3 Responses to Insanity: Which Are You?

What do you do when the world explodes? 

Do you hunker down and hope the storm passes?

Do you strap on your survival gear and explore the changes?

Do you hide behind your window and ignore the pretty, pretty disasters?

Me? I disappear and take up a new hobby. 😆 Apparently. With cheese. 

I don't know if anyone even comes here anymore because I've been so stinkin’ absent. So...

Things I've been up to:

• Teaching. Like literally, in a school setting. (Creating curriculum from scratch.) I taught several writing classes, a music writing class, geography, even preschool. *gasp* (Not full time. Nope. Too busy teaching my own kids the rest of the week.)

• Producing Musicals (and a play). That's right. 4 under my belt, two of which I cast and directed (and designed lights/projection, and so, so much more!). Tuck a talent show in there too (including all production aspects—finding a venue, tech design, all the way down to rehearsals with the talent) and we tally 5 separate shows. In two years.

  

• Running writing contests and playing editor for a couple anthologies.

• Had a son get married.

• Sent a daughter to the other side of the world serving a church mission.

• Graduated a third child.

• Reestablished a Drama Program: from fundraising to tracking down venues to building teams to casting... I've done it all AND wrote the manual for my successors. (Seriously though, 45 pages of best practices.)

• Revised and workshopped MY musical. (Two years and counting, baby!) (“My" is a loose term referring to the Collier team, hubby and myself.)

• Held 2 low-key readings of my musical. (I say low-key, but that included creating rehearsal video for ALL music parts for ALL characters for a TWO HOUR SHOW. 1 to 12 vocal parts per song – let that sink in — and holding rehearsals/coaching sessions for performers. Whew!)

• Mixed 2 hours worth of orchestrations for a live performance. 😶

• Begun casting for a professional staged reading for IMMORTAL THE MUSICAL.

Those are just some of the highlights. 

What have you been up to?

Shameless plug: We’re looking for talent local to the Orlando area (singers/actors/sight readers). Know of someone? Send them my way!

Our Webpage

On LinkedIn

On Backstage

Are you hunkering down? Taking the world by storm? Kicking the trash out of your goals? Hanging on by your nails?

Orlando Cries: One Local's Perspective

Have you ever had a large tragedy strike your front door?

I woke Sunday morning to a text from a family member asking if we were alright. We regularly get texts like that after a hurricane or tropical storm, but there was no storm that night. Facebook revealed a different story:

20 dead, as many as 50 headed to the hospital in a nightclub shootout.

We watched the police report and absorbed the tragedy, truly saddened. As the day progressed, the report updated. 49 dead, 53 injured. ISIS claimed the attack. The nightclub was a gay nightclub. The gunman was an actual Muslim terrorist. It was a hate crime and an act of terrorism. By a registered security guard. Who was also on a "watch" list for terrorism.

There was a call for local blood donations. Oh, you should have seen the lines. They ended up having to turn people away because there was such a huge response. Prayers and donations and a general sense of sadness have perpetuated our entire area.

And now there's the political debate:

Gun laws? Um, no. The guy was a SECURITY GUARD. He had a licence to legally handle a gun, and no tightening of gun laws is going to change that. Heck, if someone else in the nightclub had a weapon, they may have taken the jerk down rather than being mowed down. Stronger gun laws will not stop terrorists. It will just make their job easier. Maybe we shouldn't make it illegal to carry guns, but illegal to kill people, eh? If it wasn't a gun, it would have been a bomb, or a fire, or something else.

Hate crimes? Why can't everyone just love everyone! Why is everyone so bigoted? Um, no. This was a Muslim terrorist, and frankly, they would kill anyone who isn't one of them. Just for being different. To these extremists, if you're not Muslim, you're an infidel. Gays just rank at the top of their "hate" list. That doesn't mean the rest of the world feels that way, so please people, stop with the ranting.

On the Terrorist Watch List? This is the one that gets me. Why in the world would they approve someone on the watch list to become a SECURITY GUARD? What? Did someone's palms get greased? Is the government that inefficient? (Yes, the answer is yes.)

Regardless of the reasons, motivations, or  political spewing motivated by this event, the reality is this:

People were killed. Senselessly. Because a group of fanatics (who must have the most messed up childhoods in the world) believe it's okay to senselessly massacre others.

There is no correction, no policing, no words that can make it better. I take solace in the fact that in the next life these violent men will one day stand face to face with those they slaughtered, and what will they have to say? In the meantime, there is an outpouring of love toward the victims and the suffering. To all my Orlando brothers and sisters, the world mourns with us.

If you would like to help the victims of this senseless crime, you can donate to a GoFundMe campaign HERE.

This month I'm highlighting fellow authors from:

BUY NOW 

(Unless you already have, in which case, you rock!)

Two weeks ago I shared THE THING THAT TURNED ME, an anthology of close to 30 authors (including me!) about turning points. Everyone who mentioned "cheese" in a comment was entered to win an eBook of the anthology (after its release on the 28th).

And the winner is:

...DRUM ROLL...

Beverly Stowe McClure!

Congrats, Beverly!

And now meet a story from the author of SCRYING THE PLANE in the Parallels anthology: 

Four tales I present to tingle your spine
Four seasons of suspense to let you unwind.
Lives at a crossroad, a breakdown of order
Between life and death, it’s a tenuous border.

(Did I just use poetry to promote a book? Yes, I did.)

Heart Stopper: The disappearance of random household items baffles Dallas Radner and his eleven-year-old daughter Tessa. Ten plastic bags, nine ballpoint pens, and so on as the countdown begins. On the Day of the Dead, Tessa’s birthday, one thing will vanish forever. Will it be her?

Detour: Fed up with her abusive beau, coed Chloe Langley ditches class for a trip home. She’ll never make it.

One Step Away: Darryl James’s acrophobia ruined his marriage and stole his son. On the cusp of completing desensitization therapy, a relapse occurs with shocking consequences. 

Monitor:  Perched on a mountain with a view to die for, Laura and Paul Alderson have it all: new home, new baby, and new challenges. Yet urgent whispers from the baby monitor threaten to turn their American dream into a nightmare.

Get your copy HERE.

Ready to meet the author?

From doling out popcorn to moviegoers to flinging smelt to penguins, Tamara Narayan's taken the “road less traveled”. Her career path veered off into a land of integrals and other strange things while she taught college level math, but these days she’s cruising the fiction highway.

You might stumble across Tamara eating cheddar cheese fondu at The Melting Pot.

Visit her at www.tamaranarayan.com.

Tamara gave me two truths and one lie to test your "lie detector" skills. Those who figure out the lie will go into my magic hat for the chance to win HEART STOPPER in eBook.

You have until Tuesday, June 21 at 2 p.m. EDT to guess. Be sure to come back for the answers on June 22, 8 a.m. EDT.

TRUTH OR LIE

1. When I was a penguin keeper at the Riverbanks Zoo in SC, a local news crew came by to shoot a few clips of our Black-foot penguins. This was in 1992 and Batman Returns was big at the box office. This sequel featured Danny Devito as the villain The Penguin along with several real Black-foot penguins as his minions. I wasn’t in any of the shots, but one penguin did poop on the reporter’s foot. I don’t think that made the cut either.

2. On July 1, 2000 I walked in a protest march in Columbia, SC against putting the Confederate Flag on the SC State House grounds next to the Confederate Monument. The flag was being moved there from the dome of the Statehouse where it had flown since 1962 as a protest against desegregation. (The Confederate Flag was finally removed from the State House grounds on July 10, 2015, less than a month after the murder of nine people in a Charleston, SC church, including state senator Clementa C. Pinckney.)

3. I was in my garden weeding the other day. My cat, Mr. Mistoffelees, came by for snuggles and ended up sitting in my lap. Then two fellows came jogging by, one of which I recognized as Jason McElwain, better known as J-Mac, winner of the 2006 ESPY Award for Best Moment in Sports. J-Mac, a high-functioning autistic, scored 20 points in a high school basketball game in four minutes, nineteen seconds.

So sleuths, which is the lie? Have you met Tamara? What are your feelings about the attack in my back yard? Do you like short stories or prefer longer ones?

IWSG & Ten Pieces of Speculative Fiction You Don't Want to Miss

Are you excited today? I'm back!!! That's right. My vacation away from blogland is over. Shall I tell you what transpired in my corner of the world while I was away?

A little of this:

And a little of this:

And a little of this:

And some of this:

LOTS of this:

Even a touch of this:

And FINALLY this:

But not much of this:

Or at least, not as much as I'd have liked. Guess I was inspired to take that blogging break, eh?

SO on the quick and exciting end of the spectrum, yesterday was the big bad release day for

BUY NOW 

(Because waiting until later would just be silly.)

I contributed THE MIRROR PEOPLE to this anthology: Jak Ralston leads an ordinary life. Home, work, church. Repeat. Unremarkable in every way, except for one. Every day Jak stares into the eyes of a serial killer.

My review of the anthology:

5 STARS Rarely have I enjoyed an anthology this much. It engaged, took me to new places, and left me pondering. With most anthologies, I find myself skimming through some stories to get to the next. Not so in this case. Each stood on its own... (Read more)

It's the crazy times in life that make us appreciate the good. I'm super grateful for the outpouring of love I've seen over the last month, and though I'm frantic about writing deadlines, I feel solid in ways too innumerable to count. With the bad comes reflection. With the bad comes perspective. With the bad, we suddenly see the good in ways we never could have imagined. Here's to taking the punches of life and learning to truly appreciate those bandaging or bandages on our bruises. Take a moment and let your bandagers know how much you appreciate them today, eh?

Now it's giveaway time! I'm going to introduce one of the authors in the Parallels anthology, a woman who ROCKS to medical thriller world.

Last month L.G. Keltner (author of FELIX WAS HERE in the anthology) shared with us SELF HELP 101, along with two truths and a lie. Those who guessed the lie correctly were entered into a random drawing for the chance to win an entire series of comedy stories.

The Game:

1. When I was 17, I got a chance to travel in Europe for three weeks.  The day before I left, I got up early to run errands.  Then I was too excited to fall asleep that night.  Combine that with an inability to fall asleep on airplanes, landing in Rome at 10a.m., and having an entire day of activities ahead, I was awake for approximately 60 consecutive hours.
2. When I was about 12, I was playing basketball at school.  I decided to make a half-court shot.  Not only that, I decided to do it while facing the opposite basket.  After all, I thought I stood no chance of making it either way.  So I took the shot and . . . I made it.  I turned just in time to see it go in.  I’m sure I could never under any circumstances pull it off again.
3. In college, Jamie Kennedy (Randy from Scream, comedian, etc.) did a stand-up routine at my school. On a dare, I asked him to marry me, and he asked me how much money I had.

The lie: #3. Jamie Kennedy did perform at L.G.'s school, and she actually did ask him to marry her. However, she wasn't dared to do it. She did it because she, for some reason she cannot fathom now, thought it would be funny. And he did ask how much money she had.  The answer was $10.

Way to guess everyone! And the winner is:

...DRUM ROLL...

Christine Rains!

Congrats, Christine!

And now meet the author of THE THIRTEEN in the Parallels anthology (and one of her OTHER works, A Shot in the Light):

Sidney Knight, a freelance reporter, is at a motel on the Oregon coast. She takes a break from her writing to walk the beach and discovers hundreds of dead seagulls. She rushes back inside and calls her brother who works for the CDC. The bird flu has arrived and she wants to know what she should do. She ends saying at least she will get a flu shot, but his alarmed “No!” gives her chills.

She begins to dig into the statistics and realizes it is the deadliest flu year in many decades, what's worse, the shot seems to have increased the death toll. A Shot in the Light follows Sidney and a group of her friends as they first try to understand how this happened, then make an effort to expose those involved without getting themselves killed.

Set in an American where half the population has died, distrust is rampant and various police state efforts complicate matters, A Shot in the Light is a near future apocalypse thriller.

Get your copy HERE.

Ready to meet the author?

Hart Johnson is a social scientist by day, and plots murder and the apocalypse when the sun goes down. She has published a flu conspiracy trilogy (A Shot in the Light) and a cozy mystery series under the name Alyse Carlson. She has hopes to eventually support herself writing or take over the world, whichever works out first.

When someone tells her they are vegan, her first response is WHY WOULD YOU GIVE UP CHEESE!?

Her favorite cheese is brie but she is extremely enthusiastic about many sorts. She has two buddies in her neighborhood and collectively they are the Couch to Keg team. This was originally a misheard statement by another neighbor—they were doing the Couch to 5K and he misheard them; the name stuck a lot longer than the running efforts. Now they mostly watch great TV (currently Game of Thrones and Outlander) and drink wine accompanied by some CHEESE. In the off season, they also go to the Whole Foods Wine bar and typically get a cheese tray (the Spanish tray is the best—manchego, drunken goat and one other—but always ask after the daily special first).

Find her online HERE!

Hart gave me two truths and one lie to test your "lie detector" skills. Those who figure out the lie will go into my magic hat for the chance to win an their choice of the PRINT book (US ONLY, just the first book in the series) or the entire series via eBook.

You have until Tuesday, May 10, at 2 p.m. EDT to guess. Be sure to come back for the answers on May 11, 8 a.m EDT.

TRUTH OR LIE

1. I began writing with Fan Fiction. In fact I wrote a Harry Potter alternative book seven prior to the release of Deathly Hallows that had such uncanny commonalities as Nagini turning into a woman, breaking into Gringotts to steal the Hufflepuff cup from a vault, and Snape's tears having magic powers that were central to the climax. I will never beat the last line of that story: “So spank me.” (Narcissa to Lucius as they finally made peace, having been estranged during the war).

2. When I was a senior in high school my best friend got a wild hair... or decided my mom was the only mom of one of her friends who could be talked into signing the permission form—one of those things—and we signed up for a skydiving lesson. We spent a full afternoon jumping off progressively higher things and rolling out of the fall so we didn't break an ankle or a leg, then we went up in a perfectly good airplane and jumped out.

3. In 2008 I had a conference in London. Through my early online interactions and writing experiences I was part of a writing group, a couple of my fellow members decided to travel at the same time so we could all meet our friend Tara who lives in Wales and we could travel a bit together after the conference, taking advantage of some of the things we had in common (mostly writing, Harry Potter, and Monty Python). The highlight of our trip was making our way to Doune Castle in Scotland and doing a few rounds of the French taunting...

So sleuths, which is the lie? How was your April? Do you have someone to thank today for being there? Do you read medical thrillers? Have you met Hart?

Love or Hate Anthologies?

Do you like short stories?

When it comes to writers, it seems like they either go long, or go short. It's rare you have someone who's mastered the art of the short story and the full length novel.

I was always a long distance writer, but could totally appreciate the short story. About 8 years ago I was introduced to flash fiction. (Stories that are 100 to 1000 words long--a paragraph to 2.5 pages.) I was fascinated. It was also my gateway drug to the short story realm.

Fast forward a bit... This year I'm contributing to my 7th and 8th anthologies--one of which I'm super excited to introduce today! (Click on the BOOKS to see the other publications.)

Anthology #7 is one most of you have probably seen about the interwebs, but if not, here it is:

The competition was stiff to get into this anthology, and only 10 pieces were accepted. We (the 10 authors) have started a blog all about the awesomeness of speculative fiction. (Check it out!) We'll be participating in the A to Z Challenge there and may just blow your mind. (In a good way.)

For fun, I thought I'd share a teaser here today from my contribution:

The Mirror People

We think no one is watching behind closed doors, but what if they are? Meet the Mirror People. 

Excerpt:

Every day I look into the eyes of a stone-cold killer. Sometimes he’s straightening his tux bowtie before a fancy shin-dig. Sometimes he’s grinning madly while brandishing a knife. Sometimes he’s spattered in blood.

The point is, it’s my job to look into his eyes, day after day, unable to raise the alarm or warn his victims—like the middle aged woman he’s just finished off—because I inhabit the world on the other side of the mirror.

I’m Jak Ralston’s reverse identity, also known as Jak Ralston. His prisoner.

He wipes his blade clean having already sheared off his trophy, a finger, and turns away from the mirror to the mess of a hotel room. I relax. My shoulders ache from the tension. He is always intense. Always serious. Always angry. But not the explosive kind of angry, the cool, I’m-going-to-rip-your-eyeballs-out-in-your-sleep kind of angry (while he tells you how lovely you look in gray). He’s calculating. Terrifying.

I stand on the other side of the mirror, mimicking his movements like my life depends on it, because it does. Mr. Murder is my twid (twin identity), me in another realm, and if I break from being his reflection while anyone is watching (including him), we’ll both keel over and die. No matter how much I despise him, I’m not ready to die—like Susan, the mirror woman he’s just murdered in my realm. Facing her now, it’s all I can do not to slam my fists into the mirror and scream, but destroying myself won’t bring her back...

Coming May 3, 2016

Preorder HERE

 

Now let's award a WINNER!

Last week Alysia S. Knight shared with us AURORA RISING, along with two truths and a lie. Those who guessed the lie correctly were entered into a random drawing for the chance to win an eBook AND a super cool bookmark.

The Game:

1. I’ve climbed to the top of the Sidney Australia Bridge.
2. Took my son on his first deer hunt. He shot a big buck and I did a controlled slide with a rope to lower the big deer over a 40 foot shale drop off because my son was afraid the antlers would break if we let it roll.

3. I’m preparing to climb Denali.  

The lie: #3. Alysia likes hiking but prefers warm weather--and she doesn't want to hike anything that steep.

Way to guess everyone! And the winner is:

...DRUM ROLL...

Christine Rains!

Congrats, Christine!

And that's it for this week. There will be another fun Truth or Lie game next week for super cool prizes. Go check out the Parellels blog eh? Or order yourself an awesome anthology.

Do you read short stories? When was the last time you read an anthology?