FIVE SENTENCE FICTION - Marriage

This week Lillie McFerrin gave us the prompt of “MARRIAGE” on her website [http://www.lilliemcferrin.com]; and as I down this morning to think about what I should write about, the thought of simply posting a small snippet of my W.I.P came to me.


I’m now over 90% completed writing my adult Contemporary romance with a paranormal element running through parts of the storyline entitled “His Darkest Secret.”


In this snippet Jessica is sitting in the huge leather chair in her office/den as she quietly holds the old picture of Bill on first day on the job as a volunteer firefighter, wearing his jacket and helmet. She closes her eyes while holding the picture next to her heart, falls asleep, and begins to dream of what her life would have been like if Bill hadn’t died in the tragic fire on Oak Street. She remained sleeping in her chair until six o’clock when Gloria came in to wake her for dinner.

THOUGHTS ABOUT BILL AS

I’M ABOUT TO MARRY WARREN

I know I’m marrying Warren tomorrow, but I so wish it would have been you such a long time ago.


I don’t know how you’ve done it but you’ve kept the promise you made to me the day you died about always being there for me, especially when I’d need it the most.


I still can’t believe it, but it’s incredible there have been so many similarities regarding the three of us, especially the coincidence of Warren having used the same song for his wedding with Linda; that we’d decided to use for ours.


I also know your spirit will be there with me tomorrow, watching as I walk down the white aisle to be married to the wonderful guy you sent me to be your substitute. As I sit here, thinking about all this, I sense you’re be sending me another one of your mysterious letters which always proceeds some important event in my life, and what event could be more important in my life than my wedding day.




My first YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance novel is entitled “I Kissed a Ghost” Available on Amazon. Here are the links for the KINDLE Edition




[UK] http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CRQ9SC6


[US] http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CRQ9SC6

FIVE SENTENCE FICTION - Anchor

This week for the prompt word Lillie McFerrin has given us "ANCHOR" with which we're to write our Five Sentence Fiction.  This is my response which I've written using an acrostic format for the prompt word.

The Bride Gets What She Asked For

ANne and her millionaire adventurer husband Michael spent their honeymoon on his luxury yacht “The Happiness.”


Choosing to cruise the inland coastal waterway system they experienced an extremely smooth trip.


Having never been on a yacht Michael allowed her to take the wheel of his as he continuously kept a watchful eye on every move she made.


Ordinarily he’d never allowed it to happen, however he couldn’t refuse his new bride anything she’d asked for, especially on this, their honeymoon.


Reaching the widest point in the portion of the costal waterway they were in, they dropped ANCHOR after having their lunch to sun themselves peacefully on the highest deck of his yacht.

WEEKLY STATUS REPORT # 12

The countdown for completion of my anthology of Flash Fiction is continuing to my goal of 100 Flash Fictions with the addition of 1 more item bringing the total needing to be completed down to only FOUR. I’ve kept a chronological order to the Flash Fictions I’ve written. Up till now I’ve kept an alphabetical listing in a spreadsheet of the Flash Fictions I’ve written according to the prompt word they’d been written for. As soon as I write these four items have been written, as well as the Preface and Acknowledgement pages, I’ll start self-editing the entire anthology manuscript before passing it on to my next set of eyes.

The Secret of the Well, the sequel to my first YA Paranormal romance novel I Kissed a Ghost. In the past week I’ve written a very important, almost pivotal-like, chapter of the book, consisting of 7 pages and approximately 2,275 words.


For my adult Contemporary, His Darkest Secret, with the headers/page numbers back in place, and with its completion being placed as I move two of my other endeavors up in their to be self-published, I’ve begun the long, arduous process of self-editing my entire manuscript which had 248 pages and approximately 76,350 words when I started.

The way I go about self-editing is to search for certain “DEMON” words which have an impact in what has been written and the way it reads. Right now I doing a SEARCH for the word “HAD.” This word can easily form a contraction with a pronoun which increases the readability of a sentence or a phrase. This word at times is not needed many times in formatting a past tense as it tends to make the past tense sound somewhat awkward. I’d started this process on Friday, by Saturday, the end of the week, I’d completed 48 pages. This resulted in a decrease of 44 “HADs” but by the time you count the editing around each change the total word count increased by about 120 words. Hopefully by this coming Saturday I’ll have completed working on “HAD” and will start on my next search/change.

At the present time I’m still awaiting to receive word about the release date of a new literary review e-zine a Flash Fiction I’ve written is supposed to be published in. The same holds true for the fund raising anthology of short stories with HIV/AIDS as one of its themes where I’ve got seven Flash Fictions scheduled to be published in.

FIVE SENTENCE FICTION - Innocence

For my response this week to Lillie McFerrin’s [http://www.lillimcferrin.com] prompt word of “INNOCENCE” I decided to turn to some real fantasy for a change. 

A Prophecy Needs To Be Fulfilled 

Hundreds of years ago a banshee cursed everyone living in certain village by changing the color of their skin to either blue or yellow.

And with the curse came a prophecy of when the curse would at long last be lifted.

It required the innocence of two youths who’ve shared each other’s ghosts of a hundred years ago to find the hidden entrance to the “Land of Two Colors.”

The well hidden entrance to this realm is only available for a three day cycle around a full moon, and once entered, the prophecy must be fulfilled by the end of the third cycle of three or the curse shall forever more remain in effect.

Will these two youths who’ve entered this realm figure out what needs to be done before time runs out; the story is still running its course so only time will tell.

WEEKLY STATUS REPORT # 11

Before I start talking about my writing endeavors I’m proud to same I’ve gotten a second promotion on LinkedIn in another one of their groups in about four weeks. Last month I got promoted from being a Moderator in Literary Fiction Writers Group to being its Manager. Yesterday [May 6, 2014] I got another promotion from being a Moderator to being the Manager, this time the group is Fantasy Readers and Professionals. I feel honored in being acknowledged in this manner, as I feel my commitment in doing things to these groups and willingness to take on addition responsibility must be showing. This brings my involvement in LinkedIn to


Member = 54 Groups

Owner = 3 Groups

New Authors Need Marketing Ideas

Authors/Writers Helping Authors/Writers

Young Adult Book Authors

Manager = 2 Groups [See above]

Moderator = 2 Groups

Indie Authors

Ready to Read


On Saturday, I posted my 5 STAR Review for Connor by Dormaine G. Here’s the review I posted on Amazon.com http://tinyurl.com/kal9nuh on blog here, as well as on GoodReads.



Given the way my various writing endeavors have been going in the past few weeks I’ve decided to rearrange my priorities regarding them.


Since my anthology of Flash Fiction now only requires five more items to be added, and would be the cheapest/quickest to be self-published it’s now at the top of my priorities; along with my YA Urban Fantasy The Secret of the Well. Since I’ve got emails wanting to know if there would be sequel to my first romance endeavor, I Kissed a Ghost which my YA Urban Fantasy is; so I’ve decided to give the public what it wants.


The pace for His Darkest Secret has basically slowed down to a crawl with only a little tweaking, self-editing being done on a regular basis. The reason for this is that endeavor will also be the most costly to self-publish, give the heavy-duty editing I’d like to have done with it which involves more than a mere grammar, spelling, and punctuation check by someone else. And finally, as far as my NA Contemporary It Had All Been a Game is concerned, I’m going to leave it on the back burner for the time being, as what I’d intended to write about as changed, and therefore I won't be making further updates until there's some movement again.



So let’s down to what I’ve accomplished this week.

For my adult Contemporary, His Darkest Secret, I’ve returned to formatting of each page to what I had prior to its disappearance. I’ve set the format of each page of each manuscript I’m writing so it resembles a page of a regular book [6” x 9” trim], with the appropriate left/right and top/bottom margins on each page. I’ve also restored the appropriate headers/footers as well. With this in place, I used the grammar/spellcheck feature on WORD and have eliminated 100% of the errors here.


In regards to The Secret of the Well, the sequel to I Kissed a Ghost, this week I’ve completed a relatively short but important chapter, consisting of two pages and approximately 600 words. And with the change of font I’m using this brings to total for this manuscript to 13 Chapters, 48 pages and about 14,750 words, which according what length good length novella should be would make this about 46% complete.


My anthology of Flash Fiction is up to 95 items with a 2 new item being written in the past week. This leaves me with only 5 more items to write for my goal of 100 Flash Fictions and the long process of self-editing begins before it is handed over to a second set of eyes.

BOOK REVIEW - CONNOR

"CONNOR"

By Dormaine G

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FUX8XSI

This is an EXCELLENT YA Paranormal novel. I tend to stay away from first persons since I’ve found them to be lacking in getting you involved. However, with Dormaine endeavor here, I not only got sucked into the story; I got sucked into the psyche of Connor, the story’s main character and at times feeling I’ve become the character Dormaine has created.

It felt weird discovering that only I, but five of my best friends as well had all been adopted at about the same time and from the same place. In addition to this, we all began to discover each of us had strange abilities which we couldn’t explain. It came as a shock learning what we were, why we’ve been brought together, and the special reason for it all. It seems it’s due to the never ending story of good vs evil. If you’re interested in knowing all of the details, Connor by Dormaine G is a MUST READ !!!!

 

FIVE SENTENCE FICTION - Doors

Here we go again. It’s another Thursday, and another prompt word by Lillie on her website [http://www.lilliemcferrin.com], to challenge our ability to respond with a Five Sentence [Flash] Fiction. This week she’s challenged us with the prompt word of “DOORS”, and this week I’ve once again chosen to use my “almost trademark” acrostic format to respond with.

GETTING A SECOND CHANCE

Dorothy and her two friends had been captured by a wicked sorcerer, and were told they could each have a chance for freedom if they’d separate and go their separate ways by opening one of three DOORS through which they’d have to walk through.

Opening DOOR number three her friend Lillie walked through and quickly disappeared.

Opening DOOR number one her friend Robin Leigh walked through and likewise disappeared.

Reluctant to open the remaining DOOR, Dorothy finally opened it and walked through it as well.

Surprised by seeing her two friends at the other end, they immediately agreed to choose the other path in the woods which they’d first come to at the fork in the road, instead of the one which had lead them to the sorcerer’s castle the first time.

WEEKLY STATUS REPORT # 10

EGADS !!! As far as “His Darkest Secret”, my adult Contemporary is concerned; I’d been already to write the next chapter; but when I opened the file all the word count and the number of pages were correct, however the formatting had changed and I no longer had page numbers or the two headers I once had.  I guess this will be a week in which all the time I spent on this endeavor will be on correct the format on each page and replacing those missing components. The length for this endeavor remains at 40 Chapters, 284 pages with approximately 76,350 words.

In regards to The Secret of the Well, the sequel to I Kissed a Ghost, this week I’ve completed 2 Chapters, consisting of 10 pages and approximately 3,050 words. And with the change of font I’m using this brings to total for this manuscript to 12 Chapters, 46 pages and about 14,075 words, which according what length good length novella should be would make this about 40% complete.

My anthology of Flash Fiction is up to 94 items with the 2 new items I’ve written in the past week. This leaves me with only 6 more items to write for my goal of 100 Flash Fictions and the long process of self-editing begins before it is handed over to a second set of eyes.

“It Had All Been a Game” is still on the back burner.

This week if you’ve been following my blog you know I’ve posted 2 new interviews here on my blog. Please DO NOT REQUEST an interview as all my interviews are now by invitation only.

This week I became a member of the Twitter Support Team of a very supportive site called Rave Reviews by Nonnie Jules [ http://tinyurl.com/mqo65sj]. I’d like to everyone who’s an author to check the site out. If, you decide to join please enter my name as the person who had referred you. THANKS

FIVE SENTENCE FICTION - Freedom

Here we another week and another prompt word from Lillie. This week she’s given us the prompt “FREEDOM” on her website [http://www.lilliemcferrin.com] to write our Five Sentence Fiction. And this week I’ve decided to once again use an acrostic format in which to write my response. Adding to the difficulty is the THREE letters I had to use which began the final fifth sentence. I’d would love to read everyone’s feedback this week. THANKS

BECOMING AN AUTHOR, BUT AT WHAT COST ???

F ledgling romance Author Cindy Madison had always dreamt of meeting a romance author who’s famous.

R eceiving an invitation from Liz Whippet she didn’t hesitate to meet for some coffee and pie at Liz’s home.

E ntering the abode she got enthralled by the furnishings.

E leven hours later she woke to find ten other women slaving away at computers writing romance stories of every genre.

DOM inating the room she saw an Amazon with a whip continuously yelling, “Finish typing those five romances if you want ‘The Mistress’ to give you your FREEDOM.”


[The names use here at purely fictitious. Any connection with anyone living or dead is pure coincidence.]

You can find out more about Robin Leigh Morgan, who’s a YA Paranormal Romance author and Robin Leigh’s first romance novel “I Kissed a Ghost”, by reading yesterday’s [April 30, 2014] blog entry, "Tell Me More !!!."