April

April 19, 2009 By 10 Comments

It’s time for another edition of Four Seasons, my monthly fiction newsletter. I think February is still my favorite, but I really like this one as well. It’s definitely a different direction, and I’m eager to see where the series will go from here.

If you are new to the series, make sure to sign up. It’s free and fun. You will get January through March, each a few days apart. Below is an excerpt from this months entry, April.

Enjoy!

AprilIt was time for Laney to start thinking about getting her own place again. The last time she had tried, when she was thirty-six, it had gone horribly. But that was almost five years earlier.
She was definitely ready to think about trying again.

She was ready to order a pizza without asking her father what he wanted on top. She was ready to have her mother pick up her own french fry flipping prescriptions. She was ready to let them pour their own baths. And she was definitely ready to stay out late without having to explain where she was (not that any of the places she frequented were worth explaining).

Her parents never asked her straight out, but Laney knew they wanted to know. She could feel it behind their pleasant smiles when she opened the door, just like she could feel it behind every question they did not ask.

Money wasn’t the issue preventing her exodus. Between Laney’s teaching and the violin studio she ran in the tiny unventilated den just across the hall from her bedroom in the furthest corner of her parent’s modest house, she had plenty. Laney had only been on her own for six months in her entire life, had been squirreling away for the rest of her adulthood, and had the savings account to prove it.

Problem was, nighttime without her parents made Laney feel like a toddler lost at Disneyland. Too much open space colliding with too many choices. Daytime was fine, Laney could go to her classes and teach her barely literate students a bit of basic English. On days when she wasn’t teaching, Laney could always step outside for a walk and enjoy the fresh air mingling with the clear direction of her daily routine.

Nighttime was different.

Nighttime never found Laney alone. Night was when the lonely bubbled above the blankets in her bed and started asking her questions she did not like to answer. Nighttime reminded Laney she needed her mommy and daddy like a two-year old needs his saliva soaked blanket.

Nighttime brought the Scarecrow and sometimes all his friends.

Writer Dad

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: ,

Four Seasons

December 19, 2008 By 24 Comments

“The seasons are what a symphony ought to be:  four perfect movements in harmony with each other.”

~Arthur Rubenstein

4seasons1tree

I have a new writing project.  It’s called Four Seasons.

Four Seasons is a collection of twelves short stories, each taking place in a different month.  Each tale’s events are unique to their time, and should each one assemble toward something special.  It’s definitely an experiment, but I’m thrilled with the first one, finished just hours ago.

The project is newsletter only.  You can sign up at the bottom of this page.  If you’ve already signed up, it’s already in your in-box (I hope you guys love it).

Below are a few bites from the story:

  • Maya’s breath hastened into short bursts of labored punctuation, each tiny cry climbing closer toward frantic.
  • Time fell from its normal rhythm, into a syrupy pool of swirling seconds; each trudging forward minus meaning.  Brian pushed one leg through his pant bottoms, then the other.  He pulled the shirt over his head, mopping his forehead on the way down.
  • He had lost only three minutes since the blond nurse handed him the folded scrubs, but in that time, the doctors had already cut Maya wide in an abyss of blood and gaping flesh.
  • The officer ambled toward the minivan, carrying the undisguised gait of a man looking forward to writing a ticked.  “License and registration,” he commanded in a boom which invited no banter.
  • Brian sailed through the third red light like it had point value, clearing the empty intersection somewhere between speed limit and death on impact.  “I have to stop doing that,” he thought.  “There’s three of us now.”

See you all on Monday, and have a terrific weekend.

Writer Dad

Click to hire a ghostwriter to help write or edit your next project.

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Blogopolis Bulletin

December 12, 2008 By 22 Comments


“What a wonderful thing is the mail, capable of conveying across continents a warm human hand-clasp.”

~Author Unknown

Sorry everybody.  I had no idea that this didn’t hit RSS yesterday until people started wondering where I was.  Issue solved.  Happy weekend!  See ya Monday.

467996341_056d575f11Immediately behind “You’ve gotta have a niche” follows the Blogopolis adage, “You’ve gotta have a newsletter.”  Of course I’ve wandered through the last five  months ignoring these experience gilded pearls of advice; dodging the wisdom as though it were the promise of an ill fitting uniform.

As I give Writer Dad my pinky instead of my hand, the Dad will get the FRONT PAGE!  bold type – at least around here.  The Writer, it seems, will become a bit of a nomad.

2009 thus far, is a giant white canvas, filling the west wall of my existence.  Though the final image is still a mystery, there are a few definite smears of color across the empty space.  A thousand ideas and a multiplicity of words must coalesce to give that picture breath.

I have undoubtedly grown in the half year since I first browsed through the boulevards of Blogopolis in search of a dwelling to call my own.  I’d be disappointed if the new year did not find me taking larger leaps with the new found strength in my legs.  I hope that next December I am looking onto a landscape equally arid of explicit future, yet every bit as pregnant with promise.

I need a campfire for my projects to gather around; a single strand to sew everything together.

I’m starting a newsletter.  I’m not sure how often I’ll hit send, though I’m imagining bi-weekly.  It will likely be a gathering of content with a snippet or two of something extra special.  If you are a fan of Lucas Bright or RedBook, are curious about projects brewing, or want an auxiliary dose of wonderful words, please fill in the form below.  It takes but a second and I promise not to spam you.

The following video is a teaser for something coming in the new year.  It’s a collaboration with the wonderful husband and wife team of Jeremy and Lucy at Lulu Design, and precisely the sort of thing that would make its way into the newsletter.  Have a wonderful weekend,  I’ll see you Monday.

Writer Dad


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