia, but are working with me, an American. Is it odd to be doing work for clients who live far away, whom you’ve never met in person?

I love this about my work, the variety of people I meet. I have several clients in America and have worked with clients in England, Singapore, New Zealand and Malaysia, just to name a few other countries. Many of my clients I’ve never met in person; however, we Skype and email so often we have become good friends.

ld8How long does it take you to design your average book cover?

I usually try to turn a cover design around in a week. But I’m very flexible and work hard to fit in with my clients’ schedules.

From where do you get your ideas? (Yeah, I totally have to ask that, even though authors roll their eyes at that one, too, because, really, do we always KNOW from where the ideas come?)

24 years as a designer brings with it a feeling for what my clients want. Sometimes an idea will jump out at me within seconds. Other times I really have to work and experiment and play around with ideas until something gels.

I try to get out often and look at what is happening in design so that I stay relevant. Being in touch with other designers and ad agencies is also a great inspiration, as we can bounce ideas off each other.

ld4What other sorts of services do you provide for authors?

Just about anything. Cover design, typesetting and promotional graphics. A lot of my clients request web graphics, slider banners and gifs, which they can add to their websites.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I would love to go to Europe and London, especially. We don’t have all those ancient buildings and history in Australia in the way that Europe does.

Name two things people don’t know about you:

I was born in a fishing village in South Thailand where my parents worked as medical missionaries.

I took up jogging 3 years ago and am still persevering with it, though I’m the world’s slowest runner. I saw a t-shirt that said, “I run … I’m slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter … but I run!” That about sums it up.

Front Cover of A Matter of Time by Margaret LockeDo you have a fan base built up? (I know quite a few people who’ve expressed their admiration for A Man of Character‘s cover, and I’m always quick to tell them who designed it!)

Only really my Lankshear Design Facebook page. Which I haven’t done a lot with, so far.

Anything else you’d like us to know?

I’m flexible with work. I’m generally happy to work with my clients budget.

Aren’t those covers gorgeous? I look forward to seeing what Joy will do for my third book (The Demon Duke, which will debut sometime in 2016).
What can she do for YOU?